When it comes to bankruptcy, the Fertitta Brothers are pikers compared to magician Steve Wyrick, whose eponymous “entertainment complex” went “Poof!” last Dec. 10. At the time, Wyrick harangued LVA for announcing the closure, saying his return was imminent. We’re still waiting. In the meantime, his army of debtors — led by Miracle Mile Shops — is out over $54 million.
However, since Miracle Mile is symbiotically attached to Planet Hollywood, now owned by Harrah’s Entertainment, perhaps Wyrick can ask Gary Loveman to negotiate pro bono with his creditors. Let’s see: $54.355 million in debt against $93,157 in assets? Loveman’ll have those debtors taking two-fifths of a penny on the dollar and thinking they got a heckuva deal.
Groovy new casino promo? Maybe MGM Mirage could have “Nostalgia Night” out at the Gold Strike in Jean and hand these (above) around in memory of the property’s once (and future?) general manager. Who says infamy is priceless? Actually, it’s worth $5.95, tax-free.
Getting back to Gary “Fashion Emergency” Loveman for a moment, doesn’t he have a remarkable ability to talk about the recent implosion of Las Vegas as though he were a disinterested observer who had nothing to do with it? Seriously, for the guy who levered Harrah’s Entertainment up past $30 billion to give sermons on fiscal restraint is like hearing Tiger Woods preach the virtues of abstinence.
Not only that, at times he sounds downright clueless. He lauds a “liberalized” regulatory climate that allowed Harrah’s to devour Park Place Entertainment and MGM to gobble up Mandalay Resort Group (and Mirage Resorts) as a key to industry’s success. How does he think those debt burdens starting mounting toward the skies? You could argue, though, in that he’s got a point to the extent that the near-duopoly on the Strip has created a pair of “too big to fail” companies who have the banking industry by the short and curlies. Paradoxically, the gaming group’s financial recklessness (and that of Harrah’s, in particular) has fortified it against the repo man.
In view of Harrah’s backhanded treatment of Imperial Palace, in the early years after its purchase, it must give former IP execs grim satisfaction to see Loveman acknowledge that it — and similarly old-school Harrah’s Las Vegas — are the company’s best Strip performers. (Not to mention that the two-year extension of superb Motown-sound act Human Nature means we’ll have the IP to kick around until at least 2012, if not longer … especially if that adjacent street-mall thing gets built.)
However, were I Loveman, I’m not sure I’d be bragging on the Macao golf course for which I was swindled got an incredible $577 million deal, especially at a time when the Macanese government is making rumblings about repossessing land for residential growth. Nor would I huff and puff about Maryland‘s 67% tax rate on slots when I’m paying 55% just across the state line, at Harrah’s Chester. It may be slightly less usurious to do business in Pennsylvania but Harrah’s didn’t exactly shy away from high-tax jurisdictions until it started crumbling under its debt load.
Although I don’t follow Internet chat boards about casinos (except Two Way Hard Three), a family member who does says that Harrah’s 33% price increase of its “Buffet of Buffets” set off a huge backlash. Company execs can console themselves with the thought that there is no such thing as bad publicity (not!) but the next time they pull a stunt like that maybe they should change all the signage and advertising first, instead of just shooting off a bunch of tweets and then playing catch-up, scrambling to remove all the suddenly outdated publicity materials. What a goof-up.
Archon Corp. Secretary-Treasurer Sue Lowden has been having a lot of “senior moments” on the campaign trail (like not remembering the Mafia-related bombing attempts made against a pair of Nevada gaming commissioners in 1981, when she was a newsreader here). Two words, Sue: ginko biloba.
