Adelson fires Sands China CEO; Kenny Guinn, 1936-2010

It’s getting rather slippery on the tiled floors of Venelazzo and its Macao offshoots, what will the frequent bloodbaths that are becoming a hallmark of Sheldon Adelson‘s reign as creator and CEO of Las Vegas Sands. The victim sent over the Bridge of Sighs was Sands China CEO Steve Jacobs. His fated was as good as sealed when Adelson publicly rebuked him for suggesting that Sands China would be the vehicle for Adelson’s planned entry into Japan. (The Diet hasn’t approved casino gambling yet but Sheldon’s not one to let such small details trip up his plan for global domination.) Such a remark would be a nice way of juicing Sands China stock on the Hong Kong bourse but it also smacked of insubordination … and Adelson is never one to allow his underlings — except for court favorite and COO Michael A. Leven — to deviate from the party line.

Leven, better known as The $2 Million Man, now gets to earn his salary (higher than that of Harrah’s Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman and equal to that of MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren) by adding Jacobs’ duties to his existing portfolio while Adelson searches for a replacement. We won’t blame any blue-ribbon casino executives if they look upon a posting to Sands China as a mixed blessing.

“Adelson said this change to the management team would have no material impact on the company’s operations in Macau or its ability to complete the Sheraton/Shangri-La/Traders … development currently under construction there,” a dogal herald proclaimed from atop the Venelazzo Campanile. (OK, I totally made the heraldic scene up.) J.P. Morgan analysts agreed — up to a point. They expect construction to proceed smoothly but opined that “the stock will likely pull back on perceived continued management strife and the fact that most investors believe that Steve was doing a solid job in managing costs, growing mass and direct [VIP] share, and working on the redevelopment of sites 5 and 6.” As for Jacobs, expect him to crop up with one of Sands’ overseas competitors, whose executive ranks will soon be thickly stocked with Adelson castoffs.

From a metaphorical demise we move to real and very sad one. Former Nevada Gov. (and current MGM Resorts International board member) Kenny Guinn fell from the roof of his home and died yesterday, the cause yet unknown. In typically unassuming Guinn fashion, he was working cleaning his roof himself even though he could easily have afforded to farm out the task. An official motorcade will escort the ex-governor’s body through Las Vegas, with the funeral yet to be scheduled. The Las Vegas Sun has a large Guinn photo gallery as well as numerous tributes like these. (Coverage in The Newspaper That Must Not Be Cited is barely adequate by comparison.) He was that rare creature, a politician who always took the high road.

The man who literally wrote the book on Kenny Guinn, Jon Ralston, summarizes Guinn as “a terrible candidate and politician” but “perhaps the most caring, compassionate conservative the state has known, a man who was almost Clintonesque in feeling the pain of the mentally ill, of underpaid teachers, of struggling seniors.” Many of us looked at Guinn as a glorified placeholder while he was in office but history is already rendering a much nobler judgment.

During his lifetime, Guinn had fierce detractors. I’ve heard him criticized for not pushing his legislative agenda sufficiently hard in Carson City (though he was a workaholic compared to his wastrel successor). His tenure as interim president of UNLV brought accusations that he overrode his limited authority and the university’s outspoken Prof. William Thompson told me that a Guinn-led commission would have swept the MGM Grand fire under the rug as an anomaly had another conflagration not struck the Las Vegas Hilton at a time when national media were in town. Even so, Guinn’s committee was responsible for the sprinkler systems that are now mandatory in Las Vegas hotels, saving God only knows how many lives.

In terms of how Guinn’s tenure impacted the casino industry, it will probably be remembered — if at all — for what he didn’t do. Thanks in part to budgetary constraints, the Nevada Gaming Control Board remained at the same size as in the Bob Miller administration, even whil the industry itself metastisized, grew more deeply entwined with Wall Street and consolidated to a perilous degree. Guinn could have spoken out against the 2004 creation of a Strip duopoly that left us “too big to fail” Harrah’s and MGM Mirage but didn’t.

However, Gov. Guinn did try to relieve the casino industry of the burden of being the state’s carotid artery (thanks to the gambling and retail taxes it generates). But legislators scoffed at his proposed gross-receipts tax and we’re paying the price today as Nevada devolves into an English-speaking Albania: many casinos, little else. The state’s future hinges upon an educated workforce and, as the father of the Millenium Scholarships which now bear his name, Kenny Guinn gave us an opportunity to reshape our two-dimensional (gambling and mining) Silver State economy. Let’s not squander that legacy.

Daniel Schorr, R.I.P. A journalist who sacrificed his career at CBS to do what believed was the right thing has died at age 93. His sagacious radio commentaries will be missed.

Station Casinos’ cash cow, UFC has one less market after North Vancouver banned “human cockfighting” from the city. As one councilor put it, “I’ve watched enough of (UFC) channel surfing to know that I find it repugnant … barbaric.” S&G can think of a lot of other adjectives for the “sport” but that covers it pretty well for now.