{"id":7848,"date":"2011-11-02T10:47:10","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T18:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=7848"},"modified":"2019-05-01T09:17:33","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T17:17:33","slug":"rock-paper-city-generosity-at-caesars-shopping-at-sands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/rock-paper-city-generosity-at-caesars-shopping-at-sands\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock, Paper, City; Generosity at Caesars, shopping at Sands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"While Massachusetts<\/strong> lawmakers sharpen their scissors in order to cut and paste two versions of the Lege’s casino-enabling bill, the city of Holyoke<\/strong> is happy to find itself between Hard Rock International<\/strong> and Paper City Development<\/strong>. The partnership has its sights set on a country club that it wants to remake<\/a> into the Bay State’s westernmost casino, projecting $400 million\/year in gross revenues. Bottom line, the Seminole Tribe<\/strong> is crashing Mohegan Sun<\/strong>‘s party. The Connecticut<\/strong> tribe has long been courting Palmer<\/strong>, Mass., to the tune of $10 million and now has to fend off these Floridians. Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s love of Springfield<\/strong> is unrequited by the city’s mayor<\/a>, so it’s looking for affection elsewhere in the western part of the state. Up in Maine<\/strong>, a broad coalition of businesses is backing casino expansion to Lewiston<\/strong>. So says the Passamaquoddy Tribe<\/strong>, which is hoping that the fourth time will be the charm<\/a> in its efforts to establish a racino in the area.<\/p>\n

The first rule of sports<\/strong> is that it’s not whether you win or lose but did you cover the spread? Top-ranked college teams — especially Stanford<\/strong> — sure got the memo this year and Las Vegas<\/strong> sports books wish they hadn’t. Sports bettors are raking it in and the books aren’t, putting additional pressure on a winning margin that’s among the lowest of any casino department.
\nElsewhere …<\/strong> casino workers at four Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> properties in Atlantic City<\/strong> OK’d a surprisingly “george” contract. In a win for Unite-Here<\/strong>, employees won’t have be asked to take pay cuts or take any other benefit reductions. (They will<\/em> have to concede holiday pay, some overtime monies and surrender any vacation accrual exceeding one week.) And if business improves 10%, unlikely though that is, there will be revenue sharing. Bravo to both sides for thinking creatively. Other casinos in town may be less generous than Caesars; some have demanded draconian 25% salary cuts from the rank and file. I don’t see any suits volunteering to rescind a fourth of their own pay packets, so all this austerity talk might have some credibility if executives were tightening their money belts as well.<\/p>\n

Halfway across the country<\/strong>, execs at MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong> are attempting to help the Detroit Casino Council<\/strong> (a coalition of union locals) save face. MGM workers having thrown a proposed contract back in the Council’s lap, a second draft is being circulated<\/a>, in hopes of staving off a repeat of last week’s humiliation.<\/p>\n

It seemed as though<\/strong> it would never happen but Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> has finally opened its promised shopping mall. At present, it’s only 20% occupied but the company expects to quintuple that figure by year’s end. Astutely, Sands has chosen to build an outlet mall — always a good bet and especially so during the holidays — and not go the high-end retail route it has taken in other markets. It need only look at the duff performance of Pier Shops<\/strong>, next to Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong>, pricey retail that went into foreclosure. As S&G<\/em> predicted, COO Michael Leven<\/strong> didn’t find a joint-venture partner for Shoppes at Sands<\/strong> but give his company credit for going it alone all the same. Back home, the company is doing a Cantor Gaming<\/strong>-branded makeover of its sports book, part of a $30 million rolling makeover<\/a> of Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>‘s signature property.<\/p>\n

Clark County District Attorney David Roger<\/strong> is leaving office as ethical clouds start to gather<\/a> over his head. Considering that, on Roger’s watch, you could literally flout fire codes left and right, and get off scot-free, he won’t be missed. A once-brilliant career has devolved into a welter of sleazy dealmaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Massachusetts lawmakers sharpen their scissors in order to cut and paste two versions of the Lege’s casino-enabling bill, the city of Holyoke is happy to find itself between Hard Rock International and Paper City Development. The partnership has its … 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":[23,28,44,14,26,7,147,112,11,69,95,111,12,74,9,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7848"}],"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=7848"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24066,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7848\/revisions\/24066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}