{"id":16268,"date":"2015-06-24T14:22:13","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T22:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16268"},"modified":"2021-04-12T09:17:28","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T17:17:28","slug":"big-legal-bill-for-steve-wynn-sls-las-vegas-craters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/big-legal-bill-for-steve-wynn-sls-las-vegas-craters\/","title":{"rendered":"Big legal bill for Steve Wynn; SLS Las Vegas craters"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case Steve Wynn<\/strong> is having second thoughts that maybe it was a bad idea to try and muzzle stock-picker James Chanos<\/strong>, a federal\u00a0court \"Wynn<\/a>made it official. On top of two defeats in the courtroom, Wynn has been handed a $422,380 bill<\/a> for Chanos’ legal expenses. Chanos had asked for six hundred dimes\u00a0but, as John L. Smith<\/strong> puts it, “I\u2019m guessing Wynn\u2019s legal eagles didn\u2019t brag to their client that they got him a nifty 25 percent discount.”<\/p>\n

Chanos’ crime was basically to tell the truth about the volatility of the Macao<\/strong> casino business and its treacherous undercurrents. As though to drive Chanos’\u00a0point home, the ruling comes down the same week that Triad boss\u00a0“Broken Tooth Koi<\/strong>,” newly freed from prison, announced plans to get back into the casino business. That’s not exactly an advertisement for a squeaky-clean Macao and neither is the anti-corruption drive by the central government that’s sent “whales” into hiding. If Wynn had his way with the Nevada<\/strong> Legislature (which very nearly did his bidding), we might not even be able to articulate these facts without fearing a Wynn Resorts<\/strong> lawsuit landing on the desk. It’s time Wynn paid the tab on the Chanos litigation and moved on to other, better things. That\u00a0Massachusetts<\/strong> casino isn’t going to build itself.<\/p>\n

* Mackinaw City<\/strong> leaders are reeling with surprise<\/a> after learning that the\u00a0Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians<\/strong> is resuscitating casino plans that have been dormant the past three years. The \"LTBBLogoHeader\"<\/a>renascent project, which will include an RV park, will go up where the defunct Thunder Falls Water Park<\/strong> now stands. Mackinaw City Village Manager David White<\/strong> called the announcement “out of left field” but tribal chairwoman Regina Gasco-Bentley<\/strong> says he\u00a0doth protest too much:\u00a0“We have always intended to develop the land, but the timing and the exact plan for the casino haven\u2019t been right until now.” The tribe would manage the casino itself, open in it in May 2016 and start with 64 slots only. (Any Class III gambling would have to be worked out between the Odawa and the city.) Boutique — or “satellite” — casinos don’t come any smaller than that.<\/p>\n

* We’ve been hearing how bad things are going for SLS Las Vegas<\/strong> but got our first dollars-and-cents glimpse<\/a> today. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>, by way of the SEC<\/strong>, the hotel-casino had net revenue of $37 million and lost $35 million, forcing owner Stockbridge Capital Partners<\/strong> to infuse $5 million into the property. Stockbridge expects to have to underwrite SLS to the tune of $40 million — effectively ratcheting the project’s cost up to $540 million — and may be wondering just what the hell kind of “vision”\u00a0Sam Nazarian<\/strong>\u00a0mesmerized\u00a0it\u00a0into. (Although Colony Capital<\/strong> got taken out of the project, its kiss of death seems to linger.)<\/p>\n

SLS prexy Scott Kreeger<\/strong> told the R-J<\/em>, “We are seeing areas of improvement” and Stockbridge has been able to refinance its debt, now \"Kreeger\"<\/a>at single-digit interest rates, which has to be cause for guarded optimism. One says “guarded” because SLS had sub-zero return on investment last quarter. Despite some early tsuris<\/em> in the food-and-beverage realm, that’s now the property’s strongest sector, closely followed by hotel revenues, with the casino finishing a distant third. It’s a rerun of the Cosmopolitan<\/strong> scenario, only in an inferior location. SLS needed that Rock in Rio<\/strong> food traffic like a fish needs water.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Cosmo, not only did it narrow its losses last quarter, thanks to the bargain price<\/a> negotiated by new owner Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII<\/strong>, the ROI has inched up to 7%. The shaky fortunes and slender return of the Cosmo should be a warning to future developers (I’m looking at you, James Packer<\/strong> and Genting Group<\/strong>) of the cost\/benefit perils of a multi-billion-dollar investment on the Strip, especially when you don’t have a customer database upon which to draw. Nazarian forked over his sbe entertainment<\/strong> and Sahara<\/strong> loyalty databases to MGM Resorts International<\/strong> and Circus Circus<\/strong>,\u00a0and the chickens have come home to roost with a vengeance.<\/p>\n

* Most nights at Palazzo<\/strong>, vocalist Bob Anderson<\/strong> can be seen doing an excellent impression<\/a> of Frank Sinatra<\/strong> … at least in the sense that he infallibly conveys the experience of one those nights when the older \"franktheman-pic\"<\/a>Sinatra wasn’t feeling it and just phoned it in, right down to weary patter (“Great chart there by Don Costa<\/strong>“) and combing his hair into an uncanny facsimile of Ol’ Blue Eyes late-period toupee. Anderson got some ink this week by claiming to columnist\u00a0Norm Clarke<\/strong> that the Sinatra estate “wish I would stop<\/a>.”\u00a0\u201cDo you honestly believe that six months into the run of the show the Sinatra Estate is getting around to \u2018taking legal action,'” a family attorney asked Clarke. The official position is that the Sinatras neither endorse (understandably) nor repudiate Anderson, which seems like taking the high road out of this morass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case Steve Wynn is having second thoughts that maybe it was a bad idea to try and muzzle stock-picker James Chanos, a federal\u00a0court made it official. On top of two defeats in the courtroom, Wynn has been handed a … 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":[3,66,4,120,96,62,53,112,11,54,162,12,195,32,87,9,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16268"}],"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=16268"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29495,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16268\/revisions\/29495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}