{"id":4034,"date":"2010-07-12T17:08:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-13T01:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=4034"},"modified":"2021-02-19T07:32:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T15:32:51","slug":"harrahs-checkmates-philly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/harrahs-checkmates-philly\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrah’s checkmates Philly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

That $67 million note Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> holds on the site of the Foxwoods<\/strong> Wynn Resorts<\/strong><\/span> [your casino here] site in Philadelphia<\/strong> is turning out to be mighty valuable. The gambling giant is looking to roll that I.O.U. into an equity position, which also breathes new life into the comatose Ed Snider<\/strong>-led consortium. As for Pennsylvania<\/strong>‘s political establishment, Harrah’s CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong> has it in a box of its own construction.<\/p>\n

When Harrah’s was part of one of three groups bidding for the Pittsburgh<\/strong> slot parlor concession, a primary argument against it was, ‘Why give Harrah’s access to both of Pennsylvania’s largest markets?’ Even though the Forest City<\/strong>\/Harrah’s proposal was the most persuasive of the trio submitted, the gig went to Don Barden<\/strong> — and we all know how that ended.<\/p>\n

When Barden ran out of money, the Pittsburgh contract was expeditiously transferred to developer Neil Bluhm<\/strong>, even though he was already had a Philadelphia casino, SugarHouse. So much for intellectual consistency … unless you count taking a consistently indulgent attitude toward big Democratic Party<\/strong> donors like Barden and Bluhm.<\/p>\n

Now, instead of Harrah’s having one casino in the Philly area (Harrah’s Chester<\/strong>) and a third of one in Pittsburgh, Keystone State regulators will have to deal with concentration-of-ownership issues raised by Harrah’s having 1.3 of the four casinos in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area. I can hear competitors Parx Casino<\/strong> and SugarHouse squawking already, methinks.<\/p>\n

\"\"That also raises the specter of Donald Trump<\/strong> and his failed bid for one of the two Philadelphia contracts. Financial problems aside, the Trumpster was nixed out of fear he would want to protect his Atlantic City<\/strong> interests by building a small, noncompetitive property in the City of Brotherly Love. But if Trump’s three New Jersey<\/strong> casinos were too great a conflict, what then do Philly city fathers say about Harrah’s four<\/em> Atlantic City properties — plus one in Chester?<\/p>\n

The most intellectually consistent course would be to pull the plug on Snider & Co. and possibly rebid the project elsewhere (Johnstown<\/strong> has been mentioned). However, the looming presence of Harrah’s — to say nothing of its player database and managerial talent (it’s still the best “farm system” for casino executives) — turns Wynnwoods<\/strong> into a highly viable project. With jobs and hundreds of millions in potential investment at stake, it should prove very difficult for Pennsylvanians to say “no.”<\/p>\n

Wynnvote 2012<\/strong>: This just in — Steve Wynn<\/strong> has a White House<\/strong> candidate for 2012 and it’s Mississippi<\/strong> Gov. Haley Barbour<\/strong>. Just FYI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That $67 million note Harrah’s Entertainment holds on the site of the Foxwoods Wynn Resorts [your casino here] site in Philadelphia is turning out to be mighty valuable. The gambling giant is looking to roll that I.O.U. into an equity … 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":[28,83,42,7,35,91,95,33,111,25,32,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034"}],"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=4034"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29294,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034\/revisions\/29294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}