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Hey, Hey Do the Postmerger Shuffle

Wall Streeters say The Venetian and Caesars Entertainment may still be interested in buying Treasure Island and The Mirage, guessing they won't fit with MGM Mirage's plans after it merges with Mandalay Resort Group. But it would help Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson add needed parking spaces. Alternatively, the landmark properties would give Caesars a lock on the west side of the Strip from Flamingo to Spring Mountain roads. And both companies will be looking for new ways to compete with Las Vegas's newest behemoth.

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Antitrust concerns linked to the MGM Mirage-Mandalay Resort Group merger could help rewrite Las Vegas history. For example, Watergate-linked casino kingpin Bob Maheu, a former FBI agent who was Howard Hughes' top aide, tells us that the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice recruited his boss to buy the Landmark in 1968. It was too hard to get the mob out with prosecution, so the agency tried good old capitalism. The problems with the department's Antitrust Division came later, Maheu says.

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A company on the move. Even though Harrah's Entertainment remains focused on gaming, sources tell us company executives are looking for opportunities to flank its casinos with retail stores and time shares. They concede, however, it's also interested in developing a megaresort casino complex, be it in Las Vegas, Atlantic City or the United Kingdom. And while the company declines to comment about expansion prospects, we hear nothing new is likely to open before 2008.

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Wall Street analysts back from fact-finding missions to Macau say Sheldon Adelson's casino is a big success -- if cab lines tell the story. Eight out of 10 people hailing cabs are looking for rides to the Sands Macau casino. The other two are still going to Stanley Ho's flagship, the Lisboa, they say. And service is the name of the game there, just like at The Venetian, which Adelson operates here. The average wait at the casino for a taxi is just a minute, compared with waits of 20 minutes for a cab at the Lisboa.

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Speaking of Asia, incredibly there's a casino in a remote area of South Korea, 150 miles from Seoul on a two-lane mountain-type road, that does better than most of the casinos in Las Vegas. The Kangwon Land casino rakes in $600 million a year from 4,500 players a day. The Korean casino's secret, however, is that it's the only casino in South Korea that allows Koreans to gamble.

The Inside Gaming column is compiled by Gaming Wire Editor Rod Smith. You can contact him by phone at (702) 477-3893, fax (702) 387-5243 or e-mail at rsmith@reviewjournal.com.

Copyright GamingWire. All rights reserved.

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