{"id":21562,"date":"2018-04-23T08:46:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T16:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=21562"},"modified":"2018-05-29T09:05:40","modified_gmt":"2018-05-29T17:05:40","slug":"wynn-its-elaines-company-now-caesars-reverses-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wynn-its-elaines-company-now-caesars-reverses-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"Wynn: It’s Elaine’s company now; Caesars reverses itself"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Elaine Wynn<\/strong> speaks, Wynn Resorts<\/strong> is suddenly all ears. Last week the company’s plurality shareholder called for a largely new and diverse board of directors, in what is describes as a “first step”<\/a> toward greater heterogeneousness. Presto! Who should be named to the board but \"\"former White House<\/strong> press secretary Dee Dee Meyers<\/strong>, Betsy Atkins<\/strong> and Wendy Webb<\/strong>. Atkins is described<\/a> as “a corporate governance advocate,” and former Disney<\/strong> exec Webb is CEO Kestrel Advisors<\/strong>, “which advises corporations on growth initiatives, governance, investor relations and strategic issues.” “The Wynn Resorts board now comprises 36% women, bringing Wynn into the top 40 S&P 500<\/strong> companies in terms of female board representation,” read the formal announcement. Aside from a significant infusion of diversity, two of the three new appointments address one of the foremost criticisms of the board of directors: that it was too passive to the whims of the executive suite. As for the extant, much-criticized board, another head has rolled:\u00a0J. Edward Virtue<\/strong> will be departing next month. Global Gaming Business<\/em> reports that corporate consigliere Kim Sinatra<\/strong> is on the way \"\"out, possibly to be followed by CEO Matt Maddox<\/strong>. If that’s true, it means Maddox never got a chance to shake his image as a mere caretaker.<\/p>\n

A suddenly diversity-driven Maddox swallowed hard and stated,\u00a0\u201cThese appointments signify a turning point for us, and I look forward to working with each of our new directors as we usher in a new era at Wynn.\u201d Yes, but will he be around to enjoy that “new era”?<\/p>\n

* Hard Rock International<\/strong> is thoroughly exorcising the ghost of Donald Trump<\/strong> from what will soon become Hard Rock Atlantic City<\/strong>. It’s even changed all the plumbing<\/a>. But as much as CEO Jim Allen<\/b> says Hard Rock “is not a gaming brand,” it really is — arguably the strongest brand in the industry.<\/p>\n

* Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> has done a 180 on its land-based casino for Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/strong>. Initially it pulled the application \"\"because it didn’t want Centaur Gaming<\/strong> to pay a $50 million transfer fee (which would make Caesars’ acquisition of Centaur more expensive). However, the Roman empire has subsequently asked the Indiana Gaming Commission<\/strong> for a special hearing in which to consider the dry-land casino. We don’t know what motivated CEO Mark Frissora<\/strong>‘s about-face but we applaud the move. Riverboat casinos are an anachronism that the industry should shed whenever possible.<\/p>\n

* Our “George of the Week” is Station Casinos<\/strong>, which is offering Boarding Pass<\/strong> members one free wager — as much as $250<\/a> — on the upstart Golden Knights<\/strong>, fresh from stomping Sacramento<\/strong> en route<\/em> to an unlikely Stanely Cup<\/strong> bid. The Kings have to go all the way for the wagers to be valid and the biggest payout would be only $1,000 but we like what Station is doing and hope more casino chains emulate it.<\/p>\n

* Sociedade de Jogos de Macau<\/strong> gets our eco-friendly nod this week for getting with the environmental program and introducing a new fleet<\/a> \"\"of shuttle buses. SJM will deploy a mixture of electric and compressed-natural-gas vehicles in what can only be described as a step forward for pollution-befogged Macao<\/strong>. In other Sino-technical news,\u00a0Lantai Digital Application Technology<\/strong> had to walk back a statement<\/a> that its cryptocurrency was being used by several Macanese junket operators.\u00a0Suncity Group<\/strong>, Tak Chun Group<\/strong>, Meg-Star Group<\/strong>, Guangdong Group<\/strong> and David Group<\/strong> all disavowed their ‘adoption’ of Lantai’s technology and reserved the right to sue. The Judiciary Police<\/strong> will also be looking into Lantai, which has to be feeling pretty uneasy this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Elaine Wynn speaks, Wynn Resorts is suddenly all ears. Last week the company’s plurality shareholder called for a largely new and diverse board of directors, in what is describes as a “first step” toward greater heterogeneousness. Presto! Who should … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[65,229,42,237,117,165,7,68,189,62,53,213,74,57,8,100,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562"}],"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=21562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21785,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562\/revisions\/21785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}