“Why would [casinos] put a $1 billion investment when they are going to compete against restricted licensees across the street and in the neighborhood?” — Nevada Assembly Majority Leader William Horne (D), arguing that the continued operation of 80-odd sports-betting kiosks represents a clear and present danger to the Silver State’s economy.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) 
him either
Good news for Caesars Entertainment: Macanese gaming magnate Galaxy Entertainment Group wants to buy a golf course. Caesars has a $578 million one 
Y’all remember Baha Mar, that multi-billion-dollar project in the Bahamas that then-Harrah’s Entertainment exited during its IPO? At the time, Harrah’s insisted that there was no connection, but Baha Mar was one of several initiatives — including Margaritaville in Biloxi and a resort in Spain — that were ceased and never heard from again. $3.5 billion later. Baha Mar is slated for an end-of-2014 opening and it will be run by Global Gaming Asset Management, 
couldn’t get one, he’s making a big comeback. Global Gaming is also managing $1.2 billion Solaire Manila, in a market where angels fear to tread. Weidner’s top lieutenants are fellow exiles from Las Vegas Sands, President Brad Stone and executive veep Garry Saunders. At 150 tables and 10 times as many slots, Baha Mar is small by Las Vegas Strip standards. But the project itself (30 restaurants, three hotels) is of Sands-like ambition. And 
A spiffy makeover and a nostalgia-themed market position aren’t helping the Riviera as customers gravitate back toward higher-priced hotels. A bad neighborhood, while hardly a new phenomenon, isn’t helping. Having Echelon and Fontainebleau as your neighbors is akin to living next to a cemetery and a slum, respectively. “We anticipate that our walk-in traffic will be adversely impacted for the foreseeable future,” read a gloomy SEC 
Say what you like about MGM Resorts International‘s 
Just when boosters of casino expansion in Illinois thought they had a done deal, Gov. Pat Quinn (D) sprung a carefully concealed snare: 
former Sheldon Adelson lieutenant Tom Arasi landed himself a glitzy gig right on the Las Vegas Strip. As “president of hospitality,” h
Score one for Colony Capital: It took Rational Group to the cleaners to the tune of $11 million and 
buy into 19 Penn casinos, including flop Hollywood Perryville (shown). This Penn stalking horse would go by the incredibly generic name of Gaming & Leisure Properties (ticker symbol GLPI), a moniker so dull it must have been conceived by the same kind of unimaginative guys who foisted “Linq” and “Quad” upon the Las Vegas Strip. Anyway, through this REIT puppet, Penn would be able to — for instance — own two casinos in Massachusetts instead of one, 2.6 in Pennsylvania instead of 1.3, etc. Anywhere there’s a statutory limitation, Gaming & Leisure can make an end run around it. Very transparent, very disingenuous and very, very 
One of gaming’s biggest new markets went out with a whimper, not a bang, when 
Even if you’re making money on a daily basis, sometimes a casino-resort can be a bad investment. Take Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which finally posted a profitable quarter. However, at $3.9 billion in construction costs (now at or very near the $4 billion mark with expansions and revisions of the property), it’s doubtful that Deutsche Bank made a good investment when it took the project over. Casino revenue constitutes 22% of revenue — well below Strip average — and ROI remains in the low single digits. In other words, the Cosmo won’t pay for itself for decades. Even a recent improvement in room revenues was basically 
When last seen, Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman was telling his brethren that a stale property is an endangered property. To prove his point, he need look no farther than Philadelphia, where new kid on the block Valley Forge Casino Resort (left)was up in largely “down” April, its revenues increasing 29%. At $8 million last month, Valley Forge is still small potatoes but it’s ascending at a time when SugarHouse and Parx Casino are flat, and when — ahem! — Harrah’s Philadelphia fell -6%. All these boys need to make money while the sun shines because if the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission awards that fifth license to Steve Wynn or Bart Blatstein, it’s be like dropping an A-bomb on the competition. Game over, fellas.
Early news reports held that yesterday’s $70 million judicial beat-down of Las Vegas Sands was unanimous. 
Although the financial backing of Genting Group would — under normal circumstances — make the Mashpee Wampanoags prohibitive favorites for a casino in southeastern Massachusetts, these are anything but normal conditions. The tribe still doesn’t have a compact with the state, its site reposes on land that’s not been taken into trust and the Mashpee Wamps were federally recognized too late to qualify for casino gambling. That last point alone could keep the tribe tied up for years in litigation.
Historians bicker over the incorporation date of Las Vegas. Some say it happened as late as June 1, 1911. Others argue for May 15, 1905. Golden Gate owner Derek Stevens, opting for the earlier benchmark, has had his employees digging through the files for a gallery of images from the good old days. Fremont Street (left) needs no introduction, nor will it comes as any surprise that it was the first city in Las Vegas to get paved.
And small wonder. At the terminus of Fremont stood the city’s first hotel, opened in 1906 and still operating today, the beloved Golden Gate. You could park your buggy at the curb and swagger on in for some victuals and gambling … although I’m sure the famous shrimp cocktail wasn’t on the menu just yet.
Obstinacy has once again been the downfall of Sheldon Adelson. Rather than settle with Chinese businessman Richard Suen, Adelson went to trial not once, but twice (the first verdict having been overturned). In 2008, a Clark County jury determined that Las Vegas Sands owed Suen $44 million — plus interest, for helping Adelson land a casino subconcession in Macao. Sands was able to get that verdict overturned on procedural grounds by the Nevada Supreme Court. So a retrial was held … 
That’s what it could come to in Boston, if mayoral candidate — and current Suffolk County D.A. — Daniel Conley gets his wish. Rather than simply letting East Boston vote up or down on Caesars Entertainment‘s proposed conversion of Suffolk Downs into a $1 billion racino, Conley would require it to get both citywide and local approval at the ballot box. It’s a position -
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