{"id":3382,"date":"2010-06-01T12:12:18","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T20:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=3382"},"modified":"2011-04-15T09:09:12","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T17:09:12","slug":"case-bets-station-macao-maryland-missouri-mississippi-encore-2x-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-station-macao-maryland-missouri-mississippi-encore-2x-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets: Station, Macao, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, Encore 2x, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"$864.5 million<\/strong>: That’s the magic number if you want to put in an opening bid on 11 Station Casinos<\/strong> properties (plus unspecified land and some tribal-casino-management contracts) come Aug. 6. Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s already made it clear that it’s good for that and more but the sweetheart deal approved by Judge Gregg Zive<\/strong> enables Station insiders to buy the company for $92.5 million less — an 11% discount.<\/p>\n

Unless Boyd puts its money on the table and draws sock-puppet<\/span> stalking-horse bidder Fertitta Gaming<\/strong> into a bidding war, it looks like game, set and match to the Fertittas. It would be interesting, though, to see how high Boyd could get Fertitta Gaming<\/strong> to go. Its backer, Colony Capital<\/strong>, is no slouch when it comes to throwing good money after bad, so it would be morbidly amusing if Colony CEO Tom Barrack<\/strong> got taken to the cleaners … again, paying top dollar for the same assets, two times running.<\/p>\n

Ka-CHING!<\/strong> Preliminary indications are that casino revenues in Macao<\/strong> were up 99% (no, that’s not a typo) from May 2009 and +24% from this past April. The Macanese market continues to heat up something fierce, to the tune of as much as $2.2 billion last month. Sure, the Encore Macau<\/strong> opening didn’t hurt but what is of even greater significance is the nearly surreptitious reintroduction of a visa scheme that permits mainlanders to move into and out of Macao via a third-party nation. While governmental stimulus money represents 12% of China<\/strong>‘s GDP, the country’s normally iron-fisted rulers can’t be too worried about a cash drain into Macao’s casino coffers if that roundabout means of allowing VIP players into the protectorate is back in action.<\/p>\n

Isle + 1<\/strong>. Regulators in Mississippi<\/strong> have given their blessing to Bally Technologies<\/strong>‘ sale of its Rainbow<\/em> riverboat casino<\/a> to Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong>. The $80 million transaction takes effect June 9 but don’t expect any Isle rebranding until 2011.<\/p>\n

Boffo biz at Encore Beach Club<\/strong>. If patrons are spending as much as $15K per caba\u00f1a and $30K per bungalow at Encore<\/strong>‘s brand-new douchebag magnet (see @vegaschatter<\/em>‘s Twitter<\/strong> photostream), per J.P. Morgan<\/strong> intel, then Steve Wynn<\/strong>‘s got few worries. Whoever may be lacking for discretionary income, it’s not the high-end customers that Wynn covets — and gets.<\/p>\n

And you thought CityCenter was dangerous!<\/strong> A casino site in Baltimore<\/strong> has run afoul of a few carcinogenic substances (arsenic<\/strong>, chromium<\/strong> and tetrachloroethylene<\/strong>) that’ll have to be remediated before construction can begin, in the latest setback for Maryland<\/strong>‘s nascent casino industry. Perhaps the gaming management could be farmed out to Fertitta Gaming, with the slot house renamed “Toxic Station.”<\/p>\n

Pinnacle, Ameristar back in the game<\/strong>. In the wake of Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong>‘s buyout of bankrupt Thistledown Race Track<\/strong> in Ohio<\/strong>, it emerges that Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> was among the spurned bidders. Hopefully, this means that Pinnacle management — lately in full-scale retreat — hasn’t abandoned all thoughts of expansion, provided they’re cost-effective ones.<\/p>\n

Although Isle of Capri and its Missouri<\/strong> partners are the presumed frontrunners if the state’s 13th casino license goes to Cape Girardeau<\/strong>, a new contender may be on the horizon. Ameristar Casinos<\/strong> — whether out of fear of additional St. Louis<\/strong> competition, altruism or the hope of breaching a new market — is advocating moving the license downriver. S&G<\/em> doubts that Ameristar as much as promised the Show-Me State $23.5 million in annual taxes from the Cape Girardeau region just for its health. If \u00fcber<\/em>-cautious Ameristar is truly contemplating new-casino development, that’s the best indicator to date that regional markets have bottomed out. After all, Ameristar was trimming its sails well before the Great Recession took hold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

$864.5 million: That’s the magic number if you want to put in an opening bid on 11 Station Casinos properties (plus unspecified land and some tribal-casino-management contracts) come Aug. 6. Boyd Gaming‘s already made it clear that it’s good for … 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":[40,77,88,60,3,28,14,105,4,7,67,22,85,62,72,35,39,71,30,111,25,57,32,31,9,19,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382"}],"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=3382"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6323,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382\/revisions\/6323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}