{"id":16529,"date":"2015-08-03T10:45:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T18:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16529"},"modified":"2015-08-03T10:49:42","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T18:49:42","slug":"mgms-cost-discipline-difficulties-wynn-framed-in-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mgms-cost-discipline-difficulties-wynn-framed-in-boston\/","title":{"rendered":"MGM’s cost-discipline difficulties; Wynn framed in Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

As fast as MGM Resorts International<\/strong> can sell off non-core assets, the proceeds are consumed by new construction. Case in \"NationalHarbor1\"<\/a>point: MGM National Harbor<\/strong>, whose initial $925 million cost has crept up to $1.3 billion. That’s money that can’t go to debt servicing and MGM is the second-most highly leveraged company in gaming. (Cautionary note: Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> is #1.)\u00a0Having deployed 10 construction cranes and sunk 6,400 pilings<\/a>, MGM’s course is set, with a late-2016 opening the eventual goal. General Manager Bill Boasberg<\/strong> helped oversee CityCenter<\/strong> and Aria<\/strong>, and has to like the odds of National Harbor better than his two previous projects.<\/p>\n

The Springfield Republican<\/em> describes the project as “a 125,000 square-foot casino that includes 3,300 video lottery terminals and \"National<\/a>160 table games; a roughly 26,500 square-foot spa and salon; a transformable arena with 3,000 seats; 18,000 square-feet of retail space; 27,000 square-feet of meeting space and 12 restaurants,” plus a 308-room hotel. MGM projects it will draw 17,000 visitors a day and, at those proportions, it will need to. Some of the features, like motion-sensor lighting, will be familiar from Aria and MGM’s other recent Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> properties.<\/p>\n

* Boston<\/strong> Mayor Martin “McCheese” Walsh<\/strong>\u00a0(below<\/em>) caught a nasty sideswipe from federal authorities who are prosecuting the three men (Charles Lightbody<\/strong>, Anthony Gattineri<\/strong> and Dustin DeNunzio<\/strong>) who sold Steve Wynn<\/strong> the land on which Wynn Everett<\/strong> will eventually stand. In a lawsuit against the \"walsh\"<\/a>Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong>, Boston attorneys accused the feds of giving a pair of private investigators access<\/a> to sensitive documents and wiretaps. Not only do the investigators deny working for Wynn at the time, they’re seconded by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristina Barclay<\/strong>, who characterizes Walsh’s accusations as based “on a rumor spewed and spun by the City of Boston in a vicious civil lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.” The city is pushing for a disclosure of the evidence, which could be embarrassing if there’s nothing to disclose.<\/p>\n

The massive snit fit by Boston, Revere<\/strong> and Somerville<\/strong> is coming at \"Mohegan<\/a>steep price to taxpayers: $1.4 million so far<\/a> … and more if a Sept. 22 hearing permits the ligitation to go forward. Personally, were I a casino developer, I’d have serious questions about going forward in lawsuit-happy Massachusetts<\/strong>, where the inmates truly seem to be running the asylum. Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo<\/strong>, for his part, is in the pocket of Mohegan Sun<\/strong>, which is paying for his city’s litigation. Gee, no hidden agenda there.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, only $80,000 remains of the MGC’s legal budget, so this may be a case of spending the commission into oblivion. Somerville \"Rizzo\"<\/a>has to be complimented for getting a good deal on legal representation, spending only 79 grand to date. The sentiments of all three cities are essentially summarized by Mayor Rizzo (left<\/em>), who whined,\u00a0“We do not believe that the residents of Revere received a fair outcome.\u00a0The city has lost many millions of dollars in improvements, revenue, and jobs as a result of the Gaming Commission’s flawed and tainted process.” If you don’t like the rules, don’t play the game.<\/p>\n

* Deciding that if it can’t beat ’em it better join ’em, Penn National Gaming<\/strong> is bidding on an undisclosed slot route<\/a> in Illinois<\/strong>, with 1,100 slots up for grabs. If Penn’s doing it, can Caesars Entertainment and Boyd Gaming<\/strong> be far behind?<\/p>\n

* If you visit only one tourist attraction in Las Vegas<\/strong>, make it the Mob Museum<\/strong>. It’s so rich in content<\/a> and atmosphere that my wife and I spent three hours there and only made it halfway through the exhibits. Chalk it up as “unfinished business.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As fast as MGM Resorts International can sell off non-core assets, the proceeds are consumed by new construction. Case in point: MGM National Harbor, whose initial $925 million cost has crept up to $1.3 billion. That’s money that can’t go … 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":[65,60,56,51,7,140,58,112,11,69,92,32,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16529"}],"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=16529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16534,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16529\/revisions\/16534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}