You May Have Missed

Sh*t You May Have Missed While Trying to Avoid STDs on Valentine’s Day


It’s Sh*t You May Have Missed for the week ending: 2/17/17

Hey, all! BigAZMarty here. First off, happy belated Valentine’s Day!! I hope you all had a nice time with the S/O and can now enjoy sitting and reading this week’s news on our favorite place, Las Vegas! If not, I hope you enjoyed Singles Day as well.

1. MGM earnings just hit, and while not losing money (i.e. Caesars) they seem to have some convention weakness at Las Vegas namely at Mandalay Bay, MGM and Aria/City Center for the 4th quarter, read here. A good short easily readable Conventions vs. Casino rooms reason is here from CNBC. I get it that they were expected to announce an EPS of .21 and only reported .11 at MGM, however, that’s like an almost 10% stock decline there for a .10 a share reporting difference. An interesting thing hidden in there is that fact that their numbers aren’t showing as bad as what the local drop off would be if the paid parking/valet were actually an issue. I would have expected those to show up more if it was the case. So convention softness in Las Vegas combined with perhaps not as good of a recovery in MGM Macau might be why this is the way it is right now. We shall see….4th Quarter and YOY for 2017 will be telling as the locals park free has ended completely now.

2. Valentine’s Day weddings in Las Vegas? Yes, and LV Sun has a decent gallery here. Ah, people getting hitched in Las Vegas. LV Sun had a lot of little interesting articles throughout the week, some good and some bad. Read: is technology killing intimacy here, items for sale at Deja Vu here, some new love lingo terms here, while here they discuss the Tinder alternative for women. Let’s see… the joys of dating apps here, alternative ways to celebrate the day here, and finally a more Vegas article checking in on the illegal escort business in Las Vegas here. Me? I had to work late, and well we were budgeting for another Las Vegas trip in a couple of weekends, so we kept it very low-key, cards, and See’s Candy. Robin’s LV Valentine’s day article here covers a lot of info as well. Really? A helicopter wedding?

3. Speaking of in a couple of weekends, my wife got an interesting promo from Caesars that we really didn’t catch onto at the time because it’s only running Jan – end of March. Evidently, if you get 25 tier points on your Total Rewards card via gambling at a Caesars-owned property during their promotional day (check casino, some have different starting and stopping times of the day than you’d expect) you get rewarded with a “Badge.” The more Badges you earn, the more tier credits you can get for nearly nothing (I can get 25 tier credits on a $20 typically sitting at a Sky Riders slot playing .40 at a time and usually cash out with some money). Read here for details and to opt in if you are a Total Rewards member. My wife already wants that Grand Prize win. She already has three badges (two from around New Years and one from our local Harrah’s), but we’re doing a quick three-dayer to get the rest of Las Vegas and Laughlin on the way back home. Think about it, 9 Las Vegas properties, one Laughlin property, and one locals. So 11 badges with 250 tier per badge and 11 entries into the drawing sounds like a plan. We might swap out Mandalay Bay at the end of March with Harrah’s So Cal to pick up maybe one more, but we are pretty close to Gold at MGM again thanks to paying for rooms and concerts…so that’s still debatable. I should be able to do a new Burgundy Room review from Paris, so it’s a double duty type of thing.

4. Derek has spoken about one of the questions about the classic neon and lighted signs that adorn the buildings that are probably going to be torn down, one way or another they will be saved as Derek is a fan of Vegas history. True, some might end up at Neon Museum (he has no rights to the Las Vegas Club name remember), others he’s going to try to get into the design of the new resort. Oh and sad note sound here….they are at design meeting #50 with what he says is probably out of around 150, so new news on that front yet. Read LVSun here.

5. Industry Weekly has this upcoming weekends best shows here via LVSun.

6. Caesars gave their normal “crap we lost a lot of money but buy our stock” for the 4th quarter and year end here. Interesting, if you read the transcript here a lot more Las Vegas rooms to be upgraded, Caesars Palace Tower, one of the other towers (not sure which since they are both labeled as Mardi Gras) at Harrah’s, Flamingo. Oh, and I think the transcription is off because they have in there the big tower at Valley’s….I am hoping that is supposed to be Bally’s…or they are talking the rest of the rooms in the Harrah’s newly renamed Valley View tower..not sure 100%. It’s pretty much loss due to costs of the CEOC Bankruptcy, and in the middle of that transcript in the plain day, they have that big caveat still…if something goes south we go bust. If you just want numbers here is the PR Newswire version. Interesting, though, my local Harrah’s is under a huge renovation (see here) and absolutely no mention of it in their reports.

7. Nevada eSports? Yup and CEO Scott Schorr of Downtown Grand leading the way, read LVSun here.

8. This can never be good, SpeedVegas had a fatal crash that took the life of a customer and an instructor read LVRJ here. What is happening now as an investigation is ongoing is evidently some of the cars in the fleet may have had a manufacturer’s recall issue read LVRJ here. Supposedly SpeedVegas is closed for a while during the investigation, so Exotics Racing at LV Speedway is another option if you want to try it out.

9. Lucky Dragon is already fiddling around with the high roller room, and restaurants, read LVRJ here. And, Vital Vegas here. No reason to worry as they are reporting good, just tweaking the formula I guess (putting all restaurants on casino level and such).

10. Boyd Gaming posts earnings for the 4th quarter and year end see the LVRJ article here. And, the transcript of the call here. They are making money, and more than what the analysts were expecting. Read TheStreet’s take on it here as well. The transcript is probably the best read. So, the California is fully remodeled room wise, and they are focusing on integrating into the Cannery and Aliante purchases into the full Boyd system. Really interesting is that Boyd had been leasing the land under The Orleans for many years…and now they own it due to the purchasing provision they executed on. No plans for expansion yet but at least they own the land.

11. Tracinda Corp is selling more of MGM’s shares as it slowly unwinds it’s ownership in MGM stock per Kirk Kerkorian’s wishes upon his death. UBS is the receiver of some of that ownership now, read LVRJ here.

12. Read Kat’s article here on news items around Las Vegas (i.e. Mob Museum celebration), the article now includes video and has some nice behind the scene’s rehearsal footage as well as some acts you may not know about as well as some rather famous ones. Read and view here. News of note to Michael Movestro… Morton’s steakhouse opening is moving to May from the original March opening date at Hard Rock…so no Morton’s yet. Oh yeah and according to Robin here it’s going to be called MB Steak.

13. Robin has some Wicked Whispers and Racy Rumors here. I think perhaps the arena behind the Sands Convention Center may never get done, seems like a lot of entertainment venues and not enough entertainment may be the case. Heck, how long has Paris Theater been without a headliner show now since Jersey Boys left?

14. Vital Vegas has a much bigger spread on the Golden Gate expansion into the old La Bayou space or as you see it here….hole in the ground and dirt mound…what bothers me in this whole process is the fact that the freakin’ transformer tree is still there. The picture of the construction walls…it’s still visible just behind the fire escape ladders.

15. Vital Vegas also has new paid parking garage info for Caesars here. Of course, scroll down for some good news, Rio will not have paid parking, and that KISS mobile…I had the same thoughts as the next picture down, too funny.

16. Vital Vegas Twitter feed has a link to the Las Vegas Taco Bell Cantina wedding info from People Magazine here. I just can’t even think about this…why, unless you only have $600? But hey it’s still better than Bally’s Real Bodies wedding package I’d think (see here).

17. Vital Vegas has a shot of the former pool area at Monte Carlo (soon to be Park MGM and NoMad Hotel) here. Dirt, dirt and more dirt.

18. Of course, a fairly serious but logical news item from local TV, LV having a spike on STDs, read and view here. With Tinder and all the other goings on and drunken Oontz parties, this is a surprise? Oh, and they ran this the day before Valentine’s Day? Is this a “C’Mon Man” moment?

19. Not necessarily Las Vegas news, but good news for the folks of Laughlin who have looked across the river to an airport that really didn’t have a lot. That may change as American Airlines is starting regular service between IFP (Bullhead City airport) and PHX (Phoenix Sky Harbor airport). This should open that town up to a lot more air travel to and from that town. For you that don’t know Bullhead City is a rather large Arizona town full of retirees, so family visits used to mean a flight into LAS or PHX and a drive to Bullhead City. Read here….good for the casinos down there in Laughlin as well and might get some traction on additional visitation there. The other nice thing is that it’s about an hour to drive up to Las Vegas and room rates in Laughlin are fairly affordable. So, if LV is sold out and you are trying to attend a concert or show you might be able to swing it by staying in Laughlin…just know it’s a LONG hour drive and a speed trap town named Searchlight in-between. You’ve been warned.

20. EDGE Vegas has this link to Downtown Vegas changes, good to know what to expect.

21. EDGE Vegas also has casino updates as well here. No surprise via rumor that Park MGM is already adjusting expectations for Eataly and other venues.

22. EDGE Vegas also has it’s five things you must do on a first visit here. I’d counter one thing here as do one or both…if you are going to do the High Roller, then also do the Eiffel Tower at Paris especially if it’s not blazing hot and the Bellagio fountains are ongoing. The High Roller is behind a lot of parking structures and casinos, so the view is somewhat limited except at the top of the ride where the view is rather stunning…while the observation deck at Eiffel Tower is not that limited in time, you can be up there in full view for a while.

23. Mark of EDGE Vegas also has his pick for St. Patrick’s day in Las Vegas read here. The only concern I’d have is that NYNY’s sports book really isn’t that large.

24. EATER Vegas has an update to the Ping Pang Pong at Gold Coast, read here. Evidently, it’s not shutting down for remodeling. Instead, the old location is staying open until the new location in the old showroom is completed, and then they just switch over the location. That would then free up the old location for something else in the future.

25. EATER Vegas also has the best views in Las Vegas restaurants here. Two places I completely forgot about, Binion’s Steakhouse and VooDoo Steakhouse. Both off-strip and excellent views with easy access.

26. EATER Vegas has info on Bellagio Buffet updates and Palio Pronto replacement, yeah you guessed it, Starbucks. Read here. I will miss that gelato as well Michael….and nothing on if it will accept your wife’s points yet.

27. Interesting article from Stiffs and Georges, read here. Evidently, Wynn released where that donation money went (LVRJ assumed it was some Trump/GOP item and now needs to probably apologize). Scroll down for the info that has Caesars Palace getting more drinks sold via the Oculus lounge…or you could just put in a seahorse aquarium and serve less expensive drinks with full pay video poker at the bar. Can’t tell we mourn the loss of the best COMP’d Strawberry Daiquiri served with Malibu Rum in Las Vegas? So far the only place to get even close to that taste is surprisingly the Diamond Lounge at Paris. At least according to the missus.

So that’s it for other news this week, I’ll now turn it over to another Palio Pronto mourner our editor-in- chief Michael Movestro!

Thank you, BigAZMarty, for the news round up! Whether that Starbucks uses points or not, my wife won’t be visiting that Starbucks, because she knows a part of me will die on the inside and because she likes the bigger Starbucks at Grand Bazaar. I also had this moment on twitter…

About Morton’s…honestly, I don’t know if I could eat steak again…I have gallbladder surgery coming up. Landed my ass in the hospital at 3 AM Wednesday. Oy. Gotta do the non-fat/low-fat thing and see what my options are. I certainly hope that I have not reviewed my last burger, ever. It’s gonna be fruit, veggies, yogurt and Chic-fil-a for awhile. We’ll see. *sadly sighs* Nothing aginst Chic-fil-a but I’m sure at some point I will feel like I’ve had ENUF FCKN CHCKN.

Hey, peeps! Here are the stories we brought you last week!

28. Blonde4ever Muses about MyVegas.

29. Paperposter reviews: Classic Cher at The Park Theater.

30. Greg C finds new South Strip lodging options under construction.

31. Michael James shares his “Big Game” Party experience at South Point.

32. New Writer Andrew J. Benavidez shares his first stay at South Point.

33. Reader Chris R. shares some changes to the Aria Tower Suites product offering.

34. And, of course, BigAZMarty (and myself, kinda) with this article you’re reading right here.

Note: After my surgery, Vegas Bright may not have articles for at least a week during my recovery. I will keep you posted, not sure when it’s happening yet, just as FYI. – Michael Movestro

[Cover image by Michael Movestro. Yes, it’s a turtle. I don’t have anything “sexy” to use and I was already committed to the title. So, turtle. *shrugs*]

5 thoughts on “Sh*t You May Have Missed While Trying to Avoid STDs on Valentine’s Day

  1. Ak-Chin is also my local Harrah’s. CET just manages and brands the casino for the tribe. While CET was consulted about the expansion, the tribe had the final say in all phases and the tribe is footing the entire bill. They’ve been planning and budgeting it over the last two years.

    1. Yes that’s is true but isn’t both Harrah’s in the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina the same way? They did report a new tower going in there as well for the older larger casino resort complex in the Smoky Mountains.

  2. A relative of mine had horrible pain in stomach, went to ER, and determined Gallbladder had to be removed, then when he was about to go into surgery, the doctor thought the EKG test results looked odd, so they did another EKG and realized he had heart problems, so they cancelled the surgery, and did a (I think an ultrasound of heart) and saw that the arteries were clogged, and this may have been causing the pain in gallbladder because it was also restricting blood flow to it. So, Quintuple (5-way, the most) Heart Bypass Surgery was in order. No pain in gall bladder anymore, but it can’t be removed during bypass surgery, and you can’t have surgery for a year after bypass surgery, so he’s hoping pain does not come back. Has to eat healthier like you were saying too, which is difficult. Sorry for long post, hope it is not this serious for you, but it reminded me, and wanted to let you know in case.

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