Icahn’s big score

Did Carl Icahn just take Steven Witkoff to the cleaners? It sure looks that way. Witkoff and his associates paid, according to Bloomberg, $22 million an acre for Fontainebleau. Yes, $22 million. That figure is so dazzling I had to run the calculation twice before I believed it. We’ve not seen prices on the Las Vegas Strip this giddy since the go-go period of 10 years ago. By contrast, Genting paid $4 million an acre for Echelon, which may be why the multinational feels it can take its own sweet time to recoup the investment. By contrast, Witkoff is in so deep he may be forced to monetize his shiny, new object as quickly as possible. (Which wouldn’t be bad for the Strip.) No wonder the official announcement of the F-blew purchase struck such a defensive posture: Witkoff has to rationalize blowing his lunch money on this beached whale of a resort.

He also needs, whether he acknowledges it or not, a management partner who brings a brand name to the table that has proven, mass-market appeal. None of this “Alon” crap. (I wonder how much James Packer paid the consultants who came up with that moniker?) Unfortunately, Witkoff is seemingly allergic to the mass market, specializing in high-end condos. I don’t think his “150 Charles Street” brand is going to cut it in Las Vegas. Icahn, meanwhile, was in an understandably — if uncharacteristically –expansive mood, saying he “acquired this asset when others were unwilling to invest, and the sale has resulted in a gain of approximately $457 million for our unit holders.” Game, set and match to Icahn.

* Speaking of brands, whoever came up with the online-gaming moniker BetHard is surely responsible for a great deal of unintentional mirth.

* Poor Lou D’Allesandro. The New Hampshire state senator continues to stump for casinos in the Granite State and always sees his efforts go unrewarded. There’s been some stirring on the Internet front, but an online lottery is the likeliest result. Terrestrial casinos have been postponed indefinitely, although they came within one tantalizing “yes” vote in 2014. A flawed effort earlier this year came a-cropper on, among other things, a loophole that would allow one company to hold a monopoly on New Hampshire casinos.

With casinos fast a-building in Massachusetts and Maine residents poised to approve another racino, New Hampshire’s stick-in-the-mud attitude, at least among legislators, is baffling. Says D’Allesandro, “surrounding states now have gaming entities. They advertise on our TV stations, and we send buses of New Hampshire residents to those other states to gamble. It’s time for New Hampshire to do something. No state that has done this has crumbled.” The state does allow charitable blackjack and roulette, along with OTBs. But the small step to Vegas-style casino is a chasm the Lege can’t bridge.