Stiffs and Georges

If you’ll pardon my vulgarity, shit got real while I was tied up with other projects. Last week’s sale of excess baggage Dania Jai-Alai in Florida was just a tiny prelude to this morning’s blockbuster: Echelon is kaput. Instead, Boyd Gaming will liquidate it to Genting Berhad for $350 million. This closes the book on Boyd’s [...]

January casino revenues from Indiana present a conundrum. Although the state is still the most lucrative casino jurisdiction in the Midwest ($192 million last month), it’s hard to tell whether the half-full glass is filling or emptying. Foot traffic was down 12% but players’ spending rose 7.5%. The two didn’t quite cancel each other out, [...]

Some of you — and you know who you are — get to Las Vegas several times a year but rarely have the chance to foray far past either the Las Vegas Strip or Downtown. (It’s the same with me and the greatest place on Earth, Manhattan: There’s a well-worn groove through the middle of [...]

Ever since the government of Macao put a hard cap on the number of table games in the enclave, casino operators have been forced to do a certain amount of cap-and-trade. In order to stock up Sands Cotai, 200 tables had to be removed from Venetian Macao. According to J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff, these [...]

That’s what Lt. Castillo (the one, the only, the awesomeness that is Edward James Olmos) would say of the situation at Palms Casino Resort, which has spent the Joseph Magliarditi administration spiraling into disrepute. (Trouble at a Magliarditi-run casino? Shocking!) According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s lightning-fast Chris Sieroty, multiple arrests are “imminent” in a [...]

… keeps fountains running during a hard freeze? A Caesars Entertainment executive, who else? Never mind that pipes have been bursting all over the valley (including one at LVA HQ) and that Lake Tahoe casinos have experienced “severe water and flood damage to the hotel and gambling areas” from ruptures, wreaking havoc upon two Caesars-owned [...]

A Wall Street Journal story from yesterday evening reports that Pinnacle Entertainment has found a buyer for its 19 acres of Boardwalk land. These were cobbled together at huge cost — $270 million or $14 million an acre — by former CEO Dan Lee (left). His successor, Anthony Sanfilippo, is reportedly flipping them for approximately [...]

By the time Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis realizes he’s made a mistake, he’s almost always past the point of no return. Although it is my deeply rooted opinion that smoking is a noxious, disgusting habit that invades other people’s space, banning it has been demonstrated to cause a 15% or greater decrease in the revenues [...]

S&G has learned — and LVA staffers have confirmed — that all main-stage shows at Tamares Group’s flagship Plaza Hotel have gone dark until further notice. A promotional appearance by Best Little Whorehouse in Texas cast members at South Point, a National Finals Rodeo tie-in, was nixed due to the shutdown. The plug has, for [...]

Despite several months of doom-and-gloom economic predictions from Steve Wynn, the mogul has decided to “buy American” again, not only returning to the site of previous skirmishes (Philadelphia) but also taking a second run at Massachusetts. S&G was no fan of Wynn’s decision to call it quits after being essentially voted out of Foxborough by [...]

Since there is no problem in today’s America too trivial to be resolved with gunplay, let the record show that 31-year-old Kevin Jones Jr. was mortally wounded at the Lucky Club Casino early this morning. Jones was pronounced dead at a local hospital. How his alleged assailant, convicted felon Shonta Holland, came to be in [...]

No sooner were Wall Street analysts uttering serious concerns about a slow post-Sandy recovery for Atlantic City than who should pop up on CBS This Morning but Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman, doing damage control …

It’s hard to decide which is funnier: doddering Charlie Rose unwittingly picking at a Loveman sore spot by mentioning Macao, [...]

Actually, a few hardy souls — like fearless restaurateur Montgomery Dahm, who was semper fidelis to his fellow citizens — never closed. Add Tun Tavern to your list of must-see stops when you visit Atlantic City. Ditto Ducktown Tavern & Liquors, which hung tough in the face of Hurricane Sandy. However, although casino owners have [...]

While nobody quite matched the $221 million loss posted by Caesars Entertainment, the gaming industry didn’t lack for underachievers in 3Q12, thanks largely to softness in domestic casino markets. Ameristar Casinos reported a $16 million profit, despite a 2% revenue decline. Slightly improved performance in Colorado was offset by new competition in Kansas City (-7%) [...]

A natural disaster on the East Coast is fast becoming an industry-wide problem, its effects felt as far afield as Iowa, I kid you not. In light of the total havoc Hurricane Sandy has wrought upon travel, particularly by air, Las Vegas will feel an extra chill in the air, too. It seems nearly frivolous [...]

At the risk of taking Hurricane Sandy too lightly, in some respects the storm — currently on a path straight for Atlantic City — represents a strange blessing in disguise for the Boardwalk. With the city all buttoned up as of 4 p.m. yesterday, the last week of October will be a revenue washout and, [...]

Pursuant to our last S&G dispatch, here are the USA Today choices for top attractions on the Strip (uniqueness and affordability being prime considerations). If you’re not staying at a Hilton property right now, you aren’t vouchsafed access to the actual guide, but here’s a potted version …

Dining: Gordon Ramsay Steak [Paris-Las Vegas]; rm seafood [...]

Update: The head of Tamares Group’s Vegas casino operations, Anthony Santo, has contacted S&G. He categorically denies that any sale of the Western has taken place.
Well, “the Internets” are jumping today with the rumor that the defunct Western Hotel Casino, most recent victim of absentee Tamares Group, has been sold. Zappos.com has been tipped as [...]

It may not be a David Lean epic but this video gives you an idea just how heavy the waters were on the Las Vegas Strip, over by Harrah’s Las Vegas. Strangely, local TV stations are concentrating upon the effects of the flooding on outlying parts of the valley, venturing no nearer the Strip than [...]

… and not with customers unfortunately. Las Vegas is currently experiencing torrential downpours and flash flooding — including on the Strip. This suddenly closed the Tropicana Las Vegas‘ “Mob Attraction,” thanks to a wee bit of a design flaw. According to a Trop source, the Mob expo is just off the lowest point of the [...]