“Clearly, there will be overbuilding and other costly mistakes if the boosterish mania for growth and promotion are not balanced by careful planning in the 1990s.” — historian Eugene Moehring, in his 1989 history of Las Vegas, Resort City in the Sunbelt. (A newer edition carries the narrative forward to the turn of the century.) In its epilogue, Moehring recites a sobering litany of infrastructural improvements that were planned circa 1988 but almost none of which came into being, save for the bankrupt, fragmentary Las Vegas Monorail.
Despite a record of failure, failure and even greater failure, three cronies of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell still have a chance of holding onto the comatose “Wynnwoods” casino project in Philadelphia. Somehow, Wynnwoods (officially known as Philadelphia Entertainment & Development Partners) managed to limp along for 40 months or so with two of its three central players becoming licensed. Only Comcast Chairman Ed Snider has obtained the necessary approval. In the case of developer Ron Rubin, regulators better get a move on, as Rubin is pushing 80.
“Isn’t that what he always says?” — my wife, a fairly staunch Democrat, reacting to a news clip of President Obama 
I’m not sure anybody but Gary Loveman could come up with such a preposterous handle as “Project Linq” (alas, not “Linc,” as in Clarence Williams III on the Mod Squad, although that would be pretty cool) for Harrah’s Entertainment‘s street of shops, dead-ending in a Ferris wheel (the Strip view of which will be impaired by the Las Vegas Monorail). It’s said the proposed attraction will be built next year, although Loveman is careful to keep his predictions of Strip recovery less bullish than those of MGM Resorts International‘s Jim Murren.
Geez, I’ve not been feeling pessimistic about the Dec. 15 debut of the Cosmopolitan … until somebody forwarded me a copy of a Bill Lerner analysis of the property. Now I’m worried.
“Let’s face it … Macau is a small city and its government is more like the town council of any moderately large town in other parts of the world, so it is time to strip out all the hype and overblown stories of Macau being a world-class city, as a hub for MICE, or as a truly significant player as a portal between East and West; that is simply noise. Setting aside the casinos and resorts, much of Macau is a grimy, polluted, third-rate, poky, over-populated backwater, and a sense of realism must pervade the chief executive’s pronouncements and actions to improve Macau.” — Prof. Keith Morrison of the Macau University of Science and Technology.
Too many Las Vegas shows are afflicted with a lack of spontaneity (the Celine Dion/Franco Dragone snoozer A New Day was the worst offender in my experience). No such worries where Hooters Casino Hotel headliner 
Dec. 15 is the Cosmopolitan‘s date with destiny. That’s when it begins rolling out its room inventory and casino product. That doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? It’s hard to get worked up about a place so grammatically challenged it invites us to come and 
First, the good news. After going null for two with Paul Rodriguez (PR nightmare) and Wayne Newton (
It’s no joke. The ex-veep is 
“You say you’re honoring the chips? I say honor the employees.” — unidentified, unemployed President Casino worker, one of several accusing Pinnacle Entertainment of leaving them high and dry. Pinnacle has published a detailed rebuttal of the workers’ accusations.
“People ask me: What are you going to do to develop jobs in our state? Well that’s not my job as a U.S. senator, to bring industry to this state. That’s the lieutenant governor’s job. That’s your state senators and assemblyman’s job. That’s your secretary of state’s job, to make a climate in this state that says, ‘Y’all come.'” — U.S. senate candidate Sharron Angle, -
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