Sh*t You May Have Missed (Such as Your Tires) at Bellagio’s Paid Self-Park Garage

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It’s SYMHM for the week ending 4/28/2017.

Hey, all! BigAZMarty here, bringing you all the news from around the Webs for our favorite place, Las Vegas!

1. The hits keep on coming for Bellagio. Now, car parts are getting stolen from customers cars while in Paid Self Parking. The same thing occurred in Paris/Bally’s Paid Self Parking as well.  Read/view local 13 TV report here. I’d be looking for an SUV or Truck with a Crew Cab and a NASCAR pit crew….although those aren’t approved NASCAR jacks for sure. Hopefully, insurance covered the tow and replacement of the wheels and tires. Really sucks that Bellagio and Paris/Bally’s have a park at your own risk disclaimer that is enforced. Thanks to VitalVegas for the twitter links.

2. A Patagonian Mara (a large rodent) was caught after witnesses saw a car slow down and throw the animal out the window. A chase ensued to capture the animal (Animal Control…who else?) and it is safe at a vet’s office now. Crazy stuff…only in Vegas!!! See/Read 13TV here. Vital Vegas had the story linked on his twitter feed for this as well.

3. Magic Mike Live has opened at Hard Rock Resort. LVSun has a decent gallery here of opening night including Channing Tatum. Of course, Robin at LVRJ also has a gallery, video and more here.

4. LVRJ reports a small fire was extinguished at Trump International Hotel in the Women’s Bathroom on the 7th Floor here. Yes, that is the Pool Deck floor. Following on from LVSun, there were actually two fires… the other in a hallway on the 17th floor, toasters, and linens used to start both of the fires and the suspect has been captured, read here.

5. It’s 1st Quarter 2017 Earnings reporting season! Wynn fires off the first salvo with a huge beat on estimated earnings. Read Yahoo Finance transcript here. Actual EPS of $1.24 vs. analyst estimates at Zachs of .74. Read further down in the article where he’s talking phases of Paradise Park at the Wynn/Encore Golf Course. As always Steve is always a good read.

6. On the same day as the Earnings Report, the Wynn Resorts board approved the Paradise Park, read LVRJ here as construction should start end of 2017 to the beginning of 2018. The sad part is they are pairing back the construction to specific phases and the new hotel wing may be last if it happens at all.  They are prioritizing by ROI I’d say…if your two towers aren’t full, why build more? So building out convention/meeting and lagoon/boardwalk/beaches…if that fills the rooms then build the tower.  Makes sense.

7. A very nice LVRJ article here on the only individually run Horse Racing Sports Book in Las Vegas at South Point. The lady that runs it started at Barbary Coast and then moved around until Michael Gaughan tapped her to run the South Coast (previous name of South Point). A long company history except for the LV Sands portion….good to see a company take care of its employees and clients. And to Mary….you go, girl!

8. LV Sands reported Earnings, read PR Newswire here for the transcript. Sam calls it the best Las Vegas quarter since 2008 so that’s saying a lot. EPS listed at .60 a Share vs. Estimates of .61 so they didn’t beat analyst expectations, read CNBC here. I’m saying this first since Sam’s paper has a different story here with no mention of the Estimate miss.

9. Las Rageous Las Vegas came and went and of course photo galleries for each day. LVSun has Day 1 here, Day 2 here.

10. Flamingo pays out $1M to a San Diego man, read here. Who says Diamonds are a girl’s best friend? He had a 6 card Royal (all Diamonds) on Crazy 4 Poker. Oh and talk about beginners luck…his first time playing Crazy 4 Poker.

11. A California man was arrested for raping another man after the Las Rageous concerts downtown, read LVSun here. Rape is just pure evil, plain and simple.

12. March Nevada State Win numbers are in for Nevada and it’s almost $1B and a big jump due to Sports Betting (up 223.1%) around the NCAA Tourney. Slots up, Tables up…and Downtown way up Y-O-Y to the tune of 22.61% Y-O-Y but that can also be due to the Lucky Dragon opening inside that Downtown border. Read LVSun here.

13. LVSun has a great article on the four types of customers in Las Vegas Resort casinos here. I’m not sure this would apply to the little casinos that have limited Convention Customers or Resort Amenities though. Which type are you?

14. Are you a fan of Hans Zimmer? If so he recently played at The Park Theater, and here is LVWeekly’s review of the show with a gallery of the concert. If you read the article think..no phone so where did the shots come from? (Editor’s note: I was there, no “professional” equipment was allowed. Many of us in the audience had phones out snapping pictures and taking video, no one said anything. Sometimes it’s up to the performer, not the venue. – Michael Movestro)

15. A little early but Industry weekly has the big shows for the weekend early (sorry by the time you read this the Thursday show will have already happened), read here.

16. If you have tickets to Elton John at Caesars Palace between now and May 5th I’d check with the ticketing agents as Elton has canceled shows in April-May due to a bacterial infection suffered during his tour of South America. Read Robin at LVRJ here. Get well, Elton!

17. Robin at LVRJ has some theories on the north part of the strip, read here. Super vague on the Resorts World plans especially since trucks have been spotted on the property for electrical work. As for Alon, that’s a lot and some of that land is leased land from the Elardi family so not sure of the parcel…$300M. Isn’t Fontainebleau going for just a little more than that and you get an almost completed resort…a lot to finish but nowhere near ground up construction.

18. MGM Resorts, Inc. reported Earnings on Thursday morning to a beat via EPS of .36 to estimates of EPS at .29, read MGM’s press release here.  Interesting that they are holding at a 91% occupancy rate but REVPAR (Revenue per Available Room) and ADR (Average Daily Rate) have gone up….paid parking/paid valet and $5 Keurig Kits would be some of that I would think. If you can read between the lines….MGM has not seen the giant uptick in Occupancy Rate that LVSands or Wynn have. That being said, they are not dropping off either — 91% is still a respectable rate.  Also of note is that Y-O-Y is not jumping up that much, which to me, is odd since they bought out Boyd’s half of Borgata and opened National Harbor last year which would show up for the first time in this quarter. I was expecting a bigger jump due to that, at the very least.

19. Also, MGM marketing changes are occurring at the Corporate level as they consolidate down to two external marketing agencies, PHD for media and McCann for creative. They’ll bring the programmatic portions of marketing in-house. Read AdExchanger here as well as MarketingDive here. On reading this, I was surprised the previous CEO preferred to have the individual hotel/resorts compete so all had their own marketing and media relationships…probably goes back to the MGM Grand and Mirage Resort days. Murren has changed that now for a more consistent message across all properties.

20. Caesars (Both CZR and CAC) are reporting earnings next week,  they have restructured some of their long-term debt in Caesars Growth Partner Holdings ( the non-bankrupt division of CAC). The term was $1.14B with an add-on of an additional term loan of $175M and rate on the new term is lower at LIBOR + 300 points with some stipulations that may lower it to LIBOR + 275.  This frees up cash flow for CGPH and the $175M pays off the specific Term Loan for The Cromwell.  Read here. Interesting thing is that the stock prices are way up on both CZR and CACQ probably because of all the good news from Wynn, LVSands, and MGM. Combined at the rate right now of the Market Cap for both CZR and CACQ is close to $4B…which is a far cry from during the Bankruptcy battle days of February 2016. I think CACQ was at around $5 a share (compared to $17 a share now) and CZR was at $6 a share (compared to almost $11 a share now).

21. Penn Gaming reported EPS of .06 for the 1st quarter vs Estimates of .10 EPS, and has some really odd Y-O-Y numbers showing some huge decreases, read NASDAQ here. Now, remember, they just bought (for $44M) the Tunica Resorts Casino and Tunica Bally’s Casino (non-CZR — all owned by RIH Acquisitions) in March so that, I am sure, is the big hit to the bottom line of earnings.  Now revenue Y-O-Y was up so next quarter if no surprise earnings hit, you should see that recover.

22. Want to buy Brandon Flower’s (The Killers) mansion? Read LVSun here. It’s had some famous occupants in its time, Andre Agassi, Howard Hughes, former LV mayor Jan Jones Blackhurst and LV Developer Irwin Molasky. At 8,300 sq ft and going at $4.95M it’s an interesting property…seems more like a So. Cal. mansion up in the hills than a Las Vegas mansion. It’s very different and the YouTube video shows just how different it is…no sweeping views of the Strip, just peace, and tranquility with a ton of greenery (giant water bill I’m guessing). The drone shots show how secluded it is. It seems almost like a small forest hiding the buildings there.

23. Coming in June to EDC?  Here’s a list of the other shows to go to when you aren’t at EDC but still want to have the experience in the same timeframe (or couldn’t afford tickets). Read Robin at LVRJ here.

24. MarC of EDGE Vegas reviews Venetian’s Mercato Della Pescheria with a twist on TravelZork. He’s not a seafood fan so it’s more along the lines of a regular Italian dinner review.  Mmmmm Tiramisu….read it in all of its goodness here.

25. Vital Vegas and EATER Vegas both reporting the world’s largest Hooters at The Palms in Las Vegas is closed. If you want wings and beer served by tank top and dolphin short-wearing girls…you’ll have to go to the Hooters Casino several blocks away. Or, if burger hungry + beer do Tilted Kilt at the Linq. Or, Twin Peaks at Harmon Corner where the Walgreen’s is. Read Vital Vegas here and read EATER Vegas here.

26. Vital Vegas is showing more equipment and dirt work at the All Net Resort and Arena site, read/view here. I’m curious, in our article with the Resorts World updates…is that the same company’s truck? Are they picking up dirt at Resorts World and dumping loose dirt at All Net Resort and Arena? Also of note for probably the wrong reasons….the NBA announced they are NOT looking short term to move an existing team nor put a new expansion team in the Las Vegas market, read LVSun here. Might as well put up a casino there….or bring back Wet ‘N Wild!

27. Vital Vegas goes deep into the water slide construction we covered this week as well for Circus Circus, read here. I still don’t know why the property isn’t an MLife property yet, and for god’s sake why is the Circus Circus Motor Manor still a thing? Blow those out and build something else…anything else…as it’s on the North Side it wouldn’t block the sun that much if it’s another hotel tower or Amusement Park expansion.

28. Vital Vegas reports that eSports Arena has replaced the Commissary at Downtown Grand, read here. I think that beats the MGM one at Luxor (in old LAX Nightclub) to market by a lot.

29. Vital Vegas twitter saying that Las Vegas Club demo will start in June here. Scroll down to the single line item and then click on it and lower down in stream says no implosions. My thoughts are probably due to the awning of Fremont Street Experience. There are some Golden Gate expansion photos here…good to see the transformer treehouse has been removed.

30. Vital Vegas links to thrillist.com here for a 50 Bucket-List items you have to do in Las Vegas.

31. Finally a Las Vegas Advisor article here (this changes daily…look for April 27th’s article in the archives). The article discusses what to do when the casino is no longer rewarding you as much as it used to and why that might be. And yes I’ve seen offers trickle down when you hit a Royal Flush even outside of the Las Vegas market…takes about 6 months to get it back up again.

So that’s it for the news for Las Vegas, and now to our orchestrating and hopefully refreshed (from his Las Vegas visit last week)…our Editor-In-Chief, Michael Movestro with our stuff!

Thanks, BigAZMarty! Refreshed? Yes. Orchestrating? Yes. Great time in Vegas last week? Yes! I’ll be talking all about it with my wife n this week’sVegas Bright podcast! Hi, peeps! I hope you’ve all had a fabulous week! Here are the stories we brought you this week.

32. Sammasseur shares how Familiar landmarks are getting touched up, rebuilt…or ripped out completely.

33. Blonde4ever shares Part 4 of her Las Vegas Trip Report from October of 2016.

34. BigAZMarty shares a Room Review of Planet Hollywood’s Ultra Resort Vista Room.

35. I chimed in on how Titanic the Artifact Exhibition adds Vegas Related Artifacts Never Before Seen.

36. In a round-up of sorts, I shared about how Electrical Trucks are on site at Resorts World, the Circus Circus Waterslide progress, and a new Palazzo Food Court Coming Soon.

37. New contributors Josh nd Wendy share their March Madness experience in Vegas.

38. And of course, this article you’re reading here by 95% BigAZMarty and 5% yours truly.

That’s it for this week, we’ll see you next week on Sunday with a very Special Trip Report edition of the Vegas Bright Podcast!

[Cover: by Michael Movestro]