{"id":21324,"date":"2018-03-12T09:09:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T17:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=21324"},"modified":"2018-03-12T09:09:16","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T17:09:16","slug":"sands-bethlehem-becomes-wind-creek-brazil-nixes-casinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/sands-bethlehem-becomes-wind-creek-brazil-nixes-casinos\/","title":{"rendered":"Sands Bethlehem becomes Wind Creek; Brazil nixes casinos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sands Bethlehem<\/strong>&#8216;s buyers are letting no grass grow beneath their feet. The <strong>Poarch Bank of Creek Indians<\/strong> will rename the megaresort <strong>Wind Creek Bethlehem<\/strong>. It remains to be seen whether they&#8217;ll have to deal with unionizing the work force: So far <a href=\"http:\/\/ggbnews.com\/issue\/vol-16-no-10-march-12-2018\/article\/lvs-to-sell-sands-bethlehem-to-poarch-band\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">only security personnel are represented<\/a> <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1868\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Sands-Beth-300x178.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Sands-Beth-300x178.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Sands-Beth-150x89.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Sands-Beth.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>&#8212; the first union contract <strong>Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> ever signed. <strong>Wall Street<\/strong> continues to wax skeptical on the deal, with <strong>Jeffries<\/strong> analyst <strong>David Katz<\/strong> not budging off his &#8220;Hold&#8221; rating for LVS:\u00a0\u201cGiven the company\u2019s prior efforts to sell the property, increasing competition in the Northeast, and <strong>Pennsylvania<\/strong>\u2019s recent legislative rulings, we believe the announcement is modestly positive for the shares but does not alter our neutral stance on the shares.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Added <strong>Joseph Weinert<\/strong> of <strong>Spectrum Gaming Group<\/strong>, \u201cA lot of people in the industry are going to be watching to see if this tribe has <!--more-->the resources, experience and expertise to at least maintain its performance level \u2014 if not improve it.\u201d Nevertheless, the Poarch Creek Band feels that Sands Bethlehem throws off enough free capital to accelerate paying down the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcall.com\/business\/mc-biz-sands-casino-resort-bethlehem-sold-20180306-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$1.3 billion purchase<\/a> price, the biggest in <strong>Lehigh Valley<\/strong> history. There&#8217;s hope that Poarch Creek will make good on some unkept Sands promises, like the conversion of <strong>No. 2 Machine Shop<\/strong> into a <strong>Bass Pro Shops<\/strong>. One site has lain fallow so long that <strong>Bethlehem<\/strong> Mayor <strong>Robert Donchez<\/strong> is mulling using eminent domain in order to repurpose it. Casino President <strong>Brian Carr<\/strong> can rest easy: He and his management team are expected to be kept in place by the new owners,<\/p>\n<p>* Despite the best efforts of Sands and <strong>Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>, casino gambling in <strong>Brazil<\/strong>\u00a0is a no-go. The Brazilian cabinet voted down legalized gambling by a 13-2 margin, a crushing defeat in what had looked like a very promising market.<\/p>\n<p>* Casino legalization in <strong>Japan<\/strong> is a poky little puppy and the ruling <strong>Liberal Democratic Party<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ggrasia.com\/ldp-group-urges-japan-govt-to-speed-casino-process\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">would like to move things along<\/a>, with the goal of opening casino resorts before 2025. According to <em>GGR Asia<\/em>, LDP\u00a0&#8220;lawmakers agreed that without a change of approach by the government, <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-21247\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fujiyama-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fujiyama-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fujiyama-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fujiyama.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>it would be beyond 2025 before any casinos could launch.&#8221; There is some tension within the LDP between the government, which would place a hard cap on casino floor space for instance, and the casino steering group, which would like some wiggle room on casino mandates. The steering group is also against limiting the initial grant of megaresorts to three, fearing that regional markets will be left out in the cold. However, the crucial <strong>Komeito Party<\/strong> says that such a concession would be &#8220;extremely hard&#8221; to achieve. Other sticking points include the steering group&#8217;s desire for only a monthly limit on visits by Japanese citizens, while the government would like to keep casino patronage to 3X per week. Why do we think the Komeito Party will get the final say on all this? History.<\/p>\n<p>* Settlement of a longstanding lawsuit between <strong>Wynn Resorts<\/strong> and <strong>Universal Entertainment<\/strong> may have been good news to Wynn investors but was bad news for Universal shareholders. The amount of the settlement <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.reuters.com\/article\/businessNews\/idCAKCN1GL0CW-OCABS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was lower than expected<\/a> and less to severe shrinkage of Universal&#8217;s market capitalization.<\/p>\n<p>* Actor <strong>Kiefer Sutherland<\/strong> is performing at <strong>Red Rock Resort<\/strong> on April 28. However, if you were hoping for recitation of <strong>Jack Bauer<\/strong>&#8216;s most dramatic moments from <em>24<\/em> you&#8217;ll go away disappointed. The event is part of a rollout for Sutherland&#8217;s new <em>Down a Hole<\/em> C&amp;W album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sands Bethlehem&#8216;s buyers are letting no grass grow beneath their feet. The Poarch Bank of Creek Indians will rename the megaresort Wind Creek Bethlehem. It remains to be seen whether they&#8217;ll have to deal with unionizing the work force: So &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/sands-bethlehem-becomes-wind-creek-brazil-nixes-casinos\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,7,22,171,188,95,33,12,57,20,38,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21324"}],"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=21324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21334,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21324\/revisions\/21334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}