{"id":5294,"date":"2010-12-08T15:40:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T23:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=5294"},"modified":"2020-12-26T06:16:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T14:16:02","slug":"case-bets-adelson-vs-china-cirque-du-avatar-indiana-wallops-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-adelson-vs-china-cirque-du-avatar-indiana-wallops-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets: Adelson vs. China; Cirque du Avatar? Indiana wallops Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In a lengthy Asia Times<\/em> dispatch, the reliable Muhammad Cohen<\/strong> runs through various scenarios about why the government of Macao<\/strong> would pull back two Cotai Strip™<\/strong> sites from a ‘george’ investor like Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>. Since the acreage will probably be reallocated to tacky local favorite Stanley Ho<\/strong>, city hall’s preferred “economic diversification” argument doesn’t quite wash. The bottom line, per Cohen, is that the Chinese did this to Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> because A)<\/strong> they could and B)<\/strong> they don’t like him anymore. An Asia Times<\/em> source says that the mogul has morphed into the Ugly American, crass and pushy. Sensational allegations of Adelsonian misconduct level by recently sacked Sands China<\/strong> CEO Steven Jacobs<\/strong>, may have also put Mr. Sands in bad odor with officialdom. Adelson’s recurring urge to publicly humiliate his former underlings has come back to bite him in the tuchus<\/em> and it could very well cost him the completion of “Asia’s Las Vegas™<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

King of the Cirque?<\/strong> Although James Cameron<\/strong> might inject a soup\u00e7on<\/em> of testosterone into the namby-pamby PC antics of Cirque du Soleil<\/strong>, is supersized 3-D Cirque going to scare the children? I’m setting the over-under at five years in production and a $329 million budget. Now they just have to find some clowns who are fluent in N’avi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Windy City casino?<\/strong> I can’t think of any downtown areas in the U.S. less in need of casino enhancement (unless it’s up to the standard of MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong> or a Steve Wynn<\/strong> property) than that of Chicago<\/strong>. However, such an enterprise is pretty high on the wish list of Illinois<\/strong> lawmakers. Never mind that gaming revenue is at a 10-year ebb, it’s damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. As casino lobbyist Tom Swoik<\/strong> says, it’s “like saying, ‘Homes have lost 32% of their value and the number of people buying homes is at an historic low, so let’s build more homes until we have three times the number we need<\/em>.'”<\/p>\n

But in Indiana<\/strong> … Last month’s revenues from Indiana<\/strong> are out and, in the Chicagoland market, Indiana-based casinos continue to clobber Illinois ones, $94 million to $66 million. Although Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Blue Chip<\/em> riverboat ($13.5 million last month) draws largely from Michigan<\/strong>, that’s still a stark disparity. Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Horseshoe Hammond<\/em> riverboat is raking in more than double what Harrah’s Joliet<\/strong> brings in, $44 million to $20 million. All northern Indiana boats except Blue Chip<\/em> (-2% and facing new tribal competition) were up in November while the four greater Chicago-area casinos in Illinois were all down.<\/p>\n

The numbers also cosset some good news for Ameristar Casinos<\/strong>, whose property in East Chicago<\/strong> has halted a year-long skid set off by a bridge closure. Down south, several months of decline at Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s category-killing Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg<\/strong> are bottoming out, too, as players appear to be gravitating back to Hoosier State racinos and even to long-suffering French Lick Casino<\/strong> (three solid months of gains). Although it’s much farther from Cincinnati<\/strong> than is Hollywood, the Grand Victoria<\/em> riverboat looks seriously imperiled by the prospective opening of a Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> casino in the Queen City. It’s easily the weakest performer in the area and is having a rough time keeping pace with the competition that’s already in place.<\/p>\n

\"\"No easy choices<\/strong>. That’s what confronts new Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> boss Dennis Gomes<\/strong>, who has to reverse the tailspin<\/a> the property experienced under the calamitous stewardship of Colony Capital<\/strong>. Between being relieved of Colony’s crippling debt-service burden and cutting down payroll, Gomes projects the casino will be back in the black by late 2Q11. Still, the road to profitability is lined with tough choices<\/a>, such as whether or not to risk secondhand smoke on your casino floor or letting go an employee who’s been with the property since 1983. That’s very sad — but inevitable in a city that’s got more casinos than the market will support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a lengthy Asia Times dispatch, the reliable Muhammad Cohen runs through various scenarios about why the government of Macao would pull back two Cotai Strip™ sites from a ‘george’ investor like Las Vegas Sands. Since the acreage will probably … 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":[40,23,80,3,14,4,7,58,68,62,11,10,71,69,33,111,12,61,32,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294"}],"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=5294"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28988,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294\/revisions\/28988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}