{"id":4548,"date":"2010-09-09T11:16:42","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T19:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=4548"},"modified":"2010-09-09T11:18:03","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T19:18:03","slug":"harrahs-does-it-again-and-again-and-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/harrahs-does-it-again-and-again-and-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrah’s does it again (and again … and again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hey, Gary Loveman<\/strong>, don’t let the doorknob hit you in the butt as you skedaddle out of Kansas<\/strong> for the second time<\/a>.\u00a0 Ever-fickle, Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> turned tail and ran from the Sunflower State on the very date its Wichita<\/strong>-area proposal was to go before the Kansas Lottery Commission<\/strong>. The latter gave both remaining petitions — from Global Gaming Solutions<\/strong> and Peninsula Gaming<\/strong> — the thumbs-up and kicked the matter on up the ladder of state.<\/p>\n

Even a potential 78% revenue share wasn’t enough to keep Harrah’s in the game. Company officials said the eleventh-hour bugout reflected “careful consideration” and analysis of “many data points.” The question then becomes why the careful consideration of these manifold data points wasn’t conducted before<\/em> Harrah’s assembled its proposal — the best of the three, IMO — and went through the Sumner County<\/strong> approval process. This kind of flibbertygibbet decisionmaking is all too characteristic of the Loveman regime: Fire, aim… oh wait, we’re not ready.<\/p>\n

What wasn’t a factor, evidently, was Harrah’s laborious debt load. The Lottery concluded the company was capable of bankrolling the $260 million project, even if it was “working for its debt holders.” Still, Harrah’s is highly unlikely to ever be taken seriously in Kansas again and states like Massachusetts<\/strong> and Pennsylvania<\/strong> might start looking askance at its handsome renderings and revenue projections.<\/p>\n

Indian giver<\/strong>. Beware of gaming executives bearing large cardboard checks for 30 million smackeroos. Harrah’s is holding at least $20 million pledged to the University of Southern Nevada<\/strong>, hostage, demanding that it be matched by the State of Nevada<\/strong>. I don’t know if Loveman actually listens to government-affairs veep Jan Jones<\/strong>, who may have tried to clue him in on the fact that Nevada is careening toward an unprecedented budget shortfall. If the cutbacks made in recent legislatures seem severe — the closure of state parks even got put on the table — it was a tea party compared to what’s in store in 2011. Simply put, the state doesn’t have $20 million to spare and, if it did, there are people far needier than the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration<\/strong> (which is actually faring pretty well<\/a>). Harrah’s should either pony up the cash, no strings attached, or take that big-ass check and put it in the shredder.<\/p>\n

\"\"Education isn’t the only area<\/strong> in which Harrah’s has its snout in the public trough. In another stick-it-to-the-tourists move, CityLife<\/em> reports (second item<\/a>) that the company is proposing to sock the Strip corridor with a 0.9% sales-tax increase, which would bring that levy to 9% (and don’t forget the 12% lodging tax). Nevada has one of the highest sales-tax rates in the nation and, once Clark County imposts are added, an increase to 9% would push Southern Nevada past New York<\/strong> and into California<\/strong> range when it comes to taxing consumers up the wazoo.<\/p>\n

Never mind that Harrah’s proposed stadium (the beneficiary of the taxpayers’ largesse, above) would create such gridlock as to make the Flamingo\/Strip<\/strong> intersection impassable before and after events. The company’s pushing a regressive tax, one which disproportionately hits the very customers<\/em> Vegas is struggling to bring back. It also sends the wrong message to tourists — and casts the company’s “no resort fees” posture in quite a different light.<\/p>\n

It’s a drop<\/strong> in the bucket of Nevada unemployment but 140 new jobs at the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> is worth celebrating all the same. Anybody care to make an over\/under on the number of applicants per job? The Trop will have no shortage of qualified personnel from which to choose. Speaking of which …<\/p>\n

Shuffle Master is still<\/strong> just shuffling along in its search for a new CEO, a process that won’t be wrapped up until around New Year’s. If Tamares Group<\/strong> can land a former Harrah’s VP, why is it so difficult for Shuffle Master to find good help? Thankfully, the company is running well on autopilot, grossing over $50 million<\/a> in the last quarter, thanks to table game-installation in Pennsylvania<\/strong> and Delaware<\/strong>, as well as increased e-table sales in Singapore<\/strong>. Which reminds me that Sands Marina Bay<\/strong> is one of several Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> properties to engage in mass sackage of upper management. Perhaps Shuffle Master should give some of those guys a jingle. Meanwhile …<\/p>\n

… heads continue to roll<\/strong> in an ongoing housecleaning<\/a> of Wynn Resorts<\/strong>‘ nightclub braintrust. Like I said, getting involved with that scene means schlepping the trash to the curb every so often, as Sands and pre-Harrah’s Planet Hollywood<\/strong> could testify.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey, Gary Loveman, don’t let the doorknob hit you in the butt as you skedaddle out of Kansas for the second time.\u00a0 Ever-fickle, Harrah’s Entertainment turned tail and ran from the Sunflower State on the very date its Wichita-area proposal … 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":[48,34,28,14,105,4,7,45,112,101,95,6,25,12,107,108,32,31,9,19,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548"}],"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=4548"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4552,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548\/revisions\/4552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}