Liz Benston
Story Archive
- Station bears brunt of locals market slump
- Reliance on Vegas customers, cannibalizing of its own customers and increased competition are cited as factors in profit falloff
- Monday, Aug. 25, 2008
- Gaming companies and especially locals casinos, with their hard-core gamblers, were once thought to be resistant to economic downturns.
- Small casinos keep it simple, friendly
- Formula aimed at regulars paying off — even in downturn
- Friday, Aug. 22, 2008
- With its mirrored ceiling, black acrylic walls and hot pink neon accent lighting, the Rainbow Club & Casino in downtown Henderson resembles a 1980s-era nightclub, only with modern slot machines.
- Tropicana buyer gambled big on ’06 buy, fell hard
- Credit crunch ruined intent to renovate Vegas property
- Monday, Aug. 18, 2008
- A year and a half after Bill Yung paid $2.8 billion for Aztar Corp. and its Tropicana casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, his casino company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and he was forced out of his job.
- No more ‘Wheel’-ing at 2 Harrah’s properties on Strip
- Monday, Aug. 18, 2008
- If you’ve been in Bally’s or the adjacent Paris casino recently, you may have noticed a conspicuous absence of “Wheel of Fortune” slot machines.
- Planet Hollywood narrows 2Q losses
- Friday, Aug. 15, 2008
- The $200 million-plus makeover of the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino last year helped the property narrow its losses in the second quarter.
- Losses widen at Herbst Gaming in 2Q
- Friday, Aug. 15, 2008
- Under the threat of bankruptcy, casino and slot machine operator Herbst Gaming today reported a loss of $62.3 million in the second quarter compared with a loss of $1.4 million a year ago. Revenue fell 5 percent to $214.2 million.
- Hooters turns profit in second quarter
- Friday, Aug. 15, 2008
- Cost cutting moves, including cutting staff in restaurants, helped shore up losses at the Hooters Casino Hotel, where performance has suffered as the company's brand has fizzled with gamblers and business travelers.
- Station Casinos reports 2Q fall in revenue
- Monday, Aug. 11, 2008
- Station Casinos today reported worsening performance on the heels of declines reported by other casino operators in recent weeks, saying second quarter revenue fell 7 percent and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 11 percent.
- Fewer people paying Vegas a visit
- Monday, Aug. 11, 2008
- Visitor traffic in Las Vegas fell 3 percent in June compared with a year ago, while room rates across the valley fell 16 percent as the economic downturn took its toll, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported today.
- Echelon isn’t alone in not making the cut
- Timing of financing determines what’s built
- Monday, Aug. 11, 2008
- With work on Echelon grinding to a halt, people are wondering what project might be next.
- It’s on Las Vegas Boulevard, but M Resort aims mostly at locals
- Monday, Aug. 11, 2008
- M Resort developer Anthony Marnell III is trying to do things differently.
- Harrah's cites economy in revenue fall
- Friday, Aug. 8, 2008
- Harrah's Entertainment today reported a 4 percent decline in revenue and a 10 percent decline in property-level earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, joining competitors that have been hard hit by the economic downturn.
- As Strip scales up, some say goodbye
- Higher prices, tighter comps repel low rollers
- Friday, Aug. 8, 2008
- Trey Rusk used to travel to Las Vegas four times a year to play the slots. That was until about two years ago, when he and his wife decided that the city was no longer their kind of scene.
- Riviera CEO: 2Q a 'perfect storm'
- Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008
Riviera Holdings Corp., which owns the Riviera casinos in Las Vegas and Colorado, reported a 15 percent decline in revenue and a 33 percent decline in operating earnings, before certain items, of 33 percent. Revenue fell, year over year, in every department.
- Tip-sharing cloud forming over Encore, Wynn critics say
- Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008
- For more than three decades, Steve Wynn has had a reputation as an inspiring casino boss who publicly praises his employees and assures them that a single job well done can “change the course of the whole enterprise.”
- Moody's downgrades Black Gaming bonds
- Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008
- Today, bond rating agency Moody's Investors Service downgraded the bonds issued by Black Gaming, saying the company could face a default if worsening business trends continue
- MGM 2Q profit drops 69 percent
- Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008
- While the economic decline contributed to MGM Mirage’s 69 percent drop in net income and a 2 percent decline in revenue in the second quarter compared with a year ago, executives hardly betrayed any disappointment today during a conference call with investors.
- Settlement requires notification about lead-tainted casino chips
- Monday, Aug. 4, 2008
- Rarely does a company that is sued compliment the plaintiff on a deserved victory – especially if the company believes it has a solid defense. But that’s what happened last week when the Center for Environmental Health, a nonprofit that has sued numerous companies over lead content in consumer products, declared victory in a legal settlement with Gaming Partners International, the world’s largest manufacturer of casino chips.
- Wall Street’s happy now, but Boyd’s delay may prove costly
- Company likely will have to finance rest of project at higher rates
- Monday, Aug. 4, 2008
- When Boyd Gaming announced in January 2006 that it would build a multibillion-dollar resort complex called Echelon, Las Vegas’ tourism economy was riding high and banks were only too willing to lend money for major projects.
- Flailing economy cited in Boyd's decision to postpone further construction of Echelon project
- Friday, Aug. 1, 2008
- Boyd Gaming announced this morning it would delay its $4.8 billion Echelon resort on the Strip until the capital markets and the broader economy improves. The announcement triggered a 20 percent increase in the company’s shares.
- Gamblers to be warned of lead in Vegas company’s poker chips
- Friday, Aug. 1, 2008
- Poker chips manufactured by a Las Vegas company will be the focus of notices at 21 California card clubs starting Nov. 1 — and not for promotional purposes.
- Sands’ earnings report offers a little good, a little not so good
- Thursday, July 31, 2008
- At a time when gaming investors are hypersensitive, it’s hard to tell from the Las Vegas Sands’ earnings report, issued Wednesday, whether company profit in the second quarter was up or down.
- Persistence pays off for would-be dealer
- Gaming Commission overlooks probation, arrest record this time
- Wednesday, July 30, 2008
- The state’s top gaming regulators won’t soon forget Robert Hackett.
- End of ban on cell phones in sports books expected
- Tuesday, July 29, 2008
- The Gaming Control Board, which investigated the change and recommended the commission remove the ban, says the ban has grown ineffective in preventing the transfer of betting lines — information that’s readily available on the Internet — to illegal bookies.
- Gaming’s bond ratings reflect past, not future
- Experts say recent downgrading is unlikely to have much effect
- Monday, July 28, 2008
- A couple of weeks ago, major bond rating agencies downgraded credit issued by the major gaming companies, warning that the gambling business in Las Vegas is in trouble.
- Station, Boyd trade land moves
- Gaining control of potential building sites has been major part of locals casino giants’ strategies
- Saturday, July 26, 2008
- As Station Casinos and Boyd Gaming seek approval for neighboring casinos in North Las Vegas, they will continue one of the industry’s great rivalries.
- Station refines art of hiring en masse
- Casino company’s efforts apparent in Aliante search
- Thursday, July 24, 2008
- In this economy, an employment center is an unlikely place to find an upbeat group.
- MGM Mirage chief upbeat amid drumbeat of downturn
- Thursday, July 24, 2008
- MGM Mirage executives seem willing of late to go out on a limb, what with the company’s chief executive proposing a controversial increase in the business payroll tax to shore up the state budget.
- Dressing down: Web gambling’s hallmark
- UNLV study finds online betting areas thick with bullying, foul-mouthed players, repelling some, enticing others
- Wednesday, July 23, 2008
- The long-running debate over whether to legalize Internet gambling has usually focused on its potential to be more addictive than gambling in a casino.
- A new way of wagering
- Monday, July 21, 2008
- Imagine being able to lay a bet on a New England Patriots-Green Bay Packers game while eating at a casino buffet, instead of being stuck in a smoky sports book.
- New sports book chain stresses service
- Lucky’s will offer custom lines, made while customers wait
- Monday, July 21, 2008
- For many gamblers, placing a bet in a sports book doesn’t have the glamour of a blackjack game or the comfort level of a whirring slot machine.
- Why Cosmopolitan’s credit collapse accentuates positive in Strip outlook
- Interest of prominent buyers suggests long-term health
- Thursday, July 17, 2008
- The Cosmopolitan, which sits half-built in the middle of the Strip, has been held up as a symbol of Las Vegas’ doubtful future. But experienced hotel operators, including Hilton and Hyatt, are lining up to acquire it. Evidently, some investors still think Las Vegas is a good long-term bet.
- Wynn defies Wall Street ‘wisdom’
- Despite tough times, he keeps spending, thinking long term
- Tuesday, July 15, 2008
- Around the time MGM Mirage was trimming its management ranks and the tourism slowdown — only hinted at in research statistics and earnings reports — had become a hard fact in Las Vegas, competitor Steve Wynn was playing it cool.
- Banks, buyers loath to seal condo deals
- A few bright spots, but closing process slows overall
- Saturday, July 12, 2008
- Selling high-rise condominiums in this town and closing escrow on them are separate challenges in today’s economy, a Sun analysis has found. Of 2,558 units that opened escrow this year in projects of 50 or more units, 77 percent are still in escrow.
- Slot giants seek offshore expertise
- Bally, IGT say India has more qualified software engineers than U.S. does
- Thursday, July 10, 2008
- Las Vegas casino giants are eyeing big profits in Macau, the port city in China that has overtaken the Las Vegas Strip in gambling volume. And now local companies that make slot machines and related equipment for the world’s casinos are looking to yet another far-flung locale for talent.
- N.J. appeals court upholds Tropicana license revocation
- Ruling hailed by Nevada official, who says it could strengthen regulatory control
- Thursday, July 10, 2008
- Casino regulators across the country are breathing a sigh of relief after an appeals court in New Jersey affirmed a December decision by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission not to renew the gaming license for the operator of the Tropicana in Atlantic City.
- Survey: Gas prices deter Southern Californians
- Poll finds area’s gamblers cut back visits by one-third, betting by one-fifth
- Tuesday, July 8, 2008
- Southern California gamblers who regularly drive to Las Vegas have cut back their visits by a third because of record gas prices, and those who still come say they’ve cut their gambling back by 29 percent, a new poll has found.
- Deluge expected for jobs at new Station casino
- Aliante in North Las Vegas will have 1,000 openings and likely scads of applicants
- Tuesday, July 1, 2008
- Station Casinos will begin taking applications Sunday for more than 1,000 jobs at Aliante Station, the company’s 10th major property in town, which is scheduled to open in North Las Vegas Nov. 11. And applicants can line up in their pajamas.
- State takes hit from unpaid markers
- Friday, June 27, 2008
- Adding to the state’s tax woes: It hasn’t been able to collect gaming tax on $166 million in wagers — the amount bet in Nevada casinos with markers that have not been repaid by the gamblers.
- For Wynn dealers, deal slow to come
- Still no contract a year after union vote, but Rio counterparts undaunted
- Tuesday, June 24, 2008
- Resolving issues having to do with grievances and tip-sharing is testing the ability of the Transport Workers Union to flex its muscle at a time when it’s trying to organize more dealers, this time at the Rio.
- Lanni steps down from gaming lobby’s board
- Thursday, June 19, 2008
- MGM Mirage boss Terry Lanni has resigned from the board of the American Gaming Association, the federal lobby headed by Harrah’s Entertainment Chief Executive Gary Loveman. The two are at odds over a proposal by the Nevada teachers union to raise the state room tax.
- Uncowed casino exec sues ex-employer, wins
- MGM Mirage ordered to pay CFO it fired $4.5 million in wrongful termination case
- Wednesday, June 18, 2008
- Five years ago, a top casino executive was blamed for not spotting a criminal employee, and sent packing with a severance check.
- Gamblers’ cash provider sees upside
- Tuesday, June 17, 2008
- Global Cash Access, the world’s largest operator of ATMs in casinos and the largest provider of cash advances and check verification services for the gaming industry, is a bellwether of the gambling business, perhaps a truer one than gaming companies that also depend on nongaming revenue sources such as hotel rooms and entertainment.
- Lanni proposes payroll tax hike
- Tuesday, June 17, 2008
- The chief executive of Nevada’s largest employer Monday proposed doubling the state’s payroll tax to help the state close its ever-growing budget deficit.
- Station Casinos honchos hit the jackpot in ’07
- Monday, June 16, 2008
- Until the economy turned south, Las Vegas casino companies enjoyed a robust 2007, rewarding executives and leading a pair of brothers to a pot of gold at the end of their rainbow. Many executives, acting before gaming stocks plummeted, profited after selling hundreds of thousands of shares from exercised stock options and grants of stock. In a class of their own: Station Casinos Chief Executive Frank Fertitta, who in 2007 made $122.4 million in exercised options and vested stock.
- Having a smoke and playing, too
- Bars hit by tobacco ban sell device that satisfies cravings, complies with law
- Saturday, June 7, 2008
- Check out Sharon Cottrell’s cigarette.
It’s not, really. And it gets her around Nevada’s no-smoking laws. The thing she’s holding between her fingers and drawing to her mouth looks like a pen. - Bringing a taste of Vegas to Dubai
- Investor will bring hotel and nightclub expertise — but no casinos
- Friday, June 6, 2008
- His Excellency Mohammed Ali Al Hashimi — young, wealthy and ambitious — fits comfortably on the Vegas Strip. And that’s consistent with his role in Dubai’s striking emergence as a world-class resort destination.
- Orlando spikes Vegas rivalry with humor
- Thursday, June 5, 2008
- The Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau has come up with an advertising slogan that is drawing chuckles at Las Vegas’ expense.
- Big-picture thinkers weigh in on gaming’s fiscal outlook
- 3 analysts explain market dip, give it context
- Thursday, June 5, 2008
- With the increased cost of a tank of gasoline equivalent to the cost of a few cocktails, fewer tourists are driving to Las Vegas. With airlines cutting back flights to town, it will be harder to fill hotel rooms. And the Strip has grown posh, making it less attractive to the masses.
- Hey, neighbor, try our hotel
- As locals giant pitches rooms, some Strip casinos go after valley gamblers
- Saturday, May 31, 2008
- Locals who don’t necessarily gamble but enjoy a nice getaway are the new tourists in town. Travel experts have a name for it: staycations.