{"id":3955,"date":"2010-07-02T10:20:29","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T18:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=3955"},"modified":"2019-01-23T09:26:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T17:26:12","slug":"honey-i-forgot-the-license","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/honey-i-forgot-the-license\/","title":{"rendered":"Honey, I forgot the license!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Despite a record of failure, failure and even greater failure, three cronies of Pennsylvania<\/strong> Gov. Ed Rendell<\/strong> still have a chance of holding onto the comatose “Wynnwoods” casino project in Philadelphia<\/strong>. Somehow, Wynnwoods (officially known as Philadelphia Entertainment & Development Partners<\/strong>) managed to limp along for 40 months or so with two of its three central players becoming licensed. Only Comcast<\/strong> Chairman Ed Snider<\/strong> has obtained the necessary approval. In the case of developer Ron Rubin<\/strong>, regulators better get a move on, as Rubin is pushing 80.<\/p>\n

When Steve Wynn<\/strong> suddenly dumped his deal with the Snider\/Rubin\/Lewis Katz<\/strong> menage-a-trois<\/em>, he cited “internal” issues and made it a priority to stay on good terms with Philly Mayor Michael Nutter<\/strong>. Considering that Wynn isn’t used to being chastised by mayors — however politely — for not doing his homework on a project, Wynn’s conciliatory approach to City Hall meant A)<\/strong> he wants to keep his hand in the game and B)<\/strong> something else really was afoot.<\/p>\n

Turns out the sticking point<\/strong> was a pledge Snider\/Rubin\/Katz made to donate 42% of Wynnwoods profits to charity. Considering how that would constrict Wynn in terms of reinvestment, expansion, etc., who could blame him for bailing out? The bigger question is whether Keystone State regulators would still be rearranging the deck chairs on this Titanic<\/em> were Katz not fundraiser #1 for Rendell. Seems like it’s past time for this project to be rebid.<\/p>\n

There’s a bit of<\/strong> what-goes-around-comes-around in all this. Snider’s Three<\/strong> got their riverfront acreage from Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> — but paid with an I.O.U. Which means that CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong> is going to have to wait until 2015 to get his $67 million back. Can you say “writedown”? I thought you could.<\/p>\n

\"\"Everybody’s doing it<\/strong>. Another former partner of Snider’s Three might also be likened to a sinking ship: foundering Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong>. Faced with $1.3 billion in outstanding bonds, it’s going all Loveman on Wall Street’s ass<\/a>, seeking to have over half the debt forgiven. (The repayment amount would escalate if and when business improves.) That’s not a haircut, that’s decapitation!<\/p>\n

Wall Street, for its part, is watching all this with apprehension, since Foxwoods’ assets can’t be seized nor is bankruptcy an option. Already, a court precedent allowed a Wisconsin<\/strong> tribe to wriggle out of a $50 million, so lenders continue to lose — pardon the pun — leverage.<\/p>\n

One step closer<\/strong>. Bleary-eyed Massachusetts<\/strong> state senators approved a three-casino regime<\/a> (which still leaves them at odds<\/a> with the lower house and Gov. Deval Patrick<\/strong>). They also rewrote the rules on a redevelopment grant to Fall River<\/strong>, thereby paving the way for a tribal casino there … and also to dissuade the Mashpee Wampanoags<\/strong> from making an end-run by seeking casino approval from Washington D.C<\/strong>. (the Fall River easement is contingent on state approval of the tribe’s casino application). There are still a lot of ifs and maybes between Massachusetts tribes and Class III gambling but the Mashpee band just got a leg up on the competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite a record of failure, failure and even greater failure, three cronies of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell still have a chance of holding onto the comatose “Wynnwoods” casino project in Philadelphia. Somehow, Wynnwoods (officially known as Philadelphia Entertainment & Development … 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":[14,7,112,95,33,25,32,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955"}],"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=3955"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23342,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions\/23342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}