Dealers: 1, Steve Wynn: 0

Over the weekend the dealers at Wynn Las Vegas voted to unionize, by a fairly significant margin. (444-149)

Now this is just the first step in the organization process, as the Union still has a long way to go before it actually has a contract. Other Strip casinos have passed similar measures, but only one, the lowly Frontier, has actually had a Union contract put in place.

As we have written about previously, this issue stems from Wynn’s practice of including the floor supervisors (pit bosses) in the dealers tip pool, effectively taking money from the dealers, and giving it to their superiors.

Last week, Steve Wynn made a last ditch effort to plead his case to the dealers. Saying he made ‘a mistake’ when implementing the policy and urging a ‘no’ vote during a meeting with the dealers.

From that meeting:

"I did not realize the extent of the mistake I had made until yesterday," Wynn said, explaining his talk with a longtime employee who felt betrayed. "I was more focused on the right thing I did for the bosses, than the wrong thing I did to the dealers."

Fascinating audio of this impassioned speech can be found at TwoWayHardThree.com:
http://media.ratevegas.com/wynn_union_apology.mp3

It’s interesting to listen to Wynn, as he seems to apologize for the WAY he implemented the policy, if not for the policy itself. Now he was not allowed to make promises, due to the pending vote, but it wasn’t clear if he was insinuating that he’d revoke the tip-sharing policy if the union vote fell through or not.

Our extremely uneducated guess would be that this all falls apart during contract negotiations. These are dealers at arguable the nicest casino in the world, and apparently make quite a bit of money, even before the tip-sharing. Our guess is that the union might be able to get the tip-sharing reversed, but in the end, the dealers would be worse off than before the vote to unionize. Either way though, this will be good theater.

Steve Wynn + Labor Unrest = Huge Story. So we will follow this very closely, and are anxious to see what the atmosphere is like at Wynn Las Vegas during our stay there in July.


Wynn Dealers Vote to Unionize

Dealers of the World Unite!

Steve Wynn vs. His Own Dealers

VegasRy Friday Update:

No Gin and Tonic Hour this week, as we have been concentrating on the roll out of our brand new website, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are a few stories that have flown under the radar this week:

It's official, Tom Selleck and his mustache will be on NBC's Las Vegas.
-CNN

HBO CEO has resigned after assualting his girlfriend...Ya don't say.
-Washington Post

Jersey Boys will be the latest Broadway show to fail in Las Vegas...this one at the new Palazzo.
-San Diego Union-Tribune

Luxor bombing victim was dating two women. This plot is sure to thicken.
-Las Vegas Sun

This is a decent idea...the Luxor has it's own DING
-Luxor Beam (Via VegasTripping.com)

Harrah's earnings up, miss expectations. Harrah's is in the process of being taken private, and with Casinos all over the country, not Vegas-centric enough to be of much interest.
-Las Vegas Review-Journal

VegasRy Stock Watch: Q1 Results

Losers: MGM, LVS
Winner: Wynn

The 3 major Strip Casino operators recently reported their first quarter earnings, and here is our amateur stock analyst take. While it might not be totally accurate given the massive construction projects undertaken by all 3 companies, or the question mark surrounding Macau, it’s kind of interesting to see where your money is going.

MGM-Mirage fell short of expectations; EPS rose from 49 cents to 57 cents, but missed forecasts of 66 cents. Revenue is up to $1,930 million from $1,770 during the equivalent quarter last year.

Terry Lanni, CEO of MGM-Mirage has harsh words when placing blame on the NBA for earnings shortfalls:

"The gang-bangers and others who came for purposes other than attending the game, they weren't very good for Las Vegas," chief executive Terry Lanni told The Associated Press.

Instead of gambling, many people stayed in their hotel rooms, Lanni said.

Lanni said the weekend soured the company's support for bringing an NBA team to Las Vegas, a move under consideration by commissioner David Stern.

"Mr. Stern can keep his basketball franchises out of Las Vegas as far as I'm concerned," Lanni said.

The company also had lower-than-expected revenue from its Macau operations, as the other US operators in Asia have superior products at this time. Las Vegas Sands failed to meet projections as well, seemingly due to the incredible expenses associated with pending projects, totaling 7.6 billion dollars. Revenue is up, but EPS is down to 26 cents from 34 last year.

Wynn Reports reported the first quarterly profits since its inception, EPS coming in at 54 cents, from a 12 cent loss per share last year. This is also better than analyst’s expectation of around 50 cents a share. Revenue was up to $635 million from $277 million.

Another interesting performance benchmark is Average Daily Rate, or ADR. This is the measure of the room rate per day for the company’s hotel properties. MGM’s ADR was $169, vs. LVS’s $276, given the company’s higher-end market. Wynn Las Vegas came in at an even higher $310.

MGM Mirage 1Q Profit Rises 17 Percent

Expenses drag down LV Sands earnings

Wynn Resorts posts profit, shares jump

Internet Gambling Ban to be Lifted?

From MarketWatch:

Gaming Americans would be able to place bets over the Internet under a bill introduced by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank on Thursday.

Frank's bill would roll back a ban on online gambling and enable companies to be licensed to accept bets and wagers online from individuals in the U.S.

The bill would exempt the operators from current restrictions on online gambling and would require licensed companies to have protections in place against underage and compulsive gambling, money laundering and fraud.

Not sure that this bill has much of a chance of passing, but we are in favor of it, as we are in favor of anything that would lessen government regulation, (some would say censorship) especially when it comes to the Internet. In our opinion, Congress is woefully unprepared and unqualified to deal with progressive issues such as this.

The real issue isn't whether or not gambling is bad, it's that the government can't tax it and get it's cut. This bill would allow for increased regulation and, obviously, increased taxation. However, since the vast majority of these companies are offshore, not sure how domestic taxation will apply. Also, not sure how you can develop a foolproof way of verifying age, location, etc.

Internet gambling has always been technically illegal in the US, that's why the companies operated in other countries, mostly the Caribbean. The way companies and gamblers circumvented this was by moving money through a middleman, so credit card companies and banks weren't directly funding gambling. However, due to legislation passed in 2006, it made it illegal for banks to deal with this middlemen, effectively cutting off the flow of cash.

The SAFE Port Act, at least as far as it applies to Internet gambling, is an affront to personal freedoms, along with being hypocritical. Gambling is legal in some form in almost every state, with 2 Casinos within 10 minutes of where I now sit, and off-track betting at countless bars in between. While this wouldn't cause us to gamble online much, if at all, we should have the freedom to do so if we choose.

The House Committee is scheduled to discuss this in June.

Rep. Frank's bill would roll back Net-gambling ban

Vegas Link: NormClarke.com

Norm Clarke’s daily column in the Las Vegas Review Journal is THE place to go for Las Vegas and celebrity news and rumors.

Clarke’s column deals with current gossip and goings-on. With unparalleled access and a large network of spies, Norm breaks more stories regarding upcoming shows, celebrity events, and anything having to do with Las Vegas. His ongoing feud with Pete Rose (the two have a history) is also entertaining unto itself.

Since Las Vegas is home to the most daily celebrity sightings in the world, the column also covers who was seen where the night before. For example, what club is Paris whoring herself around in last weekend? Check Norm’s latest write-up…

Norm’s column occasionally strays into US Weekly territory, but for the most part is pretty even-keeled, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously. Warning, it can be habit-forming.

Norm Clarke Home Page

Las Vegas Review Journal Home Page

VegasRy Preview: CityCenter

One of the great things about Las Vegas is that it’s always changing. Even if you go every 6 months, there is always something new or changed to see or do. As Las Vegas is in the midst of the umpteenth building boom, there are several projects we are looking forward to, and one of them is MGM-Mirage’s Project CityCenter.

CityCenter is a multi-use project that is going up between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo properties. It will contain several hotel towers, and the requisite casino and retail areas. MGM says that the property will open in November, 2009. Here is a description from the MGM-Mirage press release.

CityCenter is MGM MIRAGE's dazzling vertical city in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and Monte Carlo resorts. The development combines into a single urban core approximately 2,700 private residences, two 400-room non-gaming boutique hotels (one of which will be managed by luxury hotelier Mandarin Oriental), a dramatic 60-story, 4,000-room resort casino, and a 470,000-square-foot retail and entertainment district. CityCenter is a design collaboration between MGM MIRAGE and eight of the world's foremost architects including Foster and Partners, Gensler, Helmut Jahn, KPF Architects, Pelli Clarke Pelli, Rockwell Group, RV Architecture LLC led by Rafael Vinoly and Studio Daniel Libeskind.

Current rendering of CityCenter, note the kooky Veer Towers, the crooked high rises front and center:

Current cost estimates for CC put the price tag at 7.4 billion(!) dollars, making it the most expensive private construction project undertaken in the US. 7 billion is quite a chunk, but MGM claims they will sell about 2.5 billion dollars worth of condos in the meantime, which lowers the net cost considerably. Condos were the flavor of the month for a while, with many projects planned on or near the Strip. Many have failed, but CC seems like the real deal. Another interesting aspect of the project is since these condos will be owned my thousands of individuals, when it comes time to implode the buildings for something new, they need all of those owners’ approval.

Here is a live snapshot of the construction. That is the main hotel tower going up in the foreground.

CityCenter is quite an undertaking, and it will be interesting to see how they pull it off. I can see where they are coming from; they have the area, might as well develop it all at once, and sell off condos and operating rights to hotels to deflate the costs. No one has more experience and resources than MGM-Mirage when it comes to building Las Vegas properties, so we have high hopes. This much is for sure, CityCenter will definitely transform the Las Vegas Skyline.

City Center Home Page

MGM MIRAGE Provides Update on CityCenter Progress

When in doubt...make stuff up!

I think the holy grail for any blog (other than to make money) is to break a story and/or to scoop the ‘legitimate’ media. Every now and then a site will get some insider information before a news outlet, and be credited (or not credited, in some cases) with the scoop.

However, sometimes it seems like the legit media is becoming a bit lazy, from the Las Vegas Business Press:

Another rumor that surfaced over the weekend had Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn making a play for the New Frontier Hotel & Casino to the tune of $1.78 billion.“It’s in the rumor mill,” said VegasTodayandTomorrow.com curator Mark Adams reported on April 2, “that Steve Wynn has offered (New Frontier owner) Phil Ruffin $1.78 billion and that Ruffin has verbally agreed,” information that Adams credited to “an inside source. “Steve Wynn wants to expand his relationship with Donald Trump,” who is erecting condos behind Ruffin’s casino, “and this could be the beginnings of that.”

Or maybe not. By Tuesday, the rumor was being blamed on an April Fools’ Day item that ran on the Las Vegas architecture blog Two Way Hard Three and Adams was backing off the story, which he had repeatedly emphasized was “rumor.”

Congrats to TwoWayHardThree.com and VegasTodayandTomorrow.com, two of our favorite sites, for reaching a point where even April Fools Jokes can be taken seriously and reported on…and for showing how incompetent the mainstream media can be.

Hopefully VegasRy.com will reach a point where we can spew unfounded rumor and innuendo and have it treated as gospel. In the meantime: “Did you hear that Harrah’s bought the Fashion Show Mall and plans to turn it into a mall-themed casino?"

TwoWayHardThree Home Page

VegasTodayAndTomorrow Home Page

Las Vegas Business Press Home Page

No Lego Imperial Palace?! Not Interested...

Maybe parents will get the hint and take their kids to THIS Las Vegas, not the one in Nevada!

LEGOLAND^® California is about to embark on the largest ever Miniland expansion at any LEGOLAND Park. The Carlsbad theme park will expand their Miniland U.S.A. attraction by recreating the fabulous Las Vegas Strip made entirely out of LEGO^® brick. The architectural landmark is built out of more than two-million bricks and represents more than sixteen-thousand hours of detailed labor. The new area is set to be unveiled March 29, 2007.

Hotels Represented: The Luxor; New York, New York; Excalibur; Mirage; Treasure Island; Tropicana; MGM Grand; Paris; Venetian; Stratosphere

Family Travelers Get a Taste of Las Vegas at LEGOLAND^® California

Vegas Link: CheapoVegas.com

CheapoVegas is an irreverent site dedicated to providing info about the many properties in Las Vegas from a decidedly low-roller point of view. It supplies info in a very interesting and unique way.

The data is set up by hotel and casino, and offers the usual info like room size and price, but does it in a more conversational and opinionated way. Along with vital info on the property, CheapoVegas also includes thoughts on the overall feel of the casino, and even lets you know what you get bottles of in the bathroom.

This is a great site to refer to if you want a more experience-oriented view on a hotel, vs. the usual nuts and bolts descriptions found elsewhere. It is a fun site to read through, especially if you’ve been to some of the places reviewed. However, higher-end properties such as Bellagio and Venetian are treated with disdain, hence the name Cheapo.

One last note, the folks at CheapoVegas seem to hate Steve Wynn and his properties, rating a definitive 1 on the Wynn-o-Meter.

CheapoVegas.com

Louie's Lead Pipe Lock of the Week: UCLA

Reports coming from all over that Florida Coach Billy Donovan is on his way to Lexington to take over Kentucky, even as his team prepares to play UCLA in the Final Four.

Lou Says "Don't sleep on this big-money opportunity!".

Because of the massive distraction that inevitably causes, the Lou Man LOVES UCLA +3. He also likes Georgetown -1.

Report: UK Ready To Name Donovan (WLEXTV - Lexington)

The Crown Jewel of the Strip is Safe...For Now

LAS VEGAS — Billionaire Phil Ruffin said Monday that there is no deal to sell his New Frontier casino-hotel on the Las Vegas Strip to New York-based real estate group El Ad Properties.

Ruffin had been scheduled to meet with El Ad executives on Tuesday, but said he canceled the trip to New York after it was apparent the deal would fall through.

"Any time a deal starts to wobble, there's always a problem they're not telling you about," Ruffin told The Associated Press. "It doesn't look like we have a deal."

And we were all set to buy the Sigma Derby (horse racing) game at the liquidation auction.

Ruffin: 'No Deal' on New Frontier Casino Sale (Yahoo! Finance)

Pac Man to 'Make it Rain' in the Hoosegow

(Las Vegas-AP) March 26, 2007 - Tennessee Titans star Adam "Pacman" Jones could face felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from a triple shooting at a Las Vegas strip club in February.

Castro said the request for charges will be submitted to District Attorney David Roger no later than the end of the week. Roger will be asked to consider charges against the 23-year-old Jones and a man and woman described as friends of Jones.

I'm not sure why anyone was surprised.

Look people, this is all very simple...if you are in a strip club with Pac Man Jones, someone is going to get shot. It's as simple as that.

Las Vegas police to seek charges against 'Pacman' Jones

Cirque du Soleil just got even creepier...

Just what we need, another CDS show, this one at Luxor. Am I out of touch because I've never heard of this guy? Seriously, who is he?

From today's Review-Journal

"Mindfreak" magician Criss Angel and Cirque du Soleil won't open their long-rumored stage production until the summer of 2008, which gives them time to live up to big promises.

"Imagine if we could reinvent magic like (Cirque du Soleil) reinvented the circus," Angel said in a media event Thursday at Luxor to announce the show. "That is my dream, that is my quest and that is exactly what we're going to do when we open the show."

MGM better hurry up and build more casinos so they can open more Cirque shows...

Magician in new Cirque show

What will they do with the Mechanical Bull?

Looks like the Frontier is about to be sold:

Elad Properties, the Israeli-owned real estate investment group that is deep into an extensive renovation of the landmark hotel in New York City, is about to announce that it is purchasing the New Frontier Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Sources say the purchase price could be as sky-high as $40 million per acre -- or $1.5 billion for the 38.5-acre site.

$40 Million an acre? Yikes. Elad owns the Plaza Hotel in New York, and the early rumor is that they will tear down the Frontier and replace it with a Plaza-branded resort. We are all for this, as the Frontier is a dump, and it would be nice to have more upscale destinations in Wynn's neck of the woods.

A New Plan for Vegas' New Frontier (TheStreet.com)

NBA All-Star Game Wrapup

Last month, the NBA All-Star Game took place in Las Vegas. Even though Vegas doesn't have a team, (Although Mayor Goodman wants one) it seems natural to host the game in a city like Vegas, which is used to hosting major events and sporting events like last weekend's NASCAR race.

The game aside, it turned out to be a giant debacle, with it being Chinese New Year (big gambling weekend) and other large conventions in town. But it wasn't the conventioneers that caused the problems, it was people in town for the All-Star game that turned the city into a near war zone.

There were major incidents:

-Tennessee Titan (NFL player yes, but in town for the game nonetheless) player Pac Man Jones and his entourage were involved in a shooting at a strip club that left one bouncer paralyzed forever.

-A shooting at the MGM Grand that left one dead, and evacuated the casino.

-Shootings on the strip that closed sections of Las Vegas blvd multiple times.

Beyond those we have all heard about, there was just a general pandemonium that made it awful for the casual visitor to be there. Someone I work with (a Vegas vet) says it was the worst weekend he's ever experienced. He heard the gunshots, and was one of those evacuated from the MGM.

Now that the word is out, search any media outlet, and you will get hundreds of stories about the weekend. For example, a Google news search on NBA All Star Las Vegas yields 607 results. By contrast, a search for NASCAR as Vegas gets you 10...most of the referencing the NBA weekend.

Cab drivers are usually a great source of (possibly apocryphal) information, and we tried to ask every one this past trip on their thoughts on the weekend, and their responses were overwhelmingly negative. I managed to record a couple on my iPod, but the audio isn't tremendously clear, so here are a few of the points brought up.

(Again, take these with a grain of salt, but the sentiment still prevails)

Driver from Bellagio to Downtown

Listen Here

This guy said he will never work another NBA weekend again, he was personally stiffed twice, but didn't do anything about it because there were no police anywhere, and those that were on duty had better things to be doing

Driver from Downtown to Bellagio

Listen here

This guy went off! He was a deputy sheriff for 27 years, and never saw anything like that weekend. He knew (through connections...again, grain of salt) of 10-12 more shootings and 29 rapes. He went on to talk about Waitresses getting slapped around, a fight at the Wynn that spilled over to the Venetian and closed the strip for 4 hours. The interesting point here was that most of these incidents happened on hotel properties, thus they are being kept VERY quiet, as no hotel wants to be known as the scene of a crime.

Driver from Bellagio to Luxor.

Listen Here

On a lighter note, this guy tried (repeat: tried) to compare the NBA crowd to German Shepards that can't check for drugs. Still not sure what he was talking about.

What is really disturbing is the initial lack of media coverage. Stories eventually began to trickle out due to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the weekend. Due to the major media outlet's (such as ESPN) affiliation with the NBA, much of this was kept hush-hush until it simply couldn't anymore. For example, ESPN, which is quick to jump on any story related to an athlete in trouble with the law, took until THURSDAY of the next week to even report on the Pac-Man Jones incident.

Needless to say, we won't be booking our tickets for the All-Star Game in New Orleans next year...

VegasRy Link: VegasHotelSpecial.com

Anyone who's stayed at a hotel in las vegas, or signed up for a player's card, knows that you almost immediately begin receiving offers for discounted rooms and other deals. The problem is that these offers don't necessarily coincide when you are going, or where you want to stay.

Luckily there are a couple websites such as VegasHotelSpecial.com out there that compile these offers and codes, and let you pick and choose when and where you stay. These are great for finding deals and staying places that you otherwise not be able to afford.

For example, on our latest trip we used this site and an offer code for Bellagio when booking, and saved a lot of money...highly recommended.

Try

http://www.vegashotelspecial.com/

or this one:

http://www.fatwallet.com/t/63/704925/

Join the VegasRy Tournament Challenge!

Click here to join our Tournament Challenge League, submit your picks and go up against VegasRy, RollThaDice, Louie the Gambling Puppy, and everyone else here at VegasRy.com!

Here's a little food for thought.

Tournament Challenge

Vegas oddsmakers do their tournament homework

The $20 trick at Bellagio

As we are always looking out for our readers at VegasRy, we decided to give the $20 trick a try while checking in during our latest trip. We are pleased to report that it was a success!

As posted here:

Had a reservation for 2 queen bed standard non-smoking room. Slipped the clerk a $20 between the Credit card and ID and asked if there were any complimentary upgrades available. Typed for a while, and gave me 3 options:

1. Jr. Suite with 75 square feet more room and a king and rollaway.

2. Lakeview smoking room with 2 queens.

3. Lakeview non-smoking with a king and rollaway.

Took option 2 as neither of us wanted to sleep in a rollaway, and not worried about smoke.

FrontDeskTip.com

Here we are!

Vegas Link: FrontDeskTip.com

Front Desk Tip is a great site that is dedicated to tracking the results of the "20 Dollar Trick" while checking into Las Vegas Hotels.

For the uninitiated, the $20 trick is slipping the clerk at the check-in desk a 20 dollar bill as a tip in hopes of obtaining a free upgrade to a better room, suite, etc. This site provides visitor's results and comments, as well as the success/fail percentage, by hotel.

For example, the Bellagio (Our home for our trip next week) has a perfect (11/11) success percentage. Hopefully it will be 12/12 after next weekend!

FrontDeskTip.com