{"id":18236,"date":"2016-05-13T12:46:46","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T20:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18236"},"modified":"2016-05-13T12:46:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T20:46:46","slug":"weidner-headed-to-vietnam-nazarian-on-the-rebound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/weidner-headed-to-vietnam-nazarian-on-the-rebound\/","title":{"rendered":"Weidner headed to Vietnam?; Nazarian on the rebound"},"content":{"rendered":"

William Weidner<\/strong> hasn’t finished Lucky Dragon Casino<\/strong> yet and he’s already flashing some leg<\/a> at the Vietnamese government (or so it appears), seeking a $4 billion casino \"william_weidner\"megaresort in Ho Chi Minh City<\/strong> (to most us, Saigon<\/strong>). Financing Lucky Dragon will be a very light lift compared to the capital-investment mandates in Vietnam<\/strong>. Luckily for Weidner, his partners include Cantor Fitzgerald<\/strong>, which ought to be good for a few bucks. The design will be farmed out to Steelman Partners<\/strong>. Since only non-Vietnamese citizens would be able to gamble at the resort, Weidner’s business acumen will be tested to the max. Making a $4 billion megaresort pencil out just on tourist traffic is a challenge even in the gambling capitals of the world.<\/p>\n

* Station Casinos<\/strong> CFO Marc Falcone<\/strong> agreed implicitly with our friend American Gaming Guru<\/strong> that the Palms<\/strong> is a faded brand due for a comeback<\/a>. Speaking with analysts, Falcone said the Palms’ run rate was 60% below its peak and that Boarding Pass<\/strong> members were thin on the ground in that area of the valley, giving the Palms room to grow. He added that Station would evaluate a \u201cnumber of opportunities to invest targeted, strategic capital\u201d over the next several months. Station will be facing off against Boyd Gaming<\/strong> directly across the street at the Gold Coast<\/strong>, although the latter draws an older demographic — but which could use a competitive spur to spiff up a somewhat faded property.<\/p>\n

* Sam Nazarian<\/strong> is on the comeback trail. His SBE Entertainment<\/strong> bought Morgans \"snaz\"Hotel Group<\/strong> for a bargain-basement $82 million<\/a>. Morgans, whose blundering tenure at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong> is the stuff of local legend, has definitely come a long way down in the world, while Nazarian is on the rebound. The deal ought to give him a portion of the revenue stream from Delano<\/strong>, which MGM Resorts International<\/strong> sublicensed from Morgans.<\/p>\n

* Macao<\/strong> authorities have come up with another way of tightening the vise on gamblers trying to circumvent China<\/strong>‘s currency-exportation laws. Now,\u00a0China UnionPay Co. Ltd<\/strong>. cash terminals will require proof of identity<\/a> before dispensing money. Pawnshops in Macanese casinos will be high-priority locations. Sociedade de Jogos de Macau<\/strong> Director Angela Leong<\/strong> said the new rules \u201cwill not impose a big impact on casino earnings in the short term<\/em>\u201d (emphasis added). Sanford C. Bernstein<\/strong> analysts spelled it out for anybody in doubt as to the ramifications of the policy:\u00a0\u201cIt is likely that the Macau government is reacting to the discrepancy between UnionPay transactions and actual retail sales and is closing down loopholes as part of Macau\u2019s efforts to develop itself into a world-class tourist destination.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Weidner hasn’t finished Lucky Dragon Casino yet and he’s already flashing some leg at the Vietnamese government (or so it appears), seeking a $4 billion casino megaresort in Ho Chi Minh City (to most us, Saigon). Financing Lucky Dragon … 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":[65,60,149,22,206,62,53,102,159,25,162,57,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18236"}],"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=18236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18246,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18236\/revisions\/18246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}