{"id":10736,"date":"2013-05-02T12:34:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T20:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10736"},"modified":"2013-05-03T08:54:59","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T16:54:59","slug":"steve-wynn-turns-into-debbie-downer-caesars-screwy-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/steve-wynn-turns-into-debbie-downer-caesars-screwy-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Wynn turns into Debbie Downer; Caesars’ screwy priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Yes, the recovery in Las Vegas<\/strong> could be said to be a chastened and limping one. The national press will leap at just about anything<\/a> to restart the “Vegas is back” narrative. And yes, CityCenter<\/strong> ROI improved exponentially … to 4%<\/a>. But all that being the case, nothing seen in recent numbers — like a 15% revenue increase in February — would appear to warrant the doom-and-gloom demeanor that Steve Wynn<\/strong> adopted in Carson City<\/strong>. “Right now the gaming industry has a serious health problem<\/em>,” Dr. Wynn proclaimed glumly<\/a> outside the operating room. Now, when Wynn makes ones of his rare visits to the state capitol, he’s usually seeking a tax break. There’s scant chance of that happening but the Wynn Resorts<\/strong> CEO seemed more concerned<\/a> with heading off any in<\/em>crease in state gaming taxes. However, Wynn’s proclamation of ill health would be a more convincing piece of spin doctoring were his company not coming off a profitable 1Q13 that saw a 7% revenue increase<\/a> at its Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> operations. If Steve keeps talking about ‘health problems,’ it won’t be long before someone points out that his board of directors is alarmingly superannuated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the other hand<\/strong>, a company that has been struggling with diminished visitation has to be questioned \"\"for taking two Strip hotels out of action. That’s what Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> did, helping the company post a bigger-than-expected loss for 1Q13<\/a>. Analysts expected -$1.46\/share and CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong> delivered -$1.76, an under-performance aggravated by the conversion of Imperial Palace<\/strong> into The Quad<\/strong> and the closure of Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall<\/strong>. These moves helped drive a 3% decrease in Strip revenue. Given that Caesars is in dire penury, was the $550 million Linq<\/strong> project or the $187 million makeover of Bill’s into Gansevoort Las Vegas<\/strong> really such a high-priority item? It’s bad enough to let your existing properties go to seed, worse to mothball them entirely. Caesars is like a compulsive gambler, down $24 billion and determined to keep worsening its odds.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Wynn’s otherwise unaccountable gloom<\/strong> was provoked by the news that Wynn Macau<\/strong> had to pay $2,500 — pocket change, really — for tiptoeing through customers’ personal information<\/a> and \"\"exporting it to Wynncore<\/strong>. A similar case against Sands China<\/strong> is still pending. Closer to home, voters in Everett<\/strong> will decide Wynn’s fate<\/a> there on June 22. Wynn’s deal with the Massachusetts<\/strong> city is arguably the most “george” yet seen<\/a> in the Bay State. Its particulars include brownfield remediation, $30 million in front money and $25 million in yearly payments to the city. At $1.2 billion, the project would also be the costliest yet proposed.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, since El Steve planted his flag in Everett<\/a>, one has heard almost nothing more about the $1 billion Suffolk Downs<\/strong> racino makeover that would be bankrolled by Loveman and Richard “Coastal Marina” Fields<\/strong>, two men who would be hard-pressed to come up with cab fare to the track, given their history. (Fields’ elongated and abortive pursuit of Trump Marina<\/strong> was a sorry shambles.) Of the various Boston<\/strong>-area proposals, Wynn’s has the most impressive credentials and the firmest bankroll. This should be a no-brainer for voters and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, the recovery in Las Vegas could be said to be a chastened and limping one. The national press will leap at just about anything to restart the “Vegas is back” narrative. And yes, CityCenter ROI improved exponentially … to … 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":[56,28,14,26,7,67,62,112,11,111,25,12,32,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10736"}],"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=10736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10738,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10736\/revisions\/10738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}