"Forget the Cirque du Soleil show Zaia, which was quite good but played in a theater that was approximately 30 percent full on a Thursday night. And forget those poor saps trying to sell one high-end watch per day. As long as those tables remain full, which they generally are in the world's largest casino, it would be inaccurate to describe business in Macau as truly slow." — AGEM Executive Director Marcus Prater, in the new issue of Casino Executive Management.
If you notice an attenuation in the S&G blogorrhea, it's because I'm taking a view days to visit terra incognita: the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I'll be spending an extended weekend in the bucolic environs of the greater Marquette area. And, if I start to climb the walls, I might even poke my snout into the nearest tribal casino.
I'll be in a neck of the woods that doesn't have cable TV, which will provide needed respite from the two most tiresome "news" obsessions of the moment: anything and everything related to Michael Jackson, and the hidden meaning in the convoluted locutions of Sarah Palin. Whatever her virtues, the Great Communicator she ain't. (For unimprovable concision, my favorite American president is Calvin Coolidge, he who said, "The business of America is business." A political philosophy in six words. Hard to beat.)
City slicker that I am, I'm sure I'll stick out like a sore thumb in towns like Ishpeming. Sort of like a dog nursing a cocktail …
So whose leg do I have to hump to get a dry martini up there?
… not in Station Casinos but in Orange County real estate, it would seem. The neighborhood is popular with casino moguls who have run their companies into the ground: A nearby, $35 million crib is a domain whose master is Jerry Herbst, late of Herbst Gaming, recently surrendered to its creditors.
At least Frank J. Fertitta III can argue that he was bargain-shopping, as his Emerald Beach pied-a-terre was purchased for 24% off list price. Station employees, however, aren’t likely to be house-hunting anytime soom.
I’m reminded of something Transport Workers Union representative Joe Carbon said last week: “That’s what it’s about … the CEOs making their $25 million and the workers having their health plan cut.” He wasn’t speaking of Station or Herbst specifically but the consequences of poor leadership at both redound primarily to the workforce — and the creditors.
The Moulin Rouge development that will never be.
Oh dear, oh dear. Seems like the City of Las Vegas unwittingly obstructed its own arson probe into the demise of the Moulin Rouge when it allowed the property to be immediately demolished. Sloppily, the actual tearing-down was farmed out to the property’s former owners, who happened to have a demolition contractor on site during the blaze.
The fire’s cause remains speculative and no finding of arson has been made — and now perhaps never will. But the city’s decision not only looks overhasty, it was (at the very least) cavalier to entrust it to dispossessed Moulin Rouge Development Corp. and not new owner Olympic Coast Development. The latter’s prexy, John Hoss, told the Las Vegas Sun he found the chain of events “a little odd” and “a weird coincidence.” Since Hoss is only trying to corral a $100,000 insurance claim, the city could get stuck with an asbestos-removal tab as high as $1.1 million.
Can they screw this up any further? Is the Pope Catholic?
F’bleau-minus. The bankrupt resort’s developer, Jeffrey Soffer, proposes some unspecified corner-cutting to get the project back on budget. (“On budget” being a very relative term where Fontainebleau is concerned.) Combine this with the allegedly secret “Enhanced” costs for F’bleau’s highly touted amenities and the moral of the story is that what you see on the Web site or in the design renderings has a tenuous relationship to what you’ll actually get.
At least Soffer is offering to chip in some equity, unlike former investor James Packer, who scuttled away from F’bleau the moment the chips were down.
Gator on the loose. One of Las Vegas’ larger parks got a lot more interesting yesterday when a 42-inch-long alligator turned up. Instead of entrusting the spunky fellow to a local zoo or perhaps one of our local casino-based wildlife habitats, the Wildlife Dept. killed him. Bastards. I hope they never get their mitts on our beloved Mojo …
Mojo, the monarch of Huntington Press.
Speaking of James Packer … griefs are arriving in battalions (thanks, Mr. Shakespeare) for City of Dreams. In terms of mass-market business, Venetian Macao is eating City of Dreams’ lunch. “Despite 41,000 people walking through City of Dreams every day since it opened in the first week of June, most of the visitors were just admiring the decor instead of sitting down at its tables for a game of baccarat,” reports The Age.
Not only is one analyst projecting a 15% earnings shortfall for Melco Crown Entertainment, another has tripled his loss-per-share projection. J.P. Morgan is also revising its 2010 cash-flow projections on the $2.1 billion megaresort to 13% ROI, down from 17%. (That’s still a better return on investment than you can get on the Las Vegas Strip.)
Did Steve Wynn take Packer to the cleaners when sold him 37% of a casino concession for $1 billion? Wynn had a chance to size up Packer and deemed him not yet ready for the big leagues. Score another one for El Steve.
Some rueful condo buyers are probably calling MGM Mirage‘s ultra-mega-super-duper resort “ShittyCenter,” judging by their ire. It’s difficult to know with whom to sympathize in this ongoing dispute. Condo depositors want to renegotiate prices (which range all the way up to $9.4 million/unit) while MGM — though not unsympathetic — maintains buyers got a special deal going in and therefore have relatively little cause for complaint.
Good luck trying to renegotiate the price of that Saturn on which you just made a downpayment. MGM needs those condo purchases if CityCenter is to remain in balance (look what happened to Fontainebleau, which has sold nary a timeshare). And it really can’t afford to start refunding some of that $313 million that depositors have already placed in the kitty.
However … there might be a pragmatic argument to be made for Continue reading
I call your bluff, comrade. As you may have heard, casinos in Russia can stay open by converting to poker rooms. A tip of the fedora goes to reader mike_ch for pointing out this story, which delineates some of the pros and cons. In Vegas, even the strongest poker rooms don’t generate nearly the body count that table games and slots do. But Russian casinos are much smaller and at least a few might be able to hang on, depending on the size of the rake.
It’s mighty big of the Kremlin, by the way, to concede that poker is a sport, not a game of chance. Now if only Uncle Sam would do the same …
Rescue the Riv! Random observation from driving down Las Vegas Boulevard last night: The Riviera suddenly looks so much better and more classic when juxtaposed with the incredible bulk that is Fontainebleau. Land values have fallen, RIV stock is worthless and the property itself provides ready access to the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Time, methinks, for Penn National to get off its duff and make an offer … unless Penn CEO Peter Carlino is waiting for the Riviera to go into bankruptcy, so he can pluck the carcass at auction. Then again, if Carlino really thinks that Planet Hollywood and some or all of Station Casinos are low-hanging fruit, who am I to second-guess him?
Who’s the dummy? The purpose of our excursion was to attend an incredibly pointless media event at Madame Tussauds at The Venetian. If there was a point, it was so that the assembled media hordes would serve as extras for yet another episode of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List. A waxwork of Ms. Griffin was being unveiled and suffice it to say that Wax!Griffin looks far better than Real!Griffin. (I must be Officially Jaded, for I scarcely gave the comedienne a second glance.) The various and sundry female impersonators on hand — led by Frank Marino — had clearly taken greater care of their appearances than Griffin had of hers. There was, in fact, just about every stripe of LGBT humanity on hand last night, so it was almost more Rainbow Coalition than media event.
What excitement there was went on outside, where a smallish crowd surrounded the Michael Jackson statue. Tributes were in evidence but everything was tasteful and no hysteria was to be seen. As for Mme. Tussauds itself, I’ve been to the original one in London, and I recall its wax figures as being more believable and the setting itself as more atmospheric (especially the tableaux of infamous British homicides and regicides) … but that was 35 years ago this month.
Give Vegas Tussauds props for having a Joan Rivers dummy who looks more animated than her real-life counterpart, as seen on the NBC sitcom Celebrity Apprentice. All that’s missing is to give the waxwork Rivers a voice box that periodically squawks, “A pokuh playah! A pokuh playah!” Still, we easily spent more time checking out the doodads and gizmos in Brookstone than we did in the wax museum.
News reports are at sixes and sevens of just how much of the Tropicana Las Vegas is now owned by Onex Corp. For instance, Bloomberg states that Onex's stake represents 60% of the $440 million owed on the property (or would that be 60% of a theoretical $733 million/$21.5 million per acre?), while the Calgary Herald confusingly spreads Onex's $440 million — or would that be $264 million? — commitment between the Vegas and non-Vegas holdings of Tropicana Entertainment.
The Herald, in an obvious boo-boo, mis-reports that TropEnt was split into Atlantic City and non-A.C. halves. Seriously, once the new LV Trop administration starts taking reporters' calls, could somebody straighten out if Onex's commitment is $440 million, six-tenths of that or some more-confusing permutation altogether? The dueling numbers are starting to make my head spin.
The Calgary paper, though, discover the interesting wrinkle that TropEnt CEO Scott Butera is trying to make off with the Vegas Trop name and lease it back to Onex at $10 million a year. Clever, yes. And, if the courts allow it, Butera's got Onex over a barrel because relaunching old properties with new names has been a losing proposition in Las Vegas. Bereft of its name, the Trop could easily become a big-ass Hooters Hotel.
Amidst this turmoil, Alex Yemenidjian has taken the reins at the Trop with an emphasis on customer service. (Interestingly, if you read the non-R-J coverage, Onex has partly reneged on its capex commitments, rolling back a $100 million reinvestment to $75 million.) The proposed South Beach retheming will have to be done in stages but, hey, that's the way they used to do it.
One need only look at the corpse of the Lady Luck or the gravesite of the Stardust to see the perils of a do-it-all-at-once makeover. And it beats the heck out of Butera's 2014-2016 timeline for even beginning work. While Butera may have been an improvement on Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III, his diffident attitude toward the LV Trop will probably leave few regretting his departure.
It may be monsoon season in Las Vegas but there’s a typhoon blowing through Macao‘s casino economy. A series of bulletins from J.P. Morgan outline a worrisome trajectory for China‘s gambling enclave.
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City of Dreams: a flop
June 23: The South China Morning Post reports service cutbacks in Macanese air traffic during January-March. Low-cost carrier Air Asia held steady, but China Eastern Airline scrapped all flights, Xiamen Airline slashed service by 59%, followed by Malaysia Airlines (-38%). Single-digit declines were noted at Air Macau (-9%) and Viva Macau (-4%). Although recently de-licensed carrier East Star had been shedding flights (-40%), competitors did not appear to be moving to fill the void.
June 24: Macao’s Special Administrative Region Statistics & Census Service reports a 20% visitation decline in May, to 1.6 million tourists. Of those, fewer than half were from the mainland (-27%) and 55% were day-trippers. Only 13% are coming from outside Hong Kong, Taiwan or the mainland.
July 1: News agency Lusa has preliminary revenue numbers for June (the first month for City of Dreams) and the comparisons, by Macao standards, are terrible: -17%, for $1.05 billion. So far, the casinos are tracking ahead of the government’s revenue projections — which were pretty dire ($892K/month) already.
There’s a silver lining for Sheldon Adelson, whose Sands Macao and Venetian Macao rebounded, running Stanley Ho‘s myriad casinos a close second in market share, 26% to 30%. Wynn Macau fell toward the pack, which was as follows: Wynn 14% (a humiliating setback; it had been only three points behind Las Vegas Sands in May), Galaxy 12%, Melco Crown International down a point to 9%, and MGM Mirage bringing up the rear, as always, with 8%.
Sands Macao: Adelson’s best-ever investment
Buoyed by Sands’ Macao numbers, Morgan analysts are bullish on Adelson, mainly because of “reasonable near-term and achievable expectations for its LV Strip properties and our belief that its LV properties are outperforming its peers.” Just when you think Sheldon’s painted himself into a corner, he seems to find a means of escape … which may be why some of us were less skeptical of the financial hurdles facing Sands Bethlehem and the Cotai Strip™ than we should have been.
There seems to be a school of belief that if one keeps saying that visa restrictions from mainland China to Macao are about to be relaxed, it will miraculously happen. Not if Peking muckety-mucks keep seeing headlines. More to the point, bailout money that was intended to induce Chinese banks into writing more loans, thereby stimulating production, is flowing to the casino tables instead. That’s a scenario highly reminiscent of the circumstances that led Peking to crack down on Macanese traffic several times already.
Harrah’s Entertainment is poking its snout into the prospect of obtaining a management contract at bankrupt Twin River Casino, a dog track with VLTs in Rhode Island. The paraphrase of the explanation given by Harrah’s senior veep Jan Jones seems fairly counterintuitive: “the state might be motivated now to give the company a shot because Massachusetts was on the brink of legalizing casinos.”
OK, so Massachusetts is likely to legalize casinos, which makes this the perfect time to expand into … Rhode Island? With its 60% tax rate? The part of Jones’ explanation that makes more sense is that Harrah’s would be able to tap into its New England base of Total Rewards players much closer to home (the nearest Harrah’s outposts being Chester, Pa., and Atlantic City).
This could all be moot if the R.I. Lege scuppers a gubernatorial compromise that would can the dog racing and keep the casino open ’round the clock. Greyhound racing is a sport that really needs to be put out to pasture. Besides, it’s only in place at Twin River because of a Byzantine legislative arrangement that Steve Friess rightly calls “a very weird deal,” much of which involves propping up the dog-race union. (I never knew there was such a thing, but there is.)
So it’s a win-win, right? A corporate savior for Twin Rivers and no more suffering doggies, yes? Well … no, not if you’re a nearby homeowner like Hal Perry, whose semi-rural lifestyle has been impinged upon by creeping incrementalism at Twin Rivers. Rather than lower the usurious tax rate, the state (which is seriously hooked on VLT revenue) simply keeps moving the goal posts — longer hours, more machines.
Here comes Harrah’s and, if you’re a Twin Rivers neighbor worried about your property value, the noises are ominous indeed. As Jones tells Friess, “you couldn’t build a hotel right now … So all of this is a process. But it’s the beginning of the process and the point is that it’s an excellent opportunity.”
“Right now … process … beginning.” In other words, Mr. Perry: Sell! Sell now! Get out before Harrah’s drives you out.
Harrah’s wins one. Sort of by default, but a win is a win. Dissident bondholders S. Blake Murchison and Willis Shaw had a shyster for an attorney. Case dismissed. Clearly, their due diligence with regard to lawyers was even worse than that they displayed as investors.
Gunshot? What gunshot? Although the Las Vegas Hilton was able to keep an on-property suicide out of the local papers, the news eventually surfaced via the Louisville Courier-Journal.
“The opening date never moved. We always threw more money at it. You just have people work overtime to fix problems. We were building, redesigning, tearing stuff out and starting again.” — Fontainebleau engineer, explaining how the project (which is at least 90% over budget) progressed in Keystone Kops, higgelty-piggelty fashion. Amazingly, not only is this common practice but F'bleau still isn't completely designed.
After conservator Justice Gary Stein turned his trusteeship of the Tropicana Atlantic City into a $7.4 million gravy train, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission is belatedly bolting the barn door. It's going to petition the Lege to limit the ambit of future trustees, none of which would be necessary had the NJCCC not let Stein run amok in the first place.
The failings of his butterfingered stewardship have been rehearsed enough in this space. However, the Press of Atlantic City's story adds yet another incredulity-making touch. Stein, a former member of the New Jersey Supreme Court and with an entire law firm at his command, still had to rely upon legal opinions from the NJCCC's general counsel.
Lower bet limits are no bargain, the Las Vegas Sun finds. The Strip casino that has the stones to go back to 3:2 blackjack will become the hottest spot in town.
Who knew? Seems that Sen. John Ensign's curriculum vitae included a stint at the helm of the Gold Spike, one of downtown Vegas' seamiest casinos. Given the comparable seaminess of Ensign's ongoing scandal, perhaps it was a case of water seeking its own level. Las Vegas Gleaner reader "Goldy" puts the sordid mess in perspective: "… he didn't reveal the affair until the demands from the Hampton's [sic] (including Doug) became 'outragous.' [sic] That implies that prior demands were 'reasonable' and Doug was making them. … he essentially was selling his willing wife, and Ensign was buying, until the number got too high. So, like most things, this entire deal was really just about the number." [emphasis added]
You can take Ensign out of the casino but you just can't take the casino out of Ensign.
A potential tragedy. Several weeks back, the Better Half and I spent a beautiful Sunday in Boulder City. The highlight of our visit was the Boulder Dam Hotel, where we enjoyed a splendid lunch and an eye-opening tour of a museum devoted to the history of Hoover Dam. (Suffice it to say that the people who built it endured privation that 21st century Americans would find unimaginable.) Sadly, we do not have the $60,000 that it's going to take to keep the Boulder Dam Hotel open. Please, philanthropic Nevadans, do not let this treasure go dark like …
Nevada itself. Visitors to Gibbons-era Nevada are likely to find it closed. History? Books? Parks? Them's pansy egghead stuff fer Commie states like Kalifornia, doncha know? Gawta get me some more guns afore Harry Reid repeals the Decoration of Independence or whatever.
Speaking of museums … could the untimely demise of Michael Jackson spell opportunity for mistake-prone Colony Capital? The casino owner has the opportunity to monetize its acquisition of Neverland Ranch as never before. Converting it to a tourist attraction rather than a (misguided?) real estate play seems a no-brainer.
“The opening date never moved. We always threw more money at it. You just have people work overtime to fix problems. We were building, redesigning, tearing stuff out and starting again.” — Fontainebleau engineer, explaining how the project (which is at least 90% over budget) progressed in Keystone Kops, higgelty-piggelty fashion. Amazingly, not only is this common practice but F'bleau still isn't completely designed.
"An improvident indictment." That's what New Jersey officials are calling a case that was quietly quashed in May. Sacked Borgata veep John Conklin and two other men had been charged with plundering the Tropicana Atlantic City's database when they were in the Trop's employ (and when the Trop was still owned by Aztar Corp.).
Closer examination revealed that nothing had been purloined and the data in question was not particularly sensitive, either. All three indictees have been exonerated … but where does John Conklin go to get his career back?
Phantom redux: Defying the odds, the Venetian's production of Phantom of the Opera celebrated its third anniversary Wednesday night. I jotted down a few observations for CityLife. (Tina Walsh fans, take note.) Having seen the Broadway production — albeit many years ago — I'll be the first to allow that it actually improves on the original in a respect or two. Oh, and my CityBlog entry misspells choreographer Gillian Lynne's last name. My apologies.
Two titans of American popular music "played Vegas" last weekend. Actually, Loretta Lynn was in North Las Vegas and Aretha Franklin all the way out in Primm … not remotely near the Strip. What's wrong with this picture? Or this one …
Midnight Jim: taking down Big Oil
It's summer and gas prices are — like, duh! — on the increase. Gov. Jim Gibbons doth suspect that dark, foul, untoward schemes are afoot. But Midnight Jim assures us he is on the case. I feel safer already.
Gay cowboys. They're queer, they're here and they're at The Rio specifically. A straight-gay coalition turned out in force last night to celebrate its victory over Midnight Jim's benighted opposition to domestic partnerships. (Because that's not how he rolls, y'see.) Speakers included Harrah's Entertainment Vice President Jan Jones, who led the charge on Carson City.
For all the failings of CEO Gary Loveman's stewardship of Harrah's, on his watch the company has expanded its already-enlightened attitude on social issues. It's not just a question of being gay-friendly; it's good business.
Worth -$23 million?
Isle of Blight. Is the woebegone Greek Isles casino-hotel worth less than nothing? In a sense, yes, since it owes $67 million on a book value of $44 million. Even a resale price at book value seems wishful thinking, considering the Isles' chequered history.
Asserts the Las Vegas Sun, "With its strategic location near the Las Vegas Strip and the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Greek Isles and its associated real estate are seen as having long-term value after the recession ends."
Yeah, but it's had that "strategic location" for as long as it's been in existence and the Isles' progress has been a steady one from Bad to Worse. I wouldn't give a plug nickel for the place — not with Strip land prices in freefall and vast acreage there lying fallow.
Miracles are possible. Work on Marina Bay Sands is, believe or night, a fortnight ahead of schedule. Next step: Hold the line on that (already swollen) $5.4 billion budget.
The waiting continues in the great state of Kansas. Its lottery commission wants another two months to review applications for the Wichita and Kansas City markets. Considering the recent flurry of dropouts (including Vegas' own Golden Gaming), you'd think this would expedite the process. Instead, the coronation is six months away.
Squeeze play. No time is being wasted as Pennsylvania rushes toward expanding into Class III casinos. Two rival proposals to add table games are presently on the table. Casino lobbyist Steve Rittvo is forwarding a plan that would tax new games at 12%. This is projected to generate $165 million for the Keystone State (assuming that slot play concurrently increases sufficiently to generate a $61 million impost).
House Whip William DeWeese (D) counters with a 21% tax, combined with a one-time $10 million/casino fee, for a potential Year One windfall in excess of $300 million. I wish Rittvo luck but fear that solons will — as they so often do — gravitate toward the bigger dollar sign. It's an institutional failing.
Neil Bluhm, Philadelphia's Sugar[House] daddy
On a happier note, Neil Bluhm's revised design for his Sugarhouse Casino, on the Philadelphia waterfront, has received the green light from the City of Brotherly Love. Barring further legal mischief by sore loser Donald Trump, this means the project can finally move ahead, with a temporary, 1,700-slot casino slated for a Spring 2010 opening. Hallelujah!
Editor’s note: An item involving Crown Ltd. contained factual errors, which have been corrected (as you’ll see). I apologize for the misinformation. My thanks to the reader who pulled my head out of my @$$.
California gamblers stay and play … at home. While the recession has made some inroads on tribal-casino revenue in the Golden State, it’s losing less ground than Las Vegas. Some of those Vegas losses will eventually be recouped, but this day of reckoning was bound to come.
Unlike Las Vegas, which is arguably suffering from having too many competing profit centers within each resort, California casino bosses interviewed still view entertainment as either a loss leader or a one-off. I never thought I’d say this but Las Vegas could use a little more “old school” thinking right now.
James Packer, the guy who can’t catch a break, is finds his casino company in even more hot water, in a case of the sins of the father being visited upon the son. The plot surrounding Crown Ltd.’s courtship of a self-banned high roller (and convicted felon) is thickening considerably. Seems paterfamilias Kerry Packer may have been pressuring crony John Williams to get pathological gambler Harry Kakavas back to the tables.
Williams, for his part, rolled on the late Mr. Packer, who’s now got some ‘splainin’ to do. No wonder the young Packer’s pursuit of Cannery Casino Resorts collapsed like a pup tent. The money quote, if you will, is: “[Williams] said it was common for patrons to rip up [self-exclusion] cards and that, in his view, Mr Kakavas’s loss of $2.3 million in 28 minutes was recreational gambling.”
If you lose $82,000 per minute, it’s not recreation. It’s degenerate gambling.
Globe-trotting Ian Sutton is back from Macao and G2E Asia. The sights! The sounds! The smog!
(Update: Ian says it’s not smog but mist, as forthcoming videos will show.)
Holy Cow II: GlobeSt.com, normally a continent source of business news, is shocked — shocked! — that Steve Johnson‘s proposed casino on the former Holy Cow site will include a Walgreens. Smelling salts, stat!
But there are some interesting revelations, For one, the reason that Palazzo‘s flagship retailer is also a Walgreens is that it was a compromise Sheldon Adelson effected with the landowner … Steve Johnson. (The mere fact of Adelson compromising is newsworthy enough.)
Turns out, that purchase may set the record for an on-Strip acquisition, at an alleged $50 million per acre — Phil Ruffin, eat your heart out! Johnson also paid through the nose for the Holy Cow site. The price? $23.5 million/acre for land north of Sahara Avenue. Egad!
Columbia Sussex’s casino portfolio continues to crumble. Tropicana Entertainment parent Tropicana Casinos & Resorts is selling its Amelia Belle riverboat (thereby forfeiting the New Orleans market) barely two years after the ship was acquired. Amelia Belle is former Harrah’s Entertainment vessel, having been Bally’s Belle of Orleans.
It’s a canny strategic move for new owner Peninsula Gaming, which now has a Louisiana riverboat as well as a racino and four OTBs, not to mention a small flotilla of Midwest riverboats. TropEnt CEO Scott Butera, meanwhile, has less and less over which to preside. At the moment, his ambit consists of four riverboats, mostly in tertiary markets, two casinos in Laughlin and one on Lake Tahoe. Is this TropEnt’s future: A succession of piecemeal asset sales? Sure looks that way.
Bad news for Sheldon Adelson. Over in Singapore, rival Genting‘s mega-budget Resorts World at Sentosa is letting news outlets like Bloomberg know that 60% of the project will ready for a soft opening in early 2010 (i.e., February-March). Projected attendance figures have been revised 20% downward.
In a rapier thrust at Marina Bay Sands, a Genting exec said the company was having regular meetings to make sure it came in on its $4.5 billion budget. Full completion of Sentosa is projected for 2012. Sands is going to have a sufficiently tough time making its nut without Genting crashing the party so soon … to say nothing of the fact that Genting enjoys much higher brand equity in that corner of the world.
RoboPoker has risen from the grave. Electronic table games have been OK’d for eight New York State racinos. Though the Lege hasn’t signed off, the Empire State’s lottery board is confident it has the authority to make this move unilaterally. Poor Atlantic City is dying the death of a thousand cuts.
Congratulations to Penn National. It’s scheduled to inaugurate a new pavilion for Empress Joliet today. A March 20 fire resulted in a three-month closure of the boat and substantial fiscal hardship for Penn National. In a noble gesture, CEO Peter Carlino kept employees on the payroll even though his ship was hors de combat. Capt. Carlino, S&G salutes you.
Noooooooo!
That was my reaction upon reading the Mike Weatherford shocker that the Tropicana Las Vegas may be putting many of its future entertainment eggs in the basket of Anthony Cools. The latter produced an ultra-craptacular topless show, Ooh La La at Paris Las Vegas.
Shoehorned into a large, low-ceilinged banquet room, Ooh La La had terrible sightlines (kind of a problem for a T&A show), pushy ushers and charmless performers. Were it not for Raw Talent Live, it would have been the worst show I've ever seen in Las Vegas. Cools has been threatening to bring it back … please, Alex Yemenidjian, stop him before he "presents" again.
Our long civic nightmare continues. Five more years! Five more years! Yes, Luxor has extended Carrot Top to 2015. Mr. Top accepted the honor in typical family-friendly style.
While I'm under the knife at the dentist next Tuesday, Lance Burton will be fielding questions at Monte Carlo. The venue alone makes the nature of the announcement self-evident. Three cheers to MGM Mirage for pulling back from the brink and not evicting Burton at a time when he's been getting some of the best reviews of his career. There was nothing like the fumbling Criss F. Angel to make people appreciate just how much better Burton seems to be.
Reading Room axed. You know those three cheers for MGM? Make them three Bronx cheers. "Literature? Pah! We no like! Make way for shiny trinkets!"
Why launder money in Las Vegas or Macao when there's … the Dominican Republic?
Peepshow 2.0 tonight. The pain of yesterday's dental procedure is likely to be but a gentle zephyr compared to the near-certain ordeal that lies ahead. For reasons too convoluted to explain, my review won't appear in CityLife until July 9. With luck, the show won't have closed by then.
Bondholders of Station Casinos must have an infinite capacity for suffering. Either that or CEO Frank Fertitta III is such a virtuosic Pied Piper that they'll follow him anywhere. It's difficult to rationally explain why they're letting a superior offer from Boyd Gaming collect dust, opting instead for the umpteenth forbearance in six months.
Among the drawbacks to the "prepackaged bankruptcy" that Station is languidly pursuing are that it would leave current Station leadership in place, to say nothing of its enablers at Colony Capital. Also, once Colony's share of the promised $244 million in new equity is subtracted, what the Fertitta clan kicks in is likely to be chicken feed — at least when compared to the half-billion clams various and sundry family members took out of the company during its catastrophic LBO.
S&G never, ever advocates violence … but if Station's debtors are getting antsy, we'd completely understand if they took a cue from the Stewie Griffin collection method:
For "fake moustaches," mentally substitute "dog tracks in Massachusetts."
Yes, you too can can be a gaming-industry blogger, with the help of but a few absolutely indispensable Web sites. The ones that I check Monday-Friday without fail (and, as they say on Dancing with the Stars, “in no particular order”) are: Continue reading
'Tis another day of hopscotching betwixt the doctor and the dentist, which sure cuts into quality blogging time (as did a nasty attack of fibromyalgia yesterday). However, by reader request, we present this special, (not) exclusive S&G photo of a special plenepotentiary Apollo [Mis]Management representative — perhaps Leon Black himself …
… contemplating piling additional money into Fontainebleau.
Serously, overspending — not lack of business — is what really got this town into its present pickle. Profligacy and/or dangerous incompetence at the highest levels are the true culprits for the Vegas meltdown. Yet it is people like maids, cocktail servers, security staff and — by extension — customers who are literally paying the price for clownery in the executive suites.
F'bleau and Cosmopolitan need to take a page from the Echelon playbook: Say "that's a wrap" and wait 'til the economy improves, attendant litigation is settled and the tsunami of new hotel rooms that is CityCenter has ebbed a bit. We don't need multiple new megaresorts now for the simple fact that the market will not support them.
Then again, if Harrah's Entertainment or Wynn Resorts wants to sail its luxury liner straight into the Big Bleau iceberg (or the Cosmo) … it's their money. Just don't complain to the press when you can't get triple-digit room rates, 'kay?
While the Better Half and I managed to quaff at least some of the infamous bacon martini w/o negative ramifications, we were not so fortunate with Sunday night's visit to a certain casino buffet. Suffice it to say that the carnitas cosseted a modest case of Montezuma's Revenge and that blogorrhea was KO'd by otherrhea.
So I'm taking advantage of a 20-minute lull between a doctors' visit and a trip to the dentist to bang this out. The big news in Vegas this morning is the collapse of a rebar column out at the McCarran International Airport expansion, injuring five. So far there have been no fatalities, thank God.
A Bataan Death March of shows continues tonight with Sin City Bad Girls at the Las Vegas Hilton. I wriggled out of seeing Todd Paul at Hooters last night, though I hear he was very funny. (Hooters scares me; is death contagious?) Wednesday brings yet another visit to Phantom of the Opera, followed on Thursday by Peepshow 2.0 and a Friday pair of one-acts featuring members of Insurgo Theater Movement. After which, I will not leave my apartment for a long, long time.
