Stiffs and Georges

Even if you’re making money on a daily basis, sometimes a casino-resort can be a bad investment. Take Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which finally posted a profitable quarter. However, at $3.9 billion in construction costs (now at or very near the $4 billion mark with expansions and revisions of the property), it’s doubtful that Deutsche [...]

Yes, the recovery in Las Vegas could be said to be a chastened and limping one. The national press will leap at just about anything to restart the “Vegas is back” narrative. And yes, CityCenter ROI improved exponentially … to 4%. But all that being the case, nothing seen in recent numbers — like a [...]

“MGM [Resorts International] still has much of its business in on the Strip, unlike its major rivals Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts … Those companies both reported gains for the first three months of the year because of their Macau resorts, while Caesars Entertainment, which has no presence in [...]

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than right: When Tamares Group made an indiscriminate splurge on downtown Las Vegas real estate in 2004, it was banking on a construction boom that never took place. It also found itself with several casinos and slot-route locations for which it never had any strategy. But Tamares sure was [...]

Eight years later, Steve Wynn is still firmly ensconced at the top. Gary Loveman is hanging on for dear life and George Maloof is a sad-faced figurehead. And $2.7 billion for a casino resort (Wynn Las Vegas) looks like frugality after the sums blown on CityCenter, Fontainebleau, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and — oh [...]

S&G contributor JeffInOKC returns from a too-long absence with some thoughts on one of our favorite topics, the North Strip …

It is common for us to hear the term “Too Big to Fail,” but I think the true story of Fountainebleau is “Too Big to Succeed.” The original plan for the property [...]

A reader in Arizona asks the question that was on my mind yesterday and probably yours, too: “Is it just me … or does this look like just a copper/gold-colored version of CityCenter?”
Agreed! (With a large helping of Mandalay Bay slopped around the front and sides. Look, if you want originality, you don’t phone up [...]

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 [...]

Our question for the day is, “Who benefits?” Taking the long view of Caesars Entertainment to bundle a mixed bag of Planet Hollywood, its-casino-to-be in Baltimore and Caesars Interactive, in whose interest is it to purchase minority stakes, since CEO Gary Loveman intends to maintain majority control. Or, in the case of his Maryland casino, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

After a long, abyssal plunge, Las Vegas‘ real estate market has bottomed out — or so knowledgeable people tell me. Seems that the banks ’round here ignored Mitt Romney’s (bad) advice to dump the “shadow inventory” en masse into the marketplace, which would have sent housing prices into an incredible downward spiral. No, they’re keeping [...]

For those of us who missed it this year, the best Christmas tradition of which I know.
First and most importantly …
To you, the reader, who makes this possible, a year of happiness, health and wealth, whether material, intellectual or spiritual.
Atlantic City: Good luck in a year that will end with ‘13.’
Boyd Gaming: New TV commercials.
Caesars [...]

Although Penn National Gaming’s scheme to split itself into a REIT and a casino-management company hasn’t received one regulatory approval yet, top brass is already taking a victory lap. Gloated CFO William Clifford, he would “be picking up the phone 10 seconds after the spin is effective and begin having conversations [with competitors], setting up [...]

Here’s a handy guide to using the online Las Vegas guidebooks written by yours truly — sort of a tourist’s extension of S&G, available through all Hilton-branded hotels and timeshares. Since these only concentrate on carefully selected highlights of Sin City, there are merely supplemental to the truly comprehensive coverage provided by LasVegasAdvisor.com, but they [...]

Las Vegas is a city whose attractions feature the eat-at-your-own-risk Heart Attack Grill. It’s also got no shortage of vast, empty spaces waiting to be filled. So it would have seemed inevitable had Guy Fieri chosen to open a three-story, 500-seat (!) temple to junk food in Sin City rather than Times Square. Local food [...]

Casino revenues in the Pelican State were up 2% last month, entirely upon the strength of Pinnacle Entertainment’s L’Auberge Baton Rouge (above). It propelled the Baton Rouge market 58% upward, grossing $11 million at the expense of Argosy Baton Rouge (-10%) and especially Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Baton Rouge (-25%). Still, Pinnacle is growing the [...]

There may be a new Cirque du Soleil production show at Aria but it’s been drowned out in the thundering hooves and comparable hype that marked Shania Twain’s arrival at Caesars Palace. It was quite a sight: 20 horses and Twain herself, “in a floor-length leather coat and black leather trousers, her curly hair wild [...]

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%) [...]

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 [...]