Wynn Resorts made it official last night: It had paid just under $335 million for the old New Frontier site, which it is taking over from James Packer. The deal makes a fool of 
Packer, who paid $570 million for the site in 2014 and didn’t even get the $400 million everything-must-go price he’d been seeking. Compared to Penn National Gaming‘s $10.5 million/acre for the Tropicana Las Vegas, Wynn drove a hard bargain, but not as hard as the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Bureau, which scored the huge Riviera site for $7 million/acre. (The real fools were Elad Properties, who paid Phil Ruffin an epic $1.3 billion back in 2007, just before the Las Vegas bubble burst.) Incidentally, the Wynn acquisition should raise the value of adjoining acreage held by Donald Trump, where Tower II of Trump International was once meant to rise.
Having taken Packer to the cleaners, speculation will now be rife as to what Steve Wynn will do with the land, which he once mulled as a convention-center site. While he try to one-up T-Mobile Arena by — as one S&G reader suggests, putting up an NBA-friendly sports arena? I’m loath to bet against that. Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli speculates, “with the Paradise Park development getting underway in less than a month, we do not see a development on the new site as part of the near-term agenda. That said, the parcel is nicely positioned between the Fashion Show Mall and the soon to be developed Resorts World Las Vegas. The value of the land is also likely to be enhanced by the proximity to the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion, which is expected to be completed in 2021. Accordingly, we believe the most likely path for WYNN is one of patience.” In other words, instead of trying to bring the Strip past Wynncore, El Steve can wait for the Strip to come to him.
* MotorCity Casino drove the bus in Detroit last month, up 3% ($38 million), while MGM Grand Detroit ($48.5 million) and Jack Detroit ($26 million) were flat.
* The NFL can hardly be shocked — shocked! — by sports betting when it’s holding Superbowl LIV in Hard Rock Stadium, near burgeoning Seminole Hard Rock 
Hotel & Casino. If this is what the Seminole Tribe can do for Hollywood, Florida, we can wait to see what they’ve got in store for Atlantic City, where they’re reinventing Trump Taj Mahal as a 21st century casino. Tribal gaming is in an expansive mood this week, with groundbreakings for a new Palace Casino, in Cass Lake, Minnesota, and a new Quil Ceda Creek Casino, in Tulalip, Washington, The former’s progenitor had become dilapidated while the original Quil Ceda was crammed to bursting. It does the heart good to see tribal gaming prospering thusly.
* This woman better not apply for a job in Las Vegas if she has a problem with people “speaking Oriental.” Better yet, Lucky Dragon Casino should hire her and make her take the mandatory Mandarin-language career track.
