SEARCH NEWS:

 

Inside Gaming Column: Street Hints Suitors Souring on Rio

Wall Street is throwing cold water on reports buyers are lining up for the Rio. Investors fear Rio executives will stick with Harrah's Entertainment if it sells the off-Strip resort, and move to Harrah's Las Vegas or one of the four premium properties it is picking up with its $9.4 billion buyout of Caesars Entertainment. Prospective buyer Colony Capital, in particular, doesn't need the hassle, just as it's going national with its $1.2 billion acquisition of four other Harrah's and Caesars Entertainment properties -- Harrah's East Chicago, Harrah's Tunica (Miss.), Atlantic City Hilton and Bally's Tunica (Miss.).

¥ ¥ ¥

Feeding such fears, industry insiders expect Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn to hire the best available workers as he gets ready to open Wynn Las Vegas on April 28 -- the birthday of his wife, Elaine. It's no secret ambitious managers are drawn to Wynn for the cachet his projects offer, and he already knows a lot of them from his days running Mirage Resorts. Meanwhile, Wynn says he shares none of those concerns and doesn't need the noncompete contracts competitors use to make sure executives do not stray.

¥ ¥ ¥

That was media-shy New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin on "The Apprentice" with Donald Trump earlier this month. He was on Trump's plane to sign a $300 million deal for a recently announced condo project when in romped NBC's TV cameras to capture the moment. The dynamic duo is developing the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Las Vegas, and Ruffin, although a private person, said he understands that Trump isn't. Nothing is private around Trump, and Ruffin certainly wants to promote his business. And, anyhow, Trump said he looked good.

¥ ¥ ¥

East Coast media say Las Vegas and other hip resort areas are the destinations of choice these days for Thanksgiving, more so than visiting Mom and Pop. Bargains, like the $299-a-night Thanksgiving special at Bellagio, where nine restaurants will offer turkey dinners, should bring a deluge. Hotel operators here, however, say they expect even more business from Mom and Pop than from the kids. After all, it's the boomer generation that has the cash and tends to frequent Strip resorts.

¥ ¥ ¥

In the endless saga of relegalizing gambling, Mexico's corporate Business Coordination Council this month endorsed developing casinos and reclassifying them as an ordinary business that should be regulated. The council limited support to tourist resorts such as Tijuana, Los Cabos, Cancún, Huatulco, Acapulco and Mazatlán. Casinos, which have been banned in Mexico since the 1940s, were very popular in the country's northern state of Baja California in the 1920s. Today, there are more than 1,500 illegal casinos in Mexico.

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.

< Gaming News