{"id":8559,"date":"2012-02-22T12:10:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T20:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=8559"},"modified":"2021-07-10T03:56:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T11:56:04","slug":"wynn-vs-okada-the-appraisal-mob-experience-returns-like-you-cared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wynn-vs-okada-the-appraisal-mob-experience-returns-like-you-cared\/","title":{"rendered":"Wynn vs. Okada: The appraisal; Mob Experience returns … like you cared"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Wall Street<\/strong> analysts are weighing in on Wynn Resorts<\/strong>‘ preemptive strike against Kazuo Okada<\/strong> last weekend. Surprisingly, J.P. Morgan<\/strong>‘s Joseph Greff <\/strong>rates it as a positive in re<\/em> Steve Wynn<\/strong>‘s ambitions for expansion into Japan<\/strong> and says it doesn’t hurt him in Macao<\/strong>, either. (So, causing a prominent Japanese businessman to lose face in his own country will have no negative cultural ramifications? Hmmmm … ) Deutsche Bank<\/strong>‘s Carlo Santarelli<\/strong> concludes that the fundamental picture of Wynn Resorts remains the same: “a solid risk reward story with limited expectations and strong free cash flow<\/em>.” He furthermore noted that Okada knew<\/em> Wynn’s sleuths were looking into his alleged palm-greasing before he leveled accusations that Steve Wynn was trying to buy influence in Macao, throwing a certain amount of discredit upon Okada’s j’accuse<\/em>. However, Santarelli appears to walk back his previous remarks vis-a-vis<\/em> a higher price target for WYNN, which he restates at $148\/share. Regardless of how meritorious Okada’s indictment of Wynn was, throwing $135 million at the University of Macau<\/strong>, a gift timed to coincide with the expiration of Wynn’s Macanese casino concession isn’t bribery but it’s as crass, clumsy and heavy-handed a way of currying official favor as any of which I can conceive.<\/p>\n

\"\"Save the date<\/strong>. Essentially forgotten amidst all the publicity surrounding last week’s opening of the Mob Museum<\/strong> in downtown Las Vegas, the erstwhile “Mob Experience” at the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> is announcing a March 1 grand reopening. It has been rechristened Mob Attraction Las Vegas<\/strong> (although reader Jeff_in_OKC<\/strong> suggests the more musical “Mobicana Mobarama”) The A\/V portions of the exhibit have been “upgraded and enhance[d]” — i.e., they’ve replaced the bells and whistles that got repossessed by creditors. The live actors have been reinstated and video footage of James Caan<\/strong>, Mickey Rourke<\/strong>, Frank Vincent<\/strong>, etc., has been resumed. In other words, it’s the same schlocky Mob Experience that you know and didn’t love last year. Admission has been reset at $25, which is reasonable by Strip standards — far more so than the $4o it used to cost you. The Trop really needs the second time to be the charm, as it’s taking a 10-year deferment on rent. However, I think it highly improbably that the Mob Attraction<\/a> will survive for the lifespan of that contract.<\/p>\n

To create further brand confusion<\/strong>, the “world’s largest short film festival,” Tropfest<\/strong>, is being brought to the Strip … at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas<\/strong>. Yeah, Trop<\/em>fest at the Cosmo … no mixed marketing message there. Tropfest will run June 1-3 (“weeklong” in Cosmospeak) and may or may not feature celebrity appearances. They’re being a little cagey about that part. No need to come, mind you: The whole shebang will be filmed and telecast on Starz<\/strong>, which will get a chance to class up its image after all those Spartacus<\/em> gruntfests. In case you’re still wondering “What the hell is this Tropfest anyway,” let’s just say it’s the vehicle that helped launch Man on a Ledge<\/em> star Sam Worthington<\/strong> upon a totally disinterested world.<\/p>\n

\"\"Never mind the blushing-violet<\/strong> act that’s being staged for media benefit by Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>. While he may not be the single largest PAC donor in the current electoral cycle, once you throw in Mrs. Adelson, her daughters and an in-law, the Adelson family largesse to Winning Our Future<\/strong> (aka<\/em> Newt Gingrich<\/strong>) swells to $12 million<\/a> as of Jan. 31. Take that, Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> co-owner John Paulson<\/strong> ($1 million to Mitt Romney<\/strong>)! A healthy 92% of WOF’s warchest came from the Adelson clan. The White House<\/strong> may not be for sale but that doesn’t mean Sheldon isn’t hellbent on buying it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wall Street analysts are weighing in on Wynn Resorts‘ preemptive strike against Kazuo Okada last weekend. Surprisingly, J.P. Morgan‘s Joseph Greff rates it as a positive in re Steve Wynn‘s ambitions for expansion into Japan and says it doesn’t hurt … 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":[48,66,28,26,4,7,22,62,10,12,32,87,9,17,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8559"}],"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=8559"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29824,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8559\/revisions\/29824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}