{"id":10255,"date":"2012-12-24T16:50:04","date_gmt":"2012-12-25T00:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10255"},"modified":"2012-12-24T16:50:04","modified_gmt":"2012-12-25T00:50:04","slug":"a-christmas-wish-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/a-christmas-wish-list\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas wish list …"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nFor those of us who missed it this year, the best Christmas tradition of which I know.<\/em><\/p>\n

First and most importantly …<\/p>\n

To you, the reader<\/strong>, who makes this possible, a year of happiness, health and wealth, whether material, intellectual or spiritual.<\/p>\n

Atlantic City<\/strong>: Good luck in a year that will end with ’13.’<\/p>\n

Boyd Gaming<\/strong>: New TV commercials.<\/p>\n

Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>: A new CEO, president and chairman of the board.<\/p>\n

Carl Icahn<\/strong>: A nice, fat pigeon who’ll take Fontainebleau<\/strong> off your hands.<\/p>\n

Cirque du Soleil<\/strong>: The sense to know when you’ve run out of ideas.<\/p>\n

CityCenter<\/strong>: An end to the Harmon<\/strong> embarrassment, preferably punctuated with a celebratory implosion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Colliers International gaming analysts<\/strong>: A broken window and some fresh air.<\/p>\n

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas<\/strong>: Gamblers.<\/p>\n

Dan Gilbert<\/strong>: A truss, for having to piggyback Gary Loveman<\/strong> from one new market to the next.<\/p>\n

\"\"Donald Trump<\/strong>: Alien abduction.<\/p>\n

Fontainebleau<\/strong>: Dynamite and lots of it.<\/p>\n

IGT<\/strong>: A business plan that succeeds.<\/p>\n

Illinois lawmakers<\/strong>: The epiphany that more casinos do not necessarily equal more money. For anyone concerned.<\/p>\n

Kansas<\/strong>: Somebody, anybody to bid on that fourth license, still going begging after all these years.<\/p>\n

MGM Mirage<\/strong>: Receptive ears in Massachusetts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Neil Bluhm<\/strong>: A casino in Las Vegas<\/strong>. We need you out here, guy!*<\/p>\n

Penn National Gaming<\/strong>: A pacifier.<\/p>\n

Revel<\/strong>: More customers.<\/p>\n

Riviera<\/strong>: An end to your identity crisis.<\/p>\n

Sahara<\/strong>: A new owner, preferably one with some class. (See<\/em>: Bluhm<\/strong>, Neil<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

\"\"Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>: Both a lifetime membership to the Hair Club for Men<\/strong> and a copy of The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail but Some Don’t<\/em> by Nate Silver<\/strong>. It might save you a few hundred million dollars, four years hence.<\/p>\n

Station Casinos<\/strong>: Another year of lowered prices and “george” coupon offers.<\/p>\n

Steve Wynn<\/strong>: That the second time may be the charm in Philadelphia<\/strong> and Boston<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tamares Group<\/strong>: A Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> licensing probe.<\/p>\n

Tilman Fertitta<\/strong>: A year free of lawsuits against your players. Just pay the man.<\/p>\n

Tropicana Entertainment:<\/strong> A labor accord with your Boardwalk workforce. Just pay the men.<\/p>\n

\"\"Vegas<\/strong><\/em> (the series)<\/strong>: A seven- to 10-year run on CBS<\/strong>. Historical authenticy, hell! Dennis Quaid<\/strong>, Michael Chiklis<\/strong> and the breathtaking Carrie-Ann Moss<\/strong> — and top-of-the-line production values — make this most entertaining show on TV.<\/p>\n

Vegas (the town)<\/strong>: A 2013 in which recovery is no longer ‘just around the corner.’<\/p>\n

* — last weekend’s telecast of the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/strong>‘ face-plant against a theoretically inferior Cincinnati Bengals<\/strong> team included eye-opening vistas of Rivers Casino<\/strong>, which Bluhm inherited from Don Barden<\/strong>. Man, is that one ugly box of slots or what?<\/p>\n

And with that thought, as we write out of sight, Merry Christmas<\/strong> to all and to all a good night!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of us who missed it this year, the best Christmas tradition of which I know. First and most importantly … To you, the reader, who makes this possible, a year of happiness, health and wealth, whether material, intellectual … 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":[65,23,60,82,80,56,66,28,154,83,42,4,59,7,29,58,45,112,11,91,69,95,30,25,157,54,12,74,57,32,47,129,21,17,138],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10255"}],"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=10255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10258,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10255\/revisions\/10258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}