{"id":18987,"date":"2016-10-11T10:51:14","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T18:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18987"},"modified":"2016-10-12T08:10:57","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T16:10:57","slug":"casino-moguls-get-stadium-religion-macao-casinos-not-a-beijing-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/casino-moguls-get-stadium-religion-macao-casinos-not-a-beijing-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"Casino moguls get stadium religion; Macao casinos not a Beijing priority"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/launch.newsinc.com\/embed.html?type=VideoPlayer\/Single&amp;widgetId=1&amp;trackingGroup=69016&amp;playlistId=19132&amp;siteSection=lvrj&amp;videoId=31496898\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" frameborder=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>MGM Resorts International<\/strong> CEO <strong>Jim Murren<\/strong> has had a come-to-<strong>Jesus<\/strong> moment on <strong>Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>&#8216;s proposed <strong>NFL<\/strong> stadium. After all, MGM stands the most to benefit from proximity to its all-but-certain <strong>Russell Road<\/strong> location. Failing to fund the stadium, Murren told legislators, would be &#8220;just tragic, really.\u00a0Why not? What could possibly be a valid reason? We know this state thrives on innovation, it thrives on reinventing itself, and we need to continue to diversify. This will bring more jobs, more diversity to the economy. This is exactly what these room taxes were designed to do many, many years ago, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m so supportive of it.&#8221; The CEO acknowledged that\u00a0\u201cWhat\u2019s good for <strong>Las Vegas<\/strong> is good for MGM Resorts,&#8221; explaining that &#8220;I\u2019m far more supportive than of a vague idea of a year ago. It\u2019s a much better than a vague idea that had open-ended liability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Murren added that he was &#8220;utterly confident&#8221; that Las Vegas was three years away from getting <!--more-->an <strong>NBA<\/strong> franchise. League Commissioner <strong>Adam Silver<\/strong> has said\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve always been positive about Las Vegas as a market\u201d &#8230; for the NBA summer league, that is. Expansion teams are not on the table, although a lot could change in three years. However, given the NCAA&#8217;s tendency to frown upon sports betting, let alone daily fantasy sports, Murren&#8217;s optimism about getting a Final Four seems unwarranted at this time.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/launch.newsinc.com\/?type=VideoPlayer\/Single&amp;widgetId=1&amp;trackingGroup=69016&amp;playlistId=19132&amp;siteSection=lvrj&amp;videoId=31496897\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" frameborder=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no right to speak for the NFL on or off the record,\u201d said <strong>Wynn Resorts<\/strong> CEO <strong>Steve Wynn<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/sports\/nfl-vegas\/steve-wynn-mgm-s-jim-murren-believe-stadium-would-spur-sports-growth\" target=\"_blank\">before proceeding to do just that<\/a>, saying that <strong>Jerry Jones<\/strong> and Wynn pal <strong>Robert Kraft<\/strong> have told him they can get the 24 votes needed to move the <strong>[your city here] Raiders<\/strong> to Sin City. &#8220;I personally believe if we lose this opportunity it will be one of the most heartbreaking mistakes we can ever make.\u201d He stated there&#8217;s no danger of the Raiders ever leaving Las Vegas. However, anyone familiar with the team&#8217;s vagabond history has to find that prediction roseate, if not vaguely humorous.<\/p>\n<p>Both casino bosses flung\u00a0verbal laurels\u00a0at Adelson&#8217;s feet. Said Murren, &#8220;It\u2019s a poor return on investment. He can\u2019t be doing it for the money.\u201d Added Wynn,\u00a0\u201cI have to say Sheldon is being extremely unselfish by doing this\u00a0&#8230;\u00a0And I\u2019m his competitor, and I don\u2019t need to throw bouquets at Sheldon. This is an act of public service. This is not a billionaire getting a break.\u201d No, just long-suffering tourists getting soaked. Again.<\/p>\n<p>* Whenever a bigwig from <strong>Beijing<\/strong> comes to visit <strong>Macao<\/strong>, he puts a damper on the gambling party.\u00a0Premier <strong>Li Keqiang<\/strong> tried to strike an upbeat tone, praising the beauties of the <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3936\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/macao-from-st-pauls-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"macao-from-st-pauls\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/macao-from-st-pauls-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/macao-from-st-pauls-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/macao-from-st-pauls.jpg 448w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>enclave and calling it &#8220;a place that was successfully implementing the principle of \u2018one country, two systems\u2019.\u201d However, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/politics\/article\/2026819\/chinese-premier-li-keqiang-heaps-praise-macau-start-visit\" target=\"_blank\">Li didn&#8217;t stray from the economic-diversification meme<\/a> that <strong>China<\/strong> has been pushing on Macao, previewing the concept of turning the city into a magnet for global commerce, a strategy called &#8220;Center and Platform.&#8221; The &#8220;new measures and policies&#8221; Li promised <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/politics\/article\/1920924\/hong-kong-macau-play-bigger-roles-chinas-economic\" target=\"_blank\">didn&#8217;t throw any bones to casino operators<\/a>, focusing instead on upgrading the Macanese technology and shipping sectors. In other words, Adelson isn&#8217;t going to get the 20 additional megaresorts he covets. At least Mr. Sands could take consolation in the fact that Golden Week <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-10-11\/macau-golden-week-drew-nearly-a-million-chinese-tourists-chart\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">drew over one million tourists<\/a>, good news for mass-market operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren has had a come-to-Jesus moment on Sheldon Adelson&#8216;s proposed NFL stadium. After all, MGM stands the most to benefit from proximity to its all-but-certain Russell Road location. Failing to fund the stadium, Murren told &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/casino-moguls-get-stadium-religion-macao-casinos-not-a-beijing-priority\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,62,11,12,74,32,31,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18987"}],"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=18987"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18990,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18987\/revisions\/18990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}