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Inside Gaming Column: Fool Thinks Harrah's May Pitch Horseshoe26 January 2004LAS VEGAS -- The Motley Fool last week speculated Harrah's Entertainment may be shopping Binion's Horseshoe around. For about $50 million, Harrah's is picking up the brand it coveted and the prestige of owning the World Series of Poker. The Fool said investors abound for buying the Horseshoe on the prayer of profits. The Fool cited the sale of Lady Luck and Golden Nugget as examples of private buyers being willing to invest in downtown Las Vegas. And Boyd Gaming Corp., which already has three downtown casinos, could be interested in Binion's Horseshoe, the Fool said. ¥ ¥ ¥ FBI sources tell us there has been no repeat performance during Chinese New Year's celebrations of the extraordinary security measures imposed on Las Vegas for our own New Year's Eve celebration. It seems they'll only start issuing subpoenas for hotel-casino guest lists and airline passenger logs when there is a specific and credible threat. But how will anyone know if their goal is really to protect consumers' personal privacy? ¥ ¥ ¥ What was another delegation of Macau Legislative Assembly officials doing in Las Vegas last week? Mum's the word, but they were meeting with Wynn Las Vegas and The Venetian executives -- and officials of those two companies alone. The 17-person delegation, which was put up at The Bellagio, didn't talk with any MGM Mirage officials, but they met at length with Gaming Control Board officials about the effective regulation of gaming. Seems as if they're getting real serious about passing regulatory reforms in Macau. ¥ ¥ ¥ Lawyers beware. Gambling opponents are now demanding warning labels, not unlike cigarette packaging or ski lift tickets. The critics say warning messages should be posted prominently on lottery tickets. And one psychologist says while most people will not have a gambling problem when it comes to lotteries, some people will. The idea being floated in Tennessee is to have both a warning and the number for Gambler's Anonymous on all lottery tickets. ¥ ¥ ¥ "If someone wants to be cynical or sarcastic, that's something someone would smirk about," said MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman in defending the continued presence of Siegfried and Roy on signs at The Mirage. Feldman says the pair remains a part of the hotel-casino's image, but we suspect that will change when owner MGM Mirage lands a successor show, now rumored to likely be yet another Cirque du Soleil. 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. |