Plaudits for Navegante; The great Hard Rock caper that wasn’t

A frequent Hard Rock Hotel & Casino player, for one, is happy to know that Navegante Group is waiting in the wings to take the reins should Morgans Hotel Group continue to falter. (The owners of the HRH have until Feb. 28 to figure out how to restructure or pay back $1.25 billion in debt.) The player isn’t a fan of the interim regime of Blake Sartini‘s Golden Gaming, which managed — under a fairly usurious contract — the casino while Morgans was getting its license. He writes …

“… anything but round 2 with Golden (Shower) Gaming. Fine Point or Navegante would be better for the players. I’m a fan of Larry Wolff (Navegante) myself. I stopped playing there when Golden ran the property. No one liked them, the video poker was as bad as in its bars (funny, [Golden’s] casino in Black Hawk, CO, the video poker’s not bad), and when they changed the program from cash back to free play, they tried to retroactively make me take free play instead of cash back without giving any notice to the players.” (Are you reading this, Nevada Gaming Control Board? <crickets>)

The player continues, “IIRC, when Golden took over, all the video poker was downgraded 1-2%. Gaming treats cash back and comps differently. Unless it’s a bankable system, comps aren’t earned until used. With cash back, once you earn it, it’s yours. Their locals-oriented program actually isn’t bad. I think FP and Larry would leave it alone.”

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Navegante was — interestingly enough — an active participant in the negotiations that staved off foreclosure last week, as were Nevada regulators. The price of continued forebearance was unspecified ‘operational changes.’ That could mean anything from “fewer comps” to jobbing in a management company — although Morgans has been in the habit of paying itself a princely sum for running the property (into the ground, some would say). Financial relief is on the distant horizon for Morgans, in the form of management contracts in Turkey, Mexico and New York State, but those don’t come on line until 2013-4.

Last Friday, the R-J‘s Chris Sieroty reported on SEC filings which revealed that Morgans Chairman Daniel Hamamato had recused himself from further casino-related matters. Wherefore this recusal? Seems that, when not moonlighting as Morgans’ COB, Hamamoto is also CEO, chairman and stakeholder in NorthStar Realty Finance.

Y’all remember NorthStar: That was the firm which was pushing the rapid, abortive foreclosure of the HRH. Was this a ploy by Morgans to swipe the casino-hotel from passive majority owner DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, with NorthStar playing the role of stalking horse? Or was Hamamoto hoping to pull a fast one on Morgans CEO Fred Kleisner, taking advantage of inside information? The less-than-arm’s-length nature of this caper fairly shouts for Control Board scrutiny.

Love for Gaughan. Last Saturday, while visiting the recently upgraded South Point spa (my wife bought us a couple’s treatment), I struck up a chat with a fellow customer. Although his wife was suffering the aftereffects of South Point’s buffet — no surprise there — he couldn’t praise Michael Gaughan‘s operation lavishly enough. He said South Point gave him the full Vegas experience without him having to tangle with the Strip.

More importantly, he said that he stays for four-five days at a stretch, plays the slots heavily … and gets his room comped. All of which keeps him coming back at least four times a year. Hey, Sheldon Adelson, let’s see if your newly niggardly attitude toward comps engenders similar patron loyalty. I’m not betting on it.