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Inside Gaming: Pockets Deep, Competition Steep

Analysts say Wall Street is more impressed with the new billion-dollar players in Las Vegas than with any talk about an MGM Mirage-Mandalay Resort Group monopoly. MGM Mirage owner Kirk Kerkorian and Stratosphere owner Carl Icahn can spend whatever. Analysts say Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson could raise $5 billion. Colony Capital, Boyd Gaming Corp., Palms owner George Maloof and Station Casinos owners Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta have also all joined the billion-dollar club. Not to mention Steve Wynn. With developers like those, competition knows no bounds.

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Mandalay Resort Group workers are getting worried about layoffs once the gaming giant falls into the hands of MGM Mirage. MGM Mirage President Jim Murren, however, says the 2000 merger with Mirage Resorts shows there's little cause for concern. And industry experts say the only people endangered are middle managers, most of whom have golden parachutes, stock options and great job opportunities all over Las Vegas.

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Analysts are whining that Mandalay Resort Group wasn't more aggressively priced on Wall Street. They think it might have held on as an independent or gone for a higher price tag. Who is to blame? They say Mandalay President Glenn Schaeffer and his top managers are known for being unresponsive -- or unpredictably responsive. Sounds like the same complaints that bounced around after MGM Grand bought out Mirage Resorts. Then analysts said Steve Wynn's on-again, off-again relationships doomed his stock and his ability to hold on to his company.

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Insiders are saying the hottest real estate in gaming may be under Aztar Corp.'s Tropicana. MGM Mirage bosses say the fourth corner at Tropicana Avenue and the Strip, where they'll control three corners, is not on their radar. Still, industry sources say either they add it to their holdings, or somebody else will make a killing. Aztar chief Paul Rubeli swears he won't sell. But if there ever was a prime target, this is it. The four corners arguably see more traffic than any other intersection in the world, and they're right at the McCarran executive terminals.

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Talking about the ritzy fixed-base operations -- executive terminals or gasoline stations for private jets -- at the northeast corner of McCarran, could business possibly be hotter? The berths at the FBOs have been packed for six months, which trend-setters see as a clear sign that Las Vegas is hip. Multimillionaires and billionaires with their own jets are crowding in here like no other place on Earth. They may not be playing in the private poker rooms, but they have the entertainment business hopping hot.

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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