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Inside Gaming Column: Mirage's South Seas Schtick May Fade Away

LAS VEGAS -- Analysts are speculating MGM Mirage may hope to renovate its 14-year-old resort, thus explaining outright cancellation of Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage. Signs of age are starting to show, but, more important, there are opportunities never dreamed of when the resort opened in 1989. Watch for the disappearance of the South Seas schtick and the unveiling of a niche market appeal to target the same crowd as the Palms and the Hard Rock Hotel, hot spots for the young demographic operators covet.

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Sources say Boyd Gaming Corp. is getting closer to announcing two, count them, two megadevelopments in the heart of Las Vegas. Well, outside the heart of Las Vegas. The company has left its land around Main Street Station fallow. And its 60 acres around the Stardust are similarly fallow. The sources say when it proceeds, Boyd is committing $1 billion to the Stardust and a so far undetermined sum to Main Street. The question left hanging is the timing. Deciding factors will be the success of the expanded Fashion Show mall, the monorail and Wynn Las Vegas.

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If you believe the rhetoric, a state of war is breaking out in Atlantic City between Harrah's Entertainment, owner of the Marina and Showboat casinos, and the world. Paul Rubeli, chairman of Aztar Corp., which operates the Tropicana, told analysts in a conference call last week that Harrah's is "escalating" the confrontation with letters to diamond-level customers offering to double their cash-back offers. Harrah's calls it "the richest cash back ever." For now, no one else has followed because it "makes no sense," Rubeli said. "Why? Loyalty can't be bought. And it's an insidious trap."

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If all the local criticism weren't enough, James Caan's casino boss character on NBC's "Las Vegas," Big Ed Deline, last week nabbed a suspected date rapist, dragged him into the desert, put a pistol to his head and said, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." The gun wasn't loaded but the joke on the convention authority's current marketing campaign was: "What happens here, stays here" -- and on network television.

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Atlantic City, eat your heart out. Sources in New Jersey said the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority would die for such publicity. It recently spent $110,000 to develop its "Always Turned On" public relations campaign. Unable to afford paid advertising, the group hopes its new slogan will gain exposure through the news media, the Internet and on billboards. Las Vegas' 20-month ad campaign will cost $58 million.

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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