Caesars Entertainment Chief Marketing Officer David Norton, developer of Total Rewards, got his walking papers yesterday. The old “pursuing other interests” excuse was deployed; familiar industry code for “Don’t let the doorknob hit you on the way out.”
Publicly, CEO Gary Loveman uttered extravagant praise — as well he should, though he slightly misspoke. Without Norton, “Caesars would not be the company it is today,” he wrote. Not quite true. Minus Norton, it would not be the company that Loveman inherited from Phil Satre. It is Loveman who turned Caesars into the mess it is today. There’s no need to share the credit, Gary. You own that one — lock, stock options and barrel.
OK, maybe Norton just got tired or fed up and abruptly left. Liz Benston theorizes that a troubled upgrade of Total Rewards, incorporating third-party vendors, may have led to the ouster — or that Norton is being scapegoated for Caesars’ inability to draw higher-value (i.e., Chinese) players. Allow me to propose another scenario. For months upon months, Caesars’ regional properties have been Continue reading
Earth to Vegas.com … while I realize that Las Vegas isn’t exactly Key West with slot machines, you’d expect Vegas.com to be approximately somewhere in this century when compiling its list of ‘
Stan Fulton, former slot-maker, sometime philanthropist and general nuisance (he once tried to get the UNLV president sacked, 
As in “VIP volume.” That’s what Las Vegas Sands has to do in order to monetize some of its Macao assets, according to a J.P. Morgan report that appeared this morning. In the course of meeting with Sands honchos, Joseph Greff and colleagues learned that “underutilized” (read: underperforming) spaces in Macao include the new Four Seasons Plaza casino — in a market 
Somewhat paradoxically, Sands asserted that “underutilized real estate … is attracting solid interest,” although I suppose one could draw a distinction between interest and actual foot traffic. Also, did someone misspeak in stating that the attractions of Four Seasons Plaza (left) include offering excellent credit? U.S. operators are forbidden to extend markers to Macanese punters; hence the importance of the junketeers, who can advance money to their VIP clients — and collect it in ways about which we’d rather not know.
Sands officialdom wasn’t offering specific numbers regarding the performance of Marina Bay Sands, saying that it was improving quarter to quarter. Based on 1Q11 $3.7 million/day in casino revenues, Morgan analysts project it will be at $4.3 million/day by year’s end. Greff’s crew reckons that investors put too much stock in Sands’ Singapore-VIP performance (disappointing) than its mass-market play, which is steady and strong. There’s even good news on the VIP front, which is described as reliable, with a firm baseline.
Those tireless analysts at J.P. Morgan have been crunching numbers again and found that, during the June 19-25 period, Strip room rates are up 24% from last year, from average ADR of $148 to $183, driven by vastly — i.e., 35% — higher prices at Caesars Entertainment hotels. Of course, whether or not this is good news depends on whether you are an operator or a customer.
The state Senate 
“[That’s] like saying that a third of the houses available are vacant, but let’s help the economy by building more houses.” — Illinois Casino Gaming Association Executive Director Tom Swoik, testifying against a bill 
Rumor has it that 
There might be a winner … the Riviera. After the shabby treatment 
After scraping not just the bottom of the barrel but the underside of the barrel with the likes of Levi Johnston (evidently getting a famous person’s daughter knocked up makes you a celeb, in which case America has officially run out of that colorful subspecies), there was nowhere for Paris-Las Vegas nightclub Chateau Nightclub & Gardens to go but up, way up. Enter Juliette Lewis, slated to grace the Strip on July 11. Since her film career 
In other Caesars Entertainment entertainment-related news, indefatigable 
There’s so much good news coming out of Atlantic City lately, I don’t know if we can handle the excitement. Should anybody doubt that Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis is a brave man, his decision to — 
While I’m a fan of Hudson Securities analyst Robert LaFleur, when he says that Revel might push a few of the rinkier-dinkier Boardwalk casinos out of business, I counter, “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Seriously, it’s the Darwinian effect of the free market at work. If places like the Atlantic City Hilton that have gone to seed under moronic ownership or economically dubious leviathans like the Bally’s Wild Wild West-Claridge agglomeration go belly up, the market is simply weeding out the weak from the strong. And if there really are 5,000 jobs waiting at Revel, as DeSanctis says, there will be a mass exodus of experienced employees from lesser casinos anyway, all hoping to catch on at the new place. Workers displaced from the bottom-feeders will have a good chance of moving up to the next step of the food chain.
“It’s not going to have that hospital look anymore,” Fertitta promises, and while he might not appreciate my saying it thusly, the Nugget name’s conjuration of Steve Wynn and 
“Even though everybody knew he wouldn’t, part of me wishes [Donald] Trump had run for president, just so NBC would have been forced to cancel his ‘People Who Seem Vaguely Familiar Apprentice.'” — Las Vegas Review-Journal TV critic Christopher Lawrence, who received a handwritten nastygram from the Trumpster after publishing that critique.
It’s not purely gratuitous. Ms. Electra, late of 
Just what Dad always wanted … Elsewhere at Planet Ho, Caesars Entertainment tries to match Phil Ruffin bull for 
Seth Schorr, son of Wynn Resorts COO Marc Schorr, has charged with the responsibility of bringing the Lady Luck Casino Hotel back from the dead. Schorr fils got started in the industry early (age 12, to be precise), spending his summer vacation helping to paint the Golden Nugget Laughlin‘s garage. He’s been working his way up the ladder in the 26 years since and has spent the last three years turning around the ill-starred Speedway Casino, now known as the Lucky Club (and occasionally looking in on Strip nightclubs). One of his co-investors in that venture was then-Wynn Las Vegas President Andrew Pascal, 
No, the company hasn’t been dissolved. But with the various Herbst boys having been run off — plus the negative brand equity created by their eponymous casino firm’s financial collapse — new ownership decided 
Chief among them is Michael D. Rumbolz, who’s got a long history in Nevada. From 1987-89 he was Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman, at the end of the Richard Bryan administration (perhaps the last truly enlightened period of governance in Silver State history). As such, he had the unpleasant task of investigating the Nazi Party nostalgia of Imperial Palace owner Ralph Engelstad, whose fondness for Adolf Hitler sickens the stomach to this day.
The aptly named Sen. Valerie Wiener (D) promises “substantial safeguards” and the Nevada Gaming Control Board allowed that there was “a chance” Cantor’s handheld devices wouldn’t find their way into Young Johnny’s sweaty little palms. Wiener’s campaign-contribution records haven’t been posted on the Nevada Secretary of State‘s Web site but another pusher of this odious bill, Assm. William Horne (D) came cheap. While he was a veritable sponge of casino cash (getting four grand from MGM Resorts International alone), Cantor bought Horne’s soul for a mere $1,000. The Nevada Gaming Commission still has to approve this farce but, to paraphrase 
“Very little, I suppose.” — a friend’s response to the Riviera‘s Rich Little announcement, memories of Little’s sclerotic Golden Nugget gig (complete with a song in praise of Tilman Fertitta) fresh in our minds.
Trump Marina became “
Among the changes is Landry’s 30th Chart House restaurant (below), one several Fertitta brands that will be incorporated into the resort. Meanwhile, as though there were any doubt in the matter, Coastal Marina, 
Those who have followed Landry’s reinvention of the Las Vegas Golden Nugget know that Fertitta probably won’t stop there. They also know how, in the last six years, the Nugget has eclipsed all other Downtown operators combined, with the exception of the plucky El Cortez. Things couldn’t get any worse for the Marina and the entry of Landry’s makes it a lock 
“I’ve dealt with a lot of big city PRs in my life and I’ve never, ever seen the kind of defensiveness I experienced in Las Vegas. Maybe they’re just not used to being asked actual questions, I thought: after all, the city’s most high profile entertainment ‘journalist’ is