{"id":6634,"date":"2011-05-13T11:29:49","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T19:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6634"},"modified":"2022-03-02T08:13:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T16:13:57","slug":"johnny-casino-thug-truce-at-the-trop-the-t-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/johnny-casino-thug-truce-at-the-trop-the-t-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Casino, thug; Truce at the Trop; The T-Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Although the Mob<\/strong> may have left Las Vegas<\/strong>, its strong-arm tactics are still in use. Respected casino architect Paul Steelman<\/strong> found that out when he wouldn’t give a job to John Ensign<\/strong>‘s borderline-illiterate<\/a> former chief of staff, Doug Hampton<\/strong>. Drunk on power, “Johnny Casino” ordered his minions<\/a> to “jack [Steelman] up to high heaven and tell him that he is cut off from the office<\/em>.” (Sen. Harry Reid<\/strong> [D-NV], who owed Papa Ensign a “solid,”<\/a> eventually lined up a six-figure sinecure for the hapless Hampton at Allegiant Air<\/strong>. Hmmmm. Would that make Reid an unindicted co-conspirator, to employ Watergate<\/strong> parlance?)<\/p>\n

That’s mighty big talk coming from a man who was, at one point, reduced to sleeping on former Mandalay Resort Group<\/strong> Chairman Mike Ensign<\/strong>‘s couch (or something of that nature) when his squalid behavior was “outed.” Papa Mike has his own fish to fry now. According to the Senate Ethics Committee<\/strong>, he may have perjured himself to the Federal Election Commission<\/strong> and abetted the violation of several federal laws. (The Review-Journal<\/em> has an excellent pr\u00e9cis of the charges.) He also structured the hush money so as to avoid paying gift taxes. And he, along with then Sen. Ensign’s OB-GYN, Sen. Tom Coburn<\/strong> (R-OK), helped negotiate what were essentially blackmail payments to the cuckolded Hampton. Through it all, the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> has maintained its proud tradition of seeing, hearing and speaking no evil.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong>But Gold Strike<\/strong> founder Ensign Sr.’s attempt to get back into the industry foundered soon after his role in Johnny Casino’s hanky-panky came to light. To be fair, he did tell Junior to stop doin’ the mess-around, good advice that bounced right off Johnny Casino’s thick skull. However, his complicity in l’affaire Hampton<\/em> shows him to have been a poor role model for Sonny. And the details of how John Ensign harassed and basically coerced Cindy Hampton<\/strong> into servicing him have a sickeningly familiar ring to anyone who’s been around the gaming industry a while. During his time as a general manager out in Jean<\/strong>, Johnny Casino definitely learned some tricks of the trade — dirty ones.<\/p>\n

Conservative blogger Chuck Muth<\/strong> pronounced an ironic epitaph on the matter: “You don\u2019t mess with a U.S. senator, much less one with ties to gaming<\/em>.\u201d And to think it used to be the other way around.<\/p>\n

On the subject of thuggery<\/strong>, a former henchman of ultra-creeep “Casino Jack” Abramoff<\/strong> is back in the news. Convicted perjurer David Safavian<\/strong>‘s appeal fell on deaf ears in federal court. Safavian’s lawyers argued that his falsehoods weren’t germane to the case. The judges respectfully disagreed.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mark Giannantonio<\/strong>‘s ouster as CEO of the Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong> appears to have yielded one short-term benefit. Three trade unions that had been at an impasse with management have agreed to “good faith” negotiations in lieu of a threatened strike<\/a>. Giannantonio, a leftover from the regime of anti-labor Columbia Sussex<\/strong>, had been the lone casino boss in Atlantic City <\/strong>not to ink a new pact with the unions, intransigence that has cost the Trop a 300-attendee convention.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>, thinking itself rather special, is demand its engineers, carpenters and painters re-sign for below-market wages. The unions, for understandable reasons, don’t want to set that precedent. Management’s position is right out of the ColSux playbook; the former Trop owner wanted Culinary Union<\/strong> workers at its Las Vegas<\/strong> casino to make deep, ColSux-only concessions. Either ColSux CEO William J. Yung<\/strong>‘s prickly ego was so swollen he thought he could get what the Gary Loveman<\/strong>s and Jim Murren<\/strong>s of this world couldn’t or he was bent on forcing a strike … probably both. As for current Trop owner Carl Icahn<\/strong>, the new Trop boss is starting to look the same as the old boss.<\/p>\n

Giannantonio’s sacking<\/strong> — according to him, anyway — has nothing to do with the Trop getting its clock cleaned by a blackjack player<\/a> who won nearly $6 million. Table revenues went through the floor (-54% in April), dragging the overall casino performance down 20%. However, four other casinos in town got hit hard at the tables and you don’t see their presidents bouncing out the door. Table-game volatility is a risk you run if you want to succeed and Icahn … well, you don’t buy the Stratosphere<\/strong> — even for pennies on the dollar — if you’re risk averse. Nor do you land executive talent the caliber of Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s Anthony Rodio<\/strong> on an impulse. No, dumping Giannantonio was clearly something that had been in the works before the April numbers were tallied.<\/p>\n

\"\"You can read the Boardwalk<\/strong> numbers for yourself (Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> was gangbusters<\/a>), so I’ll skip breaking them down. Not to belabor a point but even creditor-run Atlantic City Hilton<\/strong> is doing better than bottom-rung occupants Trump Marina<\/strong> and its freefalling sibling Trump Plaza<\/strong>. Do we need any further evidence of the uselessness, the exhaustion of the “Trump” brand name in gaming? As for Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong> (-7%), comp-hating CEO Robert Griffin<\/strong> (left<\/em>) might as well pull up a limo and chauffeur players over to Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> (+4%), where rival CEO Dennis Gomes<\/strong> will be happy — or at least willing — to throw them some incentives.<\/p>\n

Hey, Bob! It’s not 1998 anymore<\/a><\/em>. Atlantic City’s changed and Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong> needs to change with it. Losing the T-word wouldn’t be a bad start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the Mob may have left Las Vegas, its strong-arm tactics are still in use. Respected casino architect Paul Steelman found that out when he wouldn’t give a job to John Ensign‘s borderline-illiterate former chief of staff, Doug Hampton. Drunk … 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":[23,82,3,15,151,28,142,42,14,7,52,45,11,69,87,9,19,21,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634"}],"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=6634"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30810,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634\/revisions\/30810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}