Nazarian totally busted …

… by Chuck Monster, who’s learned that SBE Entertainment‘s deal with MGM Resorts International includes dumping the Club Sahara loyalty program database into the lion’s “low roller walled garden,” Circus Circus Players Club. Which is pretty much what S&G expected when Sam Nazarian pulled the plug on the Sahara. Now there is a counter-theory which proposes that Sahara Sam is doing this to clear the Sahara of low-rolling riffraff (read: us) in favor of ‘high value’ customers (read: SoCal douchebags). I’m not so heartless as to suppose MGM demanded that Nazarian shut down the camel place as a condition of its cross-marketing deal but it wouldn’t surprise me if Sahara Sam offered it as an enticement.

Also, the problem with Theory #2 is that MGM is already getting SBE preferred-customer data fed into M life (which would account for that giant sucking sound you hear). Once those customers have become habituated to the Bellagio–CityCenter–MGM Grand–Mandalay Bay neighborhood, what makes anyone think they’ll pull up stakes and go play at the far north end of the Strip. Nothing’s doing at Fontainebleau; I’ve even heard a rumor that Carl Icahn will literally sell the building for parts — which would merely be a continuation of what he’s already done, just on a grander scale.

Nope, I say Sahara Sam slaps a “For Sale” sign on the old gal and has done with her. After the hundreds of millions he sank into the purchase, surely he knows that spending billions more to build a pleasure palace — and turn a profit — is the longest of long shots. (There’s also some question of whether he’s got the bread.) Either that or he’s a far bigger fool than I’m prepared to believe.

Bally’s vs. Harrah’s. It’s with a mix of admiration and irony that we note Bally’s Atlantic City is holding “Philadelphia Appreciation Month” to lure customers back from the City of Brotherly Love. Of the four Caesars Entertainment properties in Atlantic City, none has felt the post-Philly doldrums quite as much as the Bally’s behemoth, which now has a lot more capacity than the market can absorb. A $25 F&B credit seems a bit mingy but with upstart Dennis Gomes over at Resorts Atlantic City strewing comps and discounts (and Trump Entertainment Resorts counterproductively cutting them back), you’ve got to start somewhere. The irony is that some of the customers Bally’s is trying to woo probably deserted it in favor of Harrah’s Chester Downs. Were Caesars still pressing ahead with its (ditched) plan to build a Horseshoe-branded casino in Philadelphia proper, the whole affair would take on tragicomic overtones.

The evils of debt. Too much leverage continues to be the undoing of Westin Casuarina owner Columbia Sussex, which just forfeited another hotel. In a hilarious blast from the past, the Sacramento Business Journal links to a 2005 story in which ColSux miser-in-chief William J. Yung III gloats over his acquisition of Caesars Tahoe (now Montbleu, owned by Carl Icahn) and talks about turning it toward “a younger, hipper audience.” ColSux’s casinos have been described as many things but “young” and “hip” are never among the adjectives employed. On a related note, had it not been for the timely intervention of caretaker CEO Scott Butera, the Tropicana Las Vegas was headed full-tilt for something like this. Ah, the good old days.