{"id":8213,"date":"2012-01-11T12:35:55","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T20:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=8213"},"modified":"2020-08-11T04:56:47","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T12:56:47","slug":"belated-christmas-presents-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/belated-christmas-presents-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Belated Christmas presents, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"If the good news keeps raining down like this, I might have to start using the R-word … as in “recovery.” In November, Nevada<\/strong>‘s $880 million gross was good for a 7% upsurge. The Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> beat the statewide average, up 9%. According to a J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst report, those numbers “reflect the continuing strengthening of trends (volume growth in baccarat, tables … and slot), which were likely helped by the solid event calendar for the month<\/em>.” Analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong> went on to predict December growth of similar proportions, coming off bad prior-year numbers. Greff’s year-ahead scenario calls for slow but steady improvement in ADRs and only slightly higher operating expenses.<\/p>\n

\"\"A teensy increase in slot handle translated to a 3% increase in casino win (on the Strip, anyway), although the key number is always baccarat. Casinos had their way with baccarat players, winning $89 million (29% up from November 2010). Even non-baccarat table play was strong for the casinos, up 12%. Locals play continues to solidify, save for a, -5% month in the bumpy North Las Vegas<\/strong> market, with both Downtown<\/strong> (+7%) and the Boulder Strip<\/strong> (+12%) on the ascent. Even Reno<\/strong> had a microscopically positive month, unlike Lake Tahoe<\/strong>, displaying its usual seasonal volatility (-7%). Laughlin<\/strong> (right<\/em>) declined just 2% but has had only one revenue-positive month this year, a 12% bounce last June. They really need some new or dramatically refreshed product down thataways.<\/p>\n

As for high rollers<\/strong>, they’re the beneficiaries of a new, high-limit slot area at Winn<\/strong><\/span> Wynn Las Vegas<\/strong>, announced today … although it was rolled out last Dec. 21. Yup, you have to be an early riser to get ahead of a Marilyn Spiegel<\/strong> press release. Patrons — who are unlikely to include any S&G<\/em> readers — can cool their heels in a private lounge equipped with a 103-inch (!) HDTV set. Roger Thomas<\/strong> has swathed the 65-machine “slot salon” in a mosaic of Venetian glass, Parisian lamps and posh draperies, not to mention “a seven-foot gold lotus fountain.”<\/p>\n

\"\"As investments go<\/strong>, I like that better than a half-billion-dollar offer of unsecured debt that MGM Resorts International<\/strong> is offering around, maturing in 2019. Whoa!<\/em> Aren’t we getting a little carried away by the recent glad tidings? It’s a borrow-from-Peter-to-pay-Paul deal, meant to retire a small portion of the company’s mind-boggling $13.5 billion debt burden. After bankers were caught out by having issued literally billions<\/em> in non-collateralized debt to MGM that threatened to vaporize in a CityCenter<\/strong> bankruptcy, you’d think it would require an attack of mass amnesia for anyone to underwrite this $500 million proposition. MGM probably needs to revisit the issue of reducing its exposure on the Strip instead.<\/p>\n

\"\"It was a pretty good year<\/strong> to own a casino in Detroit<\/strong>, where revenues have been climbing for two years running. They raked in $1.4 billion, good for a 3% increase. MotorCity Casino<\/strong> grew its business 6% and now has fully one-third of the marketplace. MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong>, of course, remains the big cat on the block, with 42% market share and a 3% uptick. Even long-suffering Greektown Casino<\/strong> ended the year with a hopeful blip, up 1%. In light of MGM’s $600 million gross, one can easily see why its workers balked at the first contract offer on the table last year … but forgive me if I theorize that management gave them a wink and a nod. It’s not exactly a black mark on MGM’s escutcheon if it can boast it has the best-compensated casino workers in town, now is it?<\/p>\n

He’s outta there<\/strong>. Congratulations — we think — to Ronald P. Johnson<\/strong>, who is officially master of his domain<\/a> at the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino<\/strong>, which was driven to ruin by Colony Capital<\/strong>. Colony, it was revealed in court, has seen its LVH equity entirely evaporate … part for the course at casinos under CEO Tom Barrack<\/strong>‘s dunderhead stewardship. S&G<\/em> wishes Johnson the best of luck in restoring the LVH’s tarnished luster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the good news keeps raining down like this, I might have to start using the R-word … as in “recovery.” In November, Nevada‘s $880 million gross was good for a 7% upsurge. The Las Vegas Strip beat the statewide … 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":[65,88,56,3,28,44,51,14,81,76,49,11,78,79,32,9,19,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213"}],"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=8213"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27713,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions\/27713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}