{"id":22795,"date":"2018-11-01T07:47:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T15:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=22795"},"modified":"2022-04-25T05:40:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T13:40:00","slug":"no-love-for-lucky-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/no-love-for-lucky-dragon\/","title":{"rendered":"No love for Lucky Dragon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What if they sold a casino and nobody bid? That was the unenviable fate of <strong>Lucky Dragon Casino<\/strong> at bankruptcy auction. No one wants the jinxed property, leaving it in the frigid hands of principal lender <strong>Snow Covered Capital<\/strong>. Thus ends what has been called\u00a0\u201cthe most specifically focused casino project in the history of <strong>Las Vegas<\/strong>.\u201d Snow <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-18211\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Lucky-Dragon-Night-Market-300x225.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Lucky-Dragon-Night-Market-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Lucky-Dragon-Night-Market-150x112.png 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Lucky-Dragon-Night-Market-768x575.png 768w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Lucky-Dragon-Night-Market.png 975w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Covered Capital was clearly eager to be shot of what it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.casinobeats.com\/2018\/10\/31\/dismal-lucky-dragon-fails-to-sell-at-vegas-auction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">called &#8220;a dismal failure&#8221;<\/a> but will instead be forced to shell out the $200,000 a month it costs to keep the property mothballed. This outcome, however sad, was entirely foreseeable. None of the big gaming operators on the Strip had reason to covet tiny Lucky Dragon, and <strong>Boyd Gaming<\/strong> and <strong>Station Casinos<\/strong> are firmly entrenched with Asian players at <strong>Gold Coast<\/strong> and newly revamped <strong>Palace Station<\/strong>, respectively. And an independent operator would have to have a big Asian-player database before venturing into Lucky Dragon. There were rumors <strong>Alex Meruelo<\/strong> would tuck it in as a complimentary property to <strong>SLS Las Vegas<\/strong> but the latter has so many problems of its own that Meruelo clearly thought better of the acquisition, if he thought about it at all. With 3,400 hotel rooms coming on line at <strong>Resorts World Las Vegas<\/strong>, newcomer <strong>Genting Group<\/strong> hardly needs a &#8216;dormitory&#8217; hotel. Let Lucky Dragon stand as a cautionary symbol to everyone who thinks they can beat the Strip at its own game.<\/p>\n<p>*\u00a0<strong>Majestic Star Casino<\/strong>\u00a0in <strong>Indiana<\/strong> (which encompasses a former <!--more--><strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> riverboat) wants to move ashore. The auguries look favorable but the move could come at a non-monetary price. Majestic Star would like to come on shore in <strong>Hammond<\/strong>. That <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-15312\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Indiana.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"253\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Indiana.png 253w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Indiana-150x117.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 253px) 100vw, 253px\" \/>city&#8217;s mayor is OK with the move &#8230; if the casino license moves as well<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/suburbs\/post-tribune\/news\/ct-ptb-legislative-report-buffington-harbor-st-1031-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">,<\/a> Why should Hammond shoulder the costs while\u00a0<strong>Gary<\/strong> continues to derive the benefits? That question was not pondered by the Indiana Lege&#8217;s <strong>Commerce &amp; Economic Development<\/strong> board, which voted the move out of committee 8-1.\u00a0\u201cIf the State wants to move the licenses to land-based locations, I\u2019m fine with that. I support that as it hopefully will help Gary pursue other economic development opportunities,\u201d reacted Hammond Mayor <strong>Thomas McDermott Jr<\/strong>. &#8220;I just want to make sure that one of the licenses comes to Hammond where it belongs and where revenue can be increased for the city, county, and state.\u00a0With sports book gaming around the corner and all the competitive advantages we have in Hammond, it is a no-brainer to put another casino in Hammond.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>McDermott got some pushback from\u00a0Gary Mayor <strong>Karen Freeman-Wilson<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cThese are [private] licenses that have to be dealt with on the open market,\u201d she riposted. Last month, the two Majestic Star boats grossed just under $12.5 million, well behind <strong>Horseshoe Hammond<\/strong>&#8216;s $32 million but not exactly chicken feed. Freeman-Wilson isn&#8217;t trying to hang onto the two boats because her vision for redeveloping the harbor area doesn&#8217;t encompass gambling. If Majestic Star moves, it would be the third Hoosier State casino to come ashore, following <strong>Tropicana Evansville<\/strong> and <strong>Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>* Kudos to <strong>Resorts World Sentosa<\/strong> in <strong>Singapore<\/strong>. It has ixnayed single-use, environmentally unfriendly, plastic straws. That&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/environment\/resorts-world-sentosa-no-longer-provides-single-use-plastic-straws-at\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">3 million straws a year fewer<\/a> in the trash bins. Paper straws and souvenir cups are exempt. Still, that&#8217;s a great start. <strong>Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, your move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if they sold a casino and nobody bid? That was the unenviable fate of Lucky Dragon Casino at bankruptcy auction. No one wants the jinxed property, leaving it in the frigid hands of principal lender Snow Covered Capital. Thus &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/no-love-for-lucky-dragon\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[235,60,244,117,120,68,206,191,53,12,108,195,57,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22795"}],"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=22795"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31072,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22795\/revisions\/31072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}