Not just another pretty face

Because of the relatively low base salaries drawn by CEOs of major casino companies, they’ve generally been exempt from mass-media scrutiny. However, the ways in which the compensation pot has been sweetened for Las Vegas‘ (or would that be China‘s?) two fiercest rivals has come under the microscopes of Forbes and Morningstar.

Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson is somehow able to justify a $2.45 million security detail, among profuse other goodies. For instance, Sands ponies up $67K of $118K Adelson owes in taxes for use of his own pair of 747s, which he leases out to Sands at a mere $6 million a year. Better still, the super-patriotic Adelson was careful to register ownership of his airborne behemoths through an offshore corporation.

However, if there’s anything Adelson likes less than unworshipful media coverage it’s being ranked second to Steve Wynn … and it happened again. ABC News dubs Wynn “king of perks,” in part for his 62 grand in “merchandise discounts” and partly for his and Elaine Wynn‘s ability to renegotiate downward the price of the villas they own at Wynncore. What a rough life. No wonder Wynn and Adelson hanker for the entrepreneurial paradise that is Red China.

Speaking of pretty faces, the headline-grabbing saga of Gov. Jim Gibbons and frequent textual partner Kathy Karrasch continues to take increasingly byzantine and mind-boggling turns. Say what you like about Gibbons’ competence; he continues to provide Nevadans with unparalleled entertainment value.