Stiffs and Georges

It was one of the stupefying follies of the Caesars Entertainment LBO that CEO Gary Loveman believed the company could take on $30 billion in debt and continue to expand. Even as he tries to reshuffle old assets into new IPOs, Loveman is finally coming around to what some of us knew years ago: The [...]

If you have been waiting for the moment to sell your Caesars Entertainment stock and get out unscathed, even making a tidy profit, that moment is now. Actually, it was March 20 this year, when CZR hit an all-time high of $17.54, gently sloping off thereafter. That continued an impressive comeback for a stock that’s [...]

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 [...]

Jeez, I go on sabbatical to attend to other writing commitments and hella history breaks loose: Internet gambling is now the law of Nevada and New Jersey (so much for federal legalization being “just around the corner,” huh?), Caesars Entertainment floats a “controversial and complicated” IPO — well, nothing new there — and there’s a [...]

Sheldon Adelson being too busy trying to dictate American foreign policy, it was left to his Number Two Man, COO Michael Leven (left) to go to Toronto and make the case for a Las Vegas Sands megaresort. Leven soft-pedaled the gambling stuff and talked up conventions instead. Leven’s unconcern about having only 2,000 parking spaces [...]

MGM Resorts International, that’s who. As predicted, a lawsuit filed to overturn last November’s casino expansion was laughed out of court. Judge Ronald A. Silkworth called the litigation “baseless,” which is a nice way of saying, “Thanks for wasting my time with this rubbish, @$$holes.” This clears the path for MGM to move forward on [...]

Sorry to sound apocalyptic, especially since we just dodged that Mayan Calendar bullet. However, a brand-new Supreme Court ruling is sure to get the attention of every company that owns a riverboat casino. By a 7-2 margin, the high court ruled that “anything that floats” does not constitute a vessel. In an opinion penned by [...]

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 [...]

You can practically hear the wind whistling through the corridors of power as top execs continue to jump — or are flung — from the sinking Caesars Entertainment ship. First, CFO Jonathan Halkyard up and quits, in favor of the lower-stress environment of Nevada Energy. Now a major power vacuum is created by the ouster [...]

But first, because it will never, ever get old …

Also this, from @daveweigel: “[Florida] exit poll: Obama winning Jewish vote by 40 points. 40 points. Nice work, Sheldon Adelson.” We’ll tap dance on Sheldon’s head some more further down, but let’s roll out the barrel for gaming’s winners last night. There were five ballot questions, [...]

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 [...]

For the umpteenth time, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has been obliged to go to the media and say, ‘Yes, we not only have gambling but we actually like it, we really do.’ It’s a message that got kicked under the furniture during the run-up year in which the Cosmo promoted itself like a high-end [...]

Folks down in the Pelican State had better things to do than gamble last month … like clean up after Hurricane Isaac. This might account for a 5% year/year decline in casino revenues. Louisiana’s gambling venues grossed $200 million last month, posting a 2% increase entirely on the strength of Pinnacle Entertainment’s new L’Auberge Baton [...]

In a typically ludicrous Gary Loveman brainstorm, Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon is to become — wait for it — Caesars Drai’s. (Yeah, ‘WTF?’ and all that.) Although you’d have to be either masochistic or insane to loan money to Caesars Entertainment at this point, the company has the nerve to ask for $180 million [...]

Give Caesars Entertainment for making a good call this week. It’s inked a one-year residency deal with American Idol winner Taylor Hicks to return to Bally’s, starting Oct. 17. Prices will still begin at a wallet-friendly $40/seat and, in light of the amount and quality of a show Hicks puts on, that’s an incredibly good [...]

Having waited too long and spent too much to ever get around to his long-rumored teardown of the Imperial Palace, the CEO/CFO/COB and prexy of Caesars Entertainment, one Gary Loveman, now finds himself perfuming a pig. Despite having more brand names under the Caesars umbrella than you could shake a Total Rewards card at, Loveman [...]

First, the good news: Since thousands of people are being adversely affected by Hurricane Isaac, still gathering strength, one of them is Donald Trump. The bloated bloviator has been promising another of his shocking revelations – too shocking to be revealed! — but might be bumped from precious TV time by the furies of the [...]

Spain’s banking system has joined a series of toppling dominoes that will likely prompt multiple, TARP-like measures and have the European Union mulling methods of preventing a run on the banks. Into this atmosphere of imminent catastrophe and 24% unemployment comes one Sheldon Adelson, who meets rather a different welcome than he was probably expecting, [...]

No disrespect to Steve Wynn, but the human starter gun for any serious casino race is now Sheldon Adelson. Except for China, he’s not been in any casino-expansion movement for the long haul since he lost Mirage Resorts. And with Las Vegas Sands now expressing an interest in the Toronto area, competitors MGM Resorts International [...]

This just in: It was pretty clear that Sheldon Adelson was cool toward his home state of Massachusetts and he officially called it quits today. His excuse? Three casinos and a slot parlor will “dilute the market.” In other words, no monopoly = no Sheldon. That’s a slight variation on the too-much-competition wheeze he used [...]