Austerity, MGM style; Only in Nevada

Despite a decidedly underwhelming financial performance in 2009, MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren managed to take home $13.75 million in overall compensation. Last year, he had to make ends meet on $9.8 million. Snarkiness aside, this actually shows that — at least to some extent, the system works. The shriveled worth of MGM stock in ’09 (disproving my faith in it, as proclaimed on Face to Face with Jon Ralston) came back to haunt Murren in the form of much-reduced stock-option values last year. That’s one way to motivate your executives, for sure.

When MGM is staring at a $1.4 billion loss, th0ugh, one might question a $4.3 million bonus in Murren’s Christmas stocking. True, the share price improved 35% in 2010 but I’ve seen MGM give out much smaller gratuities in profitable years. ‘Nuff said.

Wishful thinking. They must be drinking some mighty good Kool-Aid over at The Economist. A Pokergeddon think piece starts off with the plausible contention that the crackdown might act as a spur toward intrastate online gambling (thereby skirting all those nasty UIGEA issues). Then it spirals off into the cuckoo-sounding premise that — with federal indictments hanging over Absolute Poker, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker (and with Wynn Resorts and Station Casinos scurrying to put daylight between themselves and their here-today/gone-tomorrow online partners) that this will finally inspire Congress to rise up and legalize Internet poker.

There’s not a degree of difference on the i-poker issue between Poker Players Alliance Chairman Al D’Amato and myself. But for the federal government to ponder Internet-casino regulation and taxation at the same time Attorney General Eric Holder has got three of the biggies in a headlock is going to look like a shakedown, even a protection racket. Unless the Department of Justice can craft an exit strategy (as appears to be the case), the Obama administration has really bollixed up whatever (slim) chance federally baptized online poker had of sneaking through Capitol Hill. I’ve gotta agree with I. Nelson Rose that the DoJ (and, by extension, the White House) have really put their foot in it this time, setting potentially irreparable precedents.

Only in Vegas … would a primary election be settled with a turn of a card. In North Las Vegas, that is. College of Southern Nevada Casino Management Program Director David Hernandez was tapped to shuffle a deck of cards last Thursday. Mayor Shari Buck bowed out of card-cutting duties, leaving that to an underling. Runners-up Melinda Meisenheimer and Tanya Flanagan drew cards with Meisenheimer’s luck leaving her all smiles over the outcome. According to Hernandez, no other state allows elections to be settled in this sporting fashion. If so, I highly recommend its adoption nationwide, not least for the entertainment value.

Tales from the crypt. According to various reliable Tweeters (Ralston, Schwartz, etc.), we learn that Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-NV) has evidently been rummaging in the bowels of his new Carson City mansion and found souvenirs of the Jim Gibbons administration. No, not mummies in the basement, actual souvenirs — albeit defective ones. In the ultimate symbol of his one-term tenure, Midnight Jim (left) ordered up a gazillion coffee mugs that arrived with a big hole where the base ought to be … giving new meaning to “bottomless cup of coffee.”

Is Lake Mead half-full or half-empty? That is the question. Actually it’s less than half-full. In what passes for good news ’round here, water rationing has been staved off … until 2016. An above-average runoff into Lake Powell means that Lake Mead will benefit in turn, rising 23 feet after dropping dangerously close to drought-trigger level. That buys precious time but, unless Lake Powell is replenished at average or above-average levels for the next five years, we’re just treading water. At least this might put a crimp in Southern Nevada Water Authority capo Pat Mulroy‘s plan to suck the aquifers under the cow counties dry so Las Vegas can keep having golf courses. With apologies to Steve Wynn, Mulroy controls the water, making her the most powerful person in Nevada.

Robin Antin believes that if she keeps saying “Matt Goss” in the same sentence with “Frank Sinatra,” that somehow people will equate the Cleopatra’s Barge crooner with the Chairman of the Board. That’s among the insights that those with Job-like patience can glean from this interminable Las Vegas Sun interview. I hope the writer got paid by the word … or the name-drop.