Stiffs and Georges

What do you do if you’ve got a purchase agreement with Colony Capital and the latter allegedly reneges on you? If you’re Rational Group, which thought it had a $15 million deal in place to purchase the Atlantic Club Hotel, the answer is simple: “We’ll see you in court.” It would certainly be in character [...]

That “thud” you just heard was the price of an Atlantic City casino hitting its lowest level ever. In litigation filed against Colony Capital, spurned buyer Rational Group said it was to have paid only $15 million for the Atlantic Club Hotel. Having done so many things wrong, it’s only apt that Colony CEO Tom [...]

Subtract one casino from the Tropicana Entertainment portfolio: The River Palms Resort & Casino, in Laughlin, just went for $7 million today. TropEnt CEO Anthony Rodio isn’t pulling out of the Colorado River market altogether. He says the company will continue to maintain its presence at the Tropicana Express (a former Ramada), which has been [...]

If Carl Icahn holds the note on your life, you are in a world of hurt, my friend. Just ask Trump Entertainment Resorts, whose $20 million sale of wretchedly performing Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino suddenly looks very shaky. What’s Uncle Carl’s reasoning? That the casino is “worth more,” although how much more is conveniently [...]

Revel Atlantic City’s day of deliverance is at hand: CEO Kevin DeSanctis has been ousted, along with Chief Investment Officer Michael Garrity. But there’s no need to shed tears over their fate. They will continue “developing amenity projects” for Revel (since they’ve done such a bang-up job to date) and will retain their sinecures with [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

For months, state Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), has been threatening to push an enormous gambling expansion through the Illinois Legislature during its lame-duck session. He says he’s “getting very close” but we’ve heard that kind of braying from Lang previously. A sock puppet of Illinois‘ horsey set, Lang won’t be satisfied with any bill that [...]

Former Resorts Atlantic City underboss Aaron Gomes might want to change his travel plans. Scarcely had he announced his departure from his late father’s casino than his new gig, Sydney’s troubled Star Casino, looks very doubtful. Gomes had planned to join former Borgata prexy Larry Mullin, But now Mullin is on the way out, effective [...]

Today is being spent at home, buried ‘neath page proofs for Eating Las Vegas 3.0 (with assistance from sibling kitties Leona and Rascal, the latter incredibly well-named). Tonight brings Tournament of Kings — which I’ve never seen — and Evil Dead The Musical, which I have, but not in its V Theater incarnation. Last night [...]

Well, not quite. But with the Southern Gaming Summit convening today in Biloxi, it’s as good a moment as any to look back on the quaint beginnings of what’s now a kind of American Riviera. Eleven casinos, 5,598 hotel rooms, 11,335 employees and $323 million in tax payments later, it’s pretty remarkable to think that [...]

There’s a new power player in gaming and it’s … Brookfield Asset Management? The Canadian lender is already calling the shots (along with Warner Gaming) at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, a $1.5 billion quagmire into which Morgans Hotel Group led Credit Suisse. Today, Brookfield officially ousted Sol Kerzner from Atlantis Paradise Island and [...]

Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden has penned a gripping account of how veteran racetrack executive Don Johnson (no, not that one) cleaned the clocks of the Tropicana Atlantic City, Borgata and Caesars Palace Atlantic City, to the tune of $15 million. He did it, at least in the Trop’s case, by not bringing Tropicana [...]

Earlier today, we witnessed the strange spectacle of a capitalist decrying the effect of market forces upon his business. It’s an indirect reminder that casinos are that rare issue which brings together the old maids of the far left and the far right, decrying the terrifying scourge of gambling, like a bunch of latter-day Carrie [...]

Stung by accusations from Wynn Resorts that erstwhile Shareholder #1 Kazuo Okada had been greasing palms at PAGCOR, prompt action was taken by the Philippines House Committee on Games & Amusements. It promptly banned … Steve Wynn. This comical, “circle the wagons” reaction witlessly validates Wynn’s indictment. Ditto the business-as-usual defense PAGCOR Chairman Cristino L. [...]

First, the good news. Las Vegas Sands is signaling that it is not going to take its ball and come home from Florida, regardless of what lobbyist Nick Iarossi said last week. However, Sands’ emissary to the Sunshine State, Andy Abboud, unleashed his wrath upon Walt Disney Co. and the Florida Chamber of Commerce for [...]

Well, not quite but the headline pretty much gives you January’s narrative in a nutshell. After backing out the contribution made by Neil Bluhm’s new, category-killing Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, gambling revenue from the Land of Lincoln was a feeble $96 million last month, for a same-store comparison of -11%. The most damning statistic [...]

Darn that Carl Icahn! He hasn’t been selling off any bits and pieces of Fontainebleau lately. (Say, whatever happened to all those in-room iMacs? How about donating them to the penurious Clark County School District, eh Carl?) So I don’t have any justification for posting this newfound video of the ever-popular Edna Boil other than [...]