{"id":12278,"date":"2013-12-17T11:31:42","date_gmt":"2013-12-17T19:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12278"},"modified":"2020-02-27T06:27:29","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T14:27:29","slug":"bad-news-for-adelson-wynn-okd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/bad-news-for-adelson-wynn-okd\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad news for Adelson; Wynn OK’d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sheldon\"<\/a>I don’t know if Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> deserves the credit, but it looks like his anti-Internet<\/strong>-casino jihad has driven Big Gaming closer together. Wynn Resorts<\/strong> and Station Casinos<\/strong> and<\/em> Churchill Downs<\/strong> have all joined<\/a> the American Gaming Association<\/strong>. AGA prexy Geoff Freeman<\/strong> has already spoken out (indirectly) against Adelson and just substantially grown his constituency. To land three big operators at once is quite the coup de theatre<\/em> and reinforces the ideological isolation of Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> and its sultan. It’s not been a good week for Sheldon. (Note that Monte Carlo’<\/strong>s casinos gross less than 1% of the projected cost of EuroVegas<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

\"Wynn<\/a>There’s very little<\/strong> standing between Wynn Resorts and a Massachusetts<\/strong> casino license after the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong>‘s executive branch deemed Wynn suitable. “It seems like they run as buttoned-up an operation in Macau as pretty much can possibly be done<\/em>,” said MGC Chairman Stephen Crosby<\/strong> during a hearing during which Steve Wynn<\/strong> was seeing periodically dozing off<\/a>. While awake, he seconded Crosby’s sentiments, saying, \u201cDo we allow illegal activity in our casinos? The answer is no, no, no<\/em>.” If a $1.5 million probe of Wynn didn’t find anything then it’s reasonable to conclude there’s nothing to be found<\/a>. A full vote on Wynn’s suitability remains to be held but his land purchase can now proceed<\/a> full steam ahead.<\/p>\n

Out west, Longmeadow<\/strong> is tripping over its shoelaces<\/a> in surrounding-community negotiations with MGM Resorts International<\/strong>. If a mitigation agreement is not reached, the matter goes to binding arbitration. It’s hard to believe that city fathers are sneezing at $75,000, but that appears to be the case. For its part, MGM has to answer MGC questions<\/a> about the continued participation of Brimfiel<\/strong>d landowners in its Springfield project, long after MGM quit Brimfield. The company’s ex-Brimfield partners are quite a bunch. David Callahan<\/strong> may have been merely coy but Vincent Barletta<\/strong> deserves an award for evasiveness.<\/p>\n

If casino opponents get their way<\/strong> in Massachusetts, the state thinks it could be looking at a revenue gap of as much as $400 million<\/a>. Peter Pan-type opponents like Kathleen Norbut<\/strong> claim the money will never materialize anyway, having “said casinos will be hurt by expansion of online gambling and declining interest from the public<\/em>.” I’m surprised MGM and Wynn are willing to gamble on a jurisdiction in which their property could be confiscated by popular vote.<\/p>\n

In other news<\/strong>, MGM is issuing $500 million in new debt, which “may” pay down existing debt and, although unsecured, will be “guaranteed by substantially all of the Company’s wholly owned domestic subsidiaries which guarantee the Company’s other senior indebtedness, and equal in right of payment with all existing or future senior unsecured indebtedness of the Company and each guarantor<\/em>.” If I held some pre-existing debt, I’m not sure I’d be crazy about losing a portion of my seniority, but there you have it.<\/p>\n

\"AC<\/a>Executives of the Atlantic Clu<\/strong>b are trying to stash their pockets full of cash as the hotel goes into bankruptcy. Bankruptcy bonuses, believe it or not, are standard practice but these were so rich that they were reduced in court<\/a>. For any bonuses to kick in, the grind joint has to bring $25 million at auction, so the the question could easily be moot. The one thing going for the ACH is that its encumbrances are likely to have been removed, making it a more attractive acquisition target. It’s hard to believe that Colony Capital<\/strong> CEO Tom Barrack<\/strong> once paid $513 million for the place. Those were the days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t know if Sheldon Adelson deserves the credit, but it looks like his anti-Internet-casino jihad has driven Big Gaming closer together. Wynn Resorts and Station Casinos and Churchill Downs have all joined the American Gaming Association. AGA prexy Geoff … 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":[23,3,174,22,37,112,11,25,12,57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278"}],"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=12278"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26213,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278\/revisions\/26213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}