{"id":22698,"date":"2018-10-16T07:02:40","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T15:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=22698"},"modified":"2018-10-16T07:02:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T15:02:40","slug":"arkansas-to-vote-on-casinos-baldwin-leaves-mgm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/arkansas-to-vote-on-casinos-baldwin-leaves-mgm\/","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas to vote on casinos; Baldwin leaves MGM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Driving Arkansas Forward<\/strong>, the ballot initiative to legalize casinos in Arkansas<\/strong>, will continue to proceed\u00a0now that the Arkansas Supreme \"\"Court<\/strong> has slam-dunked two challenges to the referendum. Religious group Ensuring Arkansas Future<\/strong> claimed that the ballot language was too ambiguous and citizens wouldn’t know what a ‘yes’ vote entailed. Citizens for Local Choice<\/strong>\u00a0complained that the wording was too vague. The high court wasn’t buying any of it, however. It said a ballot title\u00a0\u201cdoes not need to include every possible consequence or impact of a proposed measure … [it]\u00a0sufficiently informs the public of the amendment\u2019s purpose and scope and its consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although we find the ballot language awfully restrictive, limiting casinos to four locations in the great state of Arkansas, S&G<\/em> recommends a “yes” vote come November.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Bobby Baldwin<\/strong> is stepping down from CityCenter<\/strong>, presumably to spend some quality time as a private citizen (he is 68). He first came to prominence as a Steve Wynn<\/strong> crony but we remember him best as the man behind the “Vdara Death Ray<\/strong>,” the lensing effect that caused paper and even human hair to singe during the mid-afternoon on sunny Las Vegas<\/strong> days by the Vdara<\/strong> pool. Blogger and 48th birthday boy\u00a0Steve Friess<\/strong> had priceless photo coverage of Baldwin’s fact-finding mission after the Death Ray made the local papers. There was Baldwin, earnestly looking up at Vdara as if he’d never seen it before in his life. Had Vdara not cut corners on the type of glass used in its curtain walls, all that unpleasantness could have been avoided.<\/p>\n

As Baldwin left by one door, George Kliavkoff<\/strong> entered by another<\/a>. The executive will be president for entertainment and sports at MGM Resorts International<\/strong>, reporting to company President Bill Hornbuckle<\/strong>. The veteran of TV and major-league sports will “be responsible for operations, finance, strategy, booking, marketing, sponsorships and ticketing for the 30 or more theatres, showrooms and arenas MGM Resorts runs,” according to GGR Asia<\/em>. Kliavkoff predecessor Richard Sturm<\/strong> will also be kept within an arm’s length, thanks to a three-year consulting agreement.<\/p>\n

Said Hornbuckle of Kliavkoff,\u00a0\u201cHis innovative approach and knowledge in the entertainment and digital world will strengthen our reputation as a company that provides world-class experiences for our guests to enjoy.\u201d They’ll need some of that brainpower in Macao<\/strong>, where MGM properties’ operating income was flat, despite the addition of MGM Cotai<\/strong>, which is looking like a multi-billion-dollar fiasco.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0In an ominous development for the Mashpee Wampanoags<\/strong>, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> is seeking public comments on what to do with “Region C.” Certain to be heard from is Neil Blumn<\/strong>, whose Rush Street Gaming<\/strong> was shut out of a Brockton<\/strong> casino recently but hasn’t thrown in the towel.<\/p>\n

* The Culinary Union<\/strong> is rolling out the heavy artillery in its drive to save Temporary Protected Status<\/strong>. A 10 a.m. forum tomorrow will feature Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto<\/strong> (D), Reps. Dina Titus<\/strong> (D), Jacky Rosen<\/strong> (D) and congressional hopeful Steven Horsford<\/strong> (D), along with sundry other speakers. The Culinary hasn’t said how many of its workers would be affected by this crackdown on refugees but, judging by the union’s level of interest, the number must be substantial.<\/p>\n

* Golden Week was silver for Macao, although 7% growth in tourism pushed ADRs to $162\/night<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cThis implies that ADR grew well over 15 percent year-on-year, and that \u2018total [gambling \"\"revenue]\u2019 during Golden Week grew high-single-digit year-on-year,\u201d wrote analysts\u00a0Sean Zhuang<\/strong> and DS Kim<\/strong>. The fly in the ointment is the damage done to gaming revenue by\u00a0Typhoon Mangkhut<\/strong>, which is expected to depress third-quarter results.\u00a0\u201cThe Golden Week this year was very robust, better than our pre-holiday expectation,\u201d insisted junket operator Andrew Lo<\/strong>, adding that he didn’t expect similar results through the remainder of the year. The Hong Kong<\/strong> bourse certainly wasn’t impressed, with post-Golden Week declines by Galaxy Entertainment<\/strong> and Wynn Macau<\/strong> alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driving Arkansas Forward, the ballot initiative to legalize casinos in Arkansas, will continue to proceed\u00a0now that the Arkansas Supreme Court has slam-dunked two challenges to the referendum. Religious group Ensuring Arkansas Future claimed that the ballot language was too ambiguous … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[179,56,151,26,4,201,62,112,245,91,33,25,242,74,20,143,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22698"}],"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=22698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22699,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22698\/revisions\/22699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}