{"id":7780,"date":"2011-10-21T15:12:51","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T23:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=7780"},"modified":"2020-09-14T05:54:25","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T13:54:25","slug":"aliante-station-changes-hands-but-little-else-amigo-adelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/aliante-station-changes-hands-but-little-else-amigo-adelson\/","title":{"rendered":"Aliante Station changes hands but little else; Amigo Adelson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Aliante Station<\/strong> is now formally the property of Texas Pacific Group<\/strong>, Standard General<\/strong> and Apollo Management<\/strong>. Two of those funds also own Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>, which might create some interesting “Chinese wall” situations. (Can’t have trade secrets passing back and forth, y’know.) Either Station Casinos<\/strong> is getting some external input on how Aliante should be run or — now that it’s rid of one casino too many — is using the property as a testing ground for ideas it might implement elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"For instance, long before the Nevada Gaming Commission<\/strong> signed off on the transfer, Station had gone to a no-smoking policy in the Aliante bingo room — the only room in town to do so. Also, there are a few new names looking over Station’s shoulder, most notably former<\/a> Boyd Gaming<\/strong> CFO Ellis Landau<\/strong> (left<\/em>), TPG co-founder James Coulter<\/strong>, freelance restructuring expert<\/a> Eugene I. Davis<\/strong> and Soohyung Kim<\/strong>, about whom I know not. From the looks of it, TPG\/Apollo\/SG are going to be keeping a close eye on their $400 million investment. Actually, at that turnover price, it’s much closer to what Aliante Station was supposed to cost than the $662 million it ultimately did. Like so many, Station got carried away by the “build it and they will come” craze but it’s only had to take a haircut when it could have gotten scalped.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Station<\/strong>, my sources tell me Smokey Joe’s Cabaret<\/em> returns to Green Valley Ranch<\/strong> on Sundays in November. If so, kudos both to Station and presenter RagTag Entertainment<\/strong>. It opened to very strong business but had to be pulled after three performances. It’s a tight, snappy revue and preposterously affordable, so it’s good to know one of the best lounge shows in recent memory is getting a second lease on life.<\/p>\n

\"\"Caballero Sheldon<\/strong>. Earlier this week, the CEO of Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> was holding forth on CNN about how he was gonna drop 36,000 hotel rooms on the Iberian peninsula. Seems like the rain in Spain<\/strong> is falling mainly on the plain that is Rank Group<\/strong>‘s bottom line.<\/p>\n

There’s an interesting wrangle<\/strong> playing out in Colorado<\/strong>. Last summer, Gov. John Hickenlooper<\/strong> (D) sacked the entire Colorado Gaming Commission<\/strong> after it voted casinos a 5% tax break<\/a>. (The industry had already enjoyed several beneficial rule changes– plus a setback in the form of a smoking ban. Revenue doldrums persisted nevertheless.) Hickenlooper wondered, not unreasonably, why this one industry qualified for a special tax cut<\/a>. Now it’s payback time and not in a good way.<\/p>\n

\"\"Hickenlooper’s new commission is eying a tax loophole whereby owners of three contiguous properties can subdivide and separately report their earnings, placing them on the lower rungs of the state’s progressive tax structure. The CGC would require consolidation of multiple, conjoined properties into one, for reporting purposes, bumping them into much higher brackets<\/a>. You can see where this is going. Hickenlooper spokesman Eric Burns<\/strong> previously said his boss had “not given specific orders to the new appointees to reverse the tax break.” No, he seems to have come up with something considerably more clever. The proposed change would reclaim nearly $5 million in revenue. However, casino owners warn that it could have a “dampening effect” on hiring, play hob with their lending covenants and possibly force a reduction in gaming positions. The CGC sounded not unsympathetic to casino owners’ entreaties … but they also know what fate befell their predecessors. Let’s just say it will come as a pleasant surprise if the loophole is allowed to remain open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aliante Station is now formally the property of Texas Pacific Group, Standard General and Apollo Management. Two of those funds also own Caesars Entertainment, which might create some interesting “Chinese wall” situations. (Can’t have trade secrets passing back and forth, … 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":[60,27,28,14,4,117,7,22,78,25,12,57,31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780"}],"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=7780"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27962,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780\/revisions\/27962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}