{"id":4029,"date":"2010-07-12T10:30:03","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T18:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=4029"},"modified":"2010-07-13T09:46:10","modified_gmt":"2010-07-13T17:46:10","slug":"sg-hither-yon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/sg-hither-yon\/","title":{"rendered":"S&G hither & yon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend’s usual barrage of errands, veterinary appointments, etc., was interrupted long enough for Yr. Humble Blogger to guest-host another edition of The Strip Podcast<\/em>. In it, I reveal my shameful ignorance of televised poker (something I literally tuned out years ago) and the new restaurant at Circus Circus<\/strong>. However, I do weigh in — and “weigh” is the operative word, I fear — on some new carb-friendly restaurants on the Strip. We also discuss the Harmon<\/strong> fiasco, Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>‘s recent success and whether (and why) Global Cash Access<\/strong> kiosks should displace the traditional casino cage, among sundry other topics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Even without loss limits<\/strong> on table games and with new casino attractions at River City<\/strong>, June in Missouri<\/strong> was pretty much a wash. Revenues were up 6% statewide but once you allow for River City (left<\/em>), everybody else was -4% from last year. All casinos not named “River City” were -10% in table game play, in fact. Also, the new Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> fun spot was cannibalizing Harrah’s Maryland Heights<\/strong> and Ameristar St. Charles<\/strong> -12% and -2%, respectively. Ameristar SC’s $23 million still makes it the top-grossing riverboat in the state.<\/p>\n

Ameristar could, however, rejoice in an 11% surge<\/a> in its Kansas City<\/strong> business, even as its Penn National<\/strong>, Harrah’s and Isle of Capri<\/strong> rivals slipped slightly. The small, outlying riverboats all fared well but Pinnacle’s President Casino<\/strong> ended its career dismally, raking in only $600K last month — a 66% decline, brought on when floodwaters forced the casino’s premature closure. Still, when the Mark Twain<\/em>, berthed in La Grange<\/strong>, does as much in a month ($3 million) as President did it six, it was way past time for Pinnacle to put this charity case out of its misery, especially when the charitable “underwriters” are one’s shareholders.<\/p>\n

It may not be funny<\/strong> but S&G<\/em> gets to supply the punchline<\/a> for a Portfolio.com<\/em> piece on Bill Lerner<\/strong>‘s strangely euphoric Cosmopolitan<\/strong> prophecies. It includes what may be the oddball moment of 2010: Lerner’s out-loud wish for hotel price-fixing on the Strip, something that would surely endear the casino industry to the Justice Department<\/strong>, in the unlikely event it came to pass.<\/p>\n

Rich Little hasn’t gotten this much<\/strong> attention since he was doing the nasty<\/a> with Melinda Saxe<\/strong>. These days, he’s getting up people’s dander. Since Little’s no longer funny,* apparently he’s decided to try and be controversial instead<\/a>. Considering that he’s working his way down the food chain from the Golden Nugget<\/strong> to The Cannery<\/strong>, isn’t it best to let him finish out a once-distinguished career in obscurity?<\/p>\n

(*–I can’t find my CityLife<\/em> review of Little’s crash-and-burn Nugget engagement online but it was one of the more memorably bad performances I’ve encountered in a Vegas showroom, which is going some.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend’s usual barrage of errands, veterinary appointments, etc., was interrupted long enough for Yr. Humble Blogger to guest-host another edition of The Strip Podcast. In it, I reveal my shameful ignorance of televised poker (something I literally tuned out … 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":[40,65,73,56,66,18,51,14,4,7,85,11,39,78,30,25,12,74,8,9,129,17,38,132],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4029"}],"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=4029"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4038,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4029\/revisions\/4038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}