{"id":404,"date":"2008-10-24T12:43:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-24T20:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2008\/10\/24\/Is-Peter-Carlino-crazy"},"modified":"2008-10-24T12:43:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-24T20:43:00","slug":"is-peter-carlino-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/is-peter-carlino-crazy\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Peter Carlino crazy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now I know that Penn National<\/strong> is all a-flush with cash these days and CEO Peter Carlino<\/strong> is probably feeling bullish. Still, in a recent visit to Vegas to assess possible casino acquisitions, he's alleged to have acted like he just fell off the turnip truck.<\/p>\n

\"\" According to Steve Wynn<\/strong> — in the course of scotching a rumor that he might buy up some MGM Mirage<\/strong> property — Carlino made the company an offer for Bellagio<\/strong><\/a>. Carlino must think that J. Terrence Lanni<\/strong> is an awfully desperate man. Why else would MGM part with its most powerful revenue driver on the Strip, a casino that is regularly in Majestic Research<\/strong>'s top three when it comes to game usage (over-simply, sheer preponderance of players)?<\/p>\n

Carlino made news by publicly dissing the Tropicana<\/strong> as a potential buy, saying "There's better stuff" to be had. Agreed. But, unless Wynn either misheard or is making mischief, Carlino seems to have veered far off the other side of the road. There's definitely some low-hanging fruit out there: The Rio<\/strong>, Riviera<\/strong> (plus debt), Cosmopolitan<\/strong> (ditto), maybe even the Sahara<\/strong>. Why he thinks MGM would part with its most valuable asset beggars the imagination.<\/p>\n

(Wynn's hypothesis that MGM might peddle its Atlantic City<\/strong> land and perhaps its half-share of Borgata<\/strong> makes far more sense, especially with the question of Pansy Ho<\/strong>'s suitability still hanging fire in New Jersey. And Penn has shown interest in two other A.C. sites already.)<\/p>\n

MGM spokesman Alan Feldman<\/strong> is cagey, though, keeping alive the prospect that Bellagio might be had (perhaps by someone with the initials K.K.<\/strong>) for the right price. But I've got to believe it would take an offer as exuberant as the one El-Ad Properties<\/strong> made for the New Frontier<\/strong> before MGM Mirage would pawn its crown jewel to a rival operator.<\/p>\n

And don't forget Downtown: Carlino is welcome to buy out slothful Tamares Group<\/strong> any time he likes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now I know that Penn National is all a-flush with cash these days and CEO Peter Carlino is probably feeling bullish. Still, in a recent visit to Vegas to assess possible casino acquisitions, he's alleged to have acted like he … 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":[23,51,7,11,69,55,54,32,47,9,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404"}],"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=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}