… if you happen to be George Maloof and can hang out at Palms Place on Sunday with a bunch of Miss USA contestants. However, as for young lovelies like …
… Miss Nevada, one Sarah Chapman, I’d advise staying away from Kerry Simon‘s junk-food-laden repast if you want to maintain that girlish figure. Those beauty contestants must have shrew-like appetites because the next night they …
… repaired to Italian eatery Buca di Beppo, where the portions are far from small. You probably could have fed all 50 girls on just one entrée. While at Palms Place, of course, the posse of pulchritude enjoyed a protective cordon of douchebags …
… complete with the glazed expressions and flexed, tatooed biceps that are the new symbols of Las Vegas. (Photos by Ed Graff.)
This just in … May numbers have been reported from Iowa and the state was flat for the month (no Iowa jokes, please; I used to live there). It was a bad month for Harrah’s Council Bluffs, down 11% and doing less than half the business of Ameristar Casinos‘ nearby — and much more capacious — riverboat ($14 million, +5%). Statewide, Caesars Entertainment and Isle of Capri Casinos had the greatest dollar volume ($23 million and $20 million, respectively) but lost revenue share to Penn National Gaming (+6%) and Ameristar (+5%). Although Caesars’ three properties don’t outperform the rest of the market as dramatically as Ameristar, they do nicely enough … better than Penn or Isle, and much better than the many independents. Iowa is about to go from 17 private-sector casinos to 18, so don’t expect the prairie-like revenue trajectory to improve soon. And, at an average gross of $118 million/month this year, one is hard-pressed to think why Gov. Terry Branstad‘s got the idea that now is the time for the casino industry to absorb a massive tax increase.
Management 1, Labor 0. The casino industry’s favored mayoral candidate, Carolyn Goodman, swept into office yesterday with the greatest of ease. Mrs. Goodman easily staved off a challenge by the Culinary Union‘s choice, Chris Giunchigliani by a near-landslide margin. It was a remarkably substance-free campaign, so S&G is giving it the space it merits.
