Caught between the twin hazards of prospective higher taxes on investment income and the looming fiscal cliff, Steve Wynn made headlines today with his $750 million Thanksgiving special dividend, which ought to help pay for all those Black Friday purchases on Wynn Resorts‘ investors to-do list. The New York Times also speculated that there might be a gallop to sell off small businesses by the end of the year. While this might cause a boomlet of further consolidation in gaming, the time frame of such sales and the number of regulatory approvals that would be required make me doubt things will go that far … although we could see some very creative transactions, judging by Penn National Gaming‘s cloning of itself into a REIT.
In the meantime, Steve, you’ve got a fashion emergency looming and it’s not pretty. Did somebody dare him to wear that sweater? Wynn’s attire has taken a turn for the worse during his current marriage. I saw him at a media event, wearing a loud, checkered-pattern sports coat that probably hadn’t seen the light of day since the mid-Seventies. Are polyester leisure suits next?
For the first time, the much-touted, long-promised X Train from the Los Angeles area to downtown Las Vegas looks like a reality. The biggest obstacle to realization of the project (a revival, essentially, of Amtrak‘s defunct Desert Wind route) was the lack of priority access to Union Pacific rail tracks. Without it, the X Train journey would be interminable. But now, train execs say, they have first dibs on the line, meaning service to Las Vegas could begin in little over a year. Perhaps you don’t want your first sight of Vegas to be the backside of Tamares Group‘s still-seedy Plaza Hotel but proximity to the X Train is a terrific marketing ‘hook’ for Downtown casinos. And, unlike the Desert Xpress boondoggle, no taxpayer subsidies are being sought. However, if you match the accompany video, X Train boosters are promising a 90-minute ride from Primm to downtown Sin City. How fast are they planning to go? Thirty miles per hour?
Election Day saw voters in Newport, Rhode Island, put the kibosh on slots at the old Newport Grand jai alai fronton. Marketing consultant Gary Galonek doesn’t think Newport Grand will get a second chance, two years hence or ever. “Newport has essentially put the nail in the coffin of an operation that it never saw as complementary to its Bellevue mansions/Tennis Hall of Fame reputation,” he wrote, calling Newport Grand “doomed.” That’s a damned shame but, unlike some pundits, S&G doesn’t care to second-guess the electorate.
THE small business that will be sold are mostly Chapter S corps: you know, all those “millionaires” who own small business and are going to see their taxes, especially on dividends and capital gains, skyrocket.
Current max on capital gains is 15%; it’s going to 23.8%, a more than 50% increase. Dividend tax is going to nearly triple, from 15% to 43.8%. Any intelligent person of means who doesn’t sell has more faith in Congress and the Administration to do something than is warranted. But, hey, those tax hikes worked in France, right? (Downgrade? What downgrade?)