Gaming - VEGAS INC

‘For sale’ doesn’t mean ‘will be sold’

Nevada’s largest casino company wants to know if you are in the market for a casino and have several hundred million dollars to spare. Some Wall Street analysts believe every casino in the MGM Mirage empire is for sale with the likely exception of its original namesake, MGM Grand.

27 April 2009

By Liz Benston

Another union seeks Culinary’s right to organize Strip workers

A month ago, when labor leader Andy Stern was drumming up excitement over a nationwide campaign to organize hotel and casino workers, he said his union wouldn’t set up shop on the Strip.

26 April 2009

By Michael Mishak

An empire built on assets, not debt

Phil Ruffin talks about his newest acquisition, Treasure Island, which he purchased from strapped gaming giant MGM Mirage for $775 million. Ruffin had the money to buy the Strip resort at a time when banks weren't lending because he had sold the New Frontier for a record $1.24 billion and therefore could pay cash.

Phil Ruffin prefers numbers to grand statements. The man who went against the grain, made big money, became a hero and got the girl isn’t much for self-aggrandizement.

26 April 2009

By Liz Benston

Lawmakers’ huddle with business a step toward tax hike

A meeting of legislative leaders of both parties and a few members of the business elite last week seemed to confirm, at least in part, the wisdom of the Democrats’ strategy for selling a plan a to fix the budget mess.

26 April 2009

By J. Patrick Coolican

MGM Mirage execs saw pay cut as economy declined

Top MGM Mirage executives were paid less in 2008 as the company's financial results deteriorated, a company filing showed today. Former Chairman and Chief Executive Terry Lanni was paid $3.814 million last year, down from $12.74 million in 2007 and $15.687 million in 2006.

24 April 2009

By Steve Green

Tropicana Atlantic City purchase agreement finalized

Tropicana Atlantic City is one step closer to being sold after a group of negotiators completed a purchase agreement that would allow former Sands Hotel Casino Atlantic City owner Carl Icahn and a group of investors to buy the property.

24 April 2009

By Amanda Finnegan

Pinnacle Entertainment posts first-quarter profit

Regional casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. of Las Vegas today said revenue increased in the first quarter and it posted a profit, reversing a loss in the same quarter of 2008.

24 April 2009

By Las Vegas Sun Staff

Gaming regulators mull licensing change for institutional investors

The Nevada Gaming Commission will consider an amendment that would enable an institutional investor to hold up to 25 percent of the voting securities of a company without being licensed individually by the state.

24 April 2009

By Richard N. Velotta

Capacity crunch

Times are tough in the Las Vegas resort business, and they are about to get a lot tougher. Resorts are bracing for a challenge as CityCenter and Fontainebleau prepare to open, part of a capacity increase of more than 12,000 rooms that threatens to send rates spiraling.

24 April 2009

By Richard N. Velotta

Tropicana cites building code issues in closing off rooms

The Tropicana Las Vegas closed a number of rooms in its Paradise Tower Thursday after the resort learned through inspections that “certain historical renovations” were not up to building code.

23 April 2009

By Amanda Finnegan

Fontainebleau files $3 billion suit over funding

Fontainebleau Las Vegas today filed a $3 billion lawsuit against a group of bank lenders, saying the banks reneged on their commitments to provide funding for the resort in a "baseless attempt to walk away from the project."

23 April 2009

By Liz Benston

Atlantic City casinos cut back on freebies amid revenue slump

With casinos across the country taking in less money because of the recession, many are also handing out less freebies to gamblers. In Atlantic City, the nation's second-largest gambling market, casinos made a 12.4 percent cut in March on the free hotel rooms, meals and show tickets they handed out to keep gamblers coming back.

23 April 2009

Associated Press

Construction company alleges IGT owes $1.475 million

A dispute over construction costs for IGT's new Las Vegas campus has resulted in the filing of a lawsuit against the slot machine maker.

23 April 2009

By Las Vegas Sun Staff

Tropicana sues Comedy Stop owner over rent

The Tropicana hotel-casino is suing the owner of the Comedy Stop, the long-running but now-canceled production at the property on the Las Vegas Strip.

23 April 2009

By Steve Green

Lender alleges Greek Isles casino was mismanaged

The 202-room Greek Isles is shown April 23, 2009, on Convention Center Drive near Las Vegas Boulevard. Ownership of the property that opened as the Royal Inn in 1970 has changed hands often over the years. It has operated as the Clarion since 2009.

A lender is charging in newly filed court papers that one of the owners has multiple felony convictions and the Greek Isles hotel-casino in Las Vegas was mismanaged prior to a lender seizing control of the property in March. Canpartners Realty Holding Co. IV LLC made those allegations in a motion filed Wednesday in Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, where a group of creditors on April 6 filed an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition against the investment group that had controlled the Greek Isles.