Caesars agreement OK’d; New focus for Hard Rock

It’s official: Workers at Caesars Entertainment have approved a new collective-bargaining agreement, one that includes (unspecified) pay increases and a succession clause to protect jobs in the (unlikely) event Caesars sells its Las Vegas Strip properties to another operator. Details of the pact are still hazy, the better to keep the pressure on the majority of casinos that have not arrived at labor deals yet. Talks must be going productively, though, since the strike deadline has long passed without any acrimony. “I attended the negotiations, and this is the best contract we’ve reached in the history of the union,” housekeeper Rocio Puente told both the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Washington Post.

According to the R-J, “workers who lose their [DACA] work permit and are later able to readjust their immigration status will be able to get back their casino jobs and seniority.” Housekeepers will also be equipped with wireless alert buttons that will notify security if trouble threatens. “I have a mortgage, and [the contract] helps get me to the ending goal: Getting it paid before I retire. This guarantees that I can get to the end of the line on that one,” Harrah’s Las Vegas‘ cook Olee Stewart told the local paper.

Now the scrutiny turns to the Culinary Union‘s tentative accord with MGM Resorts International. It is said to be “similar” to the Caesars contract, which the Culinary is saying is the most george they’ve ever had, setting the bar pretty high.

* For reasons best known to himself, investor Richard “Boz” Bosworth wanted to buy Fontainebleau and settled for the Hard Rock Hotel as seconds. His plan for F-blew was a real clambake: a mix of Waldorf Astoria-branded hotel rooms, timeshares (he didn’t get the memo that the ship had already sailed) and gaming managed by either Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods Resorts Casino. I mean, how else are we to interpret “a major Native American tribe out of the Northeast for one of the largest databases in America”? Without divulging specifics for the Hard Rock, Bosworth says, “we are going on one of the largest hotel reservation systems in the world. We’ll literally go from an existing database of 80,000 to 80-100 million by the time we open.”

He promises “significant” focus on locals play, blaming the dropoff on a pair of nightclub closures. As for the delay or outright failure of other recent projects, Bosworth says, “The capital that is generally accessible for these projects is a shorter-term business model. You’ve got to realize your investment in three to five years. You can’t build, spend that level of capital, look to stabilize a property, look to create profits, and get that immediate return.” We’d say three to five years is optimistic, especially at today’s prices, but Bosworth is thinking along the right lines. Without addressing Resorts World Las Vegas specifically, he says, “The lending is not nearly as loose, and for casinos, there really is no fast exit strategy, so these deals just don’t get financed.”

* Thought for the Day: “Certain stocks are cheap for a reason. We think this is one of them. “Instead of using Stanley Ho’s retirement as an impetus to make governance and management changes, the company has opted to further entrench the status quo. We see no real positive changes to management that could turn the company in the right direction.” — Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Vitaly Umansky on  Ho’s official retirement and division of his fiefdom. Forbes columnist Muhammad Cohen added that Ho’s withdrawal “leaves [Sociedade de Jogos de Macau] confused and incoherent.”