Yes, MGM Resorts International, Boyd Gaming, Las Vegas Sands, the great state of Illinois and I don’t know who all else have been reporting revenues this week, and Mississippi is under water.. And I’ve not had time to cover any of it! Instead, I’m shoulder-deep in resarch on home-schooling kids and Vegas’ upcoming Fringe Festival and a few others things … plus rescuing a rooster. On Easter Sunday, my wife and I were “adopted” by a vagrant rooster. He’d been badly mangled (probably by from a cockfight) and was missing his coxcomb — and his scalp. Jennifer named him “Plucky,” due to his resilience and he’s been cadging food and water around the neighborhood, just a short walk from the Strip.
Eventually we were able to catch and contain fleet-footed Plucky (who now enjoys a nice, steady diet and fertilizes my veranda), as we continued to seek a permanent home for him. Boos to the Nevada SPCA and to Lied Animal Shelter. Both would have killed Plucky outright and the SPCA would have made us pay for the privilege of having him put to death. Several other parties, such as Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and sundry farms, were more far helpful and, as of this writing, it looks as though Plucky has found a new home in Animal Acres, a farm-animal sanctuary to the west of … God has a sense of humor, no? … Victorville, planned destination of Sig Rogich‘s Desert Xpress (aka Choo-Choo to Nowhere), familiar to readers of S&G. So we may be heading off to Acton tomorrow, with Plucky riding in air-conditioned comfort.
Part of Animal Acres’ mission is to promote a vegetarian lifestyle. Steve Wynn would approve, don’t you think?
CineVegas? CineWhat? Yeah, remember CineVegas, the film festival that was euthanized a couple of years back? This week’s Las Vegas CityLife asks the question, Do we miss it? Film scribes Kevin Capp, Matt Kelemen and Mike Prevatt all recall it fondly. Yr. Humble Blogger renders a minority opinion from the bench.
Changes at M. Even before the sun set on the Marnell era at M Resort and Penn National Gaming took over, we noticed a change or two on-property. Most conspicuously, the much-hyped self-serve beverage stations are gone, never to return. They ran into innumerable problems, such as customers spilling drinks everywhere or kids running around the casino and lobby all jacked up on caffeine and making messes. Worst of all, people would pull up in front of M, run in, brazenly grab a free beverage and skedaddle. One hopes Penn applies to some new thinking to the casino floor, whose combination of low-hanging light fixtures and tall slot machines feels like a series of cattle chutes. Moo!
If you’d like to wager on Donald Trump‘s sham presidential “campaign” and you like long odds Paddy Power is the place for you. It’s taking action on the 2012 presidential race and Trump is now a 33-to-1 shot, 
Aw, isn’t this great? After Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) made the ludicrous claim that Ohio voters didn’t know what they were getting into when they approved a casino initiative in 2008, his legislative allies are trying to up the ante. They wanted the state’s casinos 
“My strength has always been the economy and that’s what I’m best at.” — Donald Trump, to Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Laura Myers, whilst riding to half-finished 
If you’re a fan of Miami Vice, you’ve seen Dania Jai-alai in the credit sequence of every episode (and one or two actually used it as a location). Boyd’s partners in the venture were known to be chafing at the casino company’s inaction. Dania was purchased by Boyd in the wake of racino legalization in South Florida but when competitors like Isle of Capri Casinos encountered disappointing revenues, Boyd shelved its plans for the fronton. Those slots that Bill Boyd personally promised in 2006 never manifested themselves.
In his latest column, “Prohibition Is Not Regulation” (
“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent fuckin’ alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing fuckin’ engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public shitheads than to private douchebags, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them, motherfuckers.” — George Washington‘s farewell address, reinterpreted 
Sahara dealer
… by Chuck Monster, who’s learned that SBE Entertainment‘s deal with MGM Resorts International includes dumping the Club Sahara loyalty program database into the lion’s “
Two words: