By request …

Posted on June 1, 2009 by David McKee

A reader from the heartland of this great country wanted to know whether LVA HQ provided a good vantage point for a United Way car wash at The Rio last Friday. Since I have but an obstructed view of The Rio, the answer is “no,” I’m afraid, although perhaps Anthony Curtis could see it from his southeast-looking office.

Also, I had business at Scoot City (of which more later), so I wasn’t around for the festivities. However, since Harrah’s Entertainment sent over some snaps, I’ll let you evaluate the event for yourself:

If the United Way raised $1,700-plus at $5 per car wash that means that …

… these seasonally attired young ladies — drawn from the terpsichorean talents of Sapphire — washed a minimum of 340 cars. With results like those, you can’t fault the marketing angle.

Harrah’s giveth and Harrah’s taketh away, especially if you happen to be an 83-year-old porter at Showboat Atlantic City. The 21-year Showboat veteran got eight weeks’ pay and no benefits. Way to reward employee loyalty, Harrah’s! Murray Freedman, God bless him, is fighting back. That’s not how you treat a guy who says he offered to take a pay cut but instead was shown the door, and not nicely.

Here’s hoping the court system shows him more compassion than did his former employer. The casino industry would survive quite nicely without Gary Loveman but of Murray Freedmans there can never be enough. Customer service is the industry’s bedrock and Freedman’s work ethic is an example to us all.

Posted in Atlantic City, Charity, Harrah's, Labor, The Strip | Comments Off on By request …

Super-screwed at Santana

Posted on June 1, 2009 by David McKee

Morgans' gradual obliteration of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino continues apace, in this February photo. Actually, this was one of the few flattering angles to be found.

Ever since Morgans Hotel Group plunged into the Las Vegas market, first with Echelon and then the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, it's been in over its head. Latest case in point: trying to run an ostensibly major concert venue like it's the Suncoast showroom.

Based on what we encountered during Saturday night's attempt to see Supernatural Santana, if you're planning to catch a show at The Joint (sorry, "The Rogue Joint"), better get there super-early and pack a picnic lunch, too. At 15 minutes to curtain time, lines both for ticket purchase and for "Will Call" stretched waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back into the new convention area. An understaffed box office of (by our count) two ticket sellers was clearly inadequate to cope with the turnout. Knowing defeat when we saw it, we took our business over to The Palms.

Is anybody else fed up with Morgans' make-it-up-as-you-go-along style? Or what about its conversion of the once-elegant HRH into a scrum of buildings that strongly resembles an office park with some light-industrial facilities out front on Paradise? No? Just me? OK.

Speaking of The Palms, the place was crawling with customers, as always — including a septet of German lager louts (but that's another story). So who does Station Casinos CEO Frank Fertitta III think he's kidding when he writes off the value of Station's minority stake in George Maloof's place?

Maloof takes offense at this diss of his property and rightly so. Fertitta grossly overvalued Station when he took it private and now looks like he's "stashing" some of that excess valuation via this Palms writedown. As feats of ledger-demain go, this one wouldn't even make it as an afternoon magic act at the Greek Isles.

Posted in Architecture, Entertainment, George Maloof, Morgans Hotel Group, Station Casinos | Comments Off on Super-screwed at Santana

Macao: Genting in, MGM out?

Posted on May 29, 2009 by David McKee

I’ve speculated elsewhere — I believe it was on the TwoWayHardThree forum — that Genting Bhd might be a logical, even inevitable successor, should MGM Mirage bail out of Macao. Seems that while I was laid up, news surfaced that Genting insiders are selling shares and rolling up a $425 million nest egg. They’ve also snapped up $100 million in secured MGM Mirage notes.

MGM Grand Macao co-owner Pansy Ho‘s dad, Stanley Ho, has played footsie with Genting in the past — something the Singaporean government frowned upon fiercely. Hence the delicate footwork that key Genting players will have to execute if they’re to convince Singapore (where Genting is building a multi-billion-dollar resort) that there’s more than an arm’s length between any potential dealings with the Ho family and Genting’s investments on Sentosa Island.

That’ll be a difficult minuet to dance but for what’s been called “the golden ticket” — entry to Macao — Malaysian investors would surely find it worth twirling an ankle or two. Unless Boyd Gaming has waived its right of first refusal on Borgata, this sudden accumulation of Malaysian cash can have one purpose only.

Posted in Atlantic City, Boyd Gaming, International, Macau, MGM Mirage, Singapore, Stanley Ho | Comments Off on Macao: Genting in, MGM out?

Station: Unleash the hounds!

Posted on May 28, 2009 by David McKee

So Station Casinos is kicking the tires of dog-racing tracks in Massachusetts (as is Boyd Gaming)? Greyhound races will soon — but not soon enough — be illegal in Massachusetts, although the Bay State Lege just gave them a two-year reprieve. So it's a life-or-death priority for those tracks that lawmakers baptize some racinos in Massachusetts, stat.

Boyd, at least, has access to the requisite financing. But what's Station doing poking around the Eastern Seaboard? There are two ways of looking at it. One: How can Station justify spending money in Massachusetts when it can't afford to make its existing creditors whole? Or: Station's Vegas-centric business model has contributed to the deep hole in which the company finds itself and any geographic diversification is welcome.

That's not to imply that one perspective cancels out the other, especially when Station needs every revenue stream it can tap …

Posted in Boyd Gaming, Economy, Massachusetts, Station Casinos | Comments Off on Station: Unleash the hounds!

Pansy Ho: time for Plan C

Posted on May 22, 2009 by David McKee

In my usual cart-first, horse-later fashion, I elicited a legal opinion regarding the scenario I postulated the other night: MGM Mirage spinning off either its Atlantic City holdings or MGM Grand Macau into a quasi-autonomous entity, much as Sheldon Adelson proposes to do with his Macao properties.

Well, unless Pansy Ho can sit down with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and charm them into turning a blind eye to the penumbra of unsavoriness that surrounds her father, Stanley Ho, MGM is up against a wall. It could put MGM Grand Macau into a limited partnership in which it would have equity but no power.

Did MGM spend so much time and money getting into Macao just so it could be a passive investor? Probably not. So either MGM has to scrape together the cash to buy out the Ho family or Pansy and her sister can exercise their right of first refusal on the property.

Likewise, Boyd Gaming holds the prerogative of acquiring MGM's Borgata share, but of all the possible scenarios on deck, that appears the most unlikely. Here's why:

Borgata represents no ongoing cost to MGM. It can sit back and collect 50% of the profits in perpetuity, while Boyd does the heavy lifting. In Macao, not only does MGM have to run the place, it's in a market with narrower profit margins, thanks to a confiscatory tax rate and the commissions charged by junket operators — to say nothing of the draconian meddling of the Chinese government. And if it's relying solely on mass-market play, it's not enough to get MGM out of single-digit market share.

MGM took too long and spent too much getting into Macao to be happy with being stuck in sixth place among operators. If it's going to have to amputate a limb, losing Macao may be the less painful cut.

It could also be the more lucrative one because, even in a down market, Macao has two very price-boosting qualities: a finite number of casino concessions and a comparable limitation on casino-zoned land. Neither freeze is likely to thaw anytime soon.

Macao is still a seller's market. But if Boyd were to decline its option on MGM's half of Borgata, other suitors are going to be very hard to find. Nobody wants in on Revel or Bader Field and the Tropicana is essentially being given away. The accomplished Ms. Ho could still pull MGM's chestnuts out of the fire but if she can't, her family could wind up with 2.5 of the six casino concessions in Macao.*

* — slightly more, actually, as James Packer's stake in Melco Crown Entertainment is exceeded by that of Lawrence Ho.

Posted in Atlantic City, Boyd Gaming, Carl Icahn, James Packer, Lawrence Ho, Macau, Melco Crown Entertainment, MGM Mirage, Regulation, Sheldon Adelson, Stanley Ho, Taxes | Comments Off on Pansy Ho: time for Plan C

Under Attack II

Posted on May 22, 2009 by David McKee

Aside from being the title of ABBA's final single (and lamest music video), it's also the status of our Web site. Which means precious little blogorrhea, I fear. In the interim, experience an absolutely mind-boggling interview with Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman, then take a sanity break with this:

Since the music video (one of the few not directed by Lasse Hallstrom) is such a non-event, I opted instead for ABBA's last-ever appearance in Germany, an emotional occasion where the audience swarmed the stage during the final credit roll.

Posted in ABBA, Entertainment, Harrah's, Technology | Comments Off on Under Attack II

Slots A Fun defeats Donald Trump

Posted on May 22, 2009 by David McKee

I'm not sure if you can see the "unique page views" counter on this blog or not but, as of Friday afternoon, people prefer to read about Slots A Fun than about the bizarre reasoning patterns of one Donald J. Trump, 208 to 148. If that were an election, Trump would be losing by a double-digit margin. It's Slots A Fun in a landslide!

It's worse still if you're CityCenter's Aria and Vdara hotels because you're getting crushed — crushed! — by the Cabana Suites at the El Cortez. By an over two-to-one margin (1,537 vs. 755) people would rather look at hotel-room photos of "the El."

It gets better. In his Los Angeles Times blog, Richard Abowitz pronounces the Cabana Suites, "the nicest rooms in downtown Vegas, even nicer than the ones I've seen at the Golden Nugget … a new alternative that allows you to see the the dirty urban origins of Vegas without having to take a cut in the contemporary Vegas luxury experience."

Somebody better hide that copy from tempestuous Nugget owner Tilman Fertitta. He's not going to "friend" Abowitz after he reads it.

Posted in Donald Trump, Downtown, The Strip, Tilman Fertitta | Comments Off on Slots A Fun defeats Donald Trump

Oscar Goodman, Voice of Reason

Posted on May 21, 2009 by David McKee

Even as MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren and Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin are preparing to stomp out any incipient recovery in Las Vegas by jacking up room rates, words of restraint are coming from the unlikeliest of sources: Mayor Oscar Goodman. Quoth Hizzoner: "There are a lot of people [here] now; I understand they may not be spending as much as they have in the past."

(And if Ruffin really doesn't want $50/night customers, as he's said, I can inform him that Harrah's Las Vegas would be very happy to take them off his hands this very evening. As for Columbia Sussex's Westin Casuarina, those guys are living in a f***ing dream world, demanding $109 for a room on a night when I can get one at Caesars Palace for but a dollar more. Hmmmm … Westin Casuarina, Caesars Palace … Casuarina, Caesars … such a tough choice.)

Goodman was counseling moderation in the context of praising what he called "very conservative" projections by the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. The recent double-whammy of low occupancies and ADRs obviously sucks, but if occupancy truly is beginning to ramp back up, there'd be no better way to nip that in the bud than by repricing as though a full-blown recovery were underway.

As for the LVCVA, it sure didn't waste any time ditching the "bargain destination" message in favor of the same old "Party like it's 2006" crap. Do you get the feeling that selling a message of affordability really chaps the LVCVA's ass? (That band of brothers and sisters from Cranfils Gap, Tex., seems to have done a quick disappearing act. Anybody seen them lately?)

The indiscreet charm of the douchebagerie appears more to the LVCVA's liking. According the authority's guru-on-retainer, Billy Vassiliadias, customers seek "some comfort that this is the Vegas they've always known and loved." You mean that high-end-centric, $500-for-a-bottle-of-Absolut-and-some-cranberry-juice Vegas? Yeah, that's the ticket.

Goodman gets it. Too bad Vassiliadias apparently doesn't.

Posted in Columbia Sussex, Economy, Harrah's, LVCVA, Marketing, MGM Mirage, Phil Ruffin, The Strip | Comments Off on Oscar Goodman, Voice of Reason

Quote of the Day

Posted on May 21, 2009 by David McKee

A certain casino.

"The old timers will remember the time, and not that long ago, when casinos just looked at your action and rewarded you accordingly. They figured everyone wins at least part of the time, and they knew that if they cultivated the customer and encouraged him to continue to play, they would usually still make money on him in the long term. Bean counters are big on looking at the short term!" — Jean "Queen of Comps" Scott on certain casinos that are sweating slot-club points and bounce back something fierce.

Posted in Boyd Gaming, Economy, Morgans Hotel Group, Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn | Comments Off on Quote of the Day

"Fixations"

Posted on May 21, 2009 by David McKee

No, Guy Laliberté is not prancing around our offices in cap and bells, reducing staffers to helpless laughter with declarations of, "Criss Angel is not a magician … he is an artist!"

Instead, cyber-gremblins have rendered our Web operations FUBAR — as you have undoubtedly discovered already. This necessitates a temporary suspension of S&G operations. Among the items trapped momentarily in Limbo is an explanation of why it looks more and more like MGM Mirage will have to evacuate Macao … plus early dispatches from the front lines of The Lion King.

However … a few S&G tweaks have been performed, including a direct link to the article that inspired "Inside the Mind of Trump." It's a wild ride inside the Trumpian psyche.

I'll catch you on the flip.

Posted in Cirque du Soleil, Donald Trump, Entertainment, Macau, MGM Mirage, Technology | Comments Off on "Fixations"

Surrender in Atlantic City?

Posted on May 20, 2009 by David McKee

Yesterday, I mis-reported New Jersey state Sen. James Whelan's proposal for downsizing the state's regulatory apparatus. He didn't call for elimination of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in favor of the Division of Gaming Enforcement, merely an unspecified removal of what he perceives as a redundancy.

(Such are the perils of working from memory. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.)

Today's paper has a longer clarification of Whelan's position. He'd like to see a DGE/NJCCC merger, although Gov. Jon Corzine sounds strongly resistant to that and other aspects of Whelan's plan. And, after hearing for years that one of Atlantic City's problems is that it has too few hotel rooms to be destination resort, it's quite a turnaround to hear Whelan advocate a 200-room minimum (like Nevada's), a 150% 60% reduction from the current mandate.

What's certain to paint a target on Whelan's back is his endorsement of aggressive employment of eminent domain to clear out distressed properties and encourage development. That's a real sore point in Atlantic City, where Donald Trump once tried to use eminent domain to push an elderly woman out of her home. (He lost.) Also, imagine how confrontational matters might have become if Pinnacle Entertainment had eminent domain in its holster when it was trying to expand its 'sphere of influence' around the old Sands site and was trying to berate the local real estate market into acquiesence.

But … we're talking about a casino market where emergency measures are required. Would the city be using eminent domain to obtain property and then offer it around? Or would the city be taking sides, using eminent domain to pressure Citizen X on behalf of Casino Z? As craptastic an idea as eminent domain is, generally speaking, it's a good thing Whelan's put it into play, because this looks like a debate that has to be conducted as Atlantic City decides what its future is going to resemble.

However, Penn National Gaming COO Timothy Wilmott is welcome to put a sock in it, at least as regards his own aggressive eminent-domain advocacy. Penn has basically given Atlantic City the finger, bypassing several opportunities to get into the market, so who cares what its braintrust thinks? I dare them to operate there. I double dare them!

Aw hell, I dare them to do anything besides sit on their $1.5 billion hoard of gold and bemoan the fact that they can't obtain Tiffany properties at Walmart prices. Wilmott probably didn't mean to come off sounding like, "Kick some old folks and small businesses out and maybe we'll build something," but Penn needs to clearly state its intentions in re Atlantic City and stop playing subtextual footsie. Otherwise, any further discussion is meaningless.

But the Missing the Boat Award goes to Casino Reinvestment Development Authority boss Thomas D. Carver. OK, he's probably right when he says, "I don’t think we’re going to see $2.5 billion casinos anymore." The market's not going to support and, at those prices, you're not building for the ROI but the bragging rights.

But then we get: "We may see $400 million facilities."

No, no, no, no, no! Four hundred million smackeroos is roughly half — I repeat, half — the budget for a Pennsylvania slot parlor. It's a locals-casino budget … and not a top-of-the-line locals place, either. Maybe some of those creaky old monoliths along the Boardwalk need to go away but replacing them with a bunch of Aliante Stations is likely to hasten Atlantic City's decline.

What do the city's three top performers — Borgata, Harrah's Marina and Trump Taj Mahal — have in common? Significant capital reinvestment, that's what. The numbers do not lie: Customers are not flocking to the places that are run on the cheap. If Carver's line of thinking gains currency, Atlantic City can forget about competing with Pennsylvania and just run up the white flag. What he advocates is tantamount to unilateral disarmament.

Posted in Atlantic City, Boyd Gaming, Colony Capital, Donald Trump, Economy, Harrah's, Penn National, Pennsylvania, Politics, Regulation, Station Casinos | Comments Off on Surrender in Atlantic City?

Solving the Pansy Problem

Posted on May 20, 2009 by David McKee

Amidst today's crush of news, I forgot at least one other potential solution to l'affaire Pansy. Perhaps MGM Mirage can have its cake and eat it as well, by taking a page from Sheldon Adelson's playbook. It'd be a transparent move, a change more cosmetic than substantive. But it also might be procedurally deft enough to sidestep a potential head-on collision with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

Were either the company's Macao or Atlantic City assets walled off from everything else stamped "MGM Mirage," it just might do the trick. It's at least worth trying and I'll bet the MGM legal team is burning the midnight oil right this very minute, working on some smooth move of that ilk.

Incidentally, former Atlantic City mayor — and current state senator — James Whelan has proposed removing one step from the Garden State regulatory process. Deeming the Division of Gaming Enforcement and the NJCCC to be redundant, he proposes eliminating the latter. Imagine the alternate reality in which Whelan's proposal had already become policy: Columbia Sussex would still be ensconced at the Tropicana Atlantic City but MGM would be metaphorically packing its bags. That just doesn't sound right.

Posted in Atlantic City, Columbia Sussex, MGM Mirage, Politics, Regulation, Sheldon Adelson, Stanley Ho | Comments Off on Solving the Pansy Problem

The MGM/Pansy Ho verdict: It's in and it's bad

Posted on May 19, 2009 by David McKee

After nearly four years of investigation, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has released its long-awaited “suitability” findings on MGM Mirage joint-venture partner Pansy Ho. As MGM itself reported to the SEC yesterday, “While the report itself is confidential, at the conclusion of the report, the DGE recommended, among other things, that: (i) the Company’s Macau joint venture partner be found to be unsuitable; (ii) the Company be directed to disengage itself from any business association with its Macau joint venture partner; (iii) the Company’s due diligence/compliance efforts be found to be deficient; and (iv) the New Jersey Commission hold a hearing to address the report.”

The grinning ghost of MGM Grand Macau

While the reason for the DGE’s disapproval isn’t given, it’s also not difficult to guess. When someone with the sleazy reputation of Stanley Ho has an interest in your casino — by dint of loans to two of his daughters — a jurisdiction that takes probity as seriously as New Jersey is unlikely to give its benediction.

Slightly further down in its SEC bulletin, MGM offers one of the most Pollyanna-ish statements of recent memory: “The Company does not believe that the report will have a material adverse effect on it.”

Let’s back up a second. The matter of Ms. Ho now goes to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission for adjudication. The NJCCC is not obligated to act on the DGE’s findings. However, the last time it exercised such discretion, it was to override the DGE’s recommended probation for Columbia Sussex in favor of kicking ColSux out of the Garden State forthwith.

So the likelihood is that MGM will be faced with a choice between liquidating its New Jersey holdings or its Macao ones. The latter include a 50% stake in Borgata (and Boyd Gaming can afford to buy its partner out), plus some undeveloped land, which will be a much tougher sell.

As for MGM Grand Macau, it would revert to the Ho family. MGM could still, in all probability, count on an ongoing stream of revenue by leasing out the brand name or even by negotiating a management contract for itself (although management is rumored to have been the casino’s Achilles heel).

Unless the NJCCC grants clemency (in which case, MGM loses face but nothing more, as one analyst puts it), “material adverse effect” is inevitable. But there may be a silver lining for CEO Jim Murren. He was able to get debt-covenant violations waived in return for an accelerated repayment of the company’s whopping debt load. The diñero from a Borgata or MGM Grand Macau sale would come in mighty handy as the company tries to de-leverage itself.

Walking (out) in Memphis. A 21-year veteran of the Harrah’s Entertainment hierarchy resigned last week, another casualty of the company’s downsizing.

And then there were 135. It used to be the execs jumping from the sinking Cosmopolitan ship reached for a lifeline from Fontainebleau. Now they’ll be looking for another rescue vessel. (Hey, the Tropicana may be hiring soon.) A F’bleau spokesman says negotiations with Deutsche Bank are continuing, in a notable ratcheting-down of the bellicose rhetoric that’s been lobbed to and from F’bleau of late.

Heard last night as part of an act at Sin City Comedy, re the Vegas Trop: “A $20 bill and all my teeth — I’m a whale!” Conclusion: Alex Yemenidjian cannot arrive soon enough.

Posted in Atlantic City, Boyd Gaming, Columbia Sussex, Cosmopolitan, Current, Fontainebleau, Harrah's, Macau, MGM Mirage, Planet Hollywood, Regulation, Stanley Ho, The Strip, Tropicana Entertainment, Wall Street | Comments Off on The MGM/Pansy Ho verdict: It's in and it's bad

"Peepshow" buys a clue

Posted on May 18, 2009 by David McKee

"Peepshow" prime donne Kelly Monaco & Mel. B

By now it's old news that Planet Hollywood's new resident spectacle, Peepshow, has gone topless for real. Though some question the move, to me it always seemed retrogressive and counter-intuitive to present a T&A show in contemporary Las Vegas that had scarcely a nipple in sight. That's so 1956.

What's newsworthy is the co-producer's rationalization for not daring to bare: "All of the other shows in this genre play to a smaller house. What we didn't want to do is alienate what could be 50 percent of our audience. We wanted to do a show both men and women are comfortable seeing."

In this context, "smaller" is anything less than 1,400 seats. By that Double-D measurement, Cirque du Soleil's nudity-friendly Zumanity plays to a "smaller" (i.e., 1,256-seat) house, but we're hardly talking Crazy Girls-cozy there, now are we? Jubilee! over at Bally's, seats 1,040. The sight of literally scores of bare breasts hasn't kept that show from racking up a quarter-century run.

If Jubilee! "alienate[s] … 50 percent of [its] audience" — which is very unlikely — it's done no evident harm at the ticket window. (For that matter, I know some women who wouldn't mind seeing Peepshow's Mel B. in her knickers … )

So you have to ask, "What were the Peepshow peeps thinking?" They evidently came in not knowing the market and seem only now to be getting up to speed. Fig-leaf prudishness and the Las Vegas Strip just don't mix.

Posted in Cirque du Soleil, Entertainment, Harrah's, MGM Mirage, Planet Hollywood, Riviera, The Strip | Comments Off on "Peepshow" buys a clue

ColSux makes peace

Posted on May 18, 2009 by David McKee

After sporadically butting heads, Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III and Kentucky preservationists have reached agreement on the immediate future of the old Bavarian Brewery. Yung had bought it and an assortment of nearby properties on the rash presumption that the Bluegrass State would vote in casino gambling and he’d be one of the lucky licensees. He went 0-for-2.

Today’s compromise preserves the most historically significant buildings while giving Yung the green light to demolish everything else. The accord may make it easier to flip the site. It also removes one very contentious issue from the table, should the CEO make another casino push. So it’s a rare win-win for ColSux.

Posted in Architecture, Columbia Sussex, Kentucky | Comments Off on ColSux makes peace

(Slots A) Fun Fact

Posted on May 15, 2009 by David McKee

I've just read that the 2008 cash flow for Slots A Fun, the crown jewel of what used to be Circus Circus Enterprises, was $2.8 million. Which means that current owner MGM Mirage could justify a sale price of $22.5 million-$28 million. (Penn National CEO Peter Carlino, this is your chance!)

Then again, MGM could sell Slots A Fun four times over and probably still not recoup the cost of its Criss Angel vanity project, Believe.

Atlantic City gets a monorail. And other infrastructural-type stuff. That $3.6 billion would probably be better invested into building two or three new casinos, not to mention getting rid of those Colony C(r)apital grind joints.* New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) thinks Atlantic City's recovery is on the way. But as long as the market breaks down — as its revenues do — into Borgata and Everything Else, "recovery" will just be a euphemism for "much slower rate of decline."

* — If banks won't underwrite new development there, why — laws permitting — shouldn't the state? I'm just askin'. The alternative is pretty bleak.

This just in: Yes, TV ads for impotence drugs (think of "Viva Las Vegas" debased to "Viva Viagra"), with their tacky innuendi, are embarrassing (albeit not as much as those for incontenince drugs). But Congress has slightly better things to do that adopt the proposal of Rep. Jim Moron, er, Moran (D-VA) to force them off the air … least not untl it's amended to outlaw any TV programming featuring the bloated visage, voice and ego of failed casino boss Donald Trump. (Sorry; can't link to the Yahoo News video. I tried.)

Posted in Atlantic City, Boyd Gaming, Cirque du Soleil, Colony Capital, Don Barden, Marketing, MGM Mirage, Penn National, Politics, The Strip, Transportation, TV | Comments Off on (Slots A) Fun Fact

Anybody seen my Cirque?

Posted on May 15, 2009 by David McKee

Last night’s media performance of The Lion King, unlike most Vegas media events, drew much of the local “A” list. KNPR-FM’s Dave Berns was there, as was man-of-all-media Steve Friess, along with large contingents from Fox 5 and Stephens Media, in particular, along with archrival Greenspun Media. Lil’ old LVA made the scene, too, and as I entered the Mandalay Bay theater I passed a Quisp-like figure that I swear — swear — was Cirque du Soleil “director of creation” Guy Laliberté.

Eh bien, M. Laliberté? Whatever became of the much-ballyhooed “fixations” to Believe (including as many as five new illusions)? And what’s going on with the Elvis-themed/still deeply-under-wraps/as-yet-untitled show that’s going into Aria in seven months? (My better half thinks it’s a slam-dunk but my firm belief is that trapeze artists, giant babies, and bowler-hatted clowns wearing tutus and spouting fey gibberish, do not mesh with “Satisfy Me.”)

As impressive as it is in terms of physical spectacle, The Lion King is actually modest compared to the high-tech accoutrements of which Cirque is fond. Imagine had Laliberté been given his wish to simultaneously mount new shows at M’Bay and Aria, while ‘fixating’ Believe. It’d be a back-breaking folly akin to City Center itself, spiced with copious utterances of “Merde!”

As for The Lion King, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until next Thursday’s CityLife to learn whether I could feel the love last night.

Posted in Cirque du Soleil, Entertainment, MGM Mirage, The Strip | Comments Off on Anybody seen my Cirque?

"Another one bites the dust"

Posted on May 15, 2009 by David McKee

That’s how a reader informed me of Las Vegas-based Golden Gaming‘s decision to bail on Wyandotte County in Kansas. Considering that you’ve got Harrah’s Entertainment, Ameristar Casinos, etc. firmly entrenched across the state line in Kansas City, Mo., and Isle of Capri making a comeback over there, I don’t blame Golden for its hesitation.

Penn National remains in the Wyandotte running but it found no support for its last bid and previous winner Cordish Co. withdrew amicably from its Kansas Speedway project so that it could be downsized. Casino-enabling legislation in the Sunflower State didn’t allow Cordish to revise its proposal once it had been accepted by the Lottery Board. But Cordish promised it would be back, and it was.

Lottery Executive Director Ed Van Petten told media Golden wanted to conserve its assets, adding, “They are being conservative and playing it smart. I hate to see it, but I fully understand.” Golden executive veep Rod Atamain‘s diplomatically phrased withdrawal alluded to preserving liquidity, among other motives:

“While we believe in the long-term viability and appeal of our site and project, we are not confident in making such a commitment on our own in the current environment.” That’s tantamount to an admission that Golden couldn’t find lenders, especially considering Atamain’s previous reference to “ongoing turmoil in the financial markets.”

It would have been a tough call for Kansas. The Cordish and Golden projects were comparable in budget ($700 million vs. $662 million). As appealing as a Tom Watson golf course might be, Cordish’s promise of a 50% larger slot base than Golden’s would have been sweet music to state officials weathering a deep recession and counting the gambling receipts before even one handle is pulled.

In the meantime, Golden still has that liquidity it wants to preserve — and its cash flow will improve this summer as liberalized casino rules in Colorado (Golden’s primary market) take effect. It could always spend some of that dough close to home: Golden CEO Blake Sartini is the brother-in-law of Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta. What are the odds the Fertitta clan might try to spin off assets to Golden? It would enable Station Casinos to sweeten the offer it’s making to bondholders and keep Boyd Gaming at bay, all in one fell swoop.

Just a thought.

Posted in Ameristar, Boyd Gaming, Cordish Co., Current, Economy, Golden Gaming, Harrah's, Isle of Capri, Kansas, Penn National, Regulation, Station Casinos, Wall Street | Comments Off on "Another one bites the dust"

Perp Show

Posted on May 14, 2009 by David McKee

If you're bald, weight 285 lbs. and have one arm in a cast, you're not exactly inconspicuous. So how was it that that such a hefty man was to infiltrate a VIP area of Planet Hollywood and bust into Peepshow headliner Kelly Monaco's suite? It gets weirder: Merrill Wetter was a long-term denizen of Planet Ho and had been 86'd last month for following a money cart around. And yet his reappearance on the 50th floor didn't raise any alarms, literally or otherwise. This new information suggests a serious lapse of security at Planet Ho, something that the Nevada Gaming Control Board might want to investigate.

April in Atlantic City. The numbers are out and they suck. Again. Unless you're Borgata, which was basically flat with April '08 — a veritable triumph in this context. The Showboat didn't do too badly (-7%), pushing ahead of the larger Tropicana Atlantic City (-21%). However, another Harrah's Entertainment property, Bally's Atlantic City is way off last year's pace (-19% YTD) and risks joining the Dead Man Walking quartet of Trump Marina, Trump Plaza, the Hilton and Resorts.

The partial reinvention of Trump Taj Mahal continues to pay off, with gaming win down less than 1% through the first four months of the year. Don't you wish we had this kind of reporting transparency in Nevada?

Reid's smooth ride: Would-be GOP challengers to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) are not only thin on the ground they're probably hearing casino-industry check books slam shut after the Senate Majority Leader jawboned banks on behalf of CityCenter and Fontainebleau. (It was a futile effort but, at this particular moment, that says more about the lending-averse banking industry than Reid.)

Party leaders say a "highly motivated" "strong GOP challenger" is out there and will emerge … in five months or so. The only person shaking the money tree so far is former state legislator Sharron Angle. She'd rough Reid up, to be sure, but has an Achilles heel or two. To date she's been a single-plank candidate — property taxes; not what you'd call a senatorial issue. Also, state GOP chairwoman Sue Lowden doesn't want a divisive primary … and Angle was very divisive when she ran against Dean Heller (R-NV) three years ago for the congressional seat Heller now holds. She even tried to have the primary results overturned in court. But for now she's the only game in town.

Double duty: For the unforeseen future, I'll be spelling the estimable Dave Surratt as CityLife's theatre critic. First up is a show directed by Zumanity emcee Christopher Kenney. Called The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode it's … it's … well, it's different.

Posted in Atlantic City, Boyd Gaming, Cirque du Soleil, Colony Capital, Current, Donald Trump, Economy, Election, Entertainment, Fontainebleau, Harrah's, MGM Mirage, Planet Hollywood, Politics, Regulation, Taxes, The Strip, Tropicana Entertainment | Comments Off on Perp Show

F'blown?

Posted on May 13, 2009 by David McKee

Ownership at Fontainebleau is alleging heinous doings by Deutsche Bank to subvert F'bleau (which gives every indication of being destined to fail without external assistance). Supposedly, Deutsche Bank was confabulating with a consortium of 10 other banks to shove F'bleau under the bus, in order to improve the chances of The Cosmopolitan. Deutsche Bank is the default owner of the Cosmo, developer Ian Bruce Eichner having proven illiquid.

Now, I love a good conspiracy theory as much or more than the next man but, absent hard evidence, I'm finding F'bleau's allegations a tad lurid even for my taste. Besides, Deutsche Bank's share of the $770 million in funding that got yanked out from under F'bleau — a deplorable move, but for other reasons, IMO — is only $80 million. That's chump change compared to the $3.9 billion Cosmo albatross around the bank's neck.

In the immortal words of Dr. Daniel Jackson, "Anyway, I'm sorry, but that just happens to be how I feel about it. What do you think?"

Ya think? Here's one for the "No shit, Sherlock" file. Enjoy.

Posted in Cosmopolitan, Economy, Fontainebleau, MGM Mirage, The Strip, Wall Street | Comments Off on F'blown?