Atlantic City on the mend; Trump: Fish or cut bait?; Mike Ensign’s woes

My apologies for attenuated bloggery today but a swarm of deadlines presses upon me, including coverage of the demise of 104-year-old Huguette Clark, daughter of Sen. William A. Clark, from whom Clark County takes its name. You’ll find a lengthy bio of Sen. Clark (penned by Yr. Humble Blogger) in LVA’s “Question of the Day” archives. The old robber baron is also profiled in The First 100, the best $4 you will ever spend.

There’s so much good news coming out of Atlantic City lately, I don’t know if we can handle the excitement. Should anybody doubt that Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis is a brave man, his decision to — or contemplation of — go(ing) smoke-free in the casino is the biggest gamble that the $2.4 billion casino will ever see. Health factors and other such considerations aside, nothing distresses a casino faster than the invisible encrustation of cigarette smoke cheapens one’s perception of the property. Practically speaking, DeSanctis could save some money on HVAC and filtration in the near term and slow the casino’s depreciation over the long term.

While I’m a fan of Hudson Securities analyst Robert LaFleur, when he says that Revel might push a few of the rinkier-dinkier Boardwalk casinos out of business, I counter, “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Seriously, it’s the Darwinian effect of the free market at work. If places like the Atlantic City Hilton that have gone to seed under moronic ownership or economically dubious leviathans like the Bally’s Wild Wild West-Claridge agglomeration go belly up, the market is simply weeding out the weak from the strong. And if there really are 5,000 jobs waiting at Revel, as DeSanctis says, there will be a mass exodus of experienced employees from lesser casinos anyway, all hoping to catch on at the new place. Workers displaced from the bottom-feeders will have a good chance of moving up to the next step of the food chain.

That next step might be over in the Marina District, where Tilman Fertitta is proceeding aggressively (amid a blizzard of press releases) to put his Golden Nugget stamp on the former Trump Marina and exorcise the pinchpenny ghost of Donald J. Trump. The pointed, new mantra: “Out with the old … In with the gold!” When he bought the Las Vegas and Laughlin Nuggets, seven years ago, Tilman moved (if anything) too slowly and tentatively with his rebranding efforts. If that was a mistake, it’s one he’s not repeating in Atlantic City, so I tip my cap.

“It’s not going to have that hospital look anymore,” Fertitta promises, and while he might not appreciate my saying it thusly, the Nugget name’s conjuration of Steve Wynn and the good old days, represents a branding upgrade.  The Press of Atlantic City says Fertitta is “boasting,” I can tell you from experience that, for all his braggadocio, if the man says he’s going to do something, he does it. Unlike his predecessor, none of his bluster is empty. And quite unlike Dennis Gomes over at Resorts Atlantic City, Fertitta says they’re won’t be any salary cuts … even though the Marina, er, Nugget has been doing even worse than Resorts, losing $10.6 million in the last 15 months.

It doesn’t hurt that Tilman’s newest Nugget is lodged next to Atlantic City’s “cool kids,” Borgata and Harrah’s Marina. Gomes, by contrast has to slug it out on the Boardwalk in an ancient property, nor does he have ancillary revenue streams … unlike Fertitta’s two other casinos and Landry’s Restaurants portfolio, all of which should help prop the A.C. Nugget up in the short run.

Beware the impatient investor. If you’re Trump Entertainment Resorts CEO Robert Griffin, you’ve got a whole bunch of them breathing down your neck, looking to recoup $225 million or so and do it yesterday. Let me say right now that this is a terrible investment strategy and not just because two of the three Trump-branded casinos are junkers. The days of routinely making a 15%-20% ROI on a casino acquisition are so 1990s that I can’t tell you. And to think you can make a quick buck in Atlantic City? In this economy? Somebody get the ganja away from TER owner Marc Lasry, stat.

Plan A is to expand Trump Plaza, which continues to lose money hand over fist. A facelift (and maybe a few other strategically placed augmentations) is crucial to the property’s survival … but that’s a play you make only if you’re in it for the long haul. If Avenue Capital Group is as antsy as Griffin says, they might as well have burned the money they spent commissioning pretty pictures from SOSH Architects. Only a serious operator should consider expansion.

Which brings us to Plan B, which is to sell the Plaza for whatever the heck Lasry can get (i.e., $40 million if he’s really lucky), continuing the de-Trumpification of Atlantic City. The price might be low enough to lure Penn National Gaming back to the Boardwalk. Pinnacle Entertainment got severely burned there but would it try to swap its vast, raw real estate (R.I.P., Sands) for an operational casino? That seems a stretch, even if Pinnacle would take an oceanic bath on the transaction. At a fire-sale price, Isle of Capri Casinos could absorb the risk, especially if its Cape Girardeau casino-in-progress performs as well as expected, fattening Isle’s coffers. Then there are one-off operators like Dan Lee, who could try to vindicate himself after Pinnacle-dammerung or Alex Yemenidjian at Onex Corp., whose reinvention of the Tropicana Las Vegas is the toast of the Strip … or perhaps Carl Icahn snaps it up. He’s already made one run at the Trump casinos, so we know he’s got the skin for the game.

Then there’s Plan C, in which Trump Taj Mahal — the only healthy pooch in the kennel — is also de-Trumpified via a reverse merger. There aren’t many casinos in A.C. that justify a $150 million or higher purchase price but the Taj is one of them. The question of why Lasry bought the company only to dismember is begged (as is why he laid a 5% ownership stake on Das Donald if he planned to ditch his lousy brand name) but offloading the Taj is the best-short ploy for getting his money back.

Which finally raises Plan D, Lasry, Griffin & Co. having concluded that it’s imperative to Trump’s survival (the company’s, not Donald’s) that it obtain casinos in other markets. (Like, duh.) Using what for money? TER is bleeding value and the brand equity of the Trump name in the casino business is quantifiably exhausted. What could be out there that’s doing so poorly Lasry could get it for peanuts and that would actually benefit from having The Trumpster’s scowling countenance in its advertising? I’ll open the floor to nominations.

If you say one thing to the good people at the Federal Election Commission and something completely different to the Senate Ethics Committee, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do. In the case of former Circus Circus Enterprises Chairman Mike Ensign, the operative phrase may be, “Tell it to the judge.” Luckily for the once (and wannabe future) casino developer, all perjury is lies but not all lies are perjury. If the elder Ensign wasn’t under oath when he talked to the FEC, he’ll escape this sordid imbroglio with nothing more than a blot on his reputation and (maybe) coughing up a fine, I’ve no doubt. (If he pleads out to a felony, it’d take a miracle for him to get another gaming license.) As mitigating circumstances, his lawyer can cite Ensign’s advancing years and the fact that he was but an accomplice in a conspiracy run by his sleazy son.

Sharron Angle, spoilsport. Darn it, she’s gone and taken all the fun out of a special congressional election encompassing near to every square inch of Nevada north of downtown Vegas. Now it’ll be about as exciting as a promo spot for The Bachelor.

Times change. June has been designated “LGBT Month” at Desert Passage Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. (Uff da! At least they don’t call them “shoppes,” Sheldon.) I mention this simply because it was an inconceivable when I arrived in Sin City back in 1999 — seemingly an epoch ago — a time when the casino industry was regarded as monolithically white and heteronormative. If you do (or don’t) approve of what Miracle Mile’s doing, be it known that any spare change you fling into the various and sundry Desert Passage water features goes to Aid for AIDS of Nevada, just as previous months have raised months for sufferers from cancer, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and autism. If Planet Ho runs out of causes, I hope they’ll add “Receding Hairline Month” or “Obese Journalist Syndrome” to their list.

Of course, Desert Mile/Miracle Passage used to be known to locals as “Deserted Passage” and rightly so at the time. But that nickname has a new home and it’s otherwise spoken of as Crystals. There’s one giant supply/demand disconnect that crystallizes the giddily wishful thinking that got Vegas into its present predicament.