{"id":20348,"date":"2017-10-16T09:03:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T17:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=20348"},"modified":"2017-10-16T09:22:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T17:22:46","slug":"culinary-clashes-with-fertittas-again-girds-for-caesars-labor-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/culinary-clashes-with-fertittas-again-girds-for-caesars-labor-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Culinary clashes with Fertittas (again), girds for Caesars labor talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Always keeping the pressure on Station Casinos<\/strong>, longtime adversary the Culinary Union<\/strong> has rolled out a new Web site<\/a>, FertittaMoneyWatch.org<\/strong>. Although its principal mission is to keep tabs on a nascent investment fund<\/a>, Fertitta Capital<\/strong>, the site \"\"also promotes the Gordon Biersch<\/strong>\u00a0boycott<\/a> that the Culinary called for some months ago. Colony Capital<\/strong> assclown Tom Barrack<\/strong>, whose investors got taken to the cleaners in the Station bankruptcy, is quoted telling the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> in 2007, “you need to find those people of character and integrity and transparency who have that magical ability of taking a myriad of jewels and seamlessly hanging them together so that all you see is the necklace. You don\u2019t see the individual jewel. And the Fertittas really were that magical jeweler for us.\u201d Three\u00a0years later, a suddenly perspicacious Barrack asserted\u00a0\u201cIf you were to pick the hour, the minute that it could have been the worst investment ever, it was.\u201d Barrack is a great expert on failure, having obliterated every casino he touched, so you can take him at his word.<\/p>\n

Fertitta Capital hasn’t disclosed any investments yet but Culinary analyst Zachary Poppel<\/strong> warns,\u00a0\u201cOur union is very familiar with the Las Vegas<\/strong> money behind this new Fertitta enterprise.\u00a0We have seen how the Fertitta businesses have had highs and lows over the years, and thought we\u2019d share with their prospective partners who might be doing due diligence.\u201d In closing, Poppel says,\u00a0\u201cWe certainly hope that, of all the money made from Las Vegas, some will be invested back into our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

* After being hit with the first of an expected series of lawsuits<\/a> related to the Oct. 1 Mandalay Bay<\/strong> shooting spree, MGM Resorts International<\/strong> has evidently decided upon its strategy: Smear the victim<\/a>. To that end, it has hired the Joele Frank<\/strong> crisis-management firm, described as \u201cthe best attack PR firm in the country.\u201d \u201cThey do advocate their clients\u2019 positions quite fiercely when necessary,\u201d said publisher Paul Holmes<\/strong>. Since Joele Frank will probably be billing at $1,000 an hour, one can only deplore MGM’s prioritization of PR over improved security, considering that Mandalay Bay<\/strong> was the site of the worst security breakdown in Vegas history.<\/p>\n

* Is Plainridge Park<\/strong> still dead on days when the New England Patriots<\/strong> play? Deutsche Bank<\/strong> analyst Carlo Santarelli<\/strong> isn’t saying but he reports that the racino was up 16% last month, grossing $15 million, which translates into a \"\"company-leading $397\/win\/slot\/day — double the industry average. Some of that dough has been recaptured from casinos in neighboring states … $100 million to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cLittle Plainridge has recaptured $100 million of the $1 billion [spent out of state],\u00a0doing what it was meant to do,\u201d said Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> Chairman Stephen Crosby<\/strong>. $36 million of Plainridge Park’s $172 million to date came from gamblers in nearby state<\/a>s who crossed the border to check out Plainridge’s product. Said Penn National Gaming<\/strong> spokesman Eric Schippers<\/strong>,\u00a0We are very pleased by the …\u00a0Gaming Commission and UMass\u2019 Donahue Institute<\/strong>\u2019s economic impact analysis, which validates our contention that Plainville<\/strong> is the ideal location to help stem the flow of gaming revenues crossing the border to Rhode Island<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

* It’s out of the frying pan and into the fire for Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>. The Culinary did an end-run around management<\/a> and sent an open letter to the new Caesars board of \"\"directors, calling for improved safety measures and anti-discrimination policies in the next round of collective bargaining talks, slated for early next year. Culinary parent Unite Here<\/strong> represents 14,000 Caesars employees in Las Vegas and another 6,000 across the country (mainly in Atlantic City<\/strong>). As for Caesars’ priorities, Reuters<\/strong> reports that the company “is targeting expansion in the United States<\/strong>\u00a0and abroad, though analysts have said it may be too late to catch up with rivals that spent years investing in high-growth markets in Asia.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Hoping to beat Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> at his own game, Hard Rock International<\/strong> has engaged former Sands China<\/strong> boss \"\"Edward Tracy<\/strong> to lead its Japan<\/strong> casino push. Not to be outdone, MGM tapped former U.S. diplomat<\/a> Jason Hyland<\/strong> to be president of its Japanese subsidiary. One wonders whether, if the Diet sets casino floors at a relatively puny 15,000 square feet, whether MGM will still want to plow $10 billion into a Japanese resort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Always keeping the pressure on Station Casinos, longtime adversary the Culinary Union has rolled out a new Web site, FertittaMoneyWatch.org. Although its principal mission is to keep tabs on a nascent investment fund, Fertitta Capital, the site also promotes the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,3,151,165,7,171,228,112,11,69,141,12,57,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20348"}],"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=20348"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20353,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20348\/revisions\/20353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}