Earth to Adelson, Earth to Adelson …

Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson claims he can finish his two resuscitated Cotai Strip™ casinos (below) and build three more in the next five years. Let the record show that Adelson currently also has casinos in various states of incompletion not only in Macao but also in Singapore and Pennsylvania, to say nothing of the aborted St(ump) Regis on the Las Vegas Strip. His track record speaks for itself.

Give no attention to the fact that Marina Bay Sands has run a mere $2.3 billion over budget and will, best case scenario, open almost two months behind Genting‘s rival project, despite having been the first resort approved for Singapore. Pay no heed, says Adelson, who airily declares, “a delay of a week or two or a month is not considered to be a delay in construction.” Schedules? Who needs ’em? Not Las Vegas Sands, that’s for sure. (And who thought the day would come when Adelson predicted he’d be learning from Genting’s mistakes? Whatever happened to Sands being the pacesetter everyone else supposedly emulated?)

Ever bullish, Adelson still predicts a billion-dollar annual profit from MBS. Not cash flow, profit. I’ve seen one estimate of the dollar volume he’d have to pull in to achieve that figure and the numbers are pretty daunting, especially when Sands is doing its usual half-finished, ass-over-teakettle “soft” opening shtick.

Back in Macao, all eyes are on the handover of power from outgoing strongman Edmund Ho to successor Fernando Chui. This comes amid renewed calls for economic diversification. As Las Vegans can testify, this is much easier said than done. Also, Macao may be one of the few places where trickle-down economics is working, recent casino expansion having shrunk the poverty rolls by well over 50%. Even though Chui enjoys sweeping powers within Macao, his strings are ultimately pulled by Peking, which wasted no time calling for more stringent casino regulation. As ever, casino-driven prosperity is at the mercy of the central government’s whims.

A comedy of errors has ended in Maryland, as Canadian-based Baltimore City Entertainment Group got a well-deserved boot. The silliness in Ann Arundel County drags on, though, as nobody wants to take a bullet for Cordish Gaming and put a casino in next to a popular mall. (We do it all the time in Vegas but it’s a radical concept Out East.) At least we’re glad to see a gradual coalescence around the notion that no casino ≥ a badly conceived/financed one.

Elsewhere along the coast, Florida racinos continue to discover that — with the Seminole Tribe firmly entrenched in its customer base — casino gambling has turned out to be a panacea. Tracks curse the state’s tax rate (which is usurious, to be sure) but taxes aren’t to blame for the lack of customers. As casino markets go, non-tribal Florida has been quite a dud and S&G confesses to being as surprised as anyone.

Slots can prop up a racetrack, though, and their absence is sometimes fatal … case in point being Belmont Park. Threatened with closure, it’s the latest indicator that the Sport of Kings is cantering along the brink of extinction. The crisis is aggravated by the continuing scrumdown over who gets the racino contract at Aqueduct. All the major players in Albany have their pet candidates, so it’s coming down to who’s got the most “juice.” As for Belmont, if a sport requires state subsidy to keep it alive, shouldn’t it simply be allowed to pass into the free-market graveyard?

By the numbers. Analysts at J.P. Morgan continue to report $191/night room rates for Aria but the Los Angeles Times tells a different story. Also, unlike Aria, Bellagio isn’t having to deploy promotional “sweeteners,” so I’m having a little difficulty buying into the Aria’s-ADR-is-higher-77%-0f-the-time meme.

Happy birthday to the sexiest movie star ever to hail from North Africa, the French-Algerian bombshell Edwige Fenech. The “queen of gialli” turns 61 today and, judging by her recent cameo in Hostel II, she’s still every bit the stunner. Although Edwige’s cinematic catalogue includes the more-than-aptly titled I’m Photogenic, the Dept. of Cinephiles here at S&G recommends either The Phantom of Death (starring Michael York in one of his most affecting performances) or The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, or maybe the elaborately plotted Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key. The Italians sure know how to entitle a good thriller! (And we salute their taste in movie stars: Carroll Baker, Barbara Bouchet, Laura Antonelli, Monica Bellucci … )

Programming note: The offsite headquarters of S&G is in the process of moving — after 11 years — from the Flamingo/Pecos area of Las Vegas to new digs just south of UNLV. We’re hoping that proximity to the old Liberace mansion, just ’round the corner, will provide added inspiration (along with greater access to the Center for Gaming Research), but the transition may occasion a few disruptions of service. I apologize for the inconvenience.