{"id":7581,"date":"2011-09-23T12:27:47","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T20:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=7581"},"modified":"2018-04-17T08:55:14","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T16:55:14","slug":"caesars-big-asian-bet-playing-with-yourself-in-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/caesars-big-asian-bet-playing-with-yourself-in-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"Caesars’ big Asian bet; Playing with yourself in Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It’s amazing what you can do when you simply punt your debt burden a few years down the road. In the case of Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>, it means you’ve got an extra $470 million lying around<\/a> to build Caesars Palace Longmu Bay<\/strong> on the Chinese island of Hainan<\/strong>. Some of those development dollars will be coming from Guoxin Longmu Bay Investment Holding Co. Ltd<\/strong>. (whew!) but we’re still talking about Caesars ponying up a lot of dough in a hurry. It’s part of an Asian strategy that would also see Caesars leapfrogging into India<\/strong>, where both Caesars and MGM Resorts International<\/strong> have been sniffing around the seedy<\/a> Goa<\/strong> enclave. There, a former Horseshoe<\/strong> riverboat is currently berthed, now flying Indian colors. An alliance with New Dehli<\/strong>-based Delta Corp<\/strong>. would enable either company to hopscotch into additional Indian cities, thence to Sri Lanka<\/strong> and maybe even the eastern shores of Africa<\/strong>. Caesars has a bit of catching up to do: MGM is close to completion of a Hainan hotel of its own. No wonder Caesars is breaking ground today<\/a>, with a 2014 opening in mind.<\/p>\n

\"\"“A-list celebrity entertainment and production shows featured in two uniquely distinct Colosseum<\/strong> entertainment venues are planned. \u00a0Caesars Palace Longmu Bay will host 36 holes of championship golf by leading designers and offer a golf school by a legendary pro. The luxury resort will also include a marina, spa, retail and other amenities, all located on China<\/strong>‘s only west-facing shoreline, incorporating both water and underwater design features throughout,” enthuses PR Newswire<\/strong>, as only it can. If the project is roughly as good as the renderings, the ‘wow’ factor should be considerable.<\/p>\n

\"\"At prices like these<\/strong>, Loveman’s grandiose ‘25 hotels in five years<\/a>‘ scheme seems somewhere between optimistic and crazy. We could be talking anywhere from $2.5 billion to $12 billion<\/strong> in construction costs, although I’m sure Loveman is selling the banks on this plan as his master scheme for getting Caesars out of the chasm he dug: Open a couple of dozen spigots in the Far East<\/strong>, recruit potential VIP players (making an end-run around Macao<\/strong>) and position Caesars for further gambling expansion in the Indian subcontinent.<\/p>\n

Not insignificantly<\/strong>, Loveman has thrown in his lot<\/a> with the presidential campaign of Jon Huntsman<\/strong>. Whether or not Huntsman is favorably inclined toward Internet<\/strong> gambling (Loveman’s Great White Hope), he’s a former ambassador to China whose family has significant business interests in the People’s Republic. Coincidence? You decide.<\/p>\n

Give the Love Doctor credit for pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Now we’ll see whether it’s the Easter(n) Bunny or Night of the Lepus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Their master’s voices<\/strong>. Bowing to the will of Cantor Gaming<\/strong>, the Nevada Legislature and Gov. Brian Sandoval<\/strong> (in descending order of power), the Nevada Gaming Commission<\/strong> gave its unanimous assent to allowing users of mobile gambling devices to go property-wide<\/a>. It’s pretty clear that Cantor’s non-sportsbook casino offerings haven’t gained traction with punters, hence this Hail Mary pass. \u201cI\u2019m sure that some companies will be able to do this better than others<\/em>,” Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> Chairman Mark Lipparelli<\/strong> conceded, which sounds as lot like, “There’s gonna be some screw-ups.” And, when they happen, Lipparelli will be there to sweep them under the nearest carpet: Once this genie is unbottled, there’s no putting it back, no matter how many pimply adolescents get their mitts on Daddy’s (or Mommy’s) shiny new techno toy.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

A Cantor Gaming<\/strong> device between your legs renders you irresistible to women who look like Brooke Burke<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Yup, you can now gamble in your hotel room, the parking garage (nothing conveys the allure of Las Vegas<\/strong> quite like a noisy, poorly-lit space reeking of exhaust fumes) and damn near anywhere on property<\/a>. Anybody who’s in the process building a new Nevada<\/strong> casino or expanding an old one may want to ponder whether it’s worth buying hundreds of new slots and table games when customers can just play ‘pocket pai gow’ alone in their hotel rooms, emerging only to eat, if necessary.<\/p>\n

This is easier said<\/strong> that done. Vegas Inc<\/em>.’s Richard Velotta<\/strong> writes that “some form of biometric ID or sophisticated password protection likely to be involved<\/em>.” Also, while Cantor has footholds at M Resort<\/strong>, Venelazzo<\/strong>, the Plaza<\/strong>, the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> and the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong>, it’s an open question how many of those have the infrastructure to enable something like this. M has clearly been hankering for it awhile now and is S&G<\/em>‘s odds-on favorite to be first in deploying, especially with Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s deep pockets now in its corner.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

“A complete casino in the palm of your hand …” and something else in the other<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In less-sexy<\/strong> agenda items, regulators signed off on a state money grab that wrests 75% of unclaimed TITO winnings from casinos … a tax hike by any other name. On the plus side, cost-efficient regulatory measures were approved, including the use of e-mail to disseminate official notifications and allowing the NGC and NGCB to dispense with buying newspaper ads to post changes in regulations. It must have been a dark day at the taxpayer-subsidized Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> when that last rule went through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s amazing what you can do when you simply punt your debt burden a few years down the road. In the case of Caesars Entertainment, it means you’ve got an extra $470 million lying around to build Caesars Palace Longmu … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48,65,28,26,7,22,37,63,62,53,11,10,69,25,12,47,31,8,146],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581"}],"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=7581"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21541,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581\/revisions\/21541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}