{"id":7953,"date":"2011-11-21T16:35:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T00:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=7953"},"modified":"2011-11-23T11:45:14","modified_gmt":"2011-11-23T19:45:14","slug":"election-update-evening-the-score-a-wynn-winn-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/election-update-evening-the-score-a-wynn-winn-situation\/","title":{"rendered":"Election update: Evening the score; A Wynn-Winn situation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It’s five o’clock in Shreveport<\/strong> … or soon will be. Voters in Bossier Parish<\/strong> handed the casino industry a belated 2011 “win,” balancing the ledger in an otherwise disappointing electoral cycle. A Margaritaville<\/strong>-branded casino (employing a Lake Charles<\/strong> boat purchased from Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong>) received 61% support at the ballot box<\/a>. For $195 million, developers promise a 400-room hotel, 38 tables, 1,275 slots and a slew of other amenities. Count me among those who are skeptical that this will actually grow the Shreveport market — especially not at that budget — but it’s a gamble voters were willing to take.<\/p>\n

Louisiana<\/strong>‘s coming off a rough October, its casinos down 8% statewide. That’s really not good news if you’re Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> and count on the Pelican State for over 60% of your cash flow. All of the Shreveport-area casinos had a rough time of it, except for Eldorado Shreveport<\/strong> (+1%, with a $13 million gross). What do the Caranos know that their competitors don’t?<\/p>\n

\"\"An infusion of new, Pinnacle product can’t come a day too soon for Baton Rouge<\/strong> (-6%), as market share seesaws between Penn National Gaming<\/strong> and Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>. That market wasn’t not hurting nearly as badly last month as New Orleans<\/strong> (-9%) or Bossier City<\/strong> (-15%). The first two are still on pace to eke out a revenue-positive year but Shreveport won’t be so fortunate. The Crescent City is far from the highest-grossing market but it shows many fewer signs of cannibalization than Shreveport. The latter remains the top-grossing region in the state but that business is just spread too thin. The only market posting positive comparisons was — you guessed it — Lake Charles (+1%). Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> screwed itself out of a catbird seat there, arguably the most baffling of many difficult-to-fathom decisions made on Gary Loveman<\/strong>‘s watch.<\/p>\n

\"\"In case you didn’t hear<\/strong>, Le Reve<\/em><\/a> at Wynncore<\/strong> is now Le Reve: The Dream<\/em><\/a>. One presumes this is part of Marilyn Winn<\/span> Winn-Spiegel<\/span> Spiegel<\/strong>‘s ongoing campaign to dumb down Wynncore<\/strong>. Methinks Spiegel has just scratched the surface of Wynn-for-Dummies<\/em> redundancy here. Without even getting into Encore<\/strong> (possible redub: Encore Encore), we could have Bartolotta Seafood Ristorante di Mare Restaurant<\/strong><\/a>, Country Club Golf Course Grill<\/a><\/strong>, La Cave: The Cave<\/a><\/strong>, Lakeside Grill by the Lake<\/a><\/strong>, Okada: big Japanese investor<\/a><\/strong>, Pizza Place Pizzeria<\/a><\/strong>, SW Steakhouse: Steve Wynn’s Steak House<\/a><\/strong>, Tableau: Picture<\/a><\/strong>, Wing Lei: What’s That?<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Tryst: Hookup<\/a><\/strong> and — OK, it’s Encore but just for the hell of it — XS: Excess<\/a><\/strong>. As her crowning gesture, Spiegel could rename the whole place, Steve Wynn’s Wynn Las Vegas<\/strong>. ‘Cuz I think the current branding is too oblique, wouldn’t you agree?<\/p>\n

\"\"Rival Strip operators<\/strong>, don’t get caught napping! Wynn and Winn-Spiegel could open a vast Redundancy Gap. Consider the possibilities: Mystere: Mystery<\/em><\/a> … Paris-Las Vegas Las Vegas<\/strong> … Cirque du Soleil<\/em>\u00ae‘s Viva ELVIS\u2122 (Presley)<\/em> by Cirque du Soleil<\/em>\u00ae<\/a> … and of course O: o<\/em><\/a>. (I’d add Playboy Comedy<\/strong><\/a> but that’s more in the nature of an oxymoron.) Help them, S&G<\/em> readers! The most redundant idea submitted wins you a free copy of the 2012 edition of Eating Las Vegas<\/em><\/a>. If that’s not incentive enough, I’ll get Al Mancini<\/strong> to autograph it. Be the first on your block! Impress your friends!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s five o’clock in Shreveport … or soon will be. Voters in Bossier Parish handed the casino industry a belated 2011 “win,” balancing the ledger in an otherwise disappointing electoral cycle. A Margaritaville-branded casino (employing a Lake Charles boat purchased … 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":[80,28,18,26,4,7,85,84,53,30,32,9,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953"}],"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=7953"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7976,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953\/revisions\/7976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}