{"id":13142,"date":"2014-03-31T09:48:30","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T17:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13142"},"modified":"2014-03-31T09:48:43","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T17:48:43","slug":"murren-on-japan-blatsteins-big-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/murren-on-japan-blatsteins-big-buy\/","title":{"rendered":"Murren on Japan; Blatstein’s big buy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"murren_t198\"<\/a>It’s still a long haul until casinos are legalized in Japan<\/strong>, let alone built, but MGM Resorts International<\/strong> CEO Jim Murren<\/strong> is waxing confident. He notes that Japan’s tourism is expected to grow 100% by 2020 and another 50% by 2030 — propitious conditions for a casino resort. He says “<\/strong>networking into what’s most important, the beauty of Japan, will drive that growth<\/em>.” In what may be a tacit dig at Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, he says, “I was constantly struck by the natural beauty of the country and the friendliness and warmth of the Japanese people. In some people’s eyes, everything should be in the resort. I think that’s a mistake. The casino resort should be integrated within the community and nation and encourage visitors to explore and see what’s so great about the country<\/em>.”
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

He also takes a position that could be potentially contentious but is consistent with MGM’s reputation as an agent of possible social change: Murren would like to see more women in the Japanese workforce. “Right now, women are poorly represented in the executive ranks in Japan’s companies. That drags down the overall economy<\/em>.” That kind of talk could hurt MGM’s chances but we appreciate Murren sticking by his principles.<\/p>\n

* As the stock price of Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> continues to slip<\/a>, the real-world conditions of its problems can be seen in Tunica County<\/strong>. The economy there was pretty bad already<\/a> but the closing of Harrah’s Tunica<\/strong> deals a particularly devastating blow.<\/p>\n

\"Foxwoods<\/a>* Philadelphia<\/strong> developer Bart Blatstein<\/strong> has a genius for buying and selling the former site of a Foxwoods<\/strong>-branded casino project. He put the land together in 1993 for $8.5 million, then sold it to gaming interests for $64 million.\u00a0Philadelphia Entertainment & Development Partners<\/strong> spent at least $50 million, in tandem with Foxwoods, trying to redevelop the site. They failed and are trying to get their licensing fee back via bankruptcy court, in order to pay legal fees, architects, etc. Blatstein, meanwhile got the land back for $13 million<\/a> plus the agreement to pay an $8 million property-tax arrearage. His intentions for the site are unknown but it’s believed he’s still focused on building a casino downtown.<\/p>\n

* Some of the most interesting reading on the gambling industry can be found in Howard Stutz<\/strong>‘s “Inside Gaming” column, now being published twice weekly. His latest opus<\/a> traces the twisting path by which PokerStars<\/strong> hopes to get into the U.S.<\/strong> online-casino market. The company doesn’t want any “bad actor” clause in potential California<\/strong> legislation, even though PokerStars has given some very poor performances indeed.<\/div>\n
* Huntington Press<\/strong> author<\/a> Frank Cullotta<\/strong> is making a second career<\/a> off his Mob experiences. He’s leading bus tours, so if you really want to know where the foul deeds went down, Cullotta’s your man.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s still a long haul until casinos are legalized in Japan, let alone built, but MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren is waxing confident. He notes that Japan’s tourism is expected to grow 100% by 2020 and another 50% by … 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":[34,166,7,37,171,11,35,95,87,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13142"}],"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=13142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13144,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13142\/revisions\/13144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}