{"id":1146,"date":"2009-11-02T14:27:33","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T22:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=1146"},"modified":"2020-03-13T07:07:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T15:07:50","slug":"case-bets-citycenter-boyd-odyssey-massachusetts-the-admiral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-citycenter-boyd-odyssey-massachusetts-the-admiral\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets: CityCenter, Boyd odyssey, Massachusetts & the “Admiral”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CityCenter\"There’s continued apprehension about MGM Mirage<\/strong>‘s $8.5 billion, 7,200-unit CityCenter<\/strong>, especially now that hotel rooms there are going for less than ones at either the Venetian<\/strong> or Encore<\/strong>. (Thinking positively<\/em>: Who knew CityCenter was going to be so affordable?) Business Week<\/em> also frets that the metaresort will cannibalize existing MGM business. Since the company does not believe in cross-property marketing, managers at Aria<\/strong> will have just as much incentive to siphon business from Bellagio<\/strong> as from Caesars Palace<\/strong>. Or perhaps MGM enjoys a speedier recovery while — as analyst Matthew Jacob<\/strong> hypothesizes — everyone else’s road back is made even longer.<\/p>\n

There’s a certain irony in hearing people like MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren<\/strong> touting the bargains available in present-day Vegas … because that sure wasn’t the sales pitch they had in mind when extolling condo canyons along the Strip. At least Murren has shown the pragmatism to swallow his pride about room rates and extol high occupancy levels instead. Your guess is as good as mine what he means by a throwaway reference to private equity firms<\/a>. Let’s hope it’s not code for “leveraged buyout.” Because MGM needs more debt like it needs a hole in the head.<\/p>\n

MGM could use fans like these<\/strong>. A Milford, Conn. couple is really racking up the miles in its cross-country quest<\/a> to visit every Boyd Gaming<\/strong> property in existence.<\/p>\n

Massachusetts can’t decide<\/strong>. Voters in the Bay State favor bringing in casinos (56% say “aye”), according to a Western New England College Polling Institute<\/strong> survey. But that number flips to 38% when the question is, “Would you like a casino in your town?” So the citizenry favors gambling — just so long as it’s Over Yonder someplace. The question of where Massachusetts<\/strong> casinos would go hasn’t been well addressed by legislators so far. They’d be well advised to temper NIMBY resistance by taking a page from states like Kansas<\/strong> and Ohio<\/strong>, where voters have a fairly clear idea where the slot palaces are likely to arise. Even Pennsylvania<\/strong>, where there’s been some loud local resistance (especially in Philadelphia<\/strong>) has never been coy about what the public could expect and where.<\/p>\n

Admiral<\/em> gets soaked again<\/strong>. One of the problems Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> faces in maintaining its minimally remunerative President<\/strong> casino (aboard the Admiral<\/strong> riverboat) is that the ship’s gangways are wont to be swamped by Mississippi River<\/strong> floodwaters. As happened again last weekend. So one sympathizes with Pinnacle’s desire to move the old gal to a new berth. However, while Missouri<\/strong> law may give Pinnacle thismuch<\/em> wiggle room to do so, it still seems unfair to allow a splitting of the President\/Lumiere Place<\/strong> license, giving Pinnacle yet another discrete casino when potential newcomers to the Show-Me State are barred, period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s continued apprehension about MGM Mirage‘s $8.5 billion, 7,200-unit CityCenter, especially now that hotel rooms there are going for less than ones at either the Venetian or Encore. (Thinking positively: Who knew CityCenter was going to be so affordable?) Business … 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":[65,60,56,28,14,105,7,45,112,11,39,71,95,30,12,9,19,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146"}],"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=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26380,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions\/26380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}