{"id":20942,"date":"2018-01-16T08:12:01","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T16:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=20942"},"modified":"2022-09-19T08:42:16","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T16:42:16","slug":"sls-sale-accelerates-new-corruption-worry-for-macao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/sls-sale-accelerates-new-corruption-worry-for-macao\/","title":{"rendered":"SLS sale accelerates; New corruption worry for Macao"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucky Dragon Casino<\/strong>‘s sudden demise had a dramatic effect on the sale of SLS Las Vegas<\/strong>, getting owner\u00a0Stockbridge Capital Partners<\/strong> — no doubt newly aware of its \"\"precarious position — back to the bargaining table with Meruelo Group<\/strong>. According to VitalVegas<\/em> author Scott Roeben<\/strong>, this could also light a fire under All-Net Arena<\/strong> (still embryonic despite allegedly being fully funded) but let Roeben tell the story<\/a>. In the comments section, he neatly skewers the business strategy of SLS, dating back to “visionary” Sam Nazarian<\/strong>: “praying for Resorts World<\/strong> to hurry up.” That’s what they were doing at the opening-day SLS press conference and nothing has changed since then, Oh, and SLS revenue projections were overestimated by 100%. Why does this not surprise me?<\/p>\n

Speaking of Vital Vegas<\/em>, it discerns signs that paid parking on the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>\u00a0is going over like a lead balloon<\/a>. We can only hope.<\/p>\n

* New Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> Chairwoman Becky Harris<\/strong> may seem an odd choice to some, as she is a member of the anti-gambling Church of Latter-Day Saints<\/strong>. However, she took a masters degree in gaming law and regulation, making her excellently qualified<\/a> for her new capacity, much more so than many who have served in Silver State regulatory positions. Nevada<\/strong> Gov. Brian Sandoval<\/strong> (R) described her as \u201cbeyond reproach and willing to make difficult decisions.\u201d Her first year on the job will be critical, as she is filling out the term of former chairman A.G. Burnett<\/strong> and will need to be reappointed next year.<\/p>\n

* Macanese mobster “Broken Tooth” Koi<\/strong> is in the news again<\/a>, having been present for the ‘initial coin offering’ (!) of cryptocurrency provider Dragon Corp<\/strong>. This led security advisor Steve Vickers<\/strong> to opine that “it\u2019s true to say that certain very colourful characters previously associated with the negative side of gambling \u2013 particularly here in Macao<\/strong> \u2013 have shown \"\"an interest in cryptocurrencies, and understand the opportunity it presents to avoid borders when seeking to make cross-border transactions.\u201d Said the Hong Kong<\/strong> police veteran, \u201cUnfortunately the side effect of cryptocurrency is the anonymity it provides,\u201d he told GGRAsia<\/em>. \u201cA number of extortion cases I have dealt with involving kidnap, ransom and other offences had a \u2018crypto\u2019 element, unfortunately. This is something that governments need to get their heads around now, before it becomes more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Macanese government has been generally good about seeing problems before they arise — but it tends to act slowly.” Warned Vickers, \u201cFor example, China<\/strong>\u2019s programme to \"\"contain capital outflow could be circumvented quite easily if cryptocurrencies took on a wider distribution. The mainland is continuing the anti-corruption campaign vigorously. Those Macao casinos that are heavily or very heavily focused on the VIP trade, are more vulnerable than those that are more diversified in their business approach.\u201d Of the American operators, that would apply to Wynn Macau<\/strong>. As for the rest, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau<\/strong>\u00a0is synonymous with VIP play. Corruption in a Stanley Ho<\/strong> casino? Shocking! At any rate, any “Broken Tooth” Koi sighting is a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

* E-sports gets a permanent home at Luxor<\/strong> on March 22 when a dedicated arena opens in the former LAX<\/strong> space. (Hmmmm. Nightclub out, e-sports in. Beginning of a trend?) MGM Resorts International<\/strong> is farming out the creation and operation of this venue to Chinese company Ourgame<\/strong>, so if it flops MGM won’t be too greatly exposed. AsGam.com<\/em> describes the space as “a multi-level arena with a competition stage, LED video wall, telescopic seating, daily gaming stations, and state-of-the-art streaming and television-quality production studios.” MGM is hedging its bet by bringing in Jos\u00e9 Andres<\/strong> to oversee the food-and-beverage aspect of the arena. Despite the current industry focus on Millennials, it is clearly trying to inculcate the pre-Millenials, as it were, and make them Vegas customers before they’ve even come of age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lucky Dragon Casino‘s sudden demise had a dramatic effect on the sale of SLS Las Vegas, getting owner\u00a0Stockbridge Capital Partners — no doubt newly aware of its precarious position — back to the bargaining table with Meruelo Group. According to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,4,120,189,206,62,11,25,162,195,213,74,61,32,8,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20942"}],"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=20942"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31670,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20942\/revisions\/31670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}