{"id":11184,"date":"2013-07-24T10:12:15","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T18:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11184"},"modified":"2013-07-24T10:12:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T18:12:15","slug":"more-trop-turmoil-adelsons-new-enforcer-hart-vindicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/more-trop-turmoil-adelsons-new-enforcer-hart-vindicated\/","title":{"rendered":"More Trop turmoil; Adelson’s new enforcer; Hart vindicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"That Alex Yemenidjian<\/strong>! He just can’t keep the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> out of the headlines — and not in a good way. It’s kicking The One Group<\/strong> out, taking over Bagatelle Beach Club<\/strong> and converting into a by-invitation-only venue for private events<\/a>. It will now be The Havana Room & Beach Club<\/strong>. One Group CEO Jonathan “Livingston” Sega<\/strong>l tried to paint a smiley face on the changeover, issuing a statement that read, in part, “Bagatelle operated as a restaurant and dayclub for the past six months and yet continually saw more demand for large, private buyout events than casual pool- and club-goers. There\u2019s a constant demand for that in Las Vegas, especially when it\u2019s prime real estate near the Strip like this<\/em>.” Considering the enormous makeover that One Group did in the Bagatelle rebranding, either it or the Trop is going to be out a lot of money in this exchange.<\/p>\n

\"\"This will be at least the fourth Yemenidjian-era incarnation of the space, which was Nikki Beach<\/strong> and (very briefly) nightclub RPM<\/strong>, before One Group took over. As the Las Vegas Sun<\/em>‘s John Katsilometes<\/strong> notes, Bagatelle is now overshadowed by “behemoth multivenue entertainment fortress Hakkasan<\/strong>” at MGM Grand<\/strong>. Confronted with that bastion of revelry, it looks like Yemenidjian decided to run up the white flag. Anyway, give the venue a few months and it will have yet another identity, I’m sure, and Alex will be telling the media that this time they can’t miss … as he did the time before … and the time before that …<\/p>\n

Scarcely did one have<\/strong> time to say “Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>” than former Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> enforcement boss Jerry Markling<\/strong> landed a job as director of investigations at Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>. Some will find the move ironic, since Sands is not infrequently being investigated<\/em>. Since Markling’s tenure at the NGCB dates back to the George H.W. Bush<\/strong> administration, he’s not subject to the NCBG’s more-recent, one-year “cooling off” rule, prompting the Las Vegas Review Journal<\/em>‘s John L. Smith<\/strong> to observe, “I didn\u2019t know a thing like ethics could be grandfathered in.” Internal controls at Sands could obviously be improved: Witness its recent troubles involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act<\/strong>. Ergo, bringing in a veteran like Markling to improve due diligence is a wise move on Adelson’s part.<\/p>\n

\"\"Social gaming continues to drive<\/strong> improved profitability at International Game Technology<\/strong>, where once-beleaguered CEO Patti Hart<\/strong> was able to bust out 3Q13 numbers that were up 9%. Profits fell short of Wall Street<\/strong>‘s expectations but Double Down<\/strong>‘s contribution was twice is it was a year ago<\/a>, while free-play social gaming applications in general were up 25%. By contrast, IGT’s slot sales grew only 12% but still represented — by far — the bulk of IGT revenue. Online gambling is coming, but the boxes are still what keeps the manufacturing sector in business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That Alex Yemenidjian! He just can’t keep the Tropicana Las Vegas out of the headlines — and not in a good way. It’s kicking The One Group out, taking over Bagatelle Beach Club and converting into a by-invitation-only venue for … 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":[48,4,29,22,11,25,12,8,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11184"}],"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=11184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11187,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11184\/revisions\/11187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}