{"id":15779,"date":"2015-03-26T09:58:02","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T17:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15779"},"modified":"2022-03-20T08:56:34","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T16:56:34","slug":"reids-heavy-hand-staying-the-course-in-macao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/reids-heavy-hand-staying-the-course-in-macao\/","title":{"rendered":"Reid’s heavy hand; Staying the course in Macao"},"content":{"rendered":"

Financing of SLS Las Vegas<\/strong> was made a little easier when Sen. Harry Reid<\/strong> (D) intervened on behalf of some of Sam Nazarian<\/strong>‘s all-important EB-5<\/strong> visa investors. The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security<\/strong> has identified four SLS investors who benefited from special treatment when Deputy Secretary\u00a0Alejandro Mayorkas<\/strong> overturned the rulings against\u00a0applicants who had been denied.\u00a0\u201cTheir allegations were unequivocal: Mr. Mayorkas gave special access and treatment to certain individuals and parties.\u00a0They told us he created special processes and revised existing policies in the EB-5 program to accommodate specific parties. According to the employees, but for Mr. Mayorkas\u2019 actions, the career staff would have decided these matters differently,\u201d read the IG’s report, but the applicants were “politically connected.”<\/p>\n

It gets better<\/a>. Rory Reid<\/strong> was on retainer, providing his legal talents to Nazarian’s project. (Reid fils<\/em> had no comment on the matter.) At the same time, Mayorkas “also took the extraordinary step of requiring staff to brief Senator Reid\u2019s staff on a weekly basis for several months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elder\u00a0Reid was unbowed. His\u00a0spokeswoman said,\u00a0\u201cThis is just one in many examples of Senator Reid\u2019s commitment to ensuring Nevada<\/strong>\u2019s tourism industry continues to thrive.\u00a0In short, Senator Reid will always put Nevada first and fight for Nevada jobs.\u201d In other words, “juice” is alive and well in the Silver State.<\/p>\n

* Galaxy Entertainment<\/strong> is adhering to a “build and they will come” strategy<\/a> in Macao<\/strong>, even as Chief Executive Fernando Chui<\/strong> promises stringent new rules on casinos. Wall \"Galaxy-Macau-e1352360709345-300x300\"<\/a>Street<\/strong> analysts were sufficiently sobered by Chui’s words to predict a 32% decline in gaming revenues this year. Galaxy Deputy Chairman Francis Lui<\/strong> responded that his father’s company\u00a0\u201cwon\u2019t change its long-term business strategy in the midst of business cycles.\u201d That strategy includes Broadway at Galaxy Macau<\/strong>, a resort whose appeal is pegged on a 3,000-seat grand theater.<\/p>\n

In truth, projects like Melco Crown Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Studio City<\/strong> and Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>‘s Parisian<\/strong> are so far down the track that there’s no choice but to hang on for what may be a bumpy ride (betting at Galaxy’s VIP tables dove 23% in 4Q14). The bright spot is that Galaxy is hanging onto its VIP business better than its competitors, so it has reason for optimism as it prepares to debut two new casinos at once. That’s audacity in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n

* Omnia<\/strong> nightclub appears to be drawing the masses to Caesars Palace<\/strong> more than ever, although it’s probably not for the claustrophobic. It seeks to one-up Hakkasan<\/strong> but I’m most intrigued by its chandelier<\/a>, which\u00a0makes the main chamber of Omnia look like the interior of the haunted spaceship from the movie\u00a0Event Horizon<\/em><\/a>. There’s a cheery thought to go with your $5K bottle service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Financing of SLS Las Vegas was made a little easier when Sen. Harry Reid (D) intervened on behalf of some of Sam Nazarian‘s all-important EB-5 visa investors. The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security has identified four SLS … 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":[14,26,7,52,62,93,11,10,25,162,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15779"}],"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=15779"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30898,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15779\/revisions\/30898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}