{"id":16941,"date":"2015-10-06T12:04:45","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T20:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16941"},"modified":"2015-10-06T12:11:12","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T20:11:12","slug":"mgm-reassures-springfield-new-gig-for-loveman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mgm-reassures-springfield-new-gig-for-loveman\/","title":{"rendered":"MGM reassures Springfield; New gig for Loveman"},"content":{"rendered":"

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MGM Resorts International<\/strong> President William Hornbuckle<\/strong>‘s promptly arranged visit to Springfield<\/strong> took on the nature of a damage-control effort yesterday. Hornbuckle made an unequivocal commitment<\/a> to the city, saying,\u00a0“We have not gone anywhere, we will not go anywhere and we will be here to the end of this.” He also said that the company had already poured $250 million into the project, and\u00a0the publicly available figures (which include line items like the Massachusetts<\/strong> license fee) come to $235 million, which we’d say is close enough.<\/p>\n

Hornbuckle also dangled the prospect of a high-rise hotel tower if the casino is successful enough to warrant a second-phase expansion. As for the apartments that were scratched from the \"Hornbuckle\"<\/a>casino site, MGM has settled upon the ex-School Department headquarters building for 35 units but it still shopping around for real estate upon which to build the other 19 to which it is committed. “Everything that we agreed to [with MGM] will come to fruition,” assured Mayor Domenic Sarno<\/strong>, talking over a heckler. Hornbuckle, without committing to a specific dollar amount, suggested that the downsized project will cost $850 million. The final result would be more striking if the budget hadn’t been bushwhacked by inflation, but there doesn’t seem to be anything anyone can do about it now.<\/p>\n

Failing Upward Dept<\/strong>. The laureate goes this week to Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> Chairman of the Board Gary Loveman<\/strong>, who has <\/a>\"loveman\"<\/a>been lifted from the rubble<\/a>\u00a0by Aetna<\/strong> and installed as an executive vice president as well as president of its Healthagen<\/strong> division. His marching orders<\/a> are to provide a\u00a0“more affordable end-to-end consumer experience.” Sounds like the health-care equivalent of Total Rewards<\/strong>.\u00a0“I’m pleased to join Aetna as the company prepares to nearly double in size through the planned acquisition of Humana<\/strong>,” bloviated Loveman, in an oh-no-here-we-go-again moment. If I had an Aetna policy, I’d be canceling it this very minute.<\/p>\n

* Not to pour cold water on all those gaming execs who were giddy with excitement about skill-based slots, but they’re not hitting casino floors this year and maybe not next year either. None has been tested, let alone licensed — and most gaming-friendly states have yet to legalize them, letting Nevada<\/strong> take the lead. Gaming Today<\/em>‘s “The Analyst” explains why<\/a> patience is the watchword.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0There won’t be a soft opening when Dania Jai-alai<\/strong> reopens as a 90-slot casino, most likely in January<\/a>. As CEO Scott Savin<\/strong> pithily puts it, “We want to have walls before we open.” The former Boyd Gaming<\/strong> property is a joint venture of Savin’s Magic City Casino<\/strong> and a group of Argentine investors. It’s had a bumpy history so let’s wish Savin a successful launch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MGM Resorts International President William Hornbuckle‘s promptly arranged visit to Springfield took on the nature of a damage-control effort yesterday. Hornbuckle made an unequivocal commitment to the city, saying,\u00a0“We have not gone anywhere, we will not go anywhere and we … 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":[60,36,7,112,11,25,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16941"}],"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=16941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16943,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16941\/revisions\/16943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}