{"id":3348,"date":"2010-05-28T11:27:39","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T19:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=3348"},"modified":"2021-01-28T07:06:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T15:06:02","slug":"how-big-is-deepwater-horizon-how-solvent-is-archon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/how-big-is-deepwater-horizon-how-solvent-is-archon\/","title":{"rendered":"How big is Deepwater Horizon?; How solvent is Archon?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend, millions are fleeing a disaster of biblical proportions — I speak not of the epochal Deepwater Horizon<\/strong> spill but of Sex and the City 2<\/em>.<\/p>\n

However, while we’re on the subject, Gulf Coast<\/strong> casinos can take at least some modest cheer in the fact that the mega-spill has not washed up on their beaches and is, in fact, oozing in the opposite direction. But just how big is the Oil Spill from Hell? The Biloxi Sun-Herald<\/em> has a nifty application that superimposes Deepwater Horizon on your city<\/a>. If you dropped the spill atop Las Vegas<\/strong>, it would cover nearly all of Clark County<\/strong>, as well as chunks of Nye<\/strong> and Lincoln<\/strong> counties (laying waste to the Oldest Profession), stretching from St. George<\/strong>, UT, to Death Valley<\/strong>, with a tentacle extended toward Prescott<\/strong>, AZ.<\/p>\n

On a more sober note<\/strong>, once the devastation to the Gulf economy sets in, it’ll be very hard on the wallets of the locals players who are the mainstay of Louisiana<\/strong> and Mississippi<\/strong> casino industries. For a month or two, it looked like the Gulf Coast casinos were on their way back up out of the trough of the Great Recession … now this. If it weren’t for bad luck, that region would have no luck whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Here today, Archon tomorrow<\/strong>. The alternately waxing and fortunes of Archon Corp<\/strong>. Secretary-Treasurer Sue Lowden<\/strong> have put the comparable vicissitudes of her company under a microscope<\/a>. Basically, it’s the saga of how a company with a somewhat impressive set of casino holdings — including the Sahara<\/strong> and the bygone Hacienda<\/strong> — withered into the rinky-dink crony-capitalism outfit that is present-day Archon. The depletion of assets and jobs also lends a sting of truth to Sen. Al Franken<\/strong>‘s paraphrase of a Sue Lowden tagline, “My job is fighting for your job, unless you happen to work at my husband\u2019s casino.\u201d Or water park. (Speaking of Paul Lowden<\/strong>, Archon’s better investments would not include his helmet-like toup\u00e9e.)<\/p>\n

\"\"Given the slap-happy way<\/strong> in which Mrs. Lowden’s campaign finances have been handled — it prematurely spent $18K in general-election funds and her personal-finance report to the Senate Ethics Committee<\/strong> is having to be redone after nearly 20 material omissions were uncovered — it’s hardly any surprise that Archon and its shareholders are frequently at each others’ throats. As the ex-president of what’s now Santa Fe Station<\/strong>, if Mrs. Lowden makes it through to November, we’ll be treated to the interesting experiment of a casino boss running for national office.<\/p>\n

Her gaming-industry background is certain to be the subject of many a snooty reference from Katrina van den Heuvel<\/strong> types on the left, who can be as tight-assed about gambling as any Moral Majoritarian. Their conservative equivalents — like Dr. James Dobson<\/strong> — are less likely to make a stink than to just be tepidly supportive. With several hardcore anti-gambling figures politically ascendant (even if American Gaming Association<\/strong> polling shows the body politic trending the other way), Lowden gets to be a litmus test for how well the industry has “mainstreamed” its image.<\/p>\n

The Newspaper That Shall Remain Nameless<\/strong> is widening its anti-Internet<\/a> jihad<\/em>. The many unanswered questions here<\/a> include that golden oldie, “Who benefits?” If the R-J<\/em> is offloading its rights to Righthaven LLC<\/strong>, who gets the proceeds from any lawsuit that goes to trial or is settled out of court? And who owns Righthaven? Why is it needed? Isn’t Stephens Media<\/strong> big enough to sue for itself?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend, millions are fleeing a disaster of biblical proportions — I speak not of the epochal Deepwater Horizon spill but of Sex and the City 2. However, while we’re on the subject, Gulf Coast casinos can take at least … 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":[46,28,14,26,4,117,49,84,35,10,33,57,8,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3348"}],"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=3348"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29164,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3348\/revisions\/29164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}