Reliance on budget-conscious customers drives down profits
Friday, May 23, 2008
Herbst Gaming reached an agreement with lenders this month that buys the company more time to work out a deal with them and potentially avoid bankruptcy court despite the company’s worsening finances.
Condo-hotels are having a tough time on the Strip. The market has chilled, buyers are largely evaporating, banks are reluctant to finance the purchases or lend money for new projects because of slackening demand, and developers are questioning the wisdom of the condo hotel concept.
Study suggests layoffs at casinos were overreaction
Monday, May 19, 2008
In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Strip casinos laid off more than 10,000 workers, delayed expansions and scaled back construction jobs.
For all the stories I’ve written about CityCenter, the largest construction project in the country, nothing could have prepared me for the experience of standing in the middle of it this week.
Gaming companies are cutting other costs first, predicting fast rebound
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, thousands of hourly Strip workers were laid off as tourists stayed home. In the current economic downturn, casino companies are moving more cautiously. But workers worry the shoe is still going to drop.
With operations concentrated here, its fate closely tied to local economy
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Station Casinos has historically reaped impressive gains by putting most of its eggs in one basket: Las Vegas. But the housing slump appears to be hurting Station more than companies that own casinos outside of the Vegas.
MGM Mirage is investing beyond the $8 billion it’s paying to build CityCenter
Monday, May 12, 2008
Even as gamblers, shoppers and diners are clutching to their dollars and Las Vegas reels from the worst economic slowdown since Sept. 11, MGM Mirage is spending billions of dollars on itself.
While some Las Vegas condos are in foreclosure as buyers walk away from purchase contracts, MGM Mirage — defending a lawsuit filed by unhappy Signature condo-hotel owners — says no buyers have canceled purchases at CityCenter despite the housing slump.
New way of controlling machines forces competitors to cooperate
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
As steel girders and shimmering glass define the exterior of the rising CityCenter, slot machine engineers and computer techies behind the scene are trying to figure out how to wire the casino of the future. Their new slot machines will behave like a network of personal computers with high-speed Internet access, linked to a computer server in a back office that will give players and the house alike unprecedented control over the slots.
A new crop of gambling machines has arrived in town — stacked on a countertop at the Venetian like so many GameBoys or the buzzers that a restaurant hostess uses to let you know when your table is ready.
At a time when businesses across the country are cutting back in the face of economic turmoil, the brothers at the helm of Station Casinos are accelerating plans for an enormous Las Vegas resort larger than CityCenter.
Several dozen Turnberry Place residents in the 120-unit luxury condominium tower are selling their units because they don’t want to look at the parking garage of the under-construction Fontainebleau Las Vegas high-rise resort next door.
Sheldon Adelson plies his charm, but can’t suppress combative streak
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Sheldon Adelson was forced into public view this week, providing a courtroom glimpse of the casino tycoon not offered in any annual report or official biography. Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., viewed by his industry brethren as a ruthless, combative iconoclast, used the opportunity to cut a sympathetic, almost folksy portrait of himself.
Adelson defending the license approval process against claim on profit
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The biggest players in the gaming business have long wondered exactly how Sheldon Adelson’s company won one of three lucrative casino licenses in 2002 to operate in Macau. It was the deal of a lifetime — one that made Adelson one of the world’s richest men and spawned an Asian gaming frontier richer than the Las Vegas Strip and evolving to adult size in one-tenth the time.
MGM Mirage official says job cuts are a planned part of corporate restructure
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
MGM Mirage sought to quell fears Tuesday that it is slumping badly in the economic downturn, saying the layoffs it announced this week had little to do with declining business.
Troubled resort to pay $165 million to avoid eviction, prove itself over three years
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Tropicana’s sister resort at Lake Tahoe, facing eviction for subpar performance, has agreed to pay $165 million to the landowner for permission to stay put for another three years.
Board mercifully tells gas station owners to try again for full status
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Successful businesspeople Chet and Karla Cox tried to take their mom-and-pop business to the next level by getting a Nevada gaming license. They didn’t foresee what they were walking into — and they got beat up.
One of the big names on the Strip is staking yet another marker for itself, this time at the site where Ivana Trump wanted to build a condo tower, at the northeast corner of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard.
Down $50 million, company would want to recoup money
Friday, March 28, 2008
If you missed out on last year’s $1.2 billion sale of the New Frontier, now is your chance to snap up 27 acres of land just south of the Sahara — one of only two major Strip-facing parcels listed for sale. But it’s going to cost you — a lot.
Henderson physician has the knowledge of, but not the ties to, Nevada’s casino industry
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The newest member of the Nevada Gaming Commission is a local physician and prominent Republican with political connections to Gov. Jim Gibbons and other power players.
Movie portrays team bringing down the house, but it's casinos that ultimately win in real life
Sunday, March 23, 2008
“Beat the Dealer” did it nearly a half century ago. So have other books and TV shows since. And now this week’s release of “21” — a movie about a team of MIT students who used their blackjack card-counting strategies to win millions — might once again draw countless wannabes to Las Vegas who are convinced they’ve got what it takes to bring down the house.
Under new president, company expected to evaluate properties, maybe ditch some
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Over the past year, the owner of the Tropicana casinos has alienated regulators and politicians, upset lenders and agitated labor unions and employees. But the appointment of the new president of Tropicana Entertainment could help patch up those relationships.
Wall Street lending troubles and increasing construction costs have so far derailed the Tropicana hotel expansion, which was seen as too ambitious even before the market decline, and the possible Riviera redevelopment, which already was doubtful because of infighting among large shareholders.
New book captures humanity and brilliance of megamoguls
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Wall Street Journal reporter Christine Binkley’s just-published book, “Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman and the Race to Own Las Vegas,” is yet another sign that the gaming business has arrived.
In New York, developers commonly shoehorn buildings into odd places, erecting them atop or in front of existing structures. Las Vegas is cultivating its own shoehorn specialist in Las Vegas Sands, which continues building its casino empire on the Strip even though it has only a few acres of land.
Experts say they should have monitored the ‘avalanche of money’ flowing through clubs
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Casino companies should have known about the huge amounts of cash washing through nightclubs on their properties long before the Internal Revenue Service began investigations of two of Las Vegas’ most popular clubs, say former gaming executives and others familiar with the industry.
These are tough times for Herbst Gaming. A smoking ban in slot bars has lost them revenue from customers who now must step outside for a smoke. Worse, the company's three casinos in Primm have suffered as gasoline prices have risen.
IRS raids on Pure, LAX send shivers through club, casino industries
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008
The burgeoning nightclub scene has brought a new kind of money to Las Vegas — and an old kind of trouble. The scene is awash in cash to an extent reminiscent of Las Vegas’ early days.
Casino has to post notice on right to organize, but ex-worker gets zip
Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008
Wynn Las Vegas recently posted a notice acknowledging it can’t threaten workers with discharge if they go on strike, it can’t discipline workers for engaging in legal union organizing activities and it may not threaten employees by saying it is futile to join a union.
Seminoles shun Vegas project for opportunities in Sunshine State
Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008
The Seminole Tribe, which operates seven casinos in Florida and purchased the Hard Rock restaurant chain in 2006 for nearly $1 billion, has become the envy of Las Vegas casino operators.
Small groups are held dear by Las Vegas hotels because they keep the town afloat much of the year, filling midweek gaps between the big shows and the hordes of weekend tourists.
Because of the souring economy, the media seem to be latching on as never before to reports of layoffs, including along the Strip. But seasonal dips in business in Las Vegas is one nuance being missed.
A casino mogul expects to start cashing in soon on the long trip between Macau and Las Vegas
Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008
Sheldon Adelson’s newest tactic to rake in gambling revenue — by ferrying high rollers between his Venetian resorts in Macau and Las Vegas and breaking out the baccarat tables at 30,000 feet — raises the question: Why hasn’t someone else already done it?
Law from bygone era is meant to fight illegal betting
Monday, Feb. 18, 2008
Though many customers think the cell phone ban is an annoyance, some casinos entrusted with enforcing it see it as a bigger problem and are pressing for the change.
Some projects on lists promoting Vegas might get built later — or never
Saturday, Feb. 16, 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.
Undercover probe is under way of operations in Las Vegas, Laughlin
Friday, Feb. 8, 2008
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.
L.A. legal shop will help projects get green A-OKs — and save
Friday, Feb. 8, 2008
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.
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.
The Strip has come a long way in getting people to spend
Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008
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.
Owner fires back: The union is trying to ‘roast the property’ by making calls to the police and running up negative statistics
Friday, Feb. 1, 2008
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.
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.
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.
Despite bad omens, it might come down to gambling’s eternal lure, in good times and bad
Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008
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.