It just got a lot cheaper to buy the Moulin Rouge. The last vestiges of the original complex were pulled down yesterday after yet another suspicious fire ravaged through what once upon a time was Las Vegas‘ first integrated casino. Ward 5 Chamber of Commerce President Katherine Duncan blamed a delay 
in the disposition of the property by the courts for the conflagration, “If the courts would have ruled on Friday like they were supposed to, this wouldn’t have happened,” was Duncan’s cryptic comment. Clark County was the latest party to bid on the site, ponying up $5 million against two other bids in bankruptcy court. However, whether the county is still interested now remains to be seen, “The fear on that was that it was going to continue to be a fire hazard,” said city spokesman David Riggleman, explains the ultimate demolition.
Safe to say, this definitely closes the book on the up-and-down (mostly down) saga of the Moulin Rouge, which had become such a pathetic shadow of itself that being leveled may have been the most fitting end for it.
* As one casino came down, two others showed signs of going up. According to VitalVegas, a second construction crane has arisen at the Resorts World Las Vegas site and building materials are everywhere to be viewed. It looks like Genting Group is serious about meeting its 1Q18 deadline for starting work in 
earnest. Meanwhile, Jackie Robinson‘s All-Net Arena project plans to get its shovels in the ground even sooner. All-Net backers say they have 100% equity financing in the project, which should remove the All-Debt Arena stigma from Robinson’s pipe dream. According to VegasBright, the complex will have “a much bigger hotel than previously announced (approaching the height of the former Fontainebleau). Fun things include a grocery store and open access to the condos to the east of the former Fontainebleau as well.” I’m sure Sam Nazarian will claim credit for this but, in truth, if you want to build on the Strip there’s almost no place to do it at the north end. The latter won’t be lifted from its doldrums for a few years yet, given the time it will take Genting and Robinson to finish their elaborate progress.
(One is reminded of Rex Harrison‘s Pope Julius II in The Agony and the Ecstasy asking Charlton Heston [Michelangelo], “When will you make an end of it?” “When I’m finished,” Heston invariably replies.)
* Golden Entertainment is one big step closer to engorging American Casino & Entertainment properties, the $850 million 
deal having been approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. NGCB members were reassured by their vetting of Golden’s accounting and compliance methods, and by Golden CEO Blake Sartini‘s track record as a casino operator. That said, some qualms were expressed that Golden is trying to grow too big too fast, tripling in size with the ACEP acquisition. Still, it is not the brief of Nevada regulators to pass judgment on the financial viability of casino licensees, as the Aladdin and Barrick Gaming fiascos have shown.
