{"id":628,"date":"2009-01-15T12:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T20:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/1\/15\/Rogues-gallery"},"modified":"2009-01-15T12:08:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-15T20:08:00","slug":"rogues-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/rogues-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Rogues' gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a fitful start, blogorrhea is sweeping the business desk of the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>, resulting a veritable flood of news nuggets today …<\/p>\n

Planet Hollywood prexy Michael Mecca<\/strong> has resigned<\/a> to pursue the proverbial "other opportunities" at a time when revenues have been up<\/a>. On the next Vegas Gang<\/em>, Jeff Simpson<\/strong> predicts — with unassailable logic — that Mecca is going over to Crown Ltd<\/strong>. to head up James Packe<\/strong>r's North American gambling operations (in which case Mecca will have his work cut out for him, but congratulations all the same).<\/p>\n

A less-charitable alternative theory would be that Mecca has been scapegoated by Planet Ho for having been in charge when it got dragged into the Omar Siddiqui scandal<\/strong>. (The indicted ex-Fry's Electronics<\/strong> exec lost $9 million there in one gambling session alone.) Planet Ho's lawsuit against Siddiqui got tossed last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"No more wire hangers!"<\/strong> Whatever the case, somebody leaked Siddiqui's player profile<\/a> to the San José Mercury News<\/em> and, geez, this "whale" sure is a whiny little bitch. (Sorry, I meant that to read, "a high-value, loyal customer and a good friend of our casino staff, who look forward to his every visit.")<\/p>\n

Good news for visitors:<\/strong> The Nevada Department of Transportation<\/strong> is at least talking<\/em> about widening I-15<\/a> south of Tropicana Ave. Whether NDOT can get the money from Gov. Jim "Scissorhands" Gibbons<\/strong> is another matter, but it can at least remind Midnight Jim that he himself identified California<\/strong> as Nevada's Numero Uno tourism priority in the course of disparaging Asian marketing as "a waste of taxpayer money."<\/p>\n

And who knew that the Circus Circus RV park<\/strong> was the new "in" place to stay<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Randy Black, aka Mr. Thrift<\/strong>. Many of his employees are out of work, the former Si Redd's Oasis<\/strong> may be a hollow sepulchre these days and his Black Gaming<\/strong> has defaulted on debt. But we don't need to pass the hat for the self-aggrandizing Black Sr. quite yet.<\/p>\n

Seeing financial havoc all around him, Black decided that austerity measures are for other people (like his employees) and awarded himself<\/a> a nearly 4% raise for this year, escalating to 5% for each year afterwards. Whatever meagre EBITDA Black's Mesquite casinos achieve, 5% of that will be redirected into Black's pockets as a "management fee," on top of $21,200 in other goodies.<\/p>\n

At a time when Nevadans from all walks are being asked, or sometimes told, to accept wage freezes and outright reductions, Black's greed is a disgrace to the state. R-J<\/em> reporter Arnold Knightly<\/strong> is to be commended for keeping tabs on SEC filings and ferreting out not-so-niceties like this.<\/p>\n

In other news …<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Folies Bergere: 49 is the new 50.<\/em><\/p>\n

From showgirls to no-girls:<\/strong> What's Ron Thacker<\/strong>'s first official act as president of the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong>? What else but shut down<\/a> Folies Bergere<\/em> well shy of its 50th anniversary? The no-frills spirit of Columbia Sussex<\/strong> remains, protestations to the contrary, clearly alive and well [sic<\/em>] at the Trop.<\/p>\n

Thacker's press release made noises implying that the Trop had a replacement for Folies<\/em> waiting in the wings but, when pressed by Norm(!) Clarke<\/strong>, a Trop flack could only weakly respond that it was "exploring options" and was "definitely not closing up shop." (The Trop gave the Las Vegas Sun<\/strong> a different, more definitive story<\/a>, saying it does<\/em> have a new show en route<\/em>.) Unspecified property improvements are also promised. Pardon my skepticism, but we've heard that before — and are still waiting.<\/p>\n

Geez, first Titanic<\/em><\/a> and Bodies<\/em><\/a> take a hike over to Luxor<\/strong> (where they're doing even bigger business). Now this. Since it's a just a wee bit too cold for swimming right now, is there any<\/em> reason left to visit the Tropicana? Bueller … Bueller?<\/em><\/p>\n

Harmon blame game:<\/strong> It looks as though the truncation of The Harmon<\/strong> into a 25-story stump is ultimately the fault<\/a> of the same people who overlooked scofflaw remodeling jobs at sundry Harrah's Entertainment<\/strong> properties: Clark County<\/strong>'s ever-(not)-vigilant building inspectors. "What? Fifteen floors of deficient rebar you say? Gosh, I guess I missed it. My bad. When's lunch?"<\/p>\n

The Las Vegas Sun<\/em>'s story comes with a helpful graphic<\/a> that shows how Perini Building Co<\/strong>. and its subcontractors ineptly installed and then further compromised the rebar that ultimately turned the (would-have-been) 49-story Harmon into what we might call The Half Harmon<\/strong>. In the accompanying video, Clark County's Ron Lynn<\/strong> threatens the culprits with a "potential disciplinary hearing." Oh, they must be quaking in their boots.<\/p>\n

Peppermill exec in line for state job<\/strong>. No, not the beloved Peppermill<\/strong> restaurant on the Strip but rather Reno's Peppermill Resort Casino<\/strong><\/a>. Director of Marketing Kim Stoll<\/strong> is one of six finalists<\/a> for the job of Nevada's tourism czar. Not making the cut was underqualified Gibbons crony Kirk Montero<\/strong>. Then again, Gibbons wants to eliminate the selfsame job that he tried to gift-wrap for Montero, so maybe the also-rans in this competition are its real winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a fitful start, blogorrhea is sweeping the business desk of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, resulting a veritable flood of news nuggets today … Planet Hollywood prexy Michael Mecca has resigned to pursue the proverbial "other opportunities" at a time … 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":[34,73,15,28,18,14,4,7,96,53,126,11,6,33,25,79,9,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628"}],"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=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}