Quote of the Day

Posted on February 18, 2011 by David McKee

“The problem with Stanley Ho is that he thought he is eternal. Nobody is eternal.” — Macao Gaming Inspection & Coordination Bureau Director Manuel Joaquim das Neves. Daughter — and MGM Resorts International joint-venture partner — Pansy Ho appears to have successfully wrested control of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau from her ailing father, reaffirming the old malapropism that an oral agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Posted in Current, Macau, MGM Mirage, Pansy Ho, Regulation, Stanley Ho | 1 Comment

Gary Loveman, not so visionary

Posted on February 18, 2011 by David McKee

Here’s a hypothesis for why the lenders holding the note on Colony Capital‘s underwater (more like submerged in Davey Jones’ Locker), market-lagging Atlantic City Hilton believe they can get as much as $75 million for the old place. If state Sen. Raymond Lesniak‘s bill to permit intrastate Internet betting makes it past the desk of Gov. Chris Christie (R), it’s good news for the Hilton. The measure could repose there until March 4, then be signed, vetoed — or simply allowed to become law without Christie’s signature. Only owners of Atlantic City casinos can have Garden State online gambling, so the A.C. Hilton — or rather, its license — could become considerably more valuable.

The ant at the picnic is, perversely, the biggest casino stakeholder on the Boardwalk, Caesars Entertainment President, Chairman, CEO & Pontifex Maximus Gary Loveman, Ph.D. He’s apparently been leaning on Christie to veto the bill, thinking that a federal-level solution is preferable. Quoth the New York Post, “Caesars believes that New Jersey is getting in the way of potential Federal legislation legalizing online gaming, the source noted. It believes the Federal measure is a bigger priority.” What are they sniffing at Caesars HQ? Sounds like Sportin’ Life just dropped off a big shipment of “happy dust.”

Seriously, is Democratic Party donor Loveman having problems with his arithmetic? The House is a lost and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) presides over an emaciated and eroding majority in the Senate. In other words, Loveman is willing to take money off the table in Atlantic City in the foolish — yes, foolish — hope that nationwide Internet gambling is just around the corner somewhere, next to the unicorn petting zoo and legalized-hashish dispensary.

Loveman’s lucky he doesn’t have to answer to shareholders anymore because this just wouldn’t wash. But since the good professor has extensive ties to Continue reading →

Posted in Alabama, Atlantic City, Colony Capital, Harrah's, Harry Reid, Internet gambling, Politics, Regulation, Sheldon Adelson, Technology | 7 Comments

Dan Lee’s revenge & comeuppance for Penn in Louisiana

Posted on February 17, 2011 by David McKee

While the casino industry suffers no shortage of big egos, Penn National Gaming CEO Peter Carlino zooms past that, heading full speed toward arrogance. When not trying to use the political process to sandbag its competitors, Penn occasionally builds casinos. (It will be interesting to see if Penn tries this Big Man on Campus act in Nevada once its M Resort [left] takeover is finalized.)

Not long ago, it was reported that, while Louisiana regulators where still pondering which company to grace with the state’s final riverboat license, Penn’s backhoes were doing “preliminary site work” in New Orleans. Whether or not this act of presumption backfired on Penn (as similar highhandedness did in Kansas), it experienced a valuable “teaching moment” this morning: Get the license first, then dig. ‘Cause when the gavel fell and the 15th license Pelican State was awarded, it went to Continue reading →

Posted in Atlantic City, Current, Dan Lee, Economy, Kansas, Louisiana, M Resort, Missouri, Ohio, Penn National, Pinnacle Entertainment, Regulation, Texas, Wall Street | 9 Comments

Sheldon Adelson, Man of La Mancha

Posted on February 17, 2011 by David McKee

Life’s being pretty good these days to Las Vegas Sands, thanks in part to better-than-expected convention traffic at Marina Bay Sands (offsetting tepid meeting/expo biz in Macao). In addition to eyeballing Florida, Texas, Massachusetts and Japan, CEO Sheldon Adelson has seeking a sphere of influence in Spain. He’s pitching a $20 billion-plus — yes $20 billion — multi-casino development in either Madrid or Barcelona.

Despite Sands’ impressive cash-flow numbers out of Singapore — where Adelson now projects a 25% ROI (you’ll never get anywhere near that in Vegas anymore) — and Macao, Adelson is pleading poverty to the Spanish government, demanding special consideration on real estate. With no more than $6 billion in cash on hand and untapped credit, combined, he’s certainly well short of the money he’d need to make his “Europe Vegas” happen … or to underwrite more than one or two the other megaresorts he’s been pitching lately. And though he might hope to call his new casa “Euro-Vegas,” somebody in Hungary already beat him to that moniker, as Sheldon will probably find out when he inevitably tries to trademark it.

Undaunted by his inability to get Macao’s government to dance to his tune, Adelson’s already hectoring the Spaniards for Continue reading →

Posted in Alex Yemenidjian, Atlantic City, Current, Downtown, Economy, Florida, Genting, International, Macau, Massachusetts, Oscar Goodman, Pennsylvania, Regulation, Sheldon Adelson, Singapore, Texas, The Strip, Tourism, TV | 2 Comments

Quote of the Day

Posted on February 17, 2011 by David McKee

“[Y]esterday Celine Dion showed up and Vegas groveled at her feet. When she first came here in 2003, people wondered about her ability to sell tickets at prices that sailed as high as her irritating voice. Now she is a rare sure thing for Vegas: a town where hubris has been replaced by a scary lack of imagination and confidence.” — Richard Abowitz on the return to Caesars Palace of You Know Who. (No sign of CEO Gary Loveman, who may still be tuckered out from the silliest-looking groundbreaking ever.)

Posted in Current, Economy, Entertainment, Harrah's, Ohio, The Strip | Comments Off on Quote of the Day

Philadelphia’s cup runneth under

Posted on February 16, 2011 by David McKee

Returning to yesterday’s theme of exaggerated expectations of gaming revenues (decanted by casino operators, quaffed uncritically by politicians) we have a glass half-full/half-empty report from Pennsylvania. The salient statistic is that, once five-month-old SugarHouse (left) is factored out, slot revenues in the Keystone State were -9% from January 2010. Some of that money may have migrated to table games, whose $43 million enabled the state to post a 20% revenue increase from a year ago (an apples-to-oranges comparison, admittedly).

The revenue pecking order remained pretty much the same, with Parx Casino ($38 million, +4%) way out front, Harrah’s Chester Downs ($27 million, +1%) and Sands Bethlehem ($27 million, +26%) jostling for runner-up status, and The Rivers ($25 million, +38.5%) finally pulling its weight. Only Penn National Gaming‘s eponymous racino was revenue-negative for January, while Mohegan Sun, Mount Airy and Presque Isle all reported double-digit gains.

Barely edging the last two properties with a relatively meager $14.5 million was SugarHouse, in the heart of Philadelphia. Add that to the modest increases posted at Harrah’s and Parx (as opposed to much larger ones outstate), and it’s crystal clear that SugarHouse isn’t growing the Philly market so much as rearranging it. These numbers are all the argument the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board needs for reassigning Ed Snider‘s old license somewhere else in the state.

Heck, even Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman may be looking at SugarHouse’s anemic revenue (worse even that The Rivers’ early going) and thinking he caught a break Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Cordish Co., Current, Economy, Harrah's, Macau, Maryland, Neil Bluhm, Ohio, Penn National, Pennsylvania, Politics, Racinos, Regulation, Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, Tribal | 3 Comments

Quote of the Day

Posted on February 16, 2011 by David McKee

“Vegas is a different market. You can get a room in the finest hotels on the Strip for Holiday Inn Express prices. That’s why Sheldon Adelson is stomping his feet. The restaurants are not making their lease payments either. The convention traffic just isn’t supporting the number of fine dining and entertainment options in that town and neither are the players. If you can’t give it away, then what? Top brands like the Venetian are at great risk of devaluing their brands with discounted and comped rooms. Likewise, Opus One would never sell a bottle of its wine for $10.99 at Costco. However, most of us aren’t Opus One.” — Barker Enterprises President Nicole Barker on Las Vegas Sands‘ recent decimation of comps at its low-yield Venelazzo megaplex.

Posted in Current, Dining, Economy, Entertainment, Marketing, Sheldon Adelson, The Strip | 1 Comment

Marina: Trump out, Tilman in

Posted on February 15, 2011 by David McKee

Our long national nightmare is over. Trump Entertainment Resorts has finally unloaded that pariah known as Trump Marina and for a pittance: $38 million. Just when it looked like Trump couldn’t give the place away, Landry’s Restaurants CEO Tilman Fertitta swooped in and snatched it. A somewhat Pyrrhic victory for Trump is also a defeat for Colony Capital, which attempted to unload the heavily encumbered Atlantic City Hilton to Fertitta, who thought better of it.

That transaction would have made historical and sentimental sense, since the Hilton was once a Golden Nugget. And, yes, Fertitta is going to put the Nugget brand on Trump Marina. (Nicholas Ribis‘ apparent desire to rebrand the Hilton the “New Nugget” is not only hilariously anachronistic, it would probably run headfirst into a Fertitta lawsuit.) Casino pitchman Donald Trump put the best face Continue reading →

Posted in Atlantic City, Boyd Gaming, Colony Capital, Current, Donald Trump, Economy, Harrah's, Regulation | 3 Comments

Las Vegas Sands: Who’s minding the store?

Posted on February 15, 2011 by David McKee

Investors would do well to ask that, not least because of CEO Sheldon Adelson‘s attitude of, ‘The buck stops here … except when it doesn’t.’ To hear Adelson tell it, everything that goes awry at Las Vegas Sands and Sands China is the handiwork of those old Family Circus poltergeists Ida Know and Not Me.

But the recent litany of accusations against canned Sands China CEO Steven Jacobs really makes you wonder who’s in charge at Adelson Central. If Jacobs was able to negotiate deals with (to name but a few) Four Seasons, Playboy and Cirque du Soleil without having to run it past Sands HQ, he was not only way off the reservation but there was clearly no attempt made to rein him in. After all, every one of those supposedly sub rosa arrangements eventually bore fruit and was consummated by Sands. Playboy Club at Sands Macao? Check. Cirque show (Zaia) in place? Check. Four Seasons up and running? Check and check.

Sands’ defense boils down to: ‘Jacobs was running amok and there was nothing we could do to stop him.’ Pretty weak, if not pathetic. The company’s accusations are as nothing compared to Jacobs’ own assertions, which include charges that Adelson’s firms were siphoning high rollers away from Macao to prop up Marina Bay Sands in Singapore — and were doing the same with construction monies intended for the Cotai Strip™. That’s activity upon which Macanese authorities would deeply frown and may be related to a recent series of Macao setbacks suffered by Adelson, including an embarrassing prostitution bust Continue reading →

Posted in Cirque du Soleil, Current, Genting, James Packer, Lawrence Ho, Macau, Marketing, Melco Crown Entertainment, MGM Mirage, Pansy Ho, Politics, Regulation, Sheldon Adelson, Singapore, Sports, Stanley Ho, Station Casinos, Steve Wynn, Technology, The Mob, Tourism, Wall Street | Comments Off on Las Vegas Sands: Who’s minding the store?

Gary Loveman … visionary?

Posted on February 15, 2011 by David McKee

At the risk of pumping additional hydrogen into his already zeppelin-sized ego, allow me to suggest that Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman, PhD. is actually onto something. But first would somebody clue him in that there has been casino gambling in Cleveland‘s storied past. Just not the legal variety. Also, while $350 million might sound like a lot of money to Ohio TV anchors, it’s pocket change compared to what Las Vegas moguls have been spending until recently.

But I digress. Having now proposed Horseshoe-branded casinos in Cleveland, Cincinnati and (unsuccessfully) Philadelphia, Loveman’s actions are starting to jibe with his rhetoric at Global Gaming Expo. His vision of a ubiquitous casino industry (sort of like Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Current, Economy, Entertainment, Florida, G2E, Harrah's, Jack Binion, Marketing, Neil Bluhm, Ohio, Penn National, Pennsylvania, Sheldon Adelson, Slot routes, Taxes, The Mob, The Strip, Tourism, Tropicana Entertainment, Wall Street | 2 Comments

Plaudits for Navegante; The great Hard Rock caper that wasn’t

Posted on February 15, 2011 by David McKee

A frequent Hard Rock Hotel & Casino player, for one, is happy to know that Navegante Group is waiting in the wings to take the reins should Morgans Hotel Group continue to falter. (The owners of the HRH have until Feb. 28 to figure out how to restructure or pay back $1.25 billion in debt.) The player isn’t a fan of the interim regime of Blake Sartini‘s Golden Gaming, which managed — under a fairly usurious contract — the casino while Morgans was getting its license. He writes …

“… anything but round 2 with Golden (Shower) Gaming. Fine Point or Navegante would be better for the players. I’m a fan of Larry Wolff (Navegante) myself. I stopped playing there when Golden ran the property. No one liked them, the video poker was as bad as in its bars (funny, [Golden’s] casino in Black Hawk, CO, the video poker’s not bad), and when they changed the program from cash back to free play, they tried to retroactively make me take free play instead of cash back without giving any notice to the players.” (Are you reading this, Nevada Gaming Control Board? <crickets>)

The player continues, “IIRC, when Golden took over, all the video poker was downgraded Continue reading →

Posted in Colorado, Current, Golden Gaming, International, Marketing, Michael Gaughan, New York, Regulation, Sheldon Adelson, The Strip | 2 Comments

Quote of the Day

Posted on February 14, 2011 by David McKee

“We can debate whether Iraq now is in better shape than Egypt, but what is not debatable is David Brooks‘s assertion that Saddam [Hussein] would shoot anyone who dared protest in public, or in private, for that matter. He was a terrifically brutal and genocidal dictator who made Hosni Mubarak look like Bernie Sanders.” — Atlantic correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg, pondering the possible ripple effects of the overthrow of Egypt’s government —  including tighter repression in the Middle East, which is viewed by Sheldon Adelson and others as a new Promised Land of casino expansion.

Posted in Current, Internet gambling, Sheldon Adelson | 1 Comment

Caesars too good for Cincy

Posted on February 11, 2011 by David McKee

Congratulations, Cincinnati, you’re getting a Horshoe-branded casino. Yup, the relatively low-key casino planned for the Queen City’s historic district is getting the most down-market of the company’s three brands. This despite the fact that there’s already a Horseshoe casino just downriver in Evansville, Elizabeth, Indiana.

Once again, the Caesars imprimatur is perfectly splendid for Atlantic City and Windsor, Ontario, but too good for major American cities. If CEO Gary Loveman (left) is to achieve his dream of making his casinos as ubiquitous as McDonalds (a brand with which he displays a curious obsession), keeping the Caesars brand locked in a drawer seems an odd way of going about it.

On hand to help turn a ceremonial shovelful of dirt, wearing a gold-plated hard hat, Loveman announced, Continue reading →

Posted in Atlantic City, Current, Economy, Harrah's, Indiana, International, Louisiana, Marketing, Neil Bluhm, Pennsylvania, Racinos | 15 Comments

Quote of the Day

Posted on February 11, 2011 by David McKee

“I don’t suppose it’s occured [sic] to the smart crowd at MGM that luxury resort complexes designed for the ultra-wealthy in Egypt are exactly what the impoverished masses rebelling against [Hosni] Mubarak are against.” — “RussBBinVegas“, commenting on the Las Vegas Review-Journal Web site about MGM Resorts International‘s planned 550-room resort, near Cairo. Unlike Egyptian properties owned by Caesars Entertainment and Genting Bhd, it would not have a casino.

Posted in Current, Economy, Genting, Harrah's, International, MGM Mirage | Comments Off on Quote of the Day

How to save $10

Posted on February 11, 2011 by David McKee

Anyone besides me remember Foster Brooks? Nothing reminds me of him so much as Jeff Bridges‘ unintelligible reinterpretation of Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, the main difference being that Brooks is far easier to understand. Seriously, just watch two hours of old Foster Brooks clips and you’ve as good as seen the latest pretentious cow-plop from the Coen Bros. (but had more fun in the process). Stop them before they film again!

Posted in Entertainment, history, Movies, TV | 5 Comments

There’s a new(ish) resort in town

Posted on February 11, 2011 by David McKee


Dolce Hotels & Resorts, a small (27-property) hotelier, is trying to make a go of it out at the Kingdom of Make-Believe (aka Lake Las Vegas). A symbol of the hollow “prosperity” of the pre-crash years, Lake Las Vegas is so beset with conceptual flaws that who knows if it will ever work. Here’s hoping Ravella finds a wallet-friendly formula that enables it to succeed where Ritz-Carlton failed.

Posted in Current, Economy, Lake Las Vegas | 2 Comments

Kyl: He’s outta there

Posted on February 10, 2011 by David McKee


Gaming executives may not be popping champagne corks at the news that Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is joining a mass exodus of incumbents prior to the 2012 election. However, they’re undoubtedly happy to be rid of a longtime thorn in their side — terminology that Kyl would probably take as a compliment.

The retirement of a vexatious but worthy, skillful adversary is cause for at least a backhanded salute. For the past 15 years, Kyl has stymied Internet casinos’ advance into the U.S. virtually singlehanded. His opposition alone was sufficient to ensure that Majority Leader Harry Reid‘s day-late/dollar-short effort to legalize Internet poker in the 2010 lame-duck session was DOA. Evidently sensing a vacuum in Congress where Internet gambling was concerned (and prescient with regard to its importance), Kyl Continue reading →

Posted in Current, Harry Reid, Internet gambling, Politics | 1 Comment

Quote of the Day

Posted on February 10, 2011 by David McKee

“Our job is to constantly refresh the notion that we are humble, proud and grateful to be allowed to be part of that scene, and the way to do that in China is to take good care of your employees.” — Steve Wynn, toadying to the Chinese government yet again. By implication, taking care of one’s American employees is not such a high priority at Wynn Resorts. Oh, and Marilyn Winn has already (and entirely as predicted) laid a cheapening, Harrah’s-izing hand upon Wynncore. Told you so.

Posted in Current, Dining, Entertainment, Harrah's, Macau, Politics, Steve Wynn, The Strip | Comments Off on Quote of the Day

Have you seen this man?

Posted on February 10, 2011 by David McKee

That guy, the fourth goombah from the left. That’s Milton Jaffe, onetime managing director of the Stardust and someone whose dusty trail I’m trying to retrace for LVA.com’s “Question of the Day.” (Second from the left is Joe DiMaggio and center is Jimmy Durante, two men who require no introduction.) Unlike many other casino-industry figures of the Fifties and Sixties, Jaffe is pretty much forgotten in Sin City. You’ll search the last 15 years of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and not get a hit. Ditto the more extensive — if somewhat haphazard — online archives of the Las Vegas Sun. Except for a passing mention in The First 100, you’d scarce know he existed.

There’s a torrent of incoming news from the present-day casino industry — such as CityCenter claiming its first victim — but Continue reading →

Posted in CityCenter, Current, Entertainment, Harrah's, history, MGM Mirage, Silverton, Sports, The Mob, The Strip | 3 Comments

A different Bellagio

Posted on February 9, 2011 by David McKee

“Moderation’s the first step on the role to failure,” says Jack Lord‘s character, sounding not unlike Steve Wynn himself in this excerpt from the third and (alas!) final season of Twelve O’Clock High.

Posted in Steve Wynn, TV | Comments Off on A different Bellagio