{"id":7611,"date":"2011-09-27T15:38:41","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T23:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=7611"},"modified":"2023-05-17T03:46:20","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T11:46:20","slug":"tropicana-of-cancer-bucking-the-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/tropicana-of-cancer-bucking-the-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropicana of Cancer; Bucking the system"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Alex Yemenidjian<\/strong>‘s efforts to reboot the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> are sputtering quite badly these days. First, there’s the much-reported mess that is the Mob Experience<\/strong>, currently on the lam from foreclosure. Then a three-month extension of Gladys Knight<\/strong>‘s A Mic and a Light<\/em><\/a> was foreshortened almost as soon as it had been announced<\/a>. (The Trop’s showroom is a vortex of failed or truncated acts.) Now the much-ballyhooed alliance with Nikki Beach<\/strong> has gone bust<\/a> … and not in a silicone-implant sort of way. Nikki-tines were sacked en masse<\/em> in the Trop’s coup de la plage<\/em>, marking the abrupt end of a 16-week sojourn. Even on good nights, the Nikki Beach-dedicated parking lot rarely looked better than half-full. No wonder the operation was running at a loss. (One less place for Dennis Rodman<\/strong> to hang out? Aw, darn<\/em> the bad luck!)<\/p>\n

But soft! Nikki Beach is threatening to unleash its legal beagles upon the Trop, seeking to shut down operations at the beach, Club Nikki<\/strong> and Caf\u00e9 Nikki<\/strong>. The latter<\/a> is really good, by the bye, so eat there while yet you may. For a while, Yemenidjian had the Midas touch but a growing inventory of missteps must have folks in Illinois<\/strong> saying thanks that Trop owner Onex Corp<\/strong>. lost out on the Des Plaines<\/strong> casino bidding. Victorious Neil Bluhm<\/strong> not only enjoyed a gangbusters opening but has rival casinos eating his dust<\/a>. Would somebody on the Strip please sell that man a casino site?<\/p>\n

Internet gambling’s future<\/strong> in the U.S. remains inscrutable. Among recent setbacks is the imminent collapse<\/a> of Washington, D.C.<\/strong>‘s attempt to became a haven for cyber-poker. The enabling legislation may soon be repealed and it’s hard to blame opponents. Problems dogging the abortive launch include a sloppily written contract, obscure domestic investors and a Greece<\/strong>-based operator (Intralot<\/strong>) that is — surprise! — presently under scrutiny. There’s nothing to be done except …<\/p>\n

\"\"… keep butting one’s head<\/strong> against federal impediments, as lawmakers in New Jersey<\/strong> are doing. Sports betting is seen as a pacemaker for the Garden State’s dying horseracing industry<\/a> and is the only surefire way of slowing Atlantic City<\/strong>‘s slide. Based on recent polls, Jersey voters would be an easy sell. However, the Justice Department<\/strong> clings to its view that the ancient Federal Wire Act<\/strong> (a relic of the Prohibition Era) prohibits sports wagering in all but a handful of states that enjoyed ‘grandfather’ exemptions several decades later. Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong> (R, right<\/em>) refuses to confront Washington’s, meaning that lawmakers will have to keep forcing the issue. Without a full-fledged courtroom confrontation in re<\/em> the Wire Act — undoubtedly climaxing at the Supreme Court<\/strong> — there’s no hope for changing the status quo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Yemenidjian‘s efforts to reboot the Tropicana Las Vegas are sputtering quite badly these days. First, there’s the much-reported mess that is the Mob Experience, currently on the lam from foreclosure. Then a three-month extension of Gladys Knight‘s A Mic … 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":[48,23,28,4,58,22,37,91,25,9,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7611"}],"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=7611"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32632,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7611\/revisions\/32632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}