{"id":18792,"date":"2016-08-30T09:04:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T17:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18792"},"modified":"2016-08-30T11:28:55","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T19:28:55","slug":"icahn-intransigent-at-taj-olympic-betting-a-flop-relief-for-caesars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/icahn-intransigent-at-taj-olympic-betting-a-flop-relief-for-caesars\/","title":{"rendered":"Icahn intransigent at Taj; Olympic betting a flop; Relief for Caesars"},"content":{"rendered":"

For someone who claims he’s trying to save Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong>, owner Carl Icahn sure acts like he’s hellbent on closing it. A counteroffer from striking Unite-Here<\/strong> that would \"tony-rodio\"cost the casino only $1.3 million a year to preserve health benefits (much less than the revenue the casino is forfeiting thanks to the strike) was rejected out of hand<\/a>. Icahn and property CEO Anthony Rodio<\/strong> insist that the union vote on their<\/em> offer or else. At a meeting yesterday with the union, Rodio rebuffed the counteroffer outright, saying,\u00a0\u201cThis was not a negotiating session.\u00a0As previously announced, the Taj Mahal will close its doors on October 10, 2016. Bob McDevitt<\/strong> and the Taj bargaining committee have no one to blame but themselves for this sad outcome. If McDevitt cared even one iota about the future of the employees he would have allowed them to vote on the proposal we offered five weeks ago based on his recommendations, which we believe could have saved the Taj. But in the end he blindsided us and the employees because closing the Taj served his personal purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I dunno. Given his war-to-the-knife approach, it seems like it’s Icahn’s personal purposes that are being served by maintaining intransigence at the bargaining table. Taj workers already<\/em> rejected the status quo when they voted to strike. Why should they ratify a state of affairs they’ve already deemed unacceptable. And, despite his insistence that he’s going to close the Taj, Icahn hasn’t asked the New Jersey Casino Control Commission<\/strong> for the necessary permission to do so, making you wonder if his real endgame is to break the union.<\/p>\n

* For the first time in 16 years, Nevada<\/strong> sports book patrons could bet on the Olympics<\/strong> … and stayed away. True, the sports books logged lots of people watching<\/em> the games, but wagering was a whole ‘nother matter<\/a>. Out of 65 Olympic events offered for betting at Westgate Las Vegas<\/strong>, the favorite — not surprisingly — was basketball, thanks to the name-brand talent on the U.S. team, mostly.\u00a0\u201cThere was minimal interest decades ago and so far that has held true this year with a couple of exceptions,\u201d the Westgate’s Jay Kornegay<\/strong> told Bloomberg News<\/em>. Added his Mirage<\/strong> colleague Jay Rood<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cWe probably have taken about as much in Olympic wagers as we would on a big baseball game, regular season.\u201d Even more chagrined<\/a> was Wynncore<\/strong>‘s Johnny Avello<\/strong>, who said, “I put in a lot of time in it for very little action.” It makes you wonder whether, even with the freedom to take Olympic bets, sports book operators will bother next time … except for roundball.<\/p>\n

* A U.S. District Court in Chicago<\/strong> has thrown Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> a lifeline, giving an additional, two-week stay<\/a> of $11 billion worth of litigation. The extension gives Caesars time to appeal Judge Benjamin Goldgar<\/strong>‘s ruling that lawsuits against the company for alleged fraudulent conveyances could proceed. It also provides the company with a fortnight to persuade dissident creditors like Appaloosa Management<\/strong> into the fold. However, considering that talks have been dragging on since February, it could take a miracle to resolve this bankruptcy in 14 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For someone who claims he’s trying to save Trump Taj Mahal, owner Carl Icahn sure acts like he’s hellbent on closing it. A counteroffer from striking Unite-Here that would cost the casino only $1.3 million a year to preserve health … 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":[23,82,7,58,11,207,74,32,9,21,196,184],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18792"}],"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=18792"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18798,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18792\/revisions\/18798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}