{"id":19398,"date":"2017-02-23T09:51:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T17:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=19398"},"modified":"2017-02-23T09:51:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T17:51:12","slug":"ho-taunts-adelson-turnover-at-wynn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/ho-taunts-adelson-turnover-at-wynn\/","title":{"rendered":"Ho taunts Adelson; Turnover at Wynn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> and Jim Murren<\/strong> have anted up $10 billion for a Japanese megaresort. \u00a0The fever is catching. Melco Crown International<\/strong> \"\"CEO Lawrence Ho<\/strong> went completely off his rocker and vowed to spend any amount whatsoever for a casino concession in Japan<\/strong>. One wonders how parliamentarians are reacting to their legalization of casinos being treating as an auction. Like Adelson, he covets Osaka<\/strong> and would prefer to be the majority partner, which could be a serious sticking point. (Japanese companies are likely to be juiced in as majority stakeholders.)\u00a0Ho took a hard shot at Adelson<\/a>, saying,\u00a0\u201cIf you put up some of the tacky buildings that you have in Las Vegas<\/strong> or Macao<\/strong> here it would look out of place. Can you imagine the Venetian<\/strong> here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Japan has some catching up to do. It might surprise you to learn that it draws only two-thirds as many tourists (20 million) as Macao. There’s definitely a growth opportunity to be had.<\/p>\n

* Heads are rolling at Wynn Resorts<\/strong>. First, Gamal Aziz<\/strong> was out at Wynn Palace<\/strong>. Now company CFO Stephen Cootey<\/strong> is stepping down, effective March 1, news that Deutsche Bank<\/strong> analyst Carlo Santarelli<\/strong> said could be “somewhat disconcerting.” Of Cootey’s replacement, Craig Billings<\/strong>, Santarelli wrote, “We believe the familiarity of Mr. Billings in the investment community will serve as a distinct positive, despite the sudden and somewhat startling departure of Mr. Cootey following a positive tone on the recent 4Q16 earnings call.”<\/p>\n

(Macao casinos claim a high mortality rate among executive careers. Earlier this month, Sands China<\/strong> CFO Stephen Law<\/strong> quit after four months on the job<\/a>. The South China Morning Post<\/em> speculated that “His resignation came days after \u2013 but is not known to be connected to \u2013 an agreement made by Sands China\u2019s parent company, Las Vegas Sands Corporation<\/strong>” to pay the U.S. government $7 million for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act<\/strong>. Then again, four months working for Sheldon Adelson must be like a lifetime sentence.<\/p>\n

* Three-buck admission fees will soon be a thing of the past at Indiana<\/strong>\u00a0casinos. The tax break, which would go into effect in August of 2018<\/a>, has been passed and now goes to the state Senate. In place of the per-\"\"attendance levy (which most casinos ate rather than pass on to the customer), a 3.5% wagering tax will be imposed. Local governments are expected to feel a bit of a nip: a $4.5 million revenue reduction over the first four years of the new regime. They’re not out of the woods yet. The Lege is expected to consider eliminating $48 million in subsidies to casino host communities. With brilliant understatement, state Rep. Todd Huston<\/strong> (R) said, “This bill will continue, I’m sure, to evolve as the session continues, and I will continue to have lots of conversations with interested stakeholders.” Indeed they will.<\/p>\n

* Congratulations to Scientific Games<\/strong> on being contracted to provide entertainment product to Norsk Tipping<\/strong>. Although the latter sounds like something Scandinavians do with cows, it is in fact the Norwegian national lottery.<\/p>\n

* If you’ve got a $20 gold piece, Mandarin Oriental<\/b> has a champagne split for you<\/a>. It’s another way in which the hotel separates itself from the pack on the Strip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Sheldon Adelson and Jim Murren have anted up $10 billion for a Japanese megaresort. \u00a0The fever is catching. Melco Crown International CEO Lawrence Ho went completely off his rocker and vowed to spend any amount whatsoever for a casino … 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":[65,22,171,189,94,62,93,11,25,160,12,32,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19398"}],"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=19398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19403,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19398\/revisions\/19403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}