{"id":2325,"date":"2010-02-22T16:17:52","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T00:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2019-04-02T09:27:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T17:27:06","slug":"case-bets-wynn-in-philly-topless-in-vegas-pegasus-crashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-wynn-in-philly-topless-in-vegas-pegasus-crashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets: Wynn in Philly, topless in Vegas, Pegasus crashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a slow news day in the industry, though not without its amusing elements. For instance, the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em> devoted a significant amount of ink to the weighty question of whether half-dozen casinos in the greater Philly area might be far too many. (Never mind that Atlantic City<\/strong>, way out on the coast, has 11 … possibly 12, if Revel<\/strong> gets the tax breaks it’s seeking.)<\/p>\n

Much of the grumbling comes from the usual suspects — activists who never wanted casinos in the first place and casino owners who get pissy at the prospect of competition. Seriously, to hear Parx Casino<\/strong>, the state’s revenue leader, howl about the threat posed by a comparatively small “resort” casino in Valley Forge<\/strong>, is like seeing a gladiator cowering at the sight of a mouse. Cowboy up there, Parx.<\/p>\n

What’s more interesting<\/strong> is the re-emergence of private-equity mogul Ira Lubert<\/strong> as a potential casino owner. As S&G<\/em> covered back in July of ’08<\/a>, Lubert had quite a shell game going. In addition to seeking a $10 million piece of Rivers Casino<\/strong>, Lubert proposed to sell shares of his Valley Forge casino to Cannery Resorts<\/strong>, possibly to Foxwoods<\/strong> or even Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> as well, potentially putting the owners of as many as six Pennsylvania casinos in bed together. (Rivers Casino is owned by Neil Bluhm<\/strong>, who is building SugarHouse Casino<\/strong> in Philly.) Whether Lubert is still peddling that super-incestuous scheme, the Inquirer<\/em> sayeth not.<\/p>\n

However, if the paper is correct, it’s common knowledge around Philadelphia that Steve Wynn<\/strong> is going to take charge of the stuck-in-the-mud Foxwoods project. Its owners have been fart-assing around for an awful long time without breaking ground. If Wynn is the wings, ready to apply a steadying hand to the project, that would explain why Foxwoods hasn’t had its license pulled, even though Keystone State regulators have as much justification as they need.<\/p>\n

So, if Steve Wynn is about to make his presence felt along the banks of the Delaware River<\/strong>, why haven’t the newspapers back in Las Vegas<\/strong> said boo on the subject? Either the Inquirer<\/em> is all wet or it’s stolen a huge march on its Vegas counterparts.<\/p>\n

Battle rejoined<\/strong>. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, the Battle of Gettysburg has been resumed. In this case, the causus belli<\/em> is the advisability of erecting a casino a half-mile from the historic battleground<\/a>. If the project should be kiboshed, the critical issue would appear to be a dearth of public utilities in the area of the Eisenhower Inn<\/strong>. If you have to schlep water in during the summer, you probably shouldn’t be going into a high-volume business like casino gambling. Out here in Vegas, we’re really getting schooled on the folly of development first, infrastructure later (maybe). Of course, it’s David LeVan<\/strong>‘s prerogative to go ahead and try but “Mason Dixon Resort & Casino<\/strong>” has the look of business failure written all over it.<\/p>\n

There’s a reason<\/strong> that new product on the Strip<\/strong> is tilted toward high-end customers<\/a> and the numbers make it plain<\/a> why that is. In dollar volume, baccarat play just had its second-best year and had its largest percentage of Strip play ever. Although if you’re Aria<\/strong> and 75%-plus of your first fortnight’s gambling revenue came from baccarat, that’s so disproportionate I’d worry a bit about what’s wrong with my slot, craps and blackjack play (25% combined<\/em>?!?).<\/p>\n

Paying the bills<\/strong>. It behooves me to let you know that not only is the print edition of LVA<\/em>‘s Topless Vegas<\/em> a mere $9.95 — such a deal! — but that the $6.95 e-book version has been updated. Given the amount of flux in the adult-entertainment scene here, such as the imminent demise of the Pussycat Dolls Lounge<\/strong>, the e-book format gives LVA<\/em> the opportunity to, er, stay abreast of events.<\/p>\n

Mea culpa<\/strong><\/em>. Last week, in discussing one of those “sin funds,” I said Genting Bhd<\/strong> didn’t seem like such a bad play, especially in a portfolio that included underpeforming SJM<\/strong> and bargain-price Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

My bad. Genting Singapore PLC<\/strong> is one of the dogs of the market, -28% since the start of 2010. The opening of Resorts World Sentosa<\/strong> didn’t help, sending the stock down 11%<\/a>. Why? Daily visitor volume (20K) has been only 59% of break-even. And Genting’s megaresort is more overtly touristy than Sands’ still-in-progress Marina Bay Sands<\/strong>. Back in 2005, when the Singapore<\/strong> market was just beginning to open up, discussions of its potential were interwoven with an abundance of caution<\/a>. Somewhere along the way, that caution got misplaced — but we’re beginning to see it come back, big time.<\/p>\n

\"Pegasus\"Clipped wings<\/strong>. Another “failsino” has bitten the dust<\/a>, this time the Pegasus<\/strong> casino-condo concept, at one time envisioned for Tropicana Avenue<\/strong>, just west of the railroad underpass. Pegasus’ jockeys think they can get $2.4 million an acre. In this economy? Lotsa luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a slow news day in the industry, though not without its amusing elements. For instance, the Philadelphia Inquirer devoted a significant amount of ink to the weighty question of whether half-dozen casinos in the greater Philly area might be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,73,56,28,14,4,120,7,11,91,95,111,25,12,108,61,32,9,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325"}],"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=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23837,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions\/23837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}