Tilman Fertitta, stiff; PokerStars’ desperation; Parrotheads in Shreveport;

I can visit the Fremont Street Experience anytime I want, for free. So can guests at any Downtown hotel … except the Golden Nugget. In a vile new variation on the “resort fee” phenomenon, owner Tilman Fertitta is now tacking on a bullshit, $5 tariff called a “Fremont Street Experience fee,” for which you can get … what all the rest of us get gratis. Spokeswoman Tiffany Hauck demonstrated the art of making a distinction without a difference, when she explained the move as an altruistic decision that “rather than raise hotel rates or charge high resort fees, we have chosen to keep our rates low and implement a nominal $5 fee.” Is it too soon to call for a boycott of the Nugget?

Rational Group may be almost irrationally desperate (remember, Trump Plaza is up for grabs) to get the downmarket Atlantic Club. Its payouts to the U.S. Department of Justice have now hit the $781 million mark. PokerStars Chairman Mark Scheinberg is so eager to expedite an Atlantic City deal that he’s agreed to forfeit $50 million in potentially ill-gotten gains. Scheinberg’s online casino is now arguably the scummiest license applicant in New Jersey history, but a lot of people want to see this deal done. One who doesn’t is Colony Capital CEO Tom Barrack, who recently took Rational to the cleaners (along with his investors, who have seen a $513 million investment lose $498 million of its value). Even so, Rational is going to fight it out in appeals court. However, PokerStars is obviously rolling in dough, giving one cause to wonder why it doesn’t pursue Trump Plaza instead. Money should be no object, since legitimized Internet gambling is the ultimate prize, and Rational has more than enough scratch that even Trump creditor Carl Icahn should be satisfied.

Although the Shreveport/Bossier City market needs another casino like it needs a hole in its head, we should make an exception when it bears the successful Margaritaville brand. This article is an excellent primer on exactly how “boats in moats” are engineered. Don’t worrry if Margaritaville sinks: It’s only got two feet of water under its “keel.” It’d be a worth a trip to the newcomer, if only to see “there’s a waterfall that a young woman occasionally slides down and plunges into a giant blender filled with green liquid resembling a margarita.”

Congratulations to an industry survivor, former Casino Aztar riverboat. Ex-owner Aztar Corp. is a distant and fast-receding memory, so renaming the vessel Tropicana Evansville is only just and due.