Las Vegas Blog December 2006

December 2006 Blog Archive

December 21, 2006

We just got back from another trip to the best city on the planet and it was another great time. We did something different this trip and split time between the strip and Henderson with 2 nights at Green Valley Ranch and 2 night in the Augustus Tower at Caesars. Both rooms were great but 2 very different experiences. GVR was laid back and mellow while Caesars was packed with long lines for everything. Since Caesars whacked all of their good games last month, we basically stiffed them on the gambling and played at the Palms while staying there. If Harrah's plans on giving me nothing but crappy games, I will not give them a shot at my money. Its very simple. See the November 18th blog for an extensive rant on this very topic.

GVR on the other hand has a sea of playable machines in virtually every flavor you could imagine. I ended up playing my ass off in the 48 hours I was there. No big hits, just enough to keep me playing. The food choices are great, the drink service was good and its just generally a very nice resort. It was our first stay here but it very well may be our home for the foreseeable future.

A large update will be posted shortly including 7 or 8 new property maps, pics of the GVR and Augustus Tower rooms as well as a complete trip report.

Comments, Compliments and Complaints

December 6, 2006

The private equity party continued this week with Station Casinos announcing that the founding Fertitta brothers were teaming up with Colony Capital to take the company private. Now that Harrah's and Station, 2 of the "big dogs" are going private the rest of the industry is coming under speculation. All of the major gaming stocks were up big on the news, particularly Boyd Gaming which owns of Stardust, the Coasts and several others.

I don't really know what this means for the average Vegas tourist or gambling schmoe. I don't think it changes much for Station since they still have to compete with the other locals places but the future is much less certain for Harrah's. With the stranglehold on the Strip that Harrah's and MGM have, I don't think this buyouts changes their miserly ways. However, the Motley Fool thinks if the Harrah's deal goes through (which they are skeptical) it will result in a company wide sell off which I think would be spectacular from my point of view. The Las Vegas Strip needs 10 different people owning casinos, not 2.

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