It’s Monday, so it must be time for another worshipful Sam Nazarian profile in the Los Angeles Times. Sure enough. If you can endure the usual LAT fawning, one will glean some useful facts and inferences — plus a reminder that incompetent Colony Capital has a $35 million stake in SLS Las Vegas‘ parent company, potentially hexing the project. There also seems to be some “price creep,” with the tab now pegged at $800 million. According to the LAT, Nazarian has $450 million in the kitty and the question is begged of how the $350 million shortfall will be bridged. (I’m still convinced that much of the project will be held in abeyance until a Phase II can be underwritten.)
If white-on-white SLS Las Vegas still looks like a long-shot proposition as a casino hotel, Nazarian is well-positioned in one Continue reading
If you read Bloomberg News last week, Macao is tantamount to Disneyland, at least if you visit Venetian Macao, which is “home to a fake grand canal, crooning gondoliers and brands from McDonald’s to Dior.” The amenity-laden style of Sheldon Adelson
Wow. I am stunned. Despite defiant proclamations that he would fight the Federal Trade Commission in court, Pinnacle Entertainment CEO Anthony Sanfilippo capitulated in swift order. This morning, J.P. Morgan reported that Pinnacle had reached an agreement in principle to sell both its own Lumiere Place and Ameristar Casinos‘ Lake Charles project. The accord is subject to various other conditions (such as the assent of the Missouri Gaming Commission) 
I can visit the Fremont Street Experience anytime I want, for free. So can guests at any Downtown hotel … except the Golden Nugget. In a vile new variation on the “resort fee” phenomenon, owner Tilman Fertitta is now tacking on a bullshit, $5 tariff called a “Fremont Street Experience fee,” for which you can get … what all the rest of us get gratis. Spokeswoman Tiffany Hauck demonstrated the art of making a distinction without a difference, when she explained the move as an altruistic decision that “rather than raise hotel rates or charge high resort fees, we have chosen to keep our rates low and implement a nominal $5 fee.” Is it too soon to call for a boycott of the Nugget?
PokerStars Chairman Mark Scheinberg is so eager to expedite an Atlantic City deal that he’s agreed to forfeit $50 million in potentially ill-gotten gains. Scheinberg’s online casino is now arguably the scummiest license applicant in New Jersey history, but a lot of people want to see this deal done. One who doesn’t is Colony Capital CEO Tom Barrack, who recently took Rational to the cleaners (along with his investors, who have seen a $513 million investment lose $498 million of its value). Even so, Rational is going to fight it out in appeals court. However, PokerStars is obviously rolling in dough, giving one cause to wonder why it doesn’t pursue Trump Plaza instead. Money should be no object, since legitimized Internet gambling is the ultimate prize, and Rational has more than enough scratch that even Trump creditor Carl Icahn should be satisfied.
Steve Wynn is engaging a multi-pronged effort to clinch the favor of voters in Everett. Of course, if the Massachusetts Gaming Commission 
Pinnacle Entertainment has lined up $2.9 billion in financing for its takeover of Ameristar Casinos. (Wouldn’t it have been awkward if Wall Street had said, “No thanks”?) In case you’re wondering, the deal values Ameristar at 8X cash flow, a nice premium for a company that’s rooted in secondary and tertiary markets. Assets sales to placate either the Federal Trade Commission or the State of Missouri shouldn’t change that valuation, since it’s Pinnacle’s own Lumiere Place (above) and an unfinished Ameristar casino that are likeliest to go onto the auction block — with Pinnacle in a very poor bargaining position right now.
Buried at the bottom of a J.P. Morgan analyst rep0rt on meetings with MGM Resorts International executives was a real corker: “[W]we would not be surprised to see MGM look to monetize some of CityCenter’s asset base, for example Crystals, its retail mall,” whose net operating income is a measly $40 million. Morgan’s Joseph Greff thinks the moribund, super-high-end, l0w-traffic mall could fetch $800 million at resale and boost MGM share values. Although Greff characterized customer spending and hotel bookings along the Strip as recovering in “modest, baby-step improvements,” that’s overshadowed by a 
degenerate gambler Yusuf Omar Siddiqui (left, who has now added “convicted felon” to his resume) and Mexican pharmaceutical exec Zhenli Ye Gon, who’s being housed and fed at U.S. taxpayer expense while he tries to avoid going back to Mexico to face felony charges there. While these are pretty rum customers, Sands can’t exactly choose the company it keeps. But if it had reason to be suspicious about the provenance of Siddiqui’s ill-gotten gains or Gon’s money, then it’s in the soup. Heck, I’m still waiting for a convincing explanation of how Sands China could be paying 700 grand to Macanese legislator Leonel Alves and not be in contravention of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Given Sands’ history of 
Casinos in Ohio have not been living up to revenue expectations. Given such a fallow market, what has Penn National Gaming decided to do? Break ground on two racinos, of course! One is in the Dayton area, the other — $250 million Mahoning Valley Race Course — is near Youngstown, and Penn is pushing for a third. Since they’ll only have VLTs, they won’t be fully competitive with, say, Hollywood Toledo or underachieving Hollywood Columbus. But remember that MTR Gaming has been kicking Penn’s ass in Columbus with VLT-only Scioto Downs, so these are not second-class facilities by definition. At least Rock Gaming Caesars had the perspicacity to negotiate a sweetheart provision with Ohio that enables it to move ThistleDown Racino to near Akron if it bombs in the Cleveland market.
wait for it — 
of the way around the globe to recruit … Melco Crown Entertainment as operator. 
While in Vegas, Deutsche Bank’s Carlo Santarelli dropped in on Boyd Gaming and … well, the news wasn’t as good there as on the Strip. He predicts a “tempered recovery,” adding that “expectations for an inflection in the LV locals gaming recovery are premature at present.” All the important indicators — employment, construction activity, home prices — are trending in the right direction. Not so good for players is a drastic reduction in comps and promotional offers. Given all of that, is it any great surprise that locals are spending 4/5 of what they were at the height of the boom? Boyd, specifically, is looking toward $200 million in locally derived cash flow this year, compared to 2007’s $275 million. According to Santarelli, “they believe [recovery] is lurking around the corner,” as they always seem to do. Elsewhere, its Midwest casinos are stable, performance in Louisiana — where Wall Street erroneously 
Strip project remains on schedule to open in early 2016 (a covert dig at Sheldon Adelson‘s perpetual tardiness?) and Santarelli describes the project as “meaningfully under-appreciated.” Interestingly, Wynn is the only operator in Macao not to offer rebates on losses to high rollers. Wynn Macau is adding two more VIP rooms and Santarelli implies that tables will be shifted there, away from mass-market play. (Remember, there’s a government-imposed cap on the number of table games you can have.)
It’s back to the starting point for Kazuo Okada, controversial former business partner of Steve Wynn and CEO of Universal Entertainment Corp. The latter’s attempt to enter the Philippines casino market (left) fell apart along with a deal with Robinsons Land Corp. The latter was key to the project because Robinsons was supposed to buy a majority of Eagle I, an Okada front company, run through subsidiary Aruze USA. (Why is it that wherever Okada goes, trouble follows?) Aruze’s 64% stake in Eagle I 
It really looked like the fix was in, the deal was done and existing casino operators in Illinois were about to thrown to the slaughter by legislators hungry for licensing fees. But the wheels of the grand plan are coming off. The horsey set’s man in Springfield, Rep. Lou Lang (D, right) had to withdraw from further negotiations, due to an obscure conflict involving his law firm. It appeared more cosmetic than substantive, but Mr. Racino suddenly found himself sidelined. In the meantime, his dearly beloved gambling-expansion bill began blowing one gasket after another. 
awfully far into its Federal Trade Commission-blocked purchase of Ameristar Casinos to blow it up by, say, selling three or more Ameristar properties or otherwise triggering a fallout. And if it tries to fight the FTC, it could easily overrun the deadline for cutting the deal, incurring a breakup fee. So Pinnacle finds itself between a rock and a hard place.
Clark County District Judge Rob Bare 
potshots at Adelson’s insistence on doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different result. (Isn’t that called ‘insanity’?) Let’s review: Adelson is 0-2 and the second loss was bigger than the first. 
A thousand people waiting to get into a casino on opening day would be nothing at all in Las Vegas. But at Maryland‘s penultimate casino, Rocky Gap Resort, 
While the emperor (CEO Gary Loveman) may have escaped the Ides of March this year, knots of discontented tribunes are gathering on the Forum steps, muttering darkly. A cabal of hedge funds led by Silver Point Capital is looking at $4.6 billion that comes due a couple of years hence and 
designated casino applicant. There’s no reason not to expect the company to win the election. 
Ho and MGM’s subsequent exit from Atlantic City hangs heavily on the process, of course. So does the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement‘s position that it’s going to take however long it takes to resolve their own issues vis-a-vis MGM and that Massachusetts isn’t their problem. Bottom line: The Bay State is in the awkward position of holding elections on casino companies that haven’t been approved by the state …