July 2006 Blog Archive
July 29, 2006
A guy from California is trying to sue MGM-Mirage for "preying upon him and taking advantage of his gambling addiction." Over the course of several years, Shibley Horaney of Long Beach says that MGM induced him to lose more than $5 million and he couldn't control himself. Its important to note that this lawsuit was filed after MGM sued him for the $475K he owes them.
This is yet one more example of the total lack of personal responsibility in America today. Everyone wants freedom to do whatever the hell they want but any of the consequences of their actions are someone else's fault and they need to be sued. I told anyone who would listen (and most didn't) that when it became ok to sue Philip Morris for smoking related illness, that the flood gates would be opened and no industry would be safe. Now a decade later, McDonald's is responsible for every fat guy who eats 3 Big Macs a day and now MGM is somehow guilty for offering a free room to some total loser with no self control. If this guy gets 1 cent, it would be a travesty and yet another sign of the troubles this country is facing.
July 25, 2006
It was announced today that Boyd Gaming is selling South Coast Casino to Michael Gaughan less than a year after it opened. The place apparently has been struggling to build a customer based and Boyd didn't want to wait around for the surround area to finally develop. Gaughan is the former CEO of Coast Casinos prior to the merger with Boyd and wanted to get back to day to day operations of a casino.
I am torn as to whether this is good or bad news for the average gambling schmoe. On one hand, Gaughan instituted some policies that were less than gambler friendly in the years before the Boyd buyout. He severely reduced video poker pay tables and cut back on comps to those who were playing good games. On the flip side, I am all for anyone owning a major casino in Vegas who isn't part of the Big 6 (see July 22 post) cartel. Anything that will increase competition is good for the player. I was hoping that the mergers of Harrah's/Caesars and MGM/Mandalay would have resulted in a few more places being sold off but that has yet to happen. The rumors of Harrah's selling Rio has persisted for some time and may yet still occur based on how much cash they will need to complete their grand plans for the center strip, whatever that may entail.
July 22, 2006
The "Big 6" gaming companies (Boyd, Harrah's, LV Sands, MGM Mirage, Station and Wynn) will be reporting their 2nd quarter earnings next week. The analysts expect them to net a profit of $550 million on revenues of $6.2 billion! Not all of it is from Las Vegas but it still is an amazing amount of money for 3 months. It just goes to show that the old saying "Vegas wasn't built on winners" is certainly true.
A few more interesting tidbits from the article; Wynn has 1 hotel with $286 million in revenue while Station has 11 casinos and had revenue of $340 million. I guess Wynn is pulling in a little more cash each day than Texas Station! They also noticed that the main area of weakness, if any, is with the Vegas local's market largely because home equity party is coming to end in LV.
July 20, 2006
The Las Vegas Monorail reported yesterday that ridership has plummeted 30% in the first half of 2006 compared to 2005. The fact that they almost doubled the fare couldn't have anything to do with that, could it? I don't understand have you can raise fares when there was already weak demand? It simply defies basic economics. To be fair, the increase did manage to offset the lost passengers as revenues did increase slightly.
Here is my take on the Las Vegas monorail. It is the greatest thing in the world, if... you are at a casino with a station and going to one with a station. When I stay at the IP next week, I fully plan on using it to go ride Speed at the Sahara. Unfortunately, it serves zero purpose if you are at Luxor and going to Wynn. The bottom line is, the only way the thing ever makes money is if they extend it to the airport. Otherwise, its usefulness is limited.
July 16, 2006
Nevada has never exactly been known as a bastion of honest politics and over the years there has been some amazing tales involving everything from taking bribes to soliciting whores but the events of the past week must take the cake even for Nevada. Last weekend; Kathy Augustine, the state controller was found unconscious in her bed. She was rushed to the hospital where she remained in a coma for 3 days before passing away, her death ruled a massive heart attack. It originally seemed like a tragic end to a sad story.
Ms. Augustine was the only state-wide official ever impeached in Nevada. As controller, she was accused of using public time and money to run her campaign. She was found guilty of 1 of the charges but refused to step down. In the end, the legislature decide only to reprimand her instead of removing her from office. Due to term limits, she was running for state treasurer this year and hoped a victory would vindicate her. That unfortunately would never get a chance to happen.
In a shocking turn of events; her husband, Chaz Higgs, attempted to commit suicide 2 days after her death. Digging deeper into their marriage uncovering some suspicious things. Higgs is a critical care nurse who met Augustine while her previous husband was hospitalized with a stroke. As the previous husband seemed to be recovering, he unexpectedly passed away in the hospital. Higgs and Augustine were married 3 weeks later. Neighbors and friends say the marriage was in trouble and she talked about leaving him and there was often fighting coming from there house. Then a seemingly healthy woman suddenly dies of a coronary. It wouldn't be the first time that has happened in history but something doesn't smell right to me. If it is what it looks like, Nevada politics has taken bizarre to a whole new level.
July 15, 2006
More news today on the giant implosion that is the Las Vegas high rise market. Vegas 888, a 50 story tower located next to the Palms is the latest project to go into the tank. It has closed its sales offices and the site is reported to be for sale. Another project, Spanish View Tower in the southwest part of town has "temporarily" stopped construction. The developer claims it is just for a week until new financing comes through. I am certainly not a developer but it seems shaky to me when a construction site needs to shut down because there isn't enough cash to run for a week. I won't be holding my breathe waiting for this one to be completed.
July 11, 2006
In today's Las Vegas Review-Journal, there was an article about the escalating costs of high rise condo projects and how this is the reason why so many projects are in trouble. What I found amazing though was the sheer number of condos that are on the drawing board: 135 projects, totaling almost 92,000 units! This includes the 10,000 which already have gone in the toilet at places like Ivana Vegas and George Clooney's Las Ramblas. That still leaves over 80,000 condos. Who the hell is going to buy these places, especially at the prices that are now required to get them built?!?! I think the projects that offer the condo/hotel concept stand the best chance at actually being built while my guess is in the coming months we will witness a deluge of failed high rise towers. With that said, I am still kicking myself in the shorts for passing up the opportunity to buy in the first MGM Residences tower when 1BDs were going for $500k. They now sell for over $750k!
July 6, 2006
Yesterday, there was another shoot out on the strip. This time it was between some moron and the LV Metro PD. Apparently, the guy decided to stop his car in the middle of the Flamingo & LV Blvd. intersection and block traffic. When he was approached by bicycle officers, he became "belligerent and hostile" then tried to drive away with a bike cop hanging on the car. He crashed into a pole in front of the Barbary Coast then threw it in reverse towards another cop, who put a bullet in his head. This is the 18th person shot by Vegas cops this year, the 8th to die. The bottom line is... Don't f**k with the LVMPD!
To prove this point, as I am typing this, news is breaking about the Vegas cops putting a round into a guy brandishing a gun at a Mervyn's store at Charleston and Nellis. He is expected to live.
July 3, 2006
July 3rd is the one year anniversary of LVCasinoInfo.com! It's been a great year with a lot of new content and traffic growing every month. In just one year, the site served 580,000 pages; 2,188,000 hits from 174,000 visits and transferred over 55GBs of data. Thank you to everyone who has used LVCasinoInfo.com, I truly appreciate every visit. Check back often over the next year for even more new features and info about the greatest city on Earth, Las Vegas!
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