That Alex Yemenidjian! He just can’t keep the Tropicana Las Vegas out of the headlines — and not in a good way. It’s kicking The One Group out, taking over Bagatelle Beach Club and converting into a by-invitation-only venue for private events. It will now be The Havana Room & Beach Club. One Group CEO Jonathan “Livingston” Segal tried to paint a smiley face on the changeover, issuing a statement that read, in part, “Bagatelle operated as a restaurant and dayclub for the past six months and yet continually saw more demand for large, private buyout events than casual pool- and club-goers. There’s a constant demand for that in Las Vegas, especially when it’s prime real estate near the Strip like this.” Considering the enormous makeover that One Group did in the Bagatelle rebranding, either it or the Trop is going to be out a lot of money in this exchange.
This will be at least the fourth Yemenidjian-era incarnation of the space, which was Nikki Beach and (very briefly) nightclub RPM, before One Group took over. As the Las Vegas Sun‘s John Katsilometes notes, Bagatelle is now overshadowed by “behemoth multivenue entertainment fortress Hakkasan” at MGM Grand. Confronted with that bastion of revelry, it looks like Yemenidjian decided to run up the white flag. Anyway, give the venue a few months and it will have yet another identity, I’m sure, and Alex will be telling the media that this time they can’t miss … as he did the time before … and the time before that …
Scarcely did one have time to say “Sheldon Adelson” than former Nevada Gaming Control Board enforcement boss Jerry Markling landed a job as director of investigations at Las Vegas Sands. Some will find the move ironic, since Sands is not infrequently being investigated. Since Markling’s tenure at the NGCB dates back to the George H.W. Bush administration, he’s not subject to the NCBG’s more-recent, one-year “cooling off” rule, prompting the Las Vegas Review Journal‘s John L. Smith to observe, “I didn’t know a thing like ethics could be grandfathered in.” Internal controls at Sands could obviously be improved: Witness its recent troubles involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ergo, bringing in a veteran like Markling to improve due diligence is a wise move on Adelson’s part.
Social gaming continues to drive improved profitability at International Game Technology, where once-beleaguered CEO Patti Hart was able to bust out 3Q13 numbers that were up 9%. Profits fell short of Wall Street‘s expectations but Double Down‘s contribution was twice is it was a year ago, while free-play social gaming applications in general were up 25%. By contrast, IGT’s slot sales grew only 12% but still represented — by far — the bulk of IGT revenue. Online gambling is coming, but the boxes are still what keeps the manufacturing sector in business.
