{"id":10125,"date":"2012-11-19T17:54:14","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T01:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10125"},"modified":"2018-02-13T09:28:49","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T17:28:49","slug":"wynn-cashes-out-x-train-back-on-track-newport-grand-out-of-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wynn-cashes-out-x-train-back-on-track-newport-grand-out-of-luck\/","title":{"rendered":"Wynn cashes out; X Train back on track; Newport Grand out of luck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Caught between the twin hazards of prospective higher taxes on investment income and the looming fiscal cliff, Steve Wynn<\/strong> made headlines today<\/a> with his $750 million Thanksgiving special dividend, which ought to help pay for all those Black Friday purchases on Wynn Resorts<\/strong>‘ investors to-do list. The New York Times<\/em> also speculated that there might be a gallop to sell off small businesses by the end of the year. While this might cause a boomlet of further consolidation in gaming, the time frame of such sales and the number of regulatory approvals that would be required make me doubt things will go that far … although we could see some very creative transactions, judging by Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s cloning of itself into a REIT.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Steve<\/strong>, you’ve got a fashion emergency looming and it’s not pretty. Did somebody dare him to wear that sweater<\/a>? Wynn’s attire has taken a turn for the worse during his current marriage. I saw him at a media event, wearing a loud, checkered-pattern sports coat that probably hadn’t seen the light of day since the mid-Seventies. Are polyester leisure suits next?<\/p>\n

\"\"For the first time<\/strong>, the much-touted, long-promised X Train<\/strong> from the Los Angeles<\/strong> area to downtown Las Vegas<\/strong> looks like a reality. The biggest obstacle to realization of the project (a revival, essentially, of Amtrak<\/strong>‘s defunct Desert Wind<\/strong> route) was the lack of priority access to Union Pacific<\/strong> rail tracks. Without it, the X Train journey would be interminable. But now, train execs say, they have first dibs on the line<\/a>, meaning service to Las Vegas could begin in little over a year. Perhaps you don’t want your first sight of Vegas to be the backside of Tamares Group<\/strong>‘s still-seedy Plaza Hotel<\/strong> but proximity to the X Train is a terrific marketing ‘hook’ for Downtown casinos. And, unlike the Desert Xpress<\/strong> boondoggle, no taxpayer subsidies are being sought. However, if you match the accompany video, X Train boosters are promising a 90-minute ride from Primm<\/strong> to downtown Sin City. How fast are they planning to go? Thirty miles per hour?<\/p>\n

Election Day saw<\/strong> voters in Newport<\/strong>, Rhode Island<\/strong>, put the kibosh on slots at the old Newport Grand<\/strong> jai alai fronton. Marketing consultant Gary Galonek<\/strong> doesn’t think Newport Grand will get a second chance, two years hence or ever. “Newport has essentially put the nail in the coffin of an operation that it never saw as complementary to its Bellevue mansions\/Tennis Hall of Fame<\/strong> reputation,” he wrote, calling Newport Grand “doomed<\/a>.” That’s a damned shame but, unlike some pundits, S&G<\/em> doesn’t care to second-guess the electorate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caught between the twin hazards of prospective higher taxes on investment income and the looming fiscal cliff, Steve Wynn made headlines today with his $750 million Thanksgiving special dividend, which ought to help pay for all those Black Friday purchases … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,51,26,69,111,32,47,31,100,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10125"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21174,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10125\/revisions\/21174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}