A couple of new bloggers just rode into town, meaning I’m going to have raise my game a bit. Actually, they’ve been in town for quite a long time and know where many of the bodies are buried, but are relatively new to the blogosphere. One is Jeff Burbank, whose contrarian Las Vegas Downtown News doesn’t pull any punches. (Though I wish he’d turn his sights on those do-nothings at Tamares Group.) Burbank is also noteworthy as the author of License to Steal, the standard reference work on gambling regulation in Nevada. I always keep a copy within reach.
Over at the R-J corral, Howard Stutz is doing an online version of Inside Gaming. He’s only been at it for a few days and, for the moment, it’s a sort of parking lot for items that don’t quite merit a full news story but are too worthwhile to be tossed aside. Besides, it’s not like the guy isn’t criminally overworked already. His R-J masters expect multiple bylines per day (and sometimes multiple updates of the same story, too), plus his Sunday column plus contributions to the Las Vegas Business Press. So I wouldn’t blame him if he looks on this “opportunity” more as an additional burden.
Dig these dancing queens while yet you may.
As we’re now one month and counting from the closing night of Mamma Mia! at Mandalay Bay, let’s pause for a bit of good news. Not only has the celluloid version become Britain’s highest-grossing film of all time (unadjusted for inflation), but first-day sales of the DVD outshot previous record-holder Titanic by 34%. It’ll be a shame to lose the best show on the Strip but The Lion King isn’t exactly chopped liver and — best of all — it’s not giving ground to another Cirque du Soleil show. If Cirque ever gets its Silly Putty-covered mitts on ABBA, I’m going to enter a Trappist monastery.
"The massive staff layoffs, the turnover in senior management accompanied by their replacement with personnel with less extensive casino management experience, the cleanliness crisis experienced in the late winter-spring 2007, the regulatory violations directly related to inadequate staffing, and the failure to recognize the immediate need for a conforming independent audit committee, and the intransigence in adopting a conforming committee, all attest to the ultimate conclusion that the Tropicana AC license should not have been renewed," — written opinion of the New Jersey Supreme Court, applying a rhetorical boot to the posterior of Columbia Sussex.
More nails are being pounded into the coffin of the Imperial Palace. The official word is that eateries The Ming and Cockeyed Clam are closed for good. As for the others, operating hours are being truncated “periodically. Nothing is written in stone.” Not even the future of “Impotent Palace,” it seems.
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