Sh*t You May Have Missed While Winning a Jackpot at Mccarran


It’s Sh*t You May Have Missed for the week ending July 29th, 2016.

Hey, all…BigAZMarty here with this week’s “around the web’s” news:

1. A new “buyer” is rumored for the Blue Elephant on the strip…and it’s not exactly what you’d expect….but hey, if they’ve got the money to finish this thing and put something in the barren no-man’s-land on the North Strip it would be nice. So, the story is that Mohegan Sun is seeking to own or partner with another party to purchase Carl Ichan’s Fontainebleu..read here. Vital Vegas has another idea along with a whole lot more on the Fertitta’s profits from the UFC sale. You can read that humorous maybe tipsy blog entry here.

2. An Ohio man won just under $500K while at Mccarran airport on a Wheel of Fortune machine. I hope it was while he was stranded and waiting for Southwest to figure out their busted systems that grounded them last week. Read here.

3. Caesars Acquisition to possibly to sell Caesars Interactive Entertainment (minus the real money online gambling business and the WSOP which Caesars would retain) as China’s Giant Interactive Group is leading bidders (other two bidders are Hasbro, Inc. and NetMarble Games) with a possible $4.2B bid, read here. Now, remember the Jr Bondholders think they have a $12B payday coming by rejecting everything Caesars does (though the auditor only found $5.1B, not $12B). Plus, the fact that the CIE sale will be distributed to all creditors (meaning first-lien creditors and bondholders will probably get the biggest slice of the sale)….so Jr. Bondholders will not see a lot of the sale money. Now for the big IF: what happens if the Jr. Bondholders win, and all transactions have to be reversed out, and the whole company is BK’d? Then what would they get? That is the blind man bluff going on right now. However, the lawyers (Jones Day) for the Jr Bondholders have dropped their motions to have Kirkland and Ellis (Caesars’ lawyers) removed from the case under threat of sanctions by the residing BK judge…now that’s some fun…read here. And right as I’m about to stop writing for the week the Jr. Bondholders lawyers ask that a sanction is issued for a failure to appear by one of the Apollo partners (Apollo and TPG are majority owners for Caesars) for deposition, read here. So much legal wrangling….they need a mud pit soon.

4. Not necessarily Las Vegas news…but the location has major ties to Las Vegas history and if you are sick of the Las Vegas temps, this is as good as it gets to beat the heat. The company that owns and was in the process of remodeling the CalNeva Casino that Frank Sinatra once owned at the North Lake Tahoe location has filed for bankruptcy. Read here. Hopefully, they can survive and finish off the resort; the plans were very nice.

5. It isn’t often that you get a HazMat team called to your resort only to find bad filters. I guess the maintenance company will be looking for some new employees to take care of the Liquid Nitrogen Tank (for cooling) at the Luxor’s Criss Angel Theater. Read here.

6. Stratosphere is celebrating it’s location shoot role with a Sharknado 4 preview for $15 per ticket this coming weekend. Well, just read for yourself here. And a little more fun with the movie and some other details here. Movie trailer below. How many Vegas faces do you recognize?

7. Ooops…CG Technologies to pay a $1.5M fine for underpaying sportsbook bettors. Read here.

8. Here’s a great spin…..Sands reported earning down a ton (-32.2%) but also announced that the Parisian in Macau’s Cotai Strip would open Sept. 13th. Some other tidbits in Adelson’s personal LV paper here. It looks like the Caesar’s Paris resort to me. Typical, no real trademark rules in China, right?

9. Caesars Palace 50th Anniversary celebration continues, the big weekend is Aug 5 -7. The Katz Report at LV Sun has a pretty good picture of the times and lineup here. Wayne Newton is going to make an appearance; I guess he’s been under the weather for a bit after getting bit by a brown recluse spider in his Montana Lakeside Retreat. He had missed shows at Bally’s due to the issue, so it’s good to see that he’s doing much better.

10. Vital Vegas via Twitter has a shot of previously unannounced sportsbook remodel at Harrah’s see here. For some reason, I thought that had been redone recently as the little sandwich shop that opened to the backside of the Carnival Court area had been removed a few years back (I still miss that place…but Fulton Food Court is a fine replacement) to accommodate the extra space it occupied.

11. EATER Vegas has a decent update on Wynn/Encore upgrades (Shops and cafe) read here.

12. Still trying to wrap my head up around this: how does air traffic visitation continually go up year over year (see here) yet gaming revenue actually declines on the Strip? I know that in order to claw back more money, the casino’s have increased house odds but is that what is really killing the gaming? Or, is it that they are cannibalizing the gaming by overcharging for all those other amenities ($15 for a pool drink…$$$$ for a pool cabana rental)? That takes a bigger bottom line chunk of the gaming profit picture.

13. LVRJ is losing another legend; Norm Clarke has just retired. He has been one of the best sources of “breaking” rumor news in the past; he will be missed. Live a long and healthy life Norm and enjoy the retirement. I am assuming that LVRJ will now lean heavily on the Robin Leach NICHE division for the rumor mill reporting., although it seems more entertainment reporting than what he did at LV Sun.

And that’s it for the week in web news for Las Vegas…now to our Editor-In-Chief, Michael Movestro with our stuff and more.

Thanks, Marty! As I’m writing this, it is very late, so let’s get right to it…

14. The week started off with the Vegas Bright Podcast Episode 14 where I discussed Money Saving Travel Tips “to, during, and from” Las Vegas. Plus we had a new parody bit.

15. Blonde4ever got rubbed by strangers…wait for it…at  Happy Feet Reflexology and Massage. Be sure to read her review.

16. Sammasseur pens another Hidden Vegas article for a Fly-Over Of Massive Construction Projects.

17. Michael James Gets Back To Nature…and Donuts…in the Valley Of Fire.

VoF interesting formations

18. Greg C shared some pics of The Riviera’s demolition progress. The Riviera is literally split in two.

19.  Michael Movestro writes that an NYC bakery, Milk Bar is coming to Cosmopolitan.

20. Reader Kyle Berry shares his memories of the Riviera.

21. And last but not least…Guest author “Fisherman” does a return engagement with VegasBright and gives Aria a review.

That’s it for this week; we’ll see you next week starting Sunday for episode 15 of the Vegas Bright Podcast, where we will celebrate the one-year anniversary of Vegas Bright (the blog, not the podcast). Oh yeah, speaking of Sunday…be sure to check out Sharknado: The Fourth Awakens (on Syfy)—yes, it’s a guilty pleasure film. No, there isn’t ANYTHING remotely believable, but it’s set in Vegas! Check our Facebook page on Sunday…Sammasseur will be covering the red carpet premiere and uploading video clips, live from Stratosphere.

[Photos: Michael Movestro, Michael James | Twitter: Vital Vegas | Video: “Sharknado The Fouth Awakens” via Youtube]

 

6 thoughts on “Sh*t You May Have Missed While Winning a Jackpot at Mccarran

  1. “12….I know that in order to claw back more money, the casino’s have increased house odds but is that what is really killing the gaming? Or, is it that they are cannibalizing the gaming by overcharging for all those other amenities ($15 for a pool drink…$$$$ for a pool cabana rental)? That takes a bigger bottom line chunk of the gaming profit picture.”

    Well yeah… I’ve bee saying that for years. Clubbers may not be gamblers, but when I used to get a full dinner for $10 that I am now paying $30 for… or when I choose Giada instead of the cafe for an extra $50… yeah, that goes against me gambling budget. I think the overall money grab into my pockets (and I am looking at you, MGM Profit Growth Plan) takes a huge chunk out of gambling budgets.

  2. I am an avid Vegas goer (can drive there in 4.5 hours), or at least, I used to be. I have begun taking trips elsewhere because the overall feeling in Vegas has become… how much money can be gotten out of my pockets and how fast. It’s not a welcoming feeling at all and kind of makes me sick cause I really used to have an affection for Vegas. A lot of things that were mild nuisances (clickers, vagrants, timeshare ppl) had become increasingly irritating with each trip back. $30.00 room, $35.00 resort fee, $15.00 – $18.00 drinks and what used to be entertainment at the slot machines, has become lose, lose, lose, lose. Vegas is losing a bit of its magic for me.

  3. Oh Fontainebleau….something, ANYthing must be done to get this giant paperweight up and running or out of sight. It is the poster child for biting off more than you can chew and bad timing.

  4. In regards to #12 gambling is going down due to all the shopping on the strip. People are spending more on material items than gambling in the casinos. If there were less shopping malls, strip malls and such people would spend more on gambling, restaurants and shows. We won’t even bring up resort fees…… UUGGHH!

    1. See I think that is maybe part of the problem….casinos had at one time reasonable gift shop prices and items unique and pretty nice that you didn’t have to go anywhere else. They have priced themselves into losing sales to the CVS/Walgreens and other stores like ABC Stores (2 in Miracle Mile Stores). Funny thing is that years ago there were actually more shops on the strip…just the casinos bought them up and expanded on the real estate.

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