Wynn Resorts fights back; Rage against the (slot) machine

Not taking charges of promising kickbacks lying down, Wynn Resorts has countersued Anthony Gattineri. The latter has thrown yet another spanner into the Encore Boston Harbor works by suing the company for an $18 million, under-the-table promise he says was made him by casino President Robert DeSalvio. Wynn concedes that DeSalvio and Gattineri met in San Diego in 2014 (a key point of Gattineri’s suit) but denies that any kickback was promised. As you may recall, Gattineri and two other landowners got talked down from $75 million for some Everett acreage to $35 million when one of them was found to have a felony record.

“The claims that Mr. Gattineri made are patently false and are designed to negatively impact our reputation with the public, and the gaming commission,” said Wynn spokesman Greg John, hitting the nail on the head. Even Gattineri’s attorney had to agree that Wynn was doing a CYA move vis-a-vis Massachusetts regulators.

Halfway around the globe, Wynn is being very “george” with its Macao employees. They’re set to receive a one-time bonus equal to a month’s salary. That’s good news for the 95% of the 13,200 employees who qualify. The bonus is being awarded on the strength of a 119% profit increase in 1Q18. Kudos to Wynn Resorts for rewarding the people who made that profit possible.

* Goodbye SLS Las Vegas (and don’t let the doorknob hit you in the butt on the way out). Welcome back Sahara — or rather Grand Sahara Resort. Asked for his reaction to the news, David G. Schwartz said, “For many, many years it was the Sahara, it’s one of the best-known names in Las Vegas history so it’s not surprising it would go back to Sahara. Clearly SLS hasn’t really caught traction so this might be an attempt to tap into all the goodwill of the Sahara name.” New owners Meruelo Group are reported as being on the verge of putting $100 million into capex maintenance of the Sahara-to-be. Given the recency of Sam Nazarian‘s 2014 remake of the resort, we wonder where Meruelo will spend the money but suspect it will go toward removing some the douchebaggier elements of Nazarian’s reign, like the hideous hotel-room interiors, which seemed designed to make you flee your room for one of the property’s three nightclubs. A change that is almost definitely imminent is a marketing reposition to make the property’s appeal greater to the Latino market. It works for Circus Circus, why not the Sahara?

* A slot player at Ho-Chunk Casino in Madison, Wisconsin, won a jackpot last weekend — but it wasn’t as big as he thought it ought to be. Ergo, he put his fist through the machine’s glass, shattering sufficiently to send fragments into the eye of a nearby player. Remarkably, the anger-prone player doesn’t seem to have been arrested for his fit of rage. In 23 years of covering gaming I’ve never before seen a story like this.

* Penn National Gaming had a terrific June at Plainridge Park, grossing $15 million — a 7% increase. Win/slot/day was a staggering $396. Penn is shrugging off competition from Rhode Island — let’s see how it handles the eventual challenge from Encore Boston.

* Concordia College student Brandon Stevenson won’t have to worry about paying for his student loans. He’s the latest Minnesota Lottery millionaire — and he didn’t even have to pay for his ticket, which was purchased with free-play credits a friend received for making the referral. Stevenson’s big win caused some grumbling among gambling opponents, who regard the state’s online lottery as tantamount to an Internet casino. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of that.