Your questions, answered

Paul Shanahan writes (in part): I think Fontainebleau would have looked much better if it was around 500 feet high instead of being close to 730 feet. It looks bulky and just kind of bizarre down there at the north end of the Strip.

Agreed. And if you think F-bleau looks bad from the Strip, you should see it from several miles’ distance (assuming that you haven’t already) — it’s, if anything, even more obtrusive when viewed from as far away as Black Mountain in Henderson. Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb. It’s not just the height but the obesity of the F-bleau structure that’s problematic. Building all the way out to the “pedestrian realm” resulted in a squat, inelegant design, IMO, something for which no amount of height can compensate. But for the worst angle of Big Bleau, go to the Stirling Club. You step out onto the veranda, expecting an upscale vista to go with your surroundings — and find yourself staring at the butt end of the F-bleau garage. As fugly as Harrah’s Las Vegas and South Point are, that monstrosity may take the cake.

Ted Newkirk writes: Steve Wynn and Gary Loveman are aiming for their own areas. They are playing chess with the N.E. United States where they were originally from (does Loveman still live in Boston?).

Loveman still lives in the Wellesley area, so I wonder how he feels about Steve Wynn moving onto his front lawn, as it were. (“Favorite son” Sheldon Adelson‘s intentions have been long known.) Harrah’s Entertainment has not shown its hand yet as to how it proposes to enter the Massachusetts market — if memory serves — though I’d bet the farm it’s going to try and piggyback onto one of the racinos; let someone else do the heavy lifting of getting a license, then swoop in bearing a management contract. A variant of that is playing out in Ohio as we speak.

Suffolk Downs could probably use the Harrah’s flag and all the managerial infrastructure that comes with it, especially if it’s going to be committing $600 million to building a racino. I wonder how the cost/benefit analysis would pencil out for simply moving Harrah’s key executive personnel to Boston as opposed to endlessly flying Loveman back and forth across the continent? After all, the company does have five wholly-owned casinos on the Eastern Seaboard with the prospect of more to come.

… and also: I’m more curious about how the oil spill has affected Biloxi. How that has weighed on gaming numbers?

June’s revenue numbers aren’t in for Mississippi. In May, the state was -9%, but most of that was due to poor performance by the riverboat casinos, while declines on the coast were modest. Gulfport and Bay St. Louis have both been directly impacted by the spill, as you can see, but if that’s redounding against casino business, it’s not yet been quantified.

On the fritz. So you’re Trump Plaza or Caesars Atlantic City, your area is blanketed by a heat wave and your HVAC system craps out for four days, minimum. What do you do? Close the casino? Relocate your hotel guests en masse? Hell to the no! You decree “business as usual,” at least initially. (“On the [Caesars] floor, idle dealers fanned themselves with small cards as they waited for players to approach empty tables.”) Way to go, guys: Keep giving people reasons to play closer to home. It’s certainly a heckuva way to kick off the Marc Lasry regime at Trump Entertainment Resorts. A portent?