{"id":5721,"date":"2011-02-03T10:56:25","date_gmt":"2011-02-03T18:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=5721"},"modified":"2020-11-03T07:20:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T15:20:03","slug":"hard-rock-oh-no-bellago-bandit-busted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/hard-rock-oh-no-bellago-bandit-busted\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Rock: Oh no!; Bellago bandit busted"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Is there anybody who could probably run the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong> worse than hapless Morgans Hotel Group<\/strong>? We may soon find out as Navegante Group<\/strong> has been announced as operator-to-be<\/a> by NorthStar Realty Finance Corp<\/strong>. The latter, as you know, is trying to foreclose on the property, for fear that senior lenders would get paid but NorthStar will be shafted for its $96 million. The Las Vegas Sun<\/em> reports that the Hard Rock is on a collision course with a Feb. 9 deadline for making good on $1.25 billion in debt, with no rescue plan announced — although a frantic sell-off of MHGC assets would suggest that the company is earnestly trying to avoid default. No wonder it can’t find a CEO<\/a>. Who wants to accept captaincy of the Titanic<\/em>?<\/p>\n

\"\"Now, if NorthStar had nominated Fine Point Group<\/strong> (which temporarily improved Greektown Casino<\/strong>‘s performance while the property was in Chapter 11) or perhaps Golden Gaming<\/strong>, which briefly operated the HRH while Morgans was getting its gaming license, it’d be a happy day. Navegante, however, has come a long way down from the days when it was helping Galaxy Entertainment<\/strong> get its footing in Macao<\/strong>. Since then, Navegante has signed on with bottom-feeders like Tamares Group<\/strong> and Sam Nazarian<\/strong>. Just trot on over to the Sahara<\/strong> if you want to see what a post-Navegante casino looks like. Now that the Riviera<\/strong> has new ownership, a capital infusion and a much improved debt structure, it’s the Sahara that has the aura of imminent mortality.<\/p>\n

\"\"Who was that masked man anyway?<\/strong> According to Las Vegas Metro<\/strong>, it’s Anthony Carleo<\/strong> who stuck up Suncoast<\/strong> and — more notoriously — Bellagio<\/strong> recently. After a helmet-wearing bandit robbed Steve Wynn<\/strong>‘s old place, casino pundits warned that those chips would be damned difficult to fence. Evidently the robber (and his accomplices, if any) didn’t listen because Carleo got busted<\/a> trying to peddle casino chips to undercover Metro officers, according to KTNV-TV<\/strong>. The accused stickup man has “juice” of his own, says the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>, which reports that he’s the son of local judge George Assad<\/strong>, a former casino dealer himself. Looks like Dear Old Dad’s April reelection bid just rolled snake eyes.<\/p>\n

You could grow a long beard waiting for the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> to weigh in on Bellagio’s feeble security. The casino allowed the robber to leave his motorcycle in the valet-parking area (the hog was still waiting for him when he came scampering out with the stolen chips and roared off into the dawn) and stroll through the gaming floor looking like Darth Vader<\/strong>, thereby foiling the “eye in the sky.” All that biometric facial-recognition software for naught!<\/p>\n

\"\"Gotterdammerung<\/strong><\/em> for Stanley Ho<\/strong>. The shenanigans on the shores of the South China Sea<\/strong> have even made the pages of Time<\/em>. The article soft-pedals Stanley Ho<\/strong>‘s World War II<\/strong> coziness with the Japanese but otherwise makes a good primer on the story so far. (If this were a five-act play, I’d say the curtain has just come down on Act I.) Now that Sociedade de Jogos de Macau<\/strong> is publicly traded, Time<\/em> reports, the Macanese government may feel impelled to intervene before the family strife diminishes investor value any further.<\/p>\n

Sign of the Times<\/strong>. Eight of Herbst Gaming<\/strong>‘s next 15 events at Star of the Desert Arena<\/strong> in Primm<\/strong> (including two announced today) feature Latino entertainers or ensembles. Somebody — a lot of somebodies — in Las Vegas<\/strong> missed a market opening here and the newly restructured Herbst is eating their lunch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there anybody who could probably run the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino worse than hapless Morgans Hotel Group? We may soon find out as Navegante Group has been announced as operator-to-be by NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. The latter, as … 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":[28,44,4,123,140,62,11,102,25,55,54,61,32,47,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5721"}],"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=5721"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28734,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5721\/revisions\/28734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}