{"id":12764,"date":"2014-02-17T14:08:06","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T22:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12764"},"modified":"2014-02-17T14:08:06","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T22:08:06","slug":"keeping-up-with-the-joneses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/keeping-up-with-the-joneses\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping up with the Joneses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Greektown\"<\/a>\"Greektown\"<\/a>Long a money pit for the Saulte Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians<\/strong>, the Greektown Casino<\/strong> in downtown Detroit<\/strong> is now owner Dan Gilbert<\/strong>‘s problem. A smoky warren of gambling spaces, the original layout is a clusterf**k that warrants Greektown’s eternal last-place status in the market. Gilbert is setting out to change that, including a revamp of the casino floor, to the tune of $150 million. It’ll be a two-year project, which means continued near-term losses for the casino, which finished $31 million in the red last year<\/a>. Gilbert concedes it will lose money this year and after that … ? Still, anything that simplifies the property’s layout and upgrades its slot product has to be counted as a A Good Thing. Halfway across the country, Bally’s Atlantic City<\/strong> is trying something very similar<\/a>\u00a0(at a fraction of the cost) and ditching the old Wild Wild West branding formula.<\/p>\n

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MGM Springfield<\/strong> President Michael Mathis<\/strong> finds his current post a refreshing break from overseas MGM postings to South Korea<\/strong> and Japan<\/strong>. The stakes aren’t as big but Mathis contends that “This idea of a downtown, urban casino, which we’ve designed, I think is going to help change our industry<\/em>.” How so<\/a>? In part, by integrating historic, venerable Springfield<\/strong> buildings into the fabric of the resort, some merely as facades, others more substantively. Mathis describes the process as “a balance between what we need to do to have a functional resort and paying homage to that great architecture …\u00a0This was the Silicon Valley of its day<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Mathis is already preparing to bring his family eastward, so he naturally talks up the family friendly aspects of MGM Springfield. He also projects a late 2016 or early 2017 opening for the casino, should the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> give it the nod. “He said the MGM construction development team is used to building larger buildings in more challenging environments<\/em>” — and how! Compared to CityCenter<\/strong> this is a walk in the park, although several surrounding-community requests continue to hang fire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not sharing the excitement is Twin River Casino<\/strong>, in Rhode Island<\/strong>. Although well-armed \"Twin<\/a>with table games and fresh from the acquisition<\/a> of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi<\/strong>, Twin River is part of jurisdiction that is projected to lose $84 million a year to Massachusetts over the next five years. That’s bad news for a state whose third-biggest revenue source is gambling. The nearest threat would be a revived Foxwoods Massachusetts<\/strong> in Fall River<\/strong>. Twin River Chairman John Taylor<\/strong> is pushing back by stressing convenience.\u00a0He also pointed to recent demographic and revenue shifts that show this casino is skewing younger in its player base and doing better in F&B, thanks to a new emphasis on table games.<\/p>\n

Revel Resort<\/strong> got some free publicity when the Baltimore Ravens<\/strong>‘ Ray Rice<\/strong> came to blows with his girlfriend<\/a>. Just imagine all the sick curiosity-driven business that will conjure.<\/p>\n

Problem gambling<\/strong> has a \u00a0poster girl and it’s Mariam Aziz<\/strong>, ex-wife of the Sultan of Brunei<\/strong>. She supposedly lost $1.7 million\/day while on a two-week gambling spree<\/a>, resulting in the sale of $30 million in jewels. Let no one accuse her of underachievement. Mme. Aziz’s toilet habits are also discussed but they’re not for the squeamish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long a money pit for the Saulte Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Greektown Casino in downtown Detroit is now owner Dan Gilbert‘s problem. A smoky warren of gambling spaces, the original layout is a clusterf**k that warrants Greektown’s … 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":[65,23,56,154,44,22,112,11,35,90,157,141,74],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12764"}],"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=12764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12768,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12764\/revisions\/12768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}