{"id":27277,"date":"2020-06-11T09:47:35","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T17:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27277"},"modified":"2022-08-19T05:33:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T13:33:22","slug":"mgm-revving-up-on-strip-the-skull-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mgm-revving-up-on-strip-the-skull-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"MGM revving up on Strip; The Skull returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allowing for the context that one’s hotels fill up faster when only 25%-50% of the rooms are being rented, MGM Resorts International<\/strong> seems to be enjoying a honeymoon with its customer base. Its Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> \"\"resorts are reopening, in most cases, well ahead of expectations. Not only is Excalibur<\/strong> returning June 11 and Aria<\/strong> on July 1, several other hotels have been ticketed<\/a> for resumption of business. They are Luxor<\/strong> (June 25), Mandalay Bay<\/strong> (July 1) and Four Seasons<\/strong> (July 1). Still no word<\/a> on Park MGM<\/strong>, Vdara<\/strong> or The Mirage<\/strong>, the latter of which MGM is rumored to be shopping. CEO Bill Hornbuckle<\/strong> stressed the imperative of adding jobs, saying, “We are eager to get more of our employees back to work and enhance the Las Vegas<\/strong> experience with additional resorts.\u201d Self-parking will continue to be free but there will be no valet service. (Bad news if you’re a valet.)<\/p>\n

Not to be left behind, Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> is throwing open the doors<\/a> to The Linq<\/strong>‘s casino floor tomorrow, along with six Linq restaurants, three at Caesars Palace<\/strong> and three at Harrah’s Las Vegas<\/strong>. If you’re looking for a bargain, Caesars Palace is advertising rooms<\/a> for $67 a night, and yet … you could stay at The Strat<\/strong> for as little<\/a> as $15\/night or the Golden \"\"Nugget<\/strong> for $33\/night (our favorite savings of the bunch<\/a>). Also, people must be still staying away from the Vegas High Roller<\/strong>, as CZR is knocking ticket prices down as far as $15 a ride\u2014still too much by half. Resorts World Las Vegas<\/strong>, meanwhile, is thinking upscale<\/a>, planning to anchor a vast entertainment complex with a Zouk Nightclub<\/strong>, off which it will play a beach club, restaurant, Asian food street and other amenities. Some of the latter will be spinoffs of eateries already found at Genting Highlands<\/strong> in Malaysia<\/strong>. Resorts World LV has to be hoping that social distancing in no longer the rule a year from now, especially since the $4.3 billion resort will be the costliest ever built on the Strip.<\/p>\n

We’ve never bought anything at Miracle Mile Shops<\/strong> but you<\/em> can, now that it’s reopened, albeit with briefer hours<\/a>. Restaurants available for the diner range from (mediocre) Cabo Wabo<\/strong>, where the Strip view is the best thing on the menu, to Oyster Bay Seafood & Wine<\/strong>. And Subway<\/strong>. Yes, there’s something for every price point, always a good thing in Vegas.<\/p>\n

* On the other side of the country, if the Ghermezian<\/strong> clan had managed to wangle a casino for their American Dream<\/strong> mega-mall, as they once hoped to do, maybe that would have eased its financial woes\u2014but not much<\/a>. The high-pressure developers are currently groaning under a $5 billion debt burden. The Coronavirus<\/strong> shutdown caught American Dream broad amidships, hitting the Triple Five<\/strong> project a week before its retail wing was due to open. In case the name “Ghermazian” doesn’t ring a bell, these are the folks behind the Mall of America<\/strong> (a giant piece of fly paper for white trash and gangbangers). Bloomberg<\/em> reports the Triple Five business model “isn\u2019t made for a world in which people desperately want to avoid one another.”<\/p>\n

Adds retail consultant\u00a0Nick Egelanian<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cThey are enclosed gathering places, they have a large tourist component and they have communal entertainment. These things are not going to work for a very long time.” The\u00a0Azerbaijani business family made its name in the manufacture of \"\"Persian rugs. This time it looks like they’re going to need a magic carpet. It was formerly known as Xanadu<\/strong> or\u2014if you were then-Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong> (R)\u2014\u201cthe ugliest damn building in New Jersey<\/strong>.\u201d Since one of its investors was bungling Colony Capital<\/strong>, it’s no wonder that trouble loomed. 90% of American Dream is leased but that’s no good when your shuttered for Covid-19<\/strong> and, pledged as collateral, two of Triple Five’s other mega-malls are at risk, including the Mall of America, which has missed two mortgage \u00a0payments. The family’s net worth has withered from $2.5 billion to $650 million. As Egelanian says, “They bet the farm.” Too bad it came up snake eyes.<\/p>\n

* You may recall Vasil “The Skull” Bozhkov<\/strong>, a gambling mogul under indictment in Bulgaria<\/strong> for myriad crimes, including four murders for hire. Although currently exiled in Dubai<\/strong>, he’s planning to take a page from the Donald Trump<\/strong> playbook by coming home and running for president of Bulgaria<\/a>. Said The Skull, \u201cWe need a new political project. Power must be seized from [Boyko<\/strong>] Borissov<\/strong>.\u201d Bozhkov should fit right in with what Bloomberg<\/em> describes as “the European Union<\/strong>\u2019s poorest and most corrupt country.” Borissov is plagued with his own corruption charges as well as an economy wiped out by Covid-19. (And you thought we had it bad.) Bozhkov accuses Borissov of being on the take from him, which the latter naturally denies.<\/p>\n

Bozhkov’s empire met a speedy downfall<\/a> when law enforcement raided his businesses last January. His lottery business was nationalized, and he was charged with\u00a0attempted rape, the illegal possession of antiquities and influence peddling. Like a European Stanley Ho<\/strong>, Bozhkov emerged from a post-Communism turf war, clashing with rivals like “The Crocodile” and “The Beaver.” American diplomats tagged him\u00a0\u201cBulgaria\u2019s most infamous gangster.”\u00a0President Rumen Radev<\/strong> is dangerously complacent about The Skull’s latest ambition, calling it “not serious” and “hard to accomplish.” Stranger things have happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allowing for the context that one’s hotels fill up faster when only 25%-50% of the rooms are being rented, MGM Resorts International seems to be enjoying a honeymoon with its customer base. Its Las Vegas Strip resorts are reopening, in … 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":[244,3,18,51,134,14,4,97,287,22,245,43,248,279,87,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27277"}],"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=27277"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31569,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27277\/revisions\/31569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}