{"id":15404,"date":"2015-01-26T12:52:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T20:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15404"},"modified":"2015-01-26T12:52:11","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T20:52:11","slug":"where-will-the-caesars-fight-be-fought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/where-will-the-caesars-fight-be-fought\/","title":{"rendered":"Where will the Caesars fight be fought?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the battle between Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> and its dissident creditors, the opening route — the choice of venue — may be the decisive one<\/a>. As noted previously, Caesars wants \"Gary_loveman_Cropped_fmt\"<\/a>the case heard in Chicago<\/strong> and not in Wilmington<\/strong>, even though it is a Delaware<\/strong>-incorporated company. Dissidents point out that Delaware\u00a0is practically in CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong>‘s back yard of Wellesley<\/strong>, Massachusetts<\/strong>. For its part, Caesars has proffered a variety of excuses … Chicago is closer to Las Vegas<\/strong>, there are more Caesars casinos around it, its law firm is headquartered there, etc.<\/p>\n

And then there’s this: “Federal courts in Chicago apply a looser standard when deciding whether to release company affiliates, owners or insiders from liability related to a bankruptcy. Such third-party releases are harder to come by in Wilmington,” reports Bloomberg Businessweek<\/em>. If Caesars is granted those releases, the fight may be as good as over. But Wilmington-based Judge Kevin Gross<\/strong> has the prerogative of keeping the case before his bench, since the initial\u00a0litigation was filed there. Plaintiffs\u00a0Silver Point Capital<\/strong>, BlackRock Financial<\/strong> and Franklin Mutual Advisers<\/strong> have 3.5 billion reasons to hope Gross sees things their way.<\/p>\n

* As baccarat goes, so goes the Strip. It’s expected that last year’s Strip gambling numbers will be down 1%, driven by a 4.5% baccarat slippage. In 2012, the game was up 9% and \"Baccarat\"<\/a>overall gambling revenue up 2%. The year after that, a 17% climb in baccarat revenues propelled the Strip up 5%<\/a>. Looking ahead, analysts are feeling the love for MGM Resorts International<\/strong>, with its widely diversified portfolio. Said\u00a0Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets<\/strong> analyst Steven Wieczynski<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cMGM\u2019s Strip returns have also benefited from judicious cost management, which has allowed modest top-line gains to generate outsized cash flow growth,\u201d and that MGM Macau<\/strong>‘s “greatest value lies in its ability to grow MGM\u2019s share of the market\u2019s nongaming business, the segment we expect to deliver superior return in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

* Now that the major-league sports are openly in bed with fantasy-sports sites, they’re going to have a hard time blocking moves like this: Bills in both the upper and lower houses of the Washington State<\/strong> legislature would reclassify fantasy sports as\u00a0“contests of skill.” This would make betting on them legal in the state, in much the same fashion as a poker tournament. There’s plenty of money to be won: It’s estimated that FanDuel<\/strong> alone paid\u00a0out $400 million last year. Similar legalization pushes are on<\/a> in Iowa<\/strong>, Arizona<\/strong> and Maryland<\/strong>, and when you consider that the amount being wagered already, the taxable-income aspect of fantasy sports must be very difficult to resist, although tribal opposition killed an earlier push in Arizona. State Sen. Pam Roach<\/strong> (R) minimizes tribal objections, adding, “The fact that you\u2019re decriminalizing fantasy football \u2014 since nobody really knows it is a crime \u2014 wouldn\u2019t increase participation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the battle between Caesars Entertainment and its dissident creditors, the opening route — the choice of venue — may be the decisive one. As noted previously, Caesars wants the case heard in Chicago and not in Wilmington, even though … 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":[164,14,7,58,62,112,11,74,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15404"}],"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=15404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15405,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15404\/revisions\/15405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}