{"id":3660,"date":"2010-06-02T19:21:53","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T03:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=3660"},"modified":"2010-06-02T19:21:53","modified_gmt":"2010-06-03T03:21:53","slug":"so-much-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/so-much-news\/","title":{"rendered":"So much news …"},"content":{"rendered":"

… so little time. East Coast casinos<\/strong> are stepping up their Asian-American marketing … and people are complaining<\/a>? Don’t do it and you’re culturally insensitive. Do it and you’re predatory. This is one of those perception battles casinos will never win.<\/p>\n

Just this weekend<\/strong>, after reading and viewing reports of the greater-than-expected debauchery — to say nothing of the mind-boggling spending; $3,500 for a caba\u00f1a? — that accompanied the opening of Encore Beach Club<\/strong>, I told my Dad, “It’s like the last days of the Roman Empire<\/strong> out here.”<\/p>\n

The joke was on me. Today, Caesars Palace<\/strong><\/a> tweeted the known universe that it has instituted “Caligula Mondays,” starting next week. (Does this mean it will feature incest, infanticide and Malcolm McDowell<\/strong>?) Yesterday’s hyperbole is tomorrow’s marketing strategy.<\/p>\n

Penn continues flirtation<\/strong>. Still playing the blushing maiden vis-a-vis the Las Vegas market, Penn National Gaming<\/strong> got itself a Nevada license, while sending its usual flurry of hopelessly mixed signals<\/a> about what it means to do … if anything. CEO Peter Carlino<\/strong> allowed as he might deign to bid on that 11-casino chunk of Station Casinos<\/strong> (whose greatest value may lie in whatever [unreported] real estate is attached). However, he says he’s looking for something along the Strip.<\/p>\n

Well, good luck, sir. After lowballing MGM Mirage<\/strong>* on both The Mirage<\/strong> and (allegedly) Bellagio<\/strong>, Carlino made a quixotic tilt at that money pit known as Fontainebleau<\/strong>. Since he’s ruled out the Riviera<\/strong> and whiffed on a chance to buy the Tropicana<\/strong> for cheap, Carlino’s options are fast dwindling. The Rio<\/strong> may still be in the wind and, if CityCenter <\/strong>doesn’t turn around, MGM might want to shop some or all of its “Mandalay Mile<\/strong>.” Or Carlino could try to buy the Echelon<\/strong> site from Boyd Gaming<\/strong> and attempt to finish the damn thing. He’s too mercurial to predict.<\/p>\n

(* — in fairness to Penn, MGM CEO Jim Murren<\/strong> is rather selective about the 12X cash flow price tag he hangs on his properties. Seven times EBITDA was good enough when Phil Ruffin<\/strong> came calling, but that Christmas spirit has not been extended to Penn. But, as I said, market pressures may soon force MGM’s hand.)<\/p>\n

Ameristar is spending<\/strong>. OK, $4 million in capex isn’t a cue to break out the bubbly but when so conservative a company is starting to spend again<\/a>, it’s a beacon of hope. (Ameristar St. Charles<\/em>, in Missouri<\/strong>, is also getting a beauty treatment.) Also, when your property revenues are down 24%, you’ve got to do something<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… so little time. East Coast casinos are stepping up their Asian-American marketing … and people are complaining? Don’t do it and you’re culturally insensitive. Do it and you’re predatory. This is one of those perception battles casinos will never … 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":[40,60,14,4,59,7,68,53,11,39,69,119,55,57,32,9,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660"}],"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=3660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3664,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660\/revisions\/3664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}