If toupée-collecting Sheldon Adelson were offered the chance to build Venetian Tehran he’d immediately become a peacenik regarding Iran, a country he lusts to nuke. Instead of making nice 
with mullahs, he’s doing the next best thing, warbling sweet nothings to Kim Jong-un. Citing his service in the Korean War, Adelson called for detente between the two Koreas so that he could get down to “open up business,” preferably in the north. (He can’t build — feasibly — in South Korea because a tourists-only policy makes the cost of investment prohibitive. South Korean casino revenues are small potatoes compared to other markets.) North Korea has been putting out feelers to the U.S. for help in establishing a casino resort in the Wonsan-Kalma region. Hmmmm. Starving native populace … concentration camps … 180th out of 180 on the Heritage Foundation‘s human-rights index? Nope, I can’t see anything wrong with doing business in North Korea.
Elsewhere in Adelson Country, a new report by Steve Vickers 
warns of collateral damage to casinos in Macao from the current U.S.-China trade war. “The gaming sector in Macau is highly exposed. Any significant slowdown or fall in the yuan’s value may lead to Beijing’s further curbing of capital outflows, so dampening casino revenues,” wrote Vickers, who also wrote the current hostilities could imperil concession renewals for Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Resorts International: “These companies now sit on a geopolitical fault line. Their Macau concessions can therefore be on the line.” Vickers deemed the deprival of concessions “brutal” but also unlikely.
He did, however, advise, “Companies might consider restructuring joint ventures, so as to invest alongside partners 
deemed ‘neutral’.” Galaxy Entertainment‘s purchase of a 5% stake in Wynn was cited as one example of this strategy. Concluded Vickers, “the harsh reality is that strategic decisions are not made in Macau but rather in Beijing: this is because of the huge scale of the gaming operations in Macau and the political sensitivities of U.S. businesses being allowed to repatriate very significant amounts of Chinese money back home.”
Speaking of Wynn Resorts, Elaine Wynn‘s newfound clout only extends so far. The board of directors has ashcanned her choice for 
chairman, “identified only as a former Fortune 500 chief executive officer with extensive experience in the casino business.” (Let the speculation begin!) The person in question “wasn’t a close associate of hers,” so that rules out nephew Andrew Pascal. Elaine hasn’t quit flexing her muscles: She’s seeking to have General Counsel Kim Sinatra fired for cause. Jefferies analyst David Katz applauded the Sinatra ouster, writing,“We view the announcement of Wynn general counsel as anticipated and reflective of the pressure the company’s management team is facing in the near term from regulators and shareholders.” The company continues to be investigated in Massachusetts, Nevada and Macao for Steve Wynn‘s sexcapades. (Since Sinatra was a key player in the hush-up of a $7.5 million paternity settlement paid by Wynn, she may be the latest human sacrifice on the Massachusetts Gaming Commission‘s altar.)
* MGM and Caesars Entertainment can openly gloat that they outfitted workers with ‘panic buttons’ voluntarily. In Chicago, a law had to be passed to get it done. A Unite-Here spokeswoman said “49 percent of hotel workers surveyed said they had seen a guest naked or had a guest flash them.” Worse yet, “58 percent of employees said they were sexually harassed while working at hotels, particularly at night.” Human nature being what it is, one can only assume that similar statistics (at minimum) apply to Las Vegas. The era of #MeToo and #TimesUp has not arrived a moment too soon.
* Daredevil Travis Pastrana pitted himself against the Las Vegas Strip for a three-hour History Channel special. First, he 
jumped a motorcycle over 52 crushed cars, then over 16 Greyhound buses. These stunts were performed on empty land behind Planet Hollywood and Paris-Las Vegas. Then Pastrana, whose first two jumps will rival the greatest feats of Evel Knievel, would try to do what Knievel couldn’t: Jump the Caesars Palace fountain. Of course, if Stunt #1 or Stunt #2 went awry, the History Channel would have a lot of airtime to fill (cue standby Hitler footage) and Pastrana would have been looking at a big hospital bill, assuming Caesars didn’t pick up the tab.
