Always keeping the pressure on Station Casinos, longtime adversary the Culinary Union has rolled out a new Web site, FertittaMoneyWatch.org. Although its principal mission is to keep tabs on a nascent investment fund, Fertitta Capital, the site 
also promotes the Gordon Biersch boycott that the Culinary called for some months ago. Colony Capital assclown Tom Barrack, whose investors got taken to the cleaners in the Station bankruptcy, is quoted telling the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 2007, “you need to find those people of character and integrity and transparency who have that magical ability of taking a myriad of jewels and seamlessly hanging them together so that all you see is the necklace. You don’t see the individual jewel. And the Fertittas really were that magical jeweler for us.” Three years later, a suddenly perspicacious Barrack asserted “If you were to pick the hour, the minute that it could have been the worst investment ever, it was.” Barrack is a great expert on failure, having obliterated every casino he touched, so you can take him at his word.
Fertitta Capital hasn’t disclosed any investments yet but Culinary analyst Zachary Poppel warns, “Our union is very familiar with the Las Vegas money behind this new Fertitta enterprise. We have seen how the Fertitta businesses have had highs and lows over the years, and thought we’d share with their prospective partners who might be doing due diligence.” In closing, Poppel says, “We certainly hope that, of all the money made from Las Vegas, some will be invested back into our community.”
* After being hit with the first of an expected series of lawsuits related to the Oct. 1 Mandalay Bay shooting spree, MGM Resorts International has evidently decided upon its strategy: Smear the victim. To that end, it has hired the Joele Frank crisis-management firm, described as “the best attack PR firm in the country.” “They do advocate their clients’ positions quite fiercely when necessary,” said publisher Paul Holmes. Since Joele Frank will probably be billing at $1,000 an hour, one can only deplore MGM’s prioritization of PR over improved security, considering that Mandalay Bay was the site of the worst security breakdown in Vegas history.
* Is Plainridge Park still dead on days when the New England Patriots play? Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli isn’t saying but he reports that the racino was up 16% last month, grossing $15 million, which translates into a 
company-leading $397/win/slot/day — double the industry average. Some of that dough has been recaptured from casinos in neighboring states … $100 million to date.
“Little Plainridge has recaptured $100 million of the $1 billion [spent out of state], doing what it was meant to do,” said Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby. $36 million of Plainridge Park’s $172 million to date came from gamblers in nearby states who crossed the border to check out Plainridge’s product. Said Penn National Gaming spokesman Eric Schippers, We are very pleased by the … Gaming Commission and UMass’ Donahue Institute’s economic impact analysis, which validates our contention that Plainville is the ideal location to help stem the flow of gaming revenues crossing the border to Rhode Island.”
* It’s out of the frying pan and into the fire for Caesars Entertainment. The Culinary did an end-run around management and sent an open letter to the new Caesars board of 
directors, calling for improved safety measures and anti-discrimination policies in the next round of collective bargaining talks, slated for early next year. Culinary parent Unite Here represents 14,000 Caesars employees in Las Vegas and another 6,000 across the country (mainly in Atlantic City). As for Caesars’ priorities, Reuters reports that the company “is targeting expansion in the United States and abroad, though analysts have said it may be too late to catch up with rivals that spent years investing in high-growth markets in Asia.”
* Hoping to beat Sheldon Adelson at his own game, Hard Rock International has engaged former Sands China boss 
Edward Tracy to lead its Japan casino push. Not to be outdone, MGM tapped former U.S. diplomat Jason Hyland to be president of its Japanese subsidiary. One wonders whether, if the Diet sets casino floors at a relatively puny 15,000 square feet, whether MGM will still want to plow $10 billion into a Japanese resort.
