“Everything I built — the Golden Nugget, Mirage, Treasure Island, Wynn-Encore, were because of him. You name the buildings, including UNLV, and Parry Thomas’ fingerprints are everywhere in this valley.” — Steve Wynn, eulogizing banker and power-broker Thomas, who revolutionized the Nevada casino industry several times over, most importantly by persuading the state to permit publicly held corporations to own casinos. Thomas, who persuaded Wynn to buy the Golden Nugget, died Friday at age 95.
seeking up to $11 billion in compensation can proceed — potentially tipping the whole Caesars kit ‘n kaboodle into bankruptcy. Caesars has no one to blame but Chairman of the Board Gary Loveman, who was not only the moving force behind the ludicrous LBO that started the trouble but also presided over all the jiggery-pokery of moving around Caesars’ assets that inspired comparisons to Enron and provoked creditors’ wrath.
interceded on behalf of the Mashpee Wampanoag. It has asked a federal judge to revisit his ruling that the Mashpee lacked standing and that the Interior Department erred by taking the Taunton land into trust. Justice’s intervention hinges upon the distinction between “federal jurisdiction” and “federal jurisdiction.” At the time of 1934’s Indian Recognition Act, a Godzilla-sized stumbling block, the Mashpee were unrecognized but nevertheless under federal jurisdiction. Judge William G. Young‘s ruling has put an enormous crimp in the tribe’s plan to open First Light by next summer: construction is at a halt.
parking garage, making it Las Vegas‘ most high-budgeted place to put your car.) Today, Lucky Dragon announced its restaurant repertory, developed with the assistance of chef Willy Ng, of Koi Palace (
like Sands, or as the state constitution puts it, “all taxes shall be uniform, upon the same class of subjects.” On the other side of the issue are elected officials like Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez, who says $10 million a year translates into 100 police officers and the “host fee is significantly important to our budget.” Added state Sen. Pat Browne, anticipating a court defeat, “I don’t know exactly how we’d go about it, but given that this fee has been established for a decade, we’re not just going to let this money be stripped from municipalities that rely on it.” However, given the Legislature’s hopeless performance on gaming-related issues last session, is it going to be able to get its act together and find a way to prop up civic budgets?
Management and Texas Pacific Group. This bit of shadow puppetry is apparently intended to get at the goodies before junior bondholders can sue for relief (which they are enjoined from doing before the end of the month). In the meantime, Caesars has a new offer on the table, contingent upon converting CEOC into a REIT. Reports Global Gaming Business, “senior bondholders, who are owed about $6.35 billion, would get all the stock in the property company, $2 billion in cash, almost $1.9 billion in new debt and nearly 16 percent of the equity of the parent company. Creditors who hold $5.35 billion in bank loans would get $3.2 billion in cash, $2.2 billion in new debt and 5 percent of the parent.” So even if Caesars is prevalent in negotiations, it’s going to have to live with 
Instead, they’re suing Wynn Macau, saying “as a gaming concessionaire, [it] should be held responsible for Dore’s conduct on the basis that Wynn Resorts Macau is responsible for the supervision of Dore’s activities at Wynn Macau that resulted in the purported losses,” according to the company itself. It added that “the plaintiffs of the lawsuits allege that Dore failed to honour withdrawal of funds requests that allegedly has resulted in certain losses for these individuals.” Wynn holds that the lawsuit is without merit. (Big surprise, no?)
the rate of growth was unprecedented and historic and in many cases not just extraordinary but outrageous.” Careful, Steve, you’re starting to sound like a member of the Chinese government. Calling current market conditions “wonderful” — Macao’s current $29 billion/year output is anything but shabby, after all — Wynn described the present casino business as “representing more normal patterns of human behavior, and that applies as well financially.” I’m not quite sure I believe Wynn when he says he’s too busy to keep tabs on policy in Beijing: “The policies of the central government are only tangentially important to us because we’re in the middle of delivering a service. In the long run, the economy of China is going to affect all my customers and their ability to recreate [sic], but on a day-to-day basis it’s not part of our script, it’s far away from us compared with the demands of the moment.” Even if he’s sweating out such niceties as 
candidate works to create stability and certainty, qualities the market loves and rewards. The other operates erratically and unpredictably, qualities the market abhors and punishes.” — MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren, endorsing Hillary Clinton as we predicted, his 
to grow the overall market; the ability of the operators to capture a disproportionate share of the market from their new openings; and the operators collective ability to defend their market share when competitors open new properties.” They were particularly skeptical of Wynn Palace, writing, “there is no conclusive evidence over Wynn Macau’s 10-year track record in Macau that shows the success of its properties in taking market share or driving incremental demand … Indeed, Wynn [Resorts] has been steadily losing market share since Wynn Macau opened in 2006. At its peak, Wynn Macau accounted for more than 17 percent of Macau’s total [gross gaming revenue]. Today it accounts for around 10 percent, or around half of the figure eight years ago.” (Steve Wynn has declined to predict what the megaresort’s break-even point or return on investment will be.) “That Wynn is able to shift 250 tables to Cotai is really telling in terms of how much demand has slackened over the past couple years,” added Union Gaming Group analyst Grant Govertsen. He thinks Wynn Palace can limp along with an emaciated table-game repertory for a year or two but that, starting in 2018, prospects get fairly dicey.
increasing its hold on the property to 56%. In return, Ms. Ho will buy 4 million MGM shares from the late Kirk Kekorian‘s Trancinda Corp., giving her an almost 5% stake in MGM. Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli spoke for many when he wrote, “we expect investors to be a bit confused by the rationale for this transaction. The transaction, while positive for MGM China … is a bit perplexing from MGM’s perspective. In our view, MGM Resorts is inexpensive and MGM China is trading at top of the range multiples, on our forecasts, with meaningful ambiguity in future results given the wave of new supply in a questionable top line recovery environment. While MGM Resorts benefits from Ms. Ho lightening the Tracinda overhang, it does so just modestly. Lastly, in a period in which we view domestic gaming fundamentals favorably, MGM is using its equity to 
“Truly, I think the brand is so powerful, that when other people would have maybe went under, I think that helped carry us because people are very loyal to the Binion brand. I think if we could survive the bad economy, we could survive anything.” — Binion’s Gambling Hall General Manager Tim Lager, reflecting on the resilience of the property, -
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