Casino Connection Atlantic City

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It’s not personal. It’s just business.

Michael Corleone said it in The Godfather, when he was planning to whack Sollozzo the Turk over a plate of veal. Donald Trump’s TV show, The Apprentice, opens with a variation of the same famous line. And Trump must believe and practice the old “Nothing personal” philosophy, considering he sold one of his three Atlantic […]

Bush Mum on WTO Deal

U.S. President George W. Bush doesn’t believe in divulging information to the public he has been elected to serve, and anytime he and his neo-con pals don’t want to talk about something, they cite “national security.”
It’s nothing new for the administration. As far back as 2004 a report was released outlining the ways that public […]

Sheldon’s Follies

It seems that in her God-awful book, Winners Take All, Christina Binkley’s choice to exclude Sheldon Adelson as one of the Las Vegas moguls she covers (Steve Wynn, Gary Loveman and Kirk Kerkorian where her choices), is looking much worse than originally thought. It seems the billionaire chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands is […]

Natural Selection

I’m sorry to say I missed the East Coast Gaming Conference in Atlantic City this week, but my colleagues went, and I was jazzed by what they said about the visionary plans of our industry’s leaders.
The bottom line, as I discern it: If you can’t hang on to the old, established customer, find and woo […]

Corzine: Promise or Politics?

Did you hear it? I sure did.
What New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine said yesterday during his remarks at the East Coast Gaming Congress in Atlantic City sounded almost like a pledge to keep New Jersey’s low casino tax right where it is. All day long, speakers at the ECGC show commented how Atlantic City is […]

Poker Felons

Playing poker online while inside the borders of the U.S. state of Washington remains punishable by a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. That was the result of a suit argued before the King County Superior Court by poker playing attorney Lee Rousso, who tried to have the state […]

Let’s be opportunistic

I like to go on reading jags. I’ll read a dozen books on the same subject, thoroughly exhaust my curiosity about it, then dive into something completely different. That’s why I know so much about Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Jones, jazz music and silent movies. I also know a whole lot about Middle Eastern dancing, the […]

A New Face at the Mirage

With Danny Gans moving to a headlining gig at Wynn Las Vegas, his former casino is working to remove all traces of its former star performer.
Mirage officials announced yesterday a five-year contract with Terry Fator—winner of America’s Got Talent—that could be worth as much as $100 million. Fator will start performing in February 2009 in […]

VIP Buses in Macau

Now I’ll be the first to admit I don’t quite get how the VIP business runs in Macau. But as I understand it, the casinos in Macau hire individual or corporate junket operators to bring in big players. At this point, it’s very much like the junket business in the U.S. But in Macau, the […]

Another Word on Pinnacle

In her post this week, my colleague Marjorie Preston commented on the wisdom of Pinnacle Entertainment Chairman Dan Lee’s prudence concerning his company’s planned mega-resort in Atlantic City. Lee was quoted as laying 50/50 odds that Pinnacle will actually end up building its resort on the site of the old Sands. I agree that his […]