{"id":2778,"date":"2010-04-01T13:20:16","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T21:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=2778"},"modified":"2010-04-01T15:21:42","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T23:21:42","slug":"st-hits-mgm-sands-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/st-hits-mgm-sands-fan\/","title":{"rendered":"S**t hits MGM, Sands fan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MGMLocal newspapers — and bloggers — have been slow to pick up on a couple of Reuters<\/strong> dispatches that show — as some doomsayers prognosticated — that involvement in Macao<\/strong> is coming back to bite the U.S. casino industry in the butt. Specifically, the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> is developing “investigative product”<\/a> on the relationship between Sands Macao<\/strong> and the alleged triad kingpin Cheung Chi-tai<\/strong>. Regulators in Pennsylvania<\/strong>, meanwhile, will neither confirm nor deny that they’re looking into the triad matter but that the suitability of operators is under “ongoing” scrutiny. (I’ll take that as a “yes.”)<\/p>\n

Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> may get off with a few fines — and might even been gift-wrapped an excuse to unload turkey Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> and take a huge writedown thereupon. It looks considerably worse for MGM Mirage<\/strong>. Midwestern regulators are shocked — shocked!<\/a> — by the findings of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement<\/strong>; namely, that Stanley Ho<\/strong> is mobbed up. (Don’t everybody fall over at once.) As a consequence, Illinois<\/strong> is opening an investigation, while Michigan<\/strong> and Mississippi<\/strong> regulators are spending some quality time with the NJ DGE report.<\/p>\n

That this should have to be done<\/strong> at all reflects poorly on the initial due diligence of these states. Nevada, meanwhile, stands by its finding of suitability in re<\/em> Pansy Ho<\/strong> … as well it might, having taken a far less cursory attitude toward the MGM\/Pansy Ho\/Stanley Ho relationship than did Mississippi. The latter was so quick to give its blessing it looked careless at the time, not merely in retrospect.<\/p>\n

A domino-like series of investigations could be catastrophic for MGM, which looked like it could heave a sigh of relief now that CityCenter<\/strong> was completed and the Atlantic City<\/strong> vs. Macao dilemma resolved. However, it’s now at risk of losing its half of Illinois’ highest-grossing riverboat (Grand Victoria<\/em>), all of Detroit<\/strong>‘s best performer (stately MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong>), its Gold Strike Tunica<\/strong> — OK, maybe not such a big loss — and Beau Rivage<\/strong> … should a perfect-storm regulatory scenario come to pass. With all the preoccupation on CityCenter, its adversities, its cost, its financing, who’d have thought it would be MGM Grand Macau<\/strong> that would threaten to shred the company’s portfolio?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local newspapers — and bloggers — have been slow to pick up on a couple of Reuters dispatches that show — as some doomsayers prognosticated — that involvement in Macao is coming back to bite the U.S. casino industry 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":[23,56,44,58,62,35,110,95,25,12,61,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778"}],"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=2778"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2781,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions\/2781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}