Barring enormous dissatisfaction in McLean, Virginia, the USAT travel guides are off my desk for the time being, which means slightly more leisure to ponder such matters as what the rise to power of the Islamic Brotherhood in Cairo (albeit on a short, military leash) means for Caesars International‘s Egyptian casinos … or the newfound celebrity/bogeyman status of Sheldon Adelson. Last night, in one sitting, I read Richard “Skip” Bronson‘s The War at the Shore — and you might one to ‘skip’ that one. It’s pretty light on history, long on anecdotes, but at least its 217 pages make for a quick read. And, lastly, here’s a heartfelt wish for a speedy recovery to S&G reader HPark4, who suffered a Continue reading
Although I’m still swotting on USA Today copy, the finish line is within sight and the Las Vegas Strip property with the most name-checks to date is — surprise of surprises — Paris-Las Vegas, singled out in multiple categories. Who’da thought the Strip’s last-ever mid-market casino, opened in 1999, would outpace so many newcomers? (Mind you, affordability is an important criterion.) Planet Hollywood is racking up a few plugs, too. Now, my editors could throw all this out and send me back to Square One, but it’s certainly an outcome I didn’t expect when I started surveying the Strip, several weeks back. Another surprise: Circus Circus has more “bests” than does Caesars Palace. Current and former Steve Wynn properties also fared well, an unscientific metric of how well they retain their value. But I’m afraid to 
As befits a proud papa, Penn National Gaming has been showing Wall Street analysts around its newest offspring: Hollywood Casino Toledo. The metrics are pretty awe-inspiring. Already the customer database is approaching 50,000 players and 47% of all slot play is rated — far more than at Penn’s Harrisburg racino in its early going. Good for Penn (and bad for Detroit) is the news that a third of all players at H’wood Toledo are from Michigan, and there’s been some seepage from northern Indiana, too. Restaurant covers are greater than expected. While the casino could increase its installed slot base (2,000 boxes) by 40%-50%, management is presently being a mite cautious, adding just 45 slots.
Shortly after Deutsche Bank‘s Carlo Santarelli passed through, J.P. Morgan‘s Joseph Greff got the red-carpet treatment. He praises the casino-floor layout, likening the overall design to Penn’s Kansas Speedway casino. Even though MTR Gaming‘s new Columbus-area racino at Scioto Downs has what Santarelli calls “first-mover advantage” on in-progress Hollywood Columbus (left), he still predicts the latter will generate pre-tax ROI of 30% (!) when it opens in November. Interestingly, Penn built two Buckeye State casinos for 
“One of the worst IPOs in recent memory! A company that is consistently losing money, and with an enterprise value of $19.5 billion is ridiculous! The company’s interest expense alone is [roughly twice] its current market cap. Valuing this company based on its book value is also wrong. Since most of the assets are made up of casinos (recorded at original cost) I guarantee you that they are worth a lot less than what’s stated on the balance sheet.” — investor “BuffettJunior1” (!), one of the over 175,000 investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, which has given Caesars Entertainment 
economic potential of casinos and where they should go (i.e., not into distressed neighborhoods, as was planned for Britain‘s abortive “supercasino,” for example). Hizzoner sees Gotham as a multi-casino market and it’s one that’s seemingly tailor-made for Las Vegas Sands‘ convention-driven business model. The question is, Will Adelson be willing to share a Manhattan sandbox with others or pull a Florida: i.e., take his toys and go home? If it’s clear from the get-go — as happened in Singapore and Macao — that exclusivity isn’t on the table and never will be, Adelson is likelier play ball than if the issue is allowed to remain in flux and subject to his pressure. Of course, since no other company regularly makes having a monopoly a precondition of condescending to build casinos, Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) can rest assured of having monied suitors even if Sheldon suffers another snit fit.
As is my habit, I tuned in CNN‘s Your Money yesterday. No sooner was the TV on but there was Gov. John Kasich (R), taking justifiable pride in Ohio‘s having recently added 73,300 jobs. The inescapable irony — and fact — is that thousands of those are construction and permanent jobs in Penn National Gaming and Caesars Entertainment casinos that Kasich opposed, then stymied. Too bad there isn’t a Truth in Politics Law that would require him to say, “Ali, in the last year we’ve added 73,300 jobs — many of them against my will.”
No disrespect to Steve Wynn, but the human starter gun for any serious casino race is now Sheldon Adelson. Except for China, he’s not been in any casino-expansion movement for the long haul since he lost Mirage Resorts. And with Las Vegas Sands now expressing an interest in the Toronto area, competitors MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment already look like also-rans with Adelson in the picture. (Caesars’ fire-aim-ready effort doesn’t even have the crucial joint-venture partner in place yet.) Were I pondering loan requests from those three companies, Sands would be a no-brainer first choice. Even its lesser revenue streams (like Sands Bethelehem) are still pretty impressive.
Warren Buffett likes to say that we’ve already had class warfare in this country and his class won. Whilst laid up, recuperating from an ill-advised meal at 
Wouldn’t you love to know what was in Steve Wynn‘s most recent pre-nup now that his wife is referring to herself as “Owner” of Wynn Resorts — as our colleague Chuck Monster 
“I don’t like Caesars [Entertainment] because of its high leverage – the company has $21.2 billion in net debt and $1.7 billion per year of interest obligations. To manage cost, Caesar [sic] has reduced marketing and operating costs and limited its maintenance and growth capex as well. This has in turn resulted in market share losses. To bet on Caesar [sic], one needs to be sure of a lot of things like a continued recovery in the Las Vegas Strip, macros going in the right direction, and Caesar [sic] being able to service its debt obligations. Caesar [sic] has very little margin of safety if things go south; thus, the stock appears way too risky to me.” — Motley Fool stock-picker Ashish Sharma. Less marketing, less operating budget, less maintenance and less market share? Sounds like the dreaded “death-spiral business model” to me. Say, why is that man smiling?
In a major step toward the de-Maloofization of the Palms, one of its signature attractions closed last weekend. As of yesterday, one can no longer gamble, ogle Bunnies nor do anything else at the semi-private Playboy Club. It was one of the few truly European-style casinos in Las Vegas and, as of the close of business Sunday, it is no more. The Palms’ private-equity owners wasted no time in removing the bunny-head logo from the casino’s eastern façade: A long, towering crane had been in standby near the Palms early last week. And if you’re thinking of scarfing up some Playboy-branded memorabilia, I hear all of that has vanished from the premises, too. (Check eBay, guys.)
If insanity is doing the same thing over and over (and over) and expecting a different result, then we have outbreaks of it in both the Illinois Legislature and the Philadelphia casino market. In Pennsylvania, lawmakers have the disposition of the vacated Foxwoods project on their desks 
That’s music to the ears of R. Donahue “Don” Peebles, -
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