{"id":10912,"date":"2013-05-29T14:46:20","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T22:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10912"},"modified":"2019-12-05T09:42:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T17:42:00","slug":"feds-balk-at-pinnacleameristar-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/feds-balk-at-pinnacleameristar-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds balk at Pinnacle\/Ameristar deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given the supine attitude toward mergers and acquisitions that has prevailed in Washington, D.C.<\/strong>, for the past 15 years and the routine, \"\"state-by-state approval<\/a> of Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>‘s takeover of Ameristar Casinos<\/strong>, I had erroneously thought it a done deal. Not so. The Federal Trade Commission<\/strong> has deemed it a violation of antitrust laws<\/a>, as it would throw a big, Pinnacle-colored blanket<\/a> over the St. Louis<\/strong> and Lake Charles<\/strong> markets. (Where were these people when then-MGM Mirage<\/strong> and Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> were near-monopolizing the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>, huh?) I somehow doubt that consumers are as excited about the “compelling benefits that the merger will provide” as Pinnacle execs would like to believe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pinnacle would own all but one of four casinos on \"\"the Missouri<\/strong> side of the St. Louis market and two of the three in Lake Charles. No offense to Casino Queen<\/em> in East St. Louis<\/strong> and Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong>‘ Lake Charles riverboat, but they’re hardly serious rivals to Pinnacle. (Ditto Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s puny-grossing Alton Belle<\/em>, further upriver in Illinois<\/strong>.) Working under a deadline to get the Ameristar deal done, Pinnacle CEO Anthony Sanfilippo<\/strong> (right<\/em>) scoffed at the FTC opinion<\/a> and vowed to proceed full speed ahead with the takeover. He could always try to appease Washington by unloading a casino or two, but what’s the point of gaining a stranglehold if you give it right back? Considering the premium at which Ameristar is trading, however, it could be a scary downhill ride for ASCA if Sanfilippo’s sangfroid<\/em> proves misplaced.<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix from the ashes<\/strong>. Remember the fire that laid waste to the 32nd floor of the Monte Carlo<\/strong>? In its place has arisen Hotel 32<\/strong>, a hotel-within-a-hotel, sort of like an affordable (well, $170 midweek) version of the Four Seasons<\/strong>. Forbes<\/em>‘ Larry Olmsted<\/strong> belatedly gives it a rave. Selling points include larger-than-average rooms and suites (formerly reserved for high rollers), as well as speedy service and state-of-the-art amenities. It’s worth considering when you want to splurge on a Vegas vacation but don’t want to get cleaned out at Cosmopolitan<\/strong>-sized rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the supine attitude toward mergers and acquisitions that has prevailed in Washington, D.C., for the past 15 years and the routine, state-by-state approval of Pinnacle Entertainment‘s takeover of Ameristar Casinos, I had erroneously thought it a done deal. Not … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[66,28,14,7,58,85,84,11,39,69,30,25,9,19,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10912"}],"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=10912"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25530,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10912\/revisions\/25530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}