{"id":5816,"date":"2011-02-24T12:08:50","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T20:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=5816"},"modified":"2011-02-24T12:08:50","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T20:08:50","slug":"hooters-in-default-rio-robbed-morgans-out-warner-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/hooters-in-default-rio-robbed-morgans-out-warner-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Hooters in default; Rio robbed; Morgans out, Warner in?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"From the “Could mean something, could mean nothing” File comes a Notice of Default, filed by the Bank of New York<\/strong> against Hooters Casino Hotel<\/strong>. The lenders are calling in a $130 million note on the 332-room hotel (arguably making Hooters the most over-leveraged property in town). As with the Union Plaza<\/strong>, this may only be a negotiating tactic — or it could mean that the bank has finally lost patience with a casino that has been struggling financially since time immemorial, seems like.<\/p>\n

How poor is Rio security?<\/strong> In a robbery that makes the Bellagio<\/strong> ripoff look like the handiwork of the Wild Bunch, a lightly disguised thief took a taxi to The Rio<\/strong>, left the meter running at the taxi stand (or so the local NBC-TV<\/strong> affiliate reports), waltzed into the casino, grabbed 32 grand in chips<\/a>, went back to his taxi and rode off into the sunrise. It’s banditry so brazen as to bespeak contempt for The Rio’s security and surveillance methods alike. What’s next? A bunch of tykes with water pistols taking Caesars Palace<\/strong> for everything it’s got, then escaping on tricycles?<\/p>\n

\"\"Musical chairs at HRH<\/strong>. Another day, another potential new management team at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong>. Seems that the operational changes which lenders wrung from the property in return for a loan extension include the expulsion of Morgans Hotel Group<\/strong> as manager. The HRH has been to Morgans what Afghanistan<\/strong> was to the Soviet Union<\/strong>. A gelded Morgans would still have a sliver of ownership but that prize asset, the management contract, may be reassigned to Warner Gaming<\/strong>. Previous frontrunner Navegante Group<\/strong> — recently on the cusp of an HRH-management deal — finds itself knocked out of the box, having had the misfortune of being linked to a shady self-dealing move by the CEO of NorthStar Realty Finance<\/strong>, who chairs the Morgans board. (Naughty, naughty, Mr. Hamamoto.)<\/p>\n

\"\"What is Warner<\/a>? It manages a trio of tribal casinos, has dibs on a would-be casino project in Massachusetts<\/strong> and an unspecified client relationship with Station Casinos<\/strong>. The latter isn’t surprising, since CEO William Warner<\/strong> is a former Station COO (and a key figure<\/a> in that company’s costly LBO) and his team is dominated by ex-Station execs, who appear to have been part of a post-LBO mass exodus.<\/p>\n

However, one should note that Warner Gaming was poised to take over the reins of Greektown Casino<\/strong> from Fine Point Group<\/strong>, then scampered away for reasons unknown. If<\/em> the Warner arrangement is consummated, it bodes well for the HRH’s new, locals-friendly marketing approach for if there’s any market with which Warner’s team owns exceptional familiarity, it’s the Vegas one … something that could never be said of Morgans.<\/p>\n

Pig in a china shop<\/strong>. The bulldozer approach to litigation of thug-like Righthaven continues to smash the crockery of the judicial system<\/a>. It also means that although gaming coverage at the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> is on an upswing, following an overdue staffing-up of that branch, R-J<\/em> links continue to be verboten<\/em> at S&G<\/em>, especially since new Publisher Bob Brown<\/strong> is determined to carry on pontifical predecessor Rev. Sherman Frederick<\/strong>‘s losing war against that devil’s spawn known as the Internet<\/strong>. (Yes, Frederick is an ordained minister, although you’d be hard-pressed to find any Christianity in his bilious prose.)<\/p>\n

\"\"Hapless Harry strikes again<\/strong>. This time the ex-pugilist throws a roundhouse right<\/a> at Nevada<\/strong>‘s legal-brothel industry. Sen. Reid may be ashamed of it but, in recent years, it’s been one of the most conscientious corporate citizens in the state, maybe the most public-spirited of them all. Shame on you, Harry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the “Could mean something, could mean nothing” File comes a Notice of Default, filed by the Bank of New York against Hooters Casino Hotel. The lenders are calling in a $130 million note on the 332-room hotel (arguably making … 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":[28,44,51,14,4,7,52,112,102,57,47,8,9,20,17,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5816"}],"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=5816"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5824,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5816\/revisions\/5824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}