The director of Wynn and Encore’s race and sports operations visited his first racetrack at age 5, bet with a bookmaker as a teen and played team sports through college. Johnny Avello welcomes the beginning of football season — which accounts for more than 60 percent of race and sports bets on the Strip — like the beginning of the holiday season.
Deteriorating financial results at the Planet Hollywood casino resort have forced the property to negotiate with lenders to stay afloat – raising the possibility that the property will file for bankruptcy protection as an alternative to reorganizing debts out of court.
The media have focused on penny slots as an increasingly popular form of entertainment for newly budget-conscious players. The image of pennies supplanting quarters and dollars resonates in this economy, but, in fact, penny slots represent a technological transformation that began years before the recession and continues, though at a slower pace as casinos can less afford to replace older slot machines.
Major lenders, with best collateral, appear likely to end up on top
Friday, Sept. 11, 2009
Capitalizing on super-low interest rates and a frenzy for Las Vegas real estate, Station Casinos went private in 2007 by accumulating more than $5 billion in debt. It wasn’t a simple process.
International marketer hired to work with travel planners in other nations
Monday, Sept. 7, 2009
To plan its Garden of the Gods pool area, which opened last week at Caesars Palace, designers for Harrah’s Entertainment plotted the precise movement of the sun to create enough shade to satisfy customers, particularly from Asia, who prefer not to tan.
Amid a slew of little-noticed gaming bills, the Legislature this year passed a law enabling the Nevada Gaming Commission to draft regulations requiring licensing of third parties, including contractors, who have significant roles in building gambling devices for use in Nevada.
Las Vegas’ luxury hotels are using bargains to lure tightfisted tourists. But could the strategy hurt them in the long run?
Monday, Aug. 24, 2009
Rob Kronman, who works in finance in Los Angeles, would have been willing to pay at least twice what he spent for two nights at the Encore last week. Thanks to a heated price war in Las Vegas, Kronman snagged a suite at the Encore for $109 per night, with a $50 credit toward resort purchases. “I’ve stayed at the Hilton and Monte Carlo but this was a whole level above,” he said. “It was an extraordinary stay in what was probably a $400 room.”
While Nevada officials pass on an opportunity to pursue Internet gambling for state residents, gambling interests in California, the nation’s most populous state and one of the world’s largest regional economies, are pushing legislation to allow online wagering in that state. California’s efforts, made possible by a loophole in federal law, come as the federal government begins a comprehensive crackdown on offshore Web casinos by taking down the middlemen who pay gamblers from American bank accounts.
The troubled Fontainebleau resort — which may not be worth more than the debt accumulated to build the project — is likely to change hands in bankruptcy.
At the heart of a casino’s marketing machine lies its players club, which uses swipe cards to track gamblers’ play as they rack up points to redeem for meals, hotel stays, merchandise and even cash. Casino insiders are raiding gamblers’ loyalty points.
With some gamblers feeling misled, regulators seek to set casinos straight
Monday, Aug. 17, 2009
Amid crumbling profits, Las Vegas casinos are marketing aggressively with freebies, gambling discounts, contests and special events. Among them are inaccurately advertised payouts, gambling promotions available only to more profitable customers and comped hotel stays with hidden costs.
Buyers of CityCenter condos, grumbling about the drop in real estate values and other concerns, say MGM Mirage officials who were previously reluctant to discuss the issues are now reaching out to them. Buyers say they hope the talks lead to price reductions on existing sales contracts, which is their primary goal. MGM Mirage officials, worried that some buyers will not want to close on their units, are also inviting customers to discuss their concerns about construction problems uncovered at CityCenter in recent months.
Former employees of the beleaguered Prive nightclub have spilled juicy stories of how management condoned drug use, allowed pimps into the club and entertained VIPs with drugs and strippers in a backroom called “Table 69.” One major reason why they’re talking: They’re unhappy with how the club handles the distribution of workers’ tips. Tips are a sensitive subject on the Strip: Witness the dispute between dealers and Wynn Las Vegas over the casino’s decision to have dealers share tips with their immediate supervisors.
Three retired executives discuss lessons learned, regrets and the future of their struggling industry
Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009
Imagine that you’re a retired gaming executive and you’re watching the industry crash all around you, in the biggest recession in the modern casino era. You take a deep breath, counting your lucky stars you’re retired but wondering: What could I have done differently? What would I do now? The Sun invited three former casino executives to sit down for a Sunday Conversation, to candidly reflect, with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, about the gaming industry — then, now and in the future.
In letter to regulators, tipster detailed drug use, underage drinking at Planet Hollywood venue
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
As a result of the unprecedented enforcement action against Planet Hollywood for allowing a nightclub to run wild, contracts between hotels and their nightclubs are now being rewritten to give the hotels greater authority to lay down the law with nightclub managers.
Regulators take a tougher stance against Planet Hollywood than in past
Monday, July 27, 2009
When posh nightclubs became a big profit center for casinos a few years ago, many wondered how far gaming regulators would go to police activity — where a combustible mix of free-flowing booze and scantily clad patrons create potential, even inevitable, problems. Regulators have a broad mandate to impose fines and revoke the licenses of casinos whose activities are “inimical to the public health, safety, morals, good order and general welfare” or bring “discredit” to the state or gaming industry.
Gaming Commission approves $500,000 fine against resort
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The Clark County Department of Business License has denied the liquor license applications for the Prive and Living Room clubs at Planet Hollywood, forcing the clubs to cease operations when their temporary licenses expire next week.
Guest experience to start with ride to 23rd-floor ‘sky lobby,’ greeting by name
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Employees at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, which opens Dec. 4 at CityCenter, are not allowed to point. They must escort guests to their destination rather than simply signaling or telling them how to get there. This small detail is one of many that Mandarin Oriental executives hope will set a new standard for service in Las Vegas. Customers who walk into the receiving lobby off the Strip will be escorted to the main lobby on the 23rd floor, where they will be greeted by name.
What’s worked, what hasn’t for the still-young, family-run casino on the edge of town
Monday, July 20, 2009
Many Las Vegas casinos have lengthy customer lists built up over years in the business, as well as a fine-tuned sense, after years of trial and error, of what customers want. Not the M Resort, which opened March 1, in the worst economy in the modern casino era. In its first few months of operation, the M, at the southeast corner of St. Rose Parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard, saw revenue soar as thousands of customers took in the property, hailing its modern yet comfortable design and reasonably priced gourmet restaurants.
Nearly three years after Steve Wynn implemented a policy requiring that dealers share tips with their immediate supervisors, what he thought would be a short-lived skirmish has turned into an all-out war.
More than two years ago, executives at Harrah’s Entertainment made a momentous decision: They wouldn’t tear down any of their Las Vegas casinos to build new ones.
Taking companies private ballooned debt, led to layoffs, but the moves have defenders
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Private equity firms made offers to acquire Harrah’s Entertainment and Station Casinos in 2006 and early 2007, when capital was cheap and business was booming.
Drivers can pursue federal claims, but may find that road dead-ends
Monday, July 6, 2009
Nevada’s minimum wage increased this month, entitling workers to receive at least $5.85 per hour, or $7.55 for workers whose employers don’t offer health insurance plans that qualify under state law. That is, unless you drive a limo or taxi.
When business was booming, people like Michael Paladino — who assess bankruptcy risk — were little seen or heard. In the recession, Paladino, the lead gaming analyst for bond rating agency Fitch Ratings in New York, is making headlines with his assessments of the casino industry’s cash crunch.
Herbst’s gamble to win visitors with deep discounts keeps Primm hotels hopping, money coming in
Thursday, July 2, 2009
On a recent Monday afternoon, Buffalo Bill’s — a Western-themed casino about 45 miles from the Strip at the California border — offers a glimpse of Las Vegas’ past. The place is hopping. A line to sign up for the players club snakes through the casino and toward the lobby. Nearby, people in shorts and flip-flops play slowly, pausing to gulp sodas and take in the crowd. In the food court, families and young couples take up most of the available seats, eating on the cheap amid kiddie rides and arcade games.
What might seem like a bargain often comes with rules that increase the house’s edge
Monday, June 29, 2009
You’ve seen bargain-basement hotel rates and coupons for meals, show tickets and retail purchases — even volume discounts on bottle service in nightclubs and lounges.
When Fontainebleau’s lenders pulled $600 million-plus in prearranged financing to finish the project, it exposed the strategy of how big resorts are built — quickly and with a wink between owners and lenders that more money probably will be needed.
MGM Mirage announced in a Securities and Exchange filing today that there is no longer "substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern" after recent efforts to negotiate with lenders and trim the company's massive debts.
Rest of bricks-and-mortar industry is divided on issue of legalization
Monday, June 22, 2009
For a time, big American casinos were making noises about wanting to expand gambling in cyberspace, as a way to extend their brands. And why not? The evidence was that Internet gambling sites actually boosted business for bricks-and-mortar casinos, especially poker rooms. The Internet had nurtured a whole generation of new poker players who wanted to prove their competitive skills at real tables where they could win fame and fortune.
Workers’ raises spread out over rest of contract term; union wins on other issues
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Sympathetic to recession-reeling Strip casinos, the Culinary Union has agreed to postpone by one year a wage increase that was supposed to take effect June 1.
When Station Casinos last year reported that top executives exercised more than $200 million in stock options triggered by a $9 billion management-led buyout by a private investment company in late 2007, critics attacked the lavish rewards, which made Station bosses the highest paid local executives in 2008.
Little agreement on how feds’ multimillion-dollar seizure will shake out
Monday, June 15, 2009
The government’s seizure of millions of dollars from bank accounts used to process online poker transactions is sending shock waves through the Internet gambling community. But insiders disagree on how the action by the Justice Department will affect a controversial activity with millions of American participants.
Club Fortune winning business by seeking input, giving back
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Club Fortune Casino doesn’t have a movie theater, nightclub or even a hotel. But it does have loyal customers like Jeanine Harris, who is among a number of locals who amid the downturn have converted to the locals joint from bigger, suburban casinos. “The food’s good and I like the slots and video poker,” Harris, 48, said. “It’s more laid-back here and everybody knows you.” While many suburban casinos struggle to keep their regulars coming back as they cut back on gambling promotions and staff, Club Fortune, a nondescript casino near Boulder Highway, is moving in the opposite direction and winning new customers.
Company needs cash — and a leader — at a most difficult time
Monday, June 8, 2009
When the ambitious Fontainebleau was announced in 2005, the 4,000-room resort project, which might have been an icon unto itself in another city, joined a crowded field of megaresorts in planning or under way on the Strip. With tourism booming, few questioned the resort’s prospects. The resort’s location at the north end of the Strip was no longer seen as a hindrance given the opening of Wynn Las Vegas at the site of the former Desert Inn and what would soon become the Encore and Palazzo nearby.
Baccarat play — the game of choice for the biggest gamblers — is down on the Strip, and casinos have raised cash reserves to offset the losses they incur when big gamblers don’t pay their debts.
MGM Mirage isn’t budging, though some buyers may walk away
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Buyers of CityCenter condos are urging the project’s managing partner, MGM Mirage, to lower prices on the units by 30 percent to 50 percent to better reflect the valley’s sagging condo market. MGM Mirage is balking at the idea — at least for now. Some buyers — many of them signed purchase contracts more than two years ago — are bracing for an uncomfortable confrontation with the company late this year.
With a wide-ranging career as a corporate attorney, Nevada gaming regulator and gaming attorney in private practice, Mark Clayton has an industry perspective few can match. Clayton joined Lionel Sawyer & Collins in January after four years as a member of the Gaming Control Board.
MGM Mirage has signed an agreement with the developers of a $4 billion luxury resort in Dubai to manage MGM Mirage-branded hotels there. In a press release Tuesday, Pearl Dubai FZ said it will own and finance a 250-room Bellagio hotel, 350-room MGM Grand hotel and a 30-suite Skylofts hotel. MGM Mirage would run the hotels. No timetable was given for the hotels or Dubai Pearl.
If the state’s economic engine is a microcosm of the spending habits of American consumers, improvements in the national economy should be reflected in crowds — or at least receipts — on the Las Vegas Strip.
In an amended lawsuit filed Tuesday, developers of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort allege that Deutsche Bank conspired to hurt Fontainebleau to minimize competition with the Cosmopolitan, an under-construction resort the bank acquired out of foreclosure last year.
She requested the analysis of casinos, later was fired
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
During the 25 years she worked as a Caesars Palace dealer, Terrie Price was one of a few vocal anti-smoking dissenters among thousands of largely silent casino workers. Price believes her efforts cost her that job.
Higher occupancy rate gives MGM Mirage confidence to increase prices for summer
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Strip’s largest casino operator last week reported an uptick in room bookings and fewer convention cancellations. MGM Mirage executives said demand for the company’s hotel rooms is high enough to warrant an increase in room rates, which have plummeted during the downturn. Raising rates in the coming weeks will help profit margins and could lead to a minor business rebound in 2010, they said.
As giants cut full-timers, MGM Mirage boosts corps of part-timers
Monday, May 11, 2009
Many Las Vegas gaming companies have laid off workers or reduced hours to trim their operating budgets. Although companies have been reluctant to quantify such changes, recently issued annual reports shed some light on what has happened to the gaming workforce during this downturn.
Dealers display ill effects of secondhand smoke in long-awaited results
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Las Vegas casino dealers are exposed to a host of harmful chemicals through secondhand smoke while on the job, according to a new National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study. The study, the first to examine the effects of secondhand smoke in Las Vegas casinos, reported that the dealers had traces of a tobacco-specific carcinogen in their urine.
After engineering last week’s rescue of CityCenter from the brink of bankruptcy, the urban planning major who created the concept for the resort complex — and has shouldered the blame for the way it has imperiled MGM Mirage — defended the company’s investment in the $8.5 billion project. MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren said in an interview that CityCenter’s critics, including competitors, “just don’t get it” and will be proven wrong when it attracts new visitors to Las Vegas.
A proposal to allow institutional investors to own up to 25 percent of a Nevada gaming company without undergoing background checks is aimed at encouraging investment.
MGM Mirage today filed a shelf registration to issue stock, which gives the company permission to sell an undetermined number of shares at any point over the next two years.
Eight banks, five different time zones, three languages and, later, $1.8 billion in financing
Friday, May 1, 2009
MGM Mirage executives said Thursday that the deal struck this week to finance completion of CityCenter marks a turning point for the company, which has been pushed to the edge of bankruptcy by the recession. The deal was the result of a months-long effort to persuade eight banks — across four time zones, with representatives speaking at least three languages — to immediately risk $1.8 billion on the massive project, which had been in serious doubt. “This has been a 24-7 job involving conference calls at three in the morning,” MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren said Thursday.