Since there is no problem in today’s America too trivial to be resolved with gunplay, let the record show that 31-year-old Kevin Jones Jr. was mortally wounded at the Lucky Club Casino early this morning. Jones was pronounced dead at a local hospital. How his alleged assailant, convicted felon Shonta Holland, came to be in possession of a firearm is a question for the people who run background checks on would-be gun owners. There’s no question, however, that this is another blotch on the Lucky Club’s stained blotter. In the 1990s, back when it was the Cheyenne Hotel, its owners were chased out by Nevada regulators, who found too much jiggery-pokery on the balance sheets.
In 1998, MTR Gaming purchased the Cheyenne — soon to become the Speedway Casino — an electrical fire shut the place down for a fortnight. During the 2007 gaming bubble, MTR sold the Speedway at a 330% markup. New owner Seth Schorr — son Wynn Resorts COO Marc Schorr — had scarcely taken the keys to the property in June 2008 when Continue reading
Now we know why Steve Wynn was careful to mend fences with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (below) in 2010 when negotiations to take over the doomed Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia project abruptly feel apart and Wynn skipped town. He’s back with “Wynn Philadelphia,” a 300-room, 100-table, 2,500-slot knockoff of Encore Macau, 
is pushing back — and trying to reintroduce youthful crowds to Downtown — with a bargain play that many will find hard to resist. College students can book room nights at The D for $39/evening and will receive a $39 booze credit in return. Given the collegiate crowd’s ability to consume mass quantities of alcohol, I’m sure they’ll spend well past their $39 credit and Stevens will recoup the price of those comped rooms. There’s just one catch …
Maryland: Voters approved Question 7, which 
Rhode Island: Bittersweet victory for gaming interests — they carried three of four plebiscites but 
Oregon: A non-event, private equity firm Clairvest having taken its ball and gone home weeks before the election, when it realized that a Portland-area casino, The Grange — known to its detractors as “The Grunge” — didn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell. (It lost, 72% to 28%; a Wood Village-only ballot question suffered a narrower defeat, with 53% voting against.) Oregonians are happy with their tribal-only casino industry and likely to remain so for quite some time.
Sorry, Sheldon Adelson, but American democracy is not for sale to the highest bidder. Now go back to doing what you do best: opening overseas casino markets … far overseas, preferably.
That’s the question posed today by Esquire‘s Jason Whited, who tries to find the Blofeld-like mastermind. “Anyplace other than Las Vegas,” seems to be the answer. “Political types here and across the country speak of him in almost hushed tones,” writes Whited, “trading rumors and tidbits of his last known whereabouts.” None of the Venelazzo employees he interviews 
While the voters have not yet spoken (although they’re 
also enjoys favorable odds
“America might be better off it it dropped bombshells on Gloria Allred and Donald Trump, rather than the other way around.” — Charles C. W. Cooke, on the 
battle, with 
Actually, a few hardy souls — 
While nobody quite matched the $221 million loss posted by Caesars Entertainment, the gaming industry didn’t lack for underachievers in 3Q12, thanks largely to softness in domestic casino markets. Ameristar Casinos reported a $16 million profit, despite a 2% revenue decline. Slightly improved performance in Colorado was offset by new competition in Kansas City (-7%) and the road-construction issues to that continue to bedevil Ameristar East Chicago (-8.5%).
those which are Ameristar’s bread and butter. His colleague at Deutsche Bank, Carlo Santarelli, applauded Ameristar’s cost-control methods but also worried that 
Anyone remember Gov. Steve Beshear (D)? For the five years, he’s been spinning his wheels, trying to get gambling expanded in Kentucky past horse racing. When Beshear ran for reelection last year, his GOP opponent, then-state Senate President David Williams claimed he’d support only slightly less gambling than Beshear. Turns out that Williams just funning us, having reverted to obstructionism in the upper house. Beshear removed that obstacle by plunking Williams into an open seat on the bench, but approval of the necessary constitutional amendment is far from a done deal. However, if a revision of the Bluegrass State’s tax code creates a revenue shortfall, Beshear’s finally got some stick to go with his carrot.
Kentucky may get a nudge from Isle of Capri Casinos‘ new, $135 million Cape Girardeau casino. Its opening was overshadowed by stormy events on the East Coast but Isle has a new, signature property that is positioned to draw from both Missouri and Illinois. The immediate target in its sights is the Harrah’s Metropolis riverboat. Meanwhile, Caesars Entertainment execs are busy overseas, touting the value of their $578 million golf course in Macao. Since — 
You might say Mitt Romney was for gambling before he was against it. Both as a 1994 Senate candidate and later as governor, he advocated slot parlors and later VLTs in Massachusetts. (He also proposed to extort $75 million apiece in ‘protection money
Although I’m sure Tao Beach had its heart in the right place when it crafted this promotion for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, its brain fell clear out its butt. Not only does this public-disservice message appear to have been dreamed up by a bunch of horny frat boys, its target audience seems to be men. Either that or the message to women is meant to read: ‘Losing your life is bad but impairing your sex life is worse.’ We might have minimal standards for what constitutes stupid behavior in Vegas than in most other places, but this knuckle-dragging campaign falls below even our low civic bar. As penance, I suggest that Sheldon Adelson become a spokesmodel for the Hair Club for Men.
Still, the anemic gaming-revenue stream has finally drawn blood: As I expected, upper-level space has been cannibalized to provide more gaming positions, in the form of the high-end Talon Club. (Expect more of this.) Overall revenue was up a third in 1Q12, driven largely by ADRs, which sit around an enviable $257/night. For some historical perspective, when Sheldon Adelson opened The Venetian in 1999, he was routinely able to command $269/night. The Cosmo has another substantial property upgrade in the works, one that will be in line with its marketing position. In the meantime, the customer is king, given that 
After a year as a management-only company, Station Casinos is departing the soon-to-be-former (effective Nov. 1) Aliante Station and taking its brand with it. To celebrate the occasion, Virgen Inc. PR firm busted out every font in its computer (really, you should see this thing) to announce that the $662 million mistake on the north beltway is becoming Aliante Hotel + Casino. Well … it could be worse. They could have called it “AHC.”