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Inside gaming: Once rivals, always rivals

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment and Tropicana owner Columbia Sussex Corp., which fought last year over control of Aztar Corp., have taken their feud to Baton Rouge, La.

Pinnacle wants to develop a $250 million riverboat casino project in East Baton Rouge, but Columbia Sussex, which operates one of two riverboat casinos in the state capital, doesn't want the competition. Pinnacle's plans still have to be approved by Louisiana gaming regulators and a vote of East Baton Rouge residents.

But a poll, commissioned recently by Columbia Sussex, shows that 66 percent of the citizens surveyed oppose the Pinnacle project.

That doesn't deter the gaming company. Pinnacle spokeswoman Pauline Yoshihashi said there was opposition to the company initially when it sought approval to build a second $300 million riverboat casino in Lake Charles, La., last November, but voters overwhelmingly approved the project once details were revealed.

Yoshihashi said the company is following the state's regulatory procedures and will release its full plan for the riverboat gaming project once details are worked out.

Pinnacle lost out in a six-week-long bidding war for Aztar to Columbia Sussex and bad blood between the two casino operators has simmered since.

LAS VEGAS' CASINOS will do just fine next weekend despite being unable to take bets on the National Basketball Association All-Star Game. The casinos agreed to take the game off the books as a condition of having the game in wager-happy Southern Nevada.

Dan O'Brien, senior oddsmaker for Las Vegas Sports consultants, said forgoing action on the game is a small price to pay for the opportunity to entice NBA players and groupies into Las Vegas casinos.

"Some of these guys are notorious for being monster gamblers," O'Brien said.

Just last year, for example, retired NBA star Charles Barkley estimated he lost more than $10 million gambling. Barkley told a Phoenix television station last week he won "about $700,000" gambling in Las Vegas on Super Bowl weekend.

O'Brien said Barkley, now an announcer for TNT, which is televising the game, won't be the only person with NBA connections at the tables, which is good for casinos.

CHINESE TELEVISION VIEWERS will get their first look at the $2.4 billion Venetian Macau during the Chinese language broadcast of the NBA All-Star Game from Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. executives said last week they produced ads that will air during the game touting the new hotel-casino, which is expected to open this summer on the Macau's Cotai Strip.

One problem could drive down Chinese viewership, however. Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, the marquee NBA player from China, is injured and won't play.

The Inside Gaming column is compiled by Review-Journal gaming and tourism writers Howard Stutz, Benjamin Spillman and Arnold Knightly. Send your tips about the gaming and tourism industry to insidegaming@reviewjournal.com.

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