Gaming

How many new rooms? Let’s just say, a lot

The $1.9 billion Palazzo, at left, opened in December 2007, boasting 3,068 rooms. The resort is shown here in February 2008.

Before the financial markets sputtered and the economy soured, the folks paid to promote Las Vegas boasted that within a few years, more than 40,000 new hotel rooms would sprout on the horizon. But a Strip executive doubts even half that many will be built.

16 February 2008
By Liz Benston

Jeff Simpson takes a look at the intense and pricey battle for casino licenses in some other states and across the ocean

Battles for limited casino licenses are high-stakes propositions.

10 February 2008
By Jeff Simpson

Jon Ralston reads between the ‘pay to the order of’ lines to see which is really the dominant party in this state

The gaming industry has a significant ownership stake in both major Nevada political parties, the GOP is a partially owned subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands Inc., and the Democrats are part of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s investment portfolio.

10 February 2008
By Jon Ralston

Owner of Tropicana is, in fact, being investigated

Criticism by the Culinary Union forced the Nevada Gaming Control Board to acknowledge it is investigating the owner of the Las Vegas Tropicana.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has boxed itself into a corner. Like some other enforcement agencies, the board sometimes confirms an investigation is under way, but won’t comment on its substance.

8 February 2008
By Liz Benston

‘Green’ building brings hotshot firm to Vegas

A high-profile Los Angeles law firm to movie studios, record companies and Kirk Kerkorian is opening a Las Vegas practice specializing in real estate, corporate law — and shepherding clients through the cumbersome but ultimately lucrative process of being declared environmentally friendly.

8 February 2008
By Liz Benston

Tenser and tenser as Trop and workers negotiate

Labor-management tensions at the Tropicana escalated Monday, with the Culinary Union calling on the corporate owners to publicly apologize for dismissing employees’ payroll and security concerns at the property.

5 February 2008
By Liz Benston,
Michael Mishak

Casinos and more casinos coming

In Southern Nevada it’s the gigantic casinos that get noticed first. North Las Vegas, however, hasn’t had many towering projects of the type that defines areas and provides directional beacons across the valley — until now.

4 February 2008
By Mike Trask

Retail renaissance

Barneys, the anchor retail tenant at the new Palazzo resort, covers almost 90,000 square feet. The New York department store has a reputation for edgy fashion and personalized service.

With more Strip customers these days preferring to spend their money on things other than gambling, there’s a new strategy. Casinos are pushing shopping and dining — and putting those activities front-and-center at the entrance to their resorts.

3 February 2008
By Liz Benston

Trop dragging down gaming, Culinary says

The Culinary has alleged to state gaming authorities that staff cuts at the Tropicana have caused in increase in crime, endangering workers and customers. The casino’s owner says the union is using the wrong numbers to make its case — and inflating those numbers. The union also has raised prostitution at the casino as an issue.

The Culinary Union has raised the stakes in its contract dispute with the Tropicana, asking state regulators to investigate whether cuts in security staff led to an increase in crime at the casino. The Culinary and Tropicana owner Columbia Sussex return to the bargaining table Monday.

1 February 2008
By Liz Benston,
Michael Mishak

Publicly held, Boyd out to stay that way

Of the big Las Vegas gaming companies, Boyd Gaming Corp. is the only one mostly owned by public shareholders. And nobody’s sure for how much longer.

1 February 2008
By Liz Benston

Lobbyist tells world gaming: You want tough regulation

The explosion of gambling revenue in the Chinese enclave of Macau has other countries in Asia coveting similar riches — while avoiding the downsides that have tarnished Macau in years past. Enter the man who thinks he has the answers: Frank Farenkopf, chief executive of the American Gaming Association.

31 January 2008
By Liz Benston

Downturn not showing up on Strip, brokerage says

It’s a bad time to be selling homes but not all bad if you’re the largest broker of Strip real estate. Folks at the Las Vegas-based gaming consulting and brokerage practice of C.B. Richard Ellis say there’s no evidence yet of land prices falling on the choice stretch of the boulevard.

30 January 2008
By Liz Benston

How Vegas could weather a recession

There may be no place more calculating, more confident and with more swagger than Las Vegas, a seemingly invincible boomtown built on the finely honed skill of talking people out of their money and offering them nothing tangible to take home.

27 January 2008
By Liz Benston,
Alexandra Berzon

Online bookies: Clinton going to the White House

The political pundits had all but written off Sen. Hillary Clinton when she pulled out a victory in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. Online bookies, meanwhile, have Clinton winning her party’s nomination as well as the presidential election. Though there’s plenty of evidence that betting action has been a more reliable indicator of results than polls, it’s possible Clinton’s popularity in the books is a fluke.

13 January 2008
By Liz Benston

How the payoffs on some proposition bets on this weekend’s games were set, and which are worth making

Dozens of propositions linked to this weekend’s NFL divisional playoff games are listed on the betting board at the Las Vegas Hilton sports book. Let’s examine the first one, involving today’s New England Patriots-Jacksonville Jaguars game.

12 January 2008
By Jeff Haney
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