Johnny Casino, thug; Truce at the Trop; The T-Word

Although the Mob may have left Las Vegas, its strong-arm tactics are still in use. Respected casino architect Paul Steelman found that out when he wouldn’t give a job to John Ensign‘s borderline-illiterate former chief of staff, Doug Hampton. Drunk on power, “Johnny Casino” ordered his minions to “jack [Steelman] up to high heaven and tell him that he is cut off from the office.” (Sen. Harry Reid [D-NV], who owed Papa Ensign a “solid,” eventually lined up a six-figure sinecure for the hapless Hampton at Allegiant Air. Hmmmm. Would that make Reid an unindicted co-conspirator, to employ Watergate parlance?)

That’s mighty big talk coming from a man who was, at one point, reduced to sleeping on former Mandalay Resort Group Chairman Mike Ensign‘s couch (or something of that nature) when his squalid behavior was “outed.” Papa Mike has his own fish to fry now. According to the Senate Ethics Committee, he may have perjured himself to the Federal Election Commission and abetted the violation of several federal laws. (The Review-Journal has an excellent précis of the charges.) He also structured the hush money so as to avoid paying gift taxes. And he, along with then Sen. Ensign’s OB-GYN, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), helped negotiate what were essentially blackmail payments to the cuckolded Hampton. Through it all, the Nevada Gaming Control Board has maintained its proud tradition of seeing, hearing and speaking no evil.

But Gold Strike founder Ensign Sr.’s attempt to get back into the industry foundered soon after his role in Johnny Casino’s hanky-panky came to light. To be fair, he did tell Junior to stop doin’ the mess-around, good advice that bounced right off Johnny Casino’s thick skull. However, his complicity in l’affaire Hampton shows him to have been a poor role model for Sonny. And the details of how John Ensign harassed and basically coerced Cindy Hampton into servicing him have a sickeningly familiar ring to anyone who’s been around the gaming industry a while. During his time as a general manager out in Jean, Johnny Casino definitely learned some tricks of the trade — dirty ones.

Conservative blogger Chuck Muth pronounced an ironic epitaph on the matter: “You don’t mess with a U.S. senator, much less one with ties to gaming.” And to think it used to be the other way around.

On the subject of thuggery, a former henchman of ultra-creeep “Casino Jack” Abramoff is back in the news. Convicted perjurer David Safavian‘s appeal fell on deaf ears in federal court. Safavian’s lawyers argued that his falsehoods weren’t germane to the case. The judges respectfully disagreed.

Mark Giannantonio‘s ouster as CEO of the Tropicana Atlantic City appears to have yielded one short-term benefit. Three trade unions that had been at an impasse with management have agreed to “good faith” negotiations in lieu of a threatened strike. Giannantonio, a leftover from the regime of anti-labor Columbia Sussex, had been the lone casino boss in Atlantic City not to ink a new pact with the unions, intransigence that has cost the Trop a 300-attendee convention.

Tropicana Entertainment, thinking itself rather special, is demand its engineers, carpenters and painters re-sign for below-market wages. The unions, for understandable reasons, don’t want to set that precedent. Management’s position is right out of the ColSux playbook; the former Trop owner wanted Culinary Union workers at its Las Vegas casino to make deep, ColSux-only concessions. Either ColSux CEO William J. Yung‘s prickly ego was so swollen he thought he could get what the Gary Lovemans and Jim Murrens of this world couldn’t or he was bent on forcing a strike … probably both. As for current Trop owner Carl Icahn, the new Trop boss is starting to look the same as the old boss.

Giannantonio’s sacking — according to him, anyway — has nothing to do with the Trop getting its clock cleaned by a blackjack player who won nearly $6 million. Table revenues went through the floor (-54% in April), dragging the overall casino performance down 20%. However, four other casinos in town got hit hard at the tables and you don’t see their presidents bouncing out the door. Table-game volatility is a risk you run if you want to succeed and Icahn … well, you don’t buy the Stratosphere — even for pennies on the dollar — if you’re risk averse. Nor do you land executive talent the caliber of Penn National Gaming‘s Anthony Rodio on an impulse. No, dumping Giannantonio was clearly something that had been in the works before the April numbers were tallied.

You can read the Boardwalk numbers for yourself (Caesars Atlantic City was gangbusters), so I’ll skip breaking them down. Not to belabor a point but even creditor-run Atlantic City Hilton is doing better than bottom-rung occupants Trump Marina and its freefalling sibling Trump Plaza. Do we need any further evidence of the uselessness, the exhaustion of the “Trump” brand name in gaming? As for Trump Taj Mahal (-7%), comp-hating CEO Robert Griffin (left) might as well pull up a limo and chauffeur players over to Resorts Atlantic City (+4%), where rival CEO Dennis Gomes will be happy — or at least willing — to throw them some incentives.

Hey, Bob! It’s not 1998 anymore. Atlantic City’s changed and Trump Entertainment Resorts needs to change with it. Losing the T-word wouldn’t be a bad start.