{"id":1675,"date":"2009-12-22T16:17:40","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T00:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2023-03-03T06:59:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T14:59:04","slug":"case-bets-greektown-adelson-philadelphia-stanley-ho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-greektown-adelson-philadelphia-stanley-ho\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets: Greektown, Adelson, Philadelphia & Stanley Ho"},"content":{"rendered":"

If a management company increases your revenues in the teeth of the Great Recession — and despite your casino’s well-publicized financial problems — what do you do? Kick them out, of course<\/a>, if you’re Greektown Casino<\/strong> and you’ve no further use for rescuer Fine Point Group<\/strong>. Day-to-day operations could soon revert to the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians<\/strong>, the folks who firmly entrenched Greektown in last place in the Detroit<\/strong> market.<\/p>\n

Sands New Bedford?<\/strong> The former whaling port’s proposed casino is the handiwork of a Manhattan<\/strong>-based developer who looks a lot like a stalking horse for a certain Sheldon Adelson<\/strong><\/a>. Subterfuge isn’t Adelson’s style but, given his myriad commitments worldwide, perhaps it’s just as well if he lets KG Urban Enterprises<\/strong> do the heavy lifting and simply runs the casino. The project’s also likelier to get done on time that way. To let Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> take the lead would probably be what Adelson calls “ill-advisable.”<\/p>\n

\"Shelly\"(Take note, in the Forbes<\/em> interview, of how CEO Adelson deftly puts all blame for his company’s recent adversity on a few, conveniently departed “bad managers [who] financed our expansion by borrowing against future assets (casinos) that generate income, rather than taking out normal project finance loans<\/em>.” Present-day Sands execs, watch your backs!)<\/p>\n

Glitz is overrated<\/strong>. Racino Philadelphia Park<\/strong> (now enhanced with the hideously named Parx Casino<\/strong> — another blow to literacy) maybe “lacks the glitz of competitors in Bethlehem<\/strong> and Pittsburgh<\/strong> – both with $800 million casinos.” It’s also doing significantly better than either of those more-expensive facilities.<\/p>\n

While SugarHouse<\/strong> has finally gotten started and Foxwoods<\/strong> continues to fart-ass around, both casino projects may soon find that Greenwood Racing<\/strong> Chairman Bob Green<\/strong> has stolen an insurmountable march on them. Habits are hard for gamblers to break and Green’s got a habit-forming lead on his Philadelphia<\/strong> competitors. But don’t hold your breath waiting for Pennsylvania legislators<\/a> to approve table games (or markers). They continue to mosey along l<\/a>ike they’ve got all the time in the world.<\/p>\n

On the mend<\/strong>. S&G<\/em> sends get-well wishes to Stanley Ho<\/strong>. The elderly casino baron has been on the receiving end of many an S&G<\/em> verbal dart over the years but, frankly, the gaming world would be a much, much duller place without him. Despite a recent public appearance, Ho is still hospitalized<\/a> and comments by Steve Wynn<\/strong> make it sound as though the elderly plutocrat is unlikely to resume directorship of SJM<\/strong> soon or possibly ever. Which is surprisingly melancholy news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If a management company increases your revenues in the teeth of the Great Recession — and despite your casino’s well-publicized financial problems — what do you do? Kick them out, of course, if you’re Greektown Casino and you’ve no further … 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":[28,44,62,112,91,101,95,111,12,61,32,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675"}],"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=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32416,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions\/32416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}