{"id":6110,"date":"2011-03-24T15:44:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T23:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6110"},"modified":"2022-11-21T06:50:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T14:50:31","slug":"caesars-steals-rivs-thunder-trouble-in-adelsonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/caesars-steals-rivs-thunder-trouble-in-adelsonia\/","title":{"rendered":"Caesars steals Riv’s thunder; Trouble in Adelsonia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obviously, the headline from today will be approval by the Nevada Gaming Commission<\/strong> of a partnership between Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> and Israeli-owned, Gibraltar<\/strong>-based 888 Holdings<\/strong>. Since it is simultaneously getting permission to shack up with Internet<\/strong> casino operator 888 and opposing ‘Net-betting locally, Caesars was able to dazzle Nevada<\/strong> regulators with the pretzel logic that what’s good for its business is bad for the Silver State.<\/p>\n

\"\"Meanwhile, Hawaii<\/strong> legislators are seriously considering making the Aloha State a haven for online gambling sites<\/a>. Throw in pending bills in Iowa<\/strong>, Florida<\/strong> and Nevada (with California<\/strong> looming in the wings) and you’ve got a tidal wave. The likes of Jim Murren<\/strong> and Gary Loveman<\/strong> are going to have about as much chance of imposing their will as King Canute<\/strong> did, lo, those many years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nBuried in the din<\/strong> surrounding the Caesars\/888 nuptials was the final approva<\/a>l of Barry Sternlicht<\/strong>‘s takeover of the Riviera. Property CEO Andy Choy<\/strong> said some promising-sounding things about bringing back laid-off staffers and marketing the Riv’s nostalgia value. However, the new general manager is Bobby Ray Harris<\/strong>. Oh no!<\/em> Harris’ was Tamares Group<\/strong>‘s casino manager for several thoroughly undistinguished years that culminated in the closing of the Plaza<\/strong>. If he does for the Riv what he did for the Vegas Club<\/strong>, be afraid … be very afraid.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Venetian’s Falcon<\/strong>. The Kasper Gutman and Joel Cairo of Las Vegas<\/strong> politics, Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> and sidekick Victor Chaltiel<\/strong> really must have it in for Mayor Oscar Goodman<\/strong>. Perhaps it’s because Chaltiel and fellow candidate Carolyn Goodman<\/strong> (Mrs. Oscar) ran rival private schools. Who knows? But Chaltiel’s campaign — whose polarizing rhetoric<\/a> has a familiar Adelsonian ring to it — has taken to placing nasty mini-ads on Facebook<\/strong> accusing Hizzoner of leaving the city “bankrupt” and wasting taxpayer dollars in lieu of job creation. While hardly faultless, Oscar did persuade Zappos.com<\/strong> to relocate to Downtown, landed the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health<\/strong> (above<\/em>) shut down the reckless Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada<\/strong> — while Adelson’s man, Gov. Jim Gibbons<\/strong> was paralyzed with indecision — and helped get the Lady Luck<\/strong> restarted.<\/p>\n

Chaltiel? He’d make Vegas the soccer capitol of America. Mmmmkay. As for the Chaltiel campaign’s tendency to minimize Mr. V’s upbringing in Tunisia<\/strong> (does Righthaven<\/strong> know about this?), it sounds like a sorry concession to the anti-Arabic sentiment that Adelson himself has helped stoke in recent years. I don’t know that I’d vote for Mrs. Goodman if I lived in Las Vegas proper (I don’t) but there are at least<\/em> four other good choices in the running. So, yes, there will be Life After Oscar.<\/p>\n

\"\"More trouble in Adelsonia<\/strong>. As Sites 5 & 6<\/strong> creep toward completion in Macao<\/strong> (through no fault of Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>, it should be noted<\/a>), one of Adelson’s joint-venture partners has pulled out<\/a>. According to J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong>, hotelier Shangri-La<\/strong> was concerned about the planned year-end soft opening<\/a> of its Cotai Strip™<\/strong> luxury pad — and the effect it would have on Shangri-La’s “brand perception” to have its guests checking into a construction site. Sands’ other partner, Starwood Hotels<\/strong>, is standing fast, however.<\/p>\n

Greff recommends simply putting a Sands-owned brand (perhaps the “Venetian Oriental” nomenclature he saw during a Macao fact-finding mission) on the hotel. He reports that Sands is in talks with Intercontinental Hotels<\/strong> about extending its relationship with LVS to Site 5. Of course, now that Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> has declared itself ready, willing, and able to franchise its name and managerial expertise to pure-hotel plays worldwide, think of the brand names it could put at Adelson’s disposal. Who could resist Bill’s Gamblin’ Pagoda<\/strong>, Bally’s Wild Wild Macao<\/strong>, Horseshoe Cotai<\/strong>, Harveys China<\/strong>, O’Shea’s Casino Cotai<\/strong>, Paris-Macao<\/strong>, Showboat Cotai<\/strong> and of course Imperial Palace<\/strong>? Unfortunately, it’s too late for Margaritaville Macao<\/strong>, for those who truly relish a (parrot)head-on clash of cultures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obviously, the headline from today will be approval by the Nevada Gaming Commission of a partnership between Caesars Entertainment and Israeli-owned, Gibraltar-based 888 Holdings. Since it is simultaneously getting permission to shack up with Internet casino operator 888 and opposing … 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":[34,51,26,36,52,144,22,37,86,62,53,11,137,50,33,25,55,12,74,47,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6110"}],"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=6110"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31945,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6110\/revisions\/31945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}