{"id":2796,"date":"2010-04-02T14:49:10","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T22:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=2796"},"modified":"2020-08-01T11:41:34","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T19:41:34","slug":"could-steve-wynn-jilt-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/could-steve-wynn-jilt-philadelphia\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Steve Wynn jilt Philadelphia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stevewynn_300\"What’s Steve Wynn<\/strong> supposedly doing in Atlantic City<\/strong> this weekend and why is he allegedly kicking the tires on casino properties there<\/a>? Well, it is<\/em> a buyer’s market and half of Borgata<\/strong> is up for grabs (as would be Trump Marina<\/strong> were it not enmeshed in bankruptcy proceedings). Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>‘s got a slew of empty land and if Wynn feels like a trip down memory lane, he could buy out the Atlantic City Hilton<\/strong> from creditors RAC Atlantic City Holdings<\/strong><\/span>. After all, he built the place 30 years ago as the Golden Nugget<\/strong> but it’s has been in a deep slide in recent years under the stewardship of Nicholas Ribis<\/strong> and hapless Colony Capital<\/strong>. But one of Wynn’s greatest strengths is that he doesn’t live in the past, so take that into consideration.<\/p>\n

Then again, a $1.2 billion equity stake in Revel<\/strong> is suddenly on the market<\/a> and Wynn could probably pick it up for nickels on the dollar<\/a>, perhaps as little as $200 million-$400 million<\/a>. However, where’s the incentive to pick up an unfinished project that is almost two years and $1 billion-1.5 billion from completion (even if promised Chinese venture capital does materialize)? Another, not-inconsiderable X factor is Wynn’s Macao<\/strong> involvement and what sort of squeamishness this might ensue amongst New Jersey<\/strong> regulators, having just given MGM the thumbs-down on its Pansy Ho<\/strong> deal.<\/p>\n

Besides, if the New Jersey Legislature<\/strong> signs onto state Sen. James Whelan<\/strong>‘s proposal for “boutique” casinos with 200 hotel rooms, max, then Revel, in its present state, isn’t worth a tinker’s damn. But if Wynn were to relieve MGM Mirage<\/strong> of its half of Borgata, he’d have a turn-key property and little more to do than cash a check every so often. It’s about as close to “free money” as he’s likely to get.<\/p>\n

The bigger question <\/strong>(and I’ve received independent confirmation of Roger Gros<\/strong>‘ reportage) is: Why Atlantic City and — especially — why now<\/em>? Is this alleged sightseeing trip an unsubtle attempt to pressure the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board<\/strong> into green-lighting Wynn’s Philadelphia<\/strong> project? Or — unlikely as it seems — has Wynn suddenly lost interest in Philly, given its intractable politics? And, if so, can you really blame him?<\/p>\n

Either way, being seen sussing out property in Atlantic City, if true, would be a volatile ploy, liable to generate a considerable degree of backlash in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump<\/strong>‘s Philadelphia proposal was ashcanned largely because it was believed he was too invested in Atlantic City and was trying to (pardon my French) cock-block the Philly market. If Wynn’s indeed courting Philadelphia but flirting with the Boardwalk, he risks becoming persona non grata<\/em> in the City of Brotherly Love. Atlantic City, however, can’t afford to be so persnickety.<\/p>\n

Outrageous revisionist history<\/strong>. Look, nobody disagrees that when Phil Ruffin<\/strong> bought Treasure Island<\/strong> it was a mood-elevator for the Strip, an exciting development and a big vote of confidence in Las Vegas. However, to say that since the $775 million deal, Ruffin has “parlayed an antiquated casino property into a modern, relatively recently reinvented resort<\/em>” isn’t just sycophancy, it’s a preposterous misrepresentation of history. I doubt that few people who patronized Treasure Island in the pre-Ruffin era would describe it as “antiquated,” a term that’s a gross disservice to MGM Mirage and even to Steve Wynn. <\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I fail to see how Ruffin’s importation of his beloved mechanical bull from the stinky old New Frontier<\/strong> (ya wanna talk “antiquated”?) equates to a modernization of the Island, as the article claims, but maybe I’m just being obtuse.
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What’s Steve Wynn supposedly doing in Atlantic City this weekend and why is he allegedly kicking the tires on casino properties there? Well, it is a buyer’s market and half of Borgata is up for grabs (as would be Trump … 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":[23,60,3,28,42,4,22,62,11,110,95,119,30,33,25,32,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2796"}],"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=2796"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27657,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2796\/revisions\/27657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}