Stiffs and Georges

After a long (17 years) and eventful tenure at the top of the American Gaming Association, President Frank J. Fahrenkopf is calling it a day. On June 30, he hands over the reins to a successor as yet to be named. Although this decision was taken over a year ago, the AGA is only now [...]

Shortly before Global Gaming Expo, I had a chance to sit down with Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith and query him on the company’s growth strategy, which will soon plant the Boyd flag in Kansas and Iowa. While many casino CEOs talk like an SEC filing, Smith is a pleasure to interview: Economical with words, [...]

No, not Russian hookers (you have to go to Macao for those) but Interblock’s virtual casino dealers. The Slovenian company unveiled these robo-lovelies under high-security conditions that the Las Vegas Sun likened to Marquee “on a busy weekend night” … except with better-dressed patrons … and less visible inebriation … and no puke on the [...]

Wall Street’s appetite for risk knows no bounds. True, year-end numbers from MGM Resorts International contain cause for confidence, including 8% higher domestic gambling revenue and 10% improved room revenues. However, MGM’s still sitting atop a $13.5 billion powder keg of long-term debt. So you have to admire MGM’s ability to peddle $1 billion in [...]

In a pathetically underwhelming announcement, Caesars Entertainment is planning to float an IPO of 1.8 million shares, priced to move at a modest $8-$10 per share. Which means, best-case scenario, that CEO Gary Loveman will raise $18 million, tops, from the offering … a drop in the bucket of his development aspirations, which include $550 [...]

What are your plans for Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, in Pennsylvania? We’re still waiting for the appeal process to wind its way through the courts. The original plan called for to build on an existing facility on the Nemacolin property, which was originally built as a Cabelas-type and which the Hardy family had turned into kind [...]

“The era of government-granted casino monopolies is over. Many of our markets are now oversaturated with commercial and tribal casinos. In some states, licenses are even being left untaken. The era of limitless capital is over. Between huge commercial casino bankruptcies, tribal defaults and challenging returns, spending billions on ever-fancier [...]

Those last few remnants of Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung’s former casino empire continue to topple about him. The Kentucky-based oligarch, whose properties are notorious for their poor working conditions and even worse maintenance, has been reaping a gargantuan load of karma ever since he over-leveraged his hotel company to buy Aztar Corp., the [...]

Such been the plight of Maryland, a state that’s experienced the curious predicament of having more casino licenses than applicants. It’s much the same as Kansas, where things have gone awful quiet. Now, Kansas is like a corn-fed Macao: You build the casino, you run it but at the end of the day, it belongs [...]

Confronted with a bunch of mossbacked codgers (the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board) and a backwater newspaper whilst warming up for his Venetian gig tonight, Mitt Romney must have figured he had the luxury of thinking aloud. What happens here, stays here, right? Las Vegas has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation and Romney’s [...]

“You can’t fight the tape.” — MGM Resorts International CEO James Murren, on the futility of reasoning with the stock market, at Global Gaming Expo last week.

Florida’s seven struggling, casino-enabled parimutuels could become eight, with the entry of a new player …

While the courts have now made it possible for Don King to make an end-run around Palm Beach County voters, if necessary, by taking his case to the Lege, lawmakers are in pursuit of much bigger, more lucrative quarry right [...]

No Global Gaming Expo would be complete without the American Gaming Association’s prexy making a pilgrimage to Jon Ralston’s TV studio. So, whilst Yr. Humble Blogger digests a whole mess o’ analyst reports, enjoy the soothing sounds of Frank J. Fahrenkopf, the smoothest talker in the casino industry.

Gaming’s biggest show starts today, so S&G would like to welcome conventioneers with this public service announcement from ABBA and vidder frapistat.

Our beloved casino industry runneth over with individuals, companies and even sovereign nations that have a vested interest in the legalization of Internet poker … and more. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX, left) knows this, which is why he’s coming to Global Gaming Expo to peddle his influence on Capitol Hill, such as it might be. [...]

Under fire for the low property valuations it placed on Pinnacle Entertainment’s River City and Caesars Entertainment’s Harrah’s Maryland Heights, the St. Louis County Board of Equalization backpedaled … sorta. They accepted County Assessor Jake Zimmerman’s increased valuation for soon-to-expand River City. However, the board stood by the 57% cut it make in Zimmerman’s assessment [...]

I’ve been debating whether or not to give Global Gaming Expo a pass this year and this morning’s dispatch from Deutsche Bank’s Carlo Santarelli didn’t exactly quicken my pulse. His prediction? A “quiet” G2E, due to slow growth in the industry itself. Instead of significant new product, Santarelli forecasts a variation on what Steve Friess [...]

Posthumous congratulations to Martin Stern Jr. (1917-2001), father of the vertically integrated casino resort. He will be the recipient of the annual Jay Sarno Award at this year’s Global Gaming Expo. The choice of Stern has been such a closely guarded secret that not even Sarno biographer (and keeper of the Stern archives) Dr. David [...]

When casino revenues weren’t as bad as expected, earlier this summer, one Atlantic City property executive called it a light at the end of the tunnel. Elsewhere, S&G reader American Gaming Guru pithily remarked that the light was an oncoming train called Aqueduct. When the Guru couldn’t foresee was that Atlantic City is now set [...]

Just minutes ago, Las Vegas Sun reporter Rick Velotta posted the news that we’d been dreading for several years now. Former MGM Mirage CEO J. Terrence Lanni has died, presumably for the cancer from which he was revealed to be suffering two years ago. When Lanni’s career abruptly flamed out in late 2008, there was [...]