{"id":14849,"date":"2014-10-24T11:53:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T19:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14849"},"modified":"2014-10-27T08:37:49","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T16:37:49","slug":"wild-wild-east-fertitta-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wild-wild-east-fertitta-remembered\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild, wild East; Fertitta remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine a Las Vega<\/strong>s in which to play you were required to lay out at least $65 … and where the average minimum bet was $270<\/a>, maybe even $320. You’d have Macao<\/strong>,
\n\"HotelLisboa\"<\/a>whose players dwarf Vegas’ ($20 average minimum bet) and even Singapore<\/strong> ($50) in their audacity. The most tight-fisted punters, by the way, are those in the Philippines<\/strong>, where the average minimum wager is just $10, although glamorous new casinos may have a pursestring-loosening effect.<\/p>\n

Of course, such boldness has its downside.\u00a0“It might be fun to lose $1,000 in two to three hours, but it is definitely not enjoyable to lose your entire gaming budget in one hand of Baccarat,” says CSLA<\/strong> research chief Aaron Fischer<\/strong>. \u00a0And baccarat is the name of the game there, comprising 91% of play, with slots a mere 4% and all other games divvying up the remaining 5%. The Strip’s fortunes also rise and fall with baccarat, but nowhere near this extent. With hotel-room capacity scheduled to increase another 70% over the next two years or so, mass-market play is going to have to come through in a big way.<\/p>\n

* Today’s Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> contains a remembrance of Frank Fertitta Jr<\/strong>., marketing genius and founder of Station Casinos<\/strong>, which has grown beyond anything he could have managed. There’s a somewhat melancholy undertone<\/a> to the saga, in that \"boulderstation-pic\"<\/a>from 1976, when he founded what is now Palace Station<\/strong> until his retirement in 1993 (Boulder Station<\/strong> having commenced construction), the elder Fertitta wrote a fairly narrow chapter in Station’s history. It was his sons who were responsible for everything — good, bad and historic — that followed.<\/p>\n

However, what Frank III<\/strong> and Lorenzo<\/strong> lacked was their father’s innate financial conservatism, which saw the company through its early decades. In the wake of a catastrophic LBO, however, that cost-conscious sensibility has returned and sound business fundamentals now rule the day. One might say the spirit of Frank Sr. is back in the building.<\/p>\n

* Although it’s been provisionally operational for months, South Point<\/strong>‘s online-gambling portal, Real Gaming<\/strong> is now the real deal<\/a>, having been approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission<\/strong>. Real Gaming is somewhat unusual in that relies on a proprietary platform rather than teaming with an affiliate. The poker-only site joins Station Casinos’ Ultimate Gaming<\/strong> and Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>‘s World Series of Poker<\/strong> site in vying for Nevada<\/strong>\u00a0players. The WGC meeting also saw Warner Gaming<\/strong> get the go-ahead to rebaptize the Horizon<\/strong> in Lake Tahoe<\/strong> with eh Hard Rock<\/strong> brand. Anything would be a step up for the Horizon and that’s a big one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine a Las Vegas in which to play you were required to lay out at least $65 … and where the average minimum bet was $270, maybe even $320. You’d have Macao, whose players dwarf Vegas’ ($20 average minimum bet) … 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":[7,140,22,37,76,62,122,108,57,9,146],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14849"}],"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=14849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14851,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14849\/revisions\/14851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}