{"id":11244,"date":"2013-08-05T10:38:23","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T18:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11244"},"modified":"2013-08-05T10:42:26","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T18:42:26","slug":"cosmo-plunges-again-nevada-signals-surrender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/cosmo-plunges-again-nevada-signals-surrender\/","title":{"rendered":"Cosmo plunges again; Nevada signals surrender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Would somebody please sack the so-called casino management and marketing staff at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas<\/strong>. Everything at the Cosmo is improving except the gambling floor, which took a 20% nosedive in 2Q13, to $31 million. Losses were 25% worse than last year<\/a>, despite a $5.5 million growth in net revenues. As though to confirm that the Cosmo doesn’t have its eye on the (roulette) ball, it released the following, mind-boggling blather: “\u201cWe are encouraged by the increases we continue to experience in key areas<\/em> of our business and pleased that the brand continues to resonate with Las Vegas<\/strong> visitors and locals …” (emphasis added). Both room revenues (up 12%) and F&B continue to outgross gaming. It missed its projected hold on table games by a country mile. By contrast, high occupancy (94%) translated into high ADRs. Still, the Cosmo really should look into bringing someone like Randall Fine<\/strong> or Aaron Gomes<\/strong> into the fold to try and help them learn this casino thing, which evidently continues to stump them.<\/p>\n

\"\"U.S. casino corporations<\/strong> doing business in China<\/strong> now have a license to run amuck. Why? Because in testimony before the U.S. China Economic & Security Review Commission<\/strong>, our own\u00a0Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> Chairman A.G. Burnett <\/strong>waved this white flag<\/a>: “We regulate gaming within our borders, but have neither the authority nor the desire to regulate gaming in another jurisdiction.” It’s not entirely the Control Board’s fault. It’s still budgeted as though the year were 1990, prior to the explosion of growth in Vegas. Or, as the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>‘s John L. Smith<\/strong> puts it, “Nevada<\/strong> regulators are way out of their depth in Macau<\/strong>. That should seem self-eviden<\/em>t …” Of the all-important junketeers who extend credit to VIP players, all but seven are mobbed up.<\/p>\n

This prompts Smith to ask, “If it\u2019s acceptable for Nevada licensees to do \"\"business \u2014 even at arm\u2019s length \u2014 with triad associates in Macau, will it one day be acceptable for triad-influenced companies to do business on the Strip?<\/em>” In our desperation for new capital, we appear to be heading that way. And don’t forget that Genting Group<\/strong> tried to bring Stanley Ho<\/strong> into its Singapore<\/strong> operations through a back-door arrangement. The Singaporean government came down on that like a ton of bricks but Nevada regulators\u00a0are more inclined to be complacent. So Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, Steve Wynn<\/strong> and Jim Murren<\/strong>, the message is this: See how much you can get away with in Macao … ’cause nobody in Nevada is going to slap you down. I’ve long said that Silver State regulation is a toothless tiger and Burnett has just proven it.<\/p>\n

If a gal didn’t want me<\/strong>, I’d stop chasing her. That’s why it’s been odd watching Rational Group<\/strong> trying to use the New Jersey<\/strong> court system to forcibly copulate it with Colony Capital<\/strong>, owner of the disputed Atlantic Club<\/strong>. Well, Rational finally got some rationality over the weekend. The parent of PokerStars<\/strong> has called off the unrequited romance (which had distinctly sadomasochistic overtones). Good call, gentlemen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would somebody please sack the so-called casino management and marketing staff at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Everything at the Cosmo is improving except the gambling floor, which took a 20% nosedive in 2Q13, to $31 million. Losses were 25% … 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":[23,3,66,28,18,37,62,11,25,12,108,61,32,87,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11244"}],"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=11244"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11249,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11244\/revisions\/11249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}