{"id":27598,"date":"2020-07-24T08:36:51","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T16:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27598"},"modified":"2020-07-27T05:38:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T13:38:44","slug":"giant-dildo-at-large-in-sin-city-scientific-pleases-disappoints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/giant-dildo-at-large-in-sin-city-scientific-pleases-disappoints\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant dildo at large in Sin City; Scientific pleases, disappoints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/share.tmz.com\/videos\/072020-stolen-dildo-4821736-0-cqcca0ix\/\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Who was that masked man anyway? A daring thief casually strolled into <strong>Deja Vu Love Boutique<\/strong>, made his way over to &#8220;<strong>Moby<\/strong>,&#8221; a giant dildo (approximately three feet long) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.ca\/entry\/man-steals-dildo-deja-vu-love-boutique-las-vegas_n_5f16b2dcc5b6cac5b7313b19?ri18n=true&amp;ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063\">walked right out the door<\/a> with it. The whale-sized self-pleasuring device retails for $1,250 but unless the perpetrator has some very unusual sex planned, its unique nature will make it difficult to fence. That didn&#8217;t stop him from tucking it into his car and casually driving off with it. As <strong>Huffington Post<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Ron Dicker<\/strong> reports, &#8220;If the crook gets caught, he\u2019ll surely be subject to the penal code.&#8221; However, we agree with actress <strong>Lexa Doig<\/strong>, our source for the story, who calls him &#8220;The anti hero the world needs right now.&#8221; As for Deja Vu, it&#8217;s getting the kind of publicity money can&#8217;t buy\u2014not even $1,250.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">&#8220;Better than expected&#8221; was how <strong>Scientific Games<\/strong> spun its 2Q20 results. The company lost $198 million on net revenue of $539 million. Internet-facing spinoff <strong>SciPlay<\/strong>, however, benefited from shelter-in-place directives, booking as much as 80% cash-flow growth. The combined companies are hardly paupers, sitting on $943 million in liquidity. Gaming revenue fell 78% ($91 million) but digital and social revenue was up 28% ($239 million). Lottery winnings were slightly impacted, down 9.5% to $209 million. SGMS cut back on operating expenses (-20%) and R&amp;D (-32.5%), while its cost of capital went down 15.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Credit Suisse<\/strong> analyst <strong>Ben Chaiken<\/strong> wasn&#8217;t convinced, heading his report, &#8220;The good doesn&#8217;t outweigh the bad.&#8221; The i-gaming momentum, he wrote, &#8220;is not part of the core earnings story.&#8221; He explained, &#8220;SGMS\u2019 core business is still gaming, which faces material headwinds. In the prior year period, SGMS generated $363m of &#8220;segment EBITDA&#8221;, 60% of which came from slot machines. So while we like the iGaming industry, we don\u2019t think this is the way to express that view.&#8221; Chaiken added that Scientific&#8217;s installed slot base fell 5.5%. &#8220;We see risk that this installed base comes down as operators figure out which machines they can &#8216;turn on&#8217; and keep, and which machines they can potentially dispose of.&#8221; Worse still, future casino openings would be &#8220;minimal&#8221; if any. Simply put, there&#8217;s little market for new slots. Chaiken sees the coming trend to be one of sports books consuming floor space previously dedicated to slots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taking a middle course was <strong>JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst <strong>Joseph Greff<\/strong>. He was impressed by SciPlay but said that &#8220;uncertainty&#8221; hovers over Scientific. He noted &#8220;expense control&#8221; at the parent company and &#8220;resilient&#8221; lottery biz. According to SGMS execs, slot handle is &#8220;trending up significantly&#8221; compared to 2019, though, as Greff wrote, &#8220;operator demand for equipment is still uncertain.&#8221; Fortunately for Scientific, 50% of its installed base is in regional casinos, which everyone expects to recover fastest. Debt refinancing should add $200 million in liquidity. The possible sale of <strong>Ron Perelman<\/strong>&#8216;s 39% stake in the company went unremarked. Predicting &#8220;a prolonged recovery given capital preservation needs of gaming operators and reconfiguration of floors,&#8221; Greff still likes SciPlay&#8217;s trend and that of the lottery division. He puts an $18 price target on SGMS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">One of our <em>S&amp;G<\/em> correspondents paid <strong>Downtown<\/strong> a visit yesterday, starting at <strong>The D<\/strong>, and filed this report: &#8220;The long bar looked lonely with all its chairs removed and bar top games covered up with signs announcing closure. Also went to <strong>Four Queens<\/strong>. Crowds are much sparser and more wearing masks.\u00a0 Some of the merchandise kiosks have opened up on the [<strong>Fremont Street<\/strong>] <strong>Experience<\/strong>. People didn\u2019t seem to know what to do with themselves. The <strong>Circa<\/strong> sign is up and looks good.&#8221; Indeed it does: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"788\" height=\"467\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Circa-marquee.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Circa-marquee.png 788w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Circa-marquee-300x178.png 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Circa-marquee-150x89.png 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Circa-marquee-768x455.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Jottings<\/em><\/strong>: Baseball season has resumed, saints be praised, but that doesn&#8217;t stop the stat-o-casters. <strong>BetQL<\/strong> ran a simulated <strong>MLB<\/strong> season 10,000 times over and concluded that the <strong>Atlanta Braves<\/strong> will not only make the playoff (<a href=\"https:\/\/igamingplayer.com\/surprise-simulation-model-says-this-team-will-dominate-in-the-mlb-season\/\" class=\"broken_link\">94% likelihood<\/a>) but win the <strong>National League East <\/strong>(69%). Isn&#8217;t it depressing when someone declares the season over when it&#8217;s hardly begun? &#8230; If the &#8220;crowd&#8221; noises at baseball matches sound like a video game, that&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2020\/07\/23\/sports\/artificial-noise-plan-is-designed-get-crowd-into-game-fenway-park\/?et_rid=753721489&amp;s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter\">because they are<\/a> &#8230; 20 years of service at <strong>Mohegan Sun<\/strong> by <strong>Ray Pineault<\/strong> have been rewarded. The GM has been promoted to COO of <strong>Mohegan Gaming &amp; Entertainment<\/strong>, adding properties in <strong>New Jersey<\/strong>, <strong>Pennsylvania<\/strong>, <strong>Canada<\/strong> and <strong>South Korea<\/strong> to his portfolio &#8230; More evidence that demand for <strong>Las Vegas<\/strong> is slackening: <strong>Wynncore<\/strong> is planning to furlough <a href=\"https:\/\/vegas.eater.com\/2020\/7\/23\/21335264\/furlough-employees-tropicana-circus-circus-layoffs-coronavirus-pandemic\">an undisclosed number of employees<\/a>. They&#8217;re the lucky ones. The <strong>Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> hasn&#8217;t even reopened and already 620 workers are getting pink-slipped while <strong>Phil Ruffin<\/strong> is giving 252 the chop at <strong>Circus Circus<\/strong>. A spokesman for <strong>Wynn Resorts<\/strong> admitted to &#8220;challenged business volumes.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who was that masked man anyway? A daring thief casually strolled into Deja Vu Love Boutique, made his way over to &#8220;Moby,&#8221; a giant dildo (approximately three feet long) and walked right out the door with it. The whale-sized self-pleasuring &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/giant-dildo-at-large-in-sin-city-scientific-pleases-disappoints\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[65,113,155,51,14,37,189,264,167,95,119,160,243,161,9,38,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27598"}],"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=27598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27600,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27598\/revisions\/27600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}