Casino Operator Tropicana to file BK
Submitted by
CalculatedRisk on Mon, 05/05/2008 - 12:31pm (108 comments)
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When Americans stop gambling... shudder...
When Americans stop gambling...perhaps they have become smarter. nah! Even the SS play money is being used up to donate to their kids for food and gas...
Give it five years, the real LV "headwinds" are water, the mussels in Lake Mead and airplane ticket prices/fuel costs and everyone in south Nevada knows it
AWESOME CR!!! You have those greatglam girls on your site now. Hubba hubba!!!
I have been lost since Mish took them down
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CNX_z6XYoaCzMBCgARjCBDIIosW0mjlYNVY
Las Vegas is a steamy pile of dung.
Thank goodness there's always the stock market if one is inclined to gamble.
And the real irony in this is we (construction company) just got an other proposal for yet and other Indian casino here in SoCal.... They just keep building them...
My impression is that casino operators in Las Vegas simply overbuilt, and that the slumping economy hastened the day of reckoning for some.
Maybe we're due for a boom on the bingo parlor side of the business.
Lot's wife is walking away again, and this time she won't look back.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic, sorry:
My wife and I were thinking of buying a home in our area. Pretty much every inhabitable structure falls into the jumbo loan range in our area.
We called the USAA bank, with whom we have banked with for years and were told the following:
1) We need 15% down payment
2) Additional 5% down payment because we are in a "declining market"
3) Current rate for well qualified buyers (us) 8-9% for 30 year fixed.
The service rep said that the bank "doesn't want to be in the jumbo loan market", and that we should try another bank for better terms.
Wow. Thanks for the tip, lady.
"When Americans stop gambling... shudder..."
Americans will never stop gambling, but the rise of casino gambling in various parts of the country is almost a sign of decline:
Some cash-strapped community or Indian tribe decides to open a casino to bring in money from elsewhere, because they otherwise produce nothing or sell nothing in the "new" economy.
Eventually, of course, "elsewhere" is becoming as poor as the casino areas, and business must inevitably fall.
Yeah, a lot of vices are slowing. Including exotic dancing clubs.
Or so I'm reliably informed.
As much water as has to be trucked into Vegas daily... I expect archaeologists in the 27th century to conclude that the site must've had religious significance because there could be no rational reason for humans to live there otherwise.
Once again Vegas proves that leverage kills.
Again.
Ho hum.
Nothing more to do than short casino bonds and wait for the inevitable to happen again.
I knew Vegas was going south when I saw that spiffy new looking Trump Casino on the strip.
Someday this war's gonna end...
"Wow. Thanks for the tip, lady."
giacutter
Are you really thinking about buying a home...... NOW?
I seen your name here before, you're not new. There's just no excuse for thinking about buying a home now.
Oh noes, what if the CME and NYSE are next?
I seen your name here before, you're not new. There's just no excuse for thinking about buying a home now.
Hes got to live somewhere, that seems like a pretty good reason to me.... In 15 years it wont matter if he bought now or buys in two years....
I've managed to keep my wife at bay from buying a house for over three years now.
I doubt if anyone else could do better. (And I couldn't have lasted THAT long without CR and Tanta's site, BTW).
Anyway, she sees blood in the water. Prices are down 10% already, so if we lowball another 10-20%, well.........
OT-- check out where Sec. Paulson is going to be next week.
http://www.freedomtalks.org/2008/05/05/yes-we-really-are-just-printing-money/
"In 15 years it wont matter if he bought now or buys in two years...."
Well, let's see. If his prospective home is $1 million, and prices drop 10% more over the next few years, he could save $100,000, and that doesn't include the fact that renting is usually cheaper than buying.
I think it matters . . .
I think the Tropicanna hotel itself was the oldest (or at least, furthest from last renovation) currently on the strip. It was overdue for an implosion anyway.
gia,
I hear ya bro! Though I am about one year into that three year stall...
Has anyone ever wondered how people in their right mind can argue that markets are efficient and investors are rational when you have people all over the world pumping money into slot machines all day?
Seems like that right there debunks the whole rational investor idea unless you can somehow prove that no one who has entered a casino has ever been a market participant.
"Anyway, she sees blood in the water. "
Explain to her that blood will be yours too, unless you wait another year. What's the big rush?
It's a myth that gambling always does well in economic downturns. Gambling took a beating during the depression.
Take the West Baden Springs Hotel, for example. It was part of a booming gambling/casino region during the 1920s, but went into decline in the 1930s. I think it speaks volume that the place has only recently been updated and re-opened. Just in time for the NEXT downturn.
West Baden Springs Hotel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Is this the juice company, i.e, the company that squeezes frozen commodity yields?
What's the big rush?
Apparently it's a sin to rent. You don't want me to live "in sin", do you?
(Even if it is a house with >3000 sq feet.)
Man- At least they could have held out until those rebate checks arrived in the mail. I'm sitting here listening to an economist on bloomberg talking about free money coming from our government. Awesome!!
giacutter,
If you get a fair price you can afford and don't view the purchase as a get rich quick scheme, I think buying now makes some sense. Especially if it is a place you are going to live in for many years.
What goes belly-up in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
From Briefing.com:
"4:05PM Target announces agreement to sell interest in credit card receivables to JPMorgan Chase for initial investment of $3.6 bln (TGT) 53.19 +0.72 : Co announces an agreement under which JPMorgan Chase (JPM) would invest in Target's credit card receivables. At closing Target would sell an undivided interest in its credit card receivables to JPMorgan Chase for cash proceeds of approx $3.6 bln."
So, through this little scheme, Target is essentially gaining access to the TAF.
Another gem from Briefing:
"4:41PM SIGA Technologies and ALB team up for second-round test-phase production of a FDA-designated "fast track" drug candidate to treat smallpox (SIGA) 3.36 -0.04 : The co and Albemarle (ALB) announce they are teaming up for second-round test-phase production of a FDA-designated "fast track" drug candidate to treat smallpox, a deadly virus that is feared to be able to reach people through acts of bio-warfare or bio-terrorism. ALB was selected by SIGA to provide scale-up and manufacturing services for ST-246, SIGA's leading smallpox antiviral candidate."
Yep, fast-tracking a smallpox treatment.
Things are looking up.
Control your women, wussy boys!
Yeah, I stayed at the Wynn last fall and it was dead on the casino floor.
LV is in a world of hurt. Tax revenues are down, housing is in a depression, gaming is siking fast... oh wait Trump is finishing his condotel...
I sympathize with giacutter. My family has been biding time before a house purchase for three years, too. And the blood is clearly in the water in our area. The difficulty of getting a jumbo loan is your excuse to lowball the price. Here it is remarkable how much the $500K+ homes are falling.
However, the Wynn casino floor was full of woman with big xxx who seemed to approach me several times. Fortunately, I am married. I think the only thing still booming is the prostitution trade in vegas.
I think casinos are still recession proof, just not MEW proof.
The growth in tribal gambling can't help but be at least partly at the expense of Vegas and Nevada.
Now I'm wondering how long before some of the tribal casinos start to feel the pinch. Oh wait...
We're sorry, you've encountered an error
So, through this little scheme, Target is essentially gaining access to the TAF.
Why should Target be the only ones left out?
The casinos have been suffering as all the riverboat gamblers piled into the stock market.
The casinos have been suffering as all the riverboat gamblers piled into the stock market.
Gary
I thought it was the commodity markets.
Bob Dobbs said: "Americans will never stop gambling, but the rise of casino gambling in various parts of the country is almost a sign of decline:"
Similar to a time when shoe shine boys were touting stocks.
I guess LV casinos are not too big too fail - we finally found someone the fed doens't give a crap about!
"The casinos have been suffering as all the riverboat gamblers piled into the stock market"
I agree. I know plenty of guys that like to go to Vegas and like inet gaming but now gamble in the stock market - legalized internet gambling - instead.
No free drinks though.
giacutter, I feel your pain. Saving grace was originally, we were broke (not much of a saving grace when 100% financing is being flashed about like the XXX of crispy's enticers.)
But after a while, when the numbers started to back me up, she has come around and is totally on board.
Fortunately, a woman who will agree to a hawaiian shirt wedding also does not equate renting with sin!
"Mo Green is out of the Tropicana. My sons Mike and Fredo are taing over." - Fletch
So just curious, if LV is in decline, what year would everyone say we had "Peak Vegas"? 2003?
Apparently it's a sin to rent. You don't want me to live "in sin", do you?
who sold this myth, NAR?
giacutter writes:
So just curious, if LV is in decline, what year would everyone say we had "Peak Vegas"? 2003?
giacutter | 05.05.08 - 6:05 pm | #
Has to be later than that, right? Maybe when the Wynn opened. There'll be a couple more opening to total thuds.
I wonder how other supposedly counter-cyclical forms of escapist entertainment (movies and video games) fair.
Some people have mentioned the competition elsewhere in the United States. What about the competition globally? Macau has surpassed Las Vegas, including the gigantic Venetian.
With the cost of jet fuel ever increasing...
So I guess if I were to buy a house now, I would be taking a calculated risk, no?
(Rim shot. Thank you, thank you. Try the veal.)
Fortunately, a woman who will agree to a hawaiian shirt wedding also does not equate renting with sin!
Gary | 05.05.08 - 6:04 pm | #
Oh, Gary. You have truly found your perfect match.
" were to buy a house now, I would be taking a calculated risk, no?"
Hmmmmmm.... I don't think so. If you live in bubbleland - You would be throwing a lot of money away. No other way to describe it.
And unlike some past recessions, casinos are not proving to be recession proof this time around,"
I have a $5 wager that gambling is the next bubble. C'mon Vegas!
"" were to buy a house now, I would be taking a calculated risk, no?"
You would be better off buying equities. Still probably lose, but less of a sure thing.
"I wonder how other supposedly counter-cyclical forms of escapist entertainment (movies and video games) fair."
Cheap thrills always do well in bad times. Costed by the hours of amusement provided, a top video game is probably a pretty good deal in hard times.
Conventional theater-going, not so much; kind of expensive. Although media projectors have brought cheap "movie nights" into restaurants and other venues that didn't offer that sort of thing before; I assume that the industry gets its cut, because they're pretty open about it around here.
DVD rentals will do well, as will Internet movie downloads.
And cheap beer. Always cheap beer.
It seems only a few hours ago I was warning about Vegas. Why yes it was few hours ago:
Rob Dawg writes:
Lots of "lodging" at the high end. Think Las Vegas, high end downtown and luxury resort construction. Yet another overbuilt category. Vegas, Scottsdale, Sedona, Miami welcome to Honolulu circa 1988.
And the flops keep commin'. Fontainebleau and Encore, etc. opening to the sond of crickets soon.
"
And the flops keep commin'. Fontainebleau and Encore, etc. opening to the sond of crickets soon."
Turn all those empty hotel towers into high-end SRO hotels for usta-be middle-class boomer retirees. Old Miami Beach writ large...
giacutter (and all others thinking of buying now),
If you don't buy today and real estate stabilizes quickly, perhaps you won't get in at the BOTTOM BOTTOM. So you miss it by a little bit. Can you live with that?
But if you buy now, and it plummets as many here expect, how stupid would you feel? It's all over the news, this is the big talk nowadays, and you still bought a house. Again, how stupid would you feel?
Wait!!!! What's the hurry? Better to miss the absolute bottom than to catch the blade of the knife.
I am a professionl gambler. I am amazed at how much more revenue-per-customer the casinos need now compared to 10 years ago. The facilities need constant upgrades, new marble fountains everywhere, better rooms, etc. Somehow, they were getting the revenue, until recently. A lot of revenue was $14 martinis and mojitos and overpriced shows. Much of this revenue is discretionary, even for folks sadly hooked on gambling.
Effe
Ooh, fun!
Vegas Implosions - Implosions in Las Vegas - Las Vegas Implosions | VEGAS.com
How are the casinos on Wall St. doing?
oh..nevermind
As a counterpoint, I was in Vegas just last weekend.
The place was bustling. I visited several major casinos on the Strip and they were bustling. Table games are big. Many casinos were so packed I had trouble moving around, amongst the throngs of people.
Bellagio, Mirage, TI, and Wynn were especially crowded. Paris wasn't crowded but was still doing a lively business. I last visited Vegas in 2006 and if anything, it's more crowded than it was back then. So it's definitely not "dead".
Sniglet writes:
It's a myth that gambling always does well in economic downturns. Gambling took a beating during the depression
Beer stocks do modestly well in these times. Not micros but the big boys who can pump it out cheap.
Somehow, they were getting the revenue, until recently.
Are you sure it was 'revenue' and not just 'additional debt'?
The marble each buys looks exactly the same but actual revenue is equivalent to the chips in front (winnings), while debt is little more then their ante still in play.
Maybe they win and maybe not. I think more than a few are going to end busted just like the Trop.
Krellan, of course it was busy.
The American Planning Association had almost 4k folks down there thru last Thursday. I was one of them.
As for busy. I walked around on Wednesday morning, and Ballys didn't even have 3 live table games going.
I saw an awful large amount of empty slots too. I did see full sidewalks, but convention folks drink and hobnob, and don't gamble much (depending on the convention)- the AEA convention is notorious for being full of boring folks that don't actively contribute to Vegas/local amusements wherever it goes.
Someday this war's gonna end...
Oh, Gary. You have truly found your perfect match.
Outsider | 05.05.08 - 6:22 pm | #
I consider myself, the luckiest man in the world.
(Doubly so, as I do not have Lou Gehrig's disease.)
Too soon? Too soon?
AllenM, was there much attention given to mass transit at your convention?
I have always thought that pulling on one armed bandits was like having to pay to do an excruciatingly boring job.
Having a poker nite out with the boys
is entirely different.
Effen,
Do professional gamblers play the stock market? What % would you guess? Do you think they have an edge over the business types?
Kolohe is right - for years the Tropicana has been a pit - dirty, dark, depressing, with lousy customer service. Good riddance.
Kolohe is right - for years the Tropicana has been a pit - dirty, dark, depressing, with lousy customer service.
Actually it sounds kind of cool. A place for serious gamblers, real underworld types. Gambling as it should be.
crispy&cole writes:
I guess LV casinos...
Tomorrow the Fed will announce that casino markers and chips can be swapped for T bills..
all is well
Krellan, what time of day were you there?
Day-time doesn't count. The really heavy duty stuff goes on after midnight. Even the slots.
My observation after many trips to LV, AC, etc. I don't even bother until after 2am. Much richer ... umm, clients (so to speak?) ... after that time. IMO.
Observation: Compare the cost to drive to Vegas from LA for April 2007 vs April 2008
Do professional gamblers play the stock market?
There is no 401K or pension plan for pro gamblers. They need to save for their own retirement. The smarter pros are always thinking about where their edge is, and are brutally honest with themselves about their results. They also distinguish between being lucky and being smart. These are good traits for investors. However, most make their money off of small edges on very short-term investments. This probably isn't a good way to invest in Wall Street. The pros that I respect the most are all serious stock-market investors, but I also know a lot of pro wannabees who are missing a few cards from the deck.
I don't day trade. I am more of a 'buy and hold for years' kind of investor. Except, for the last year, I have been a 'sell and hold' investor.
Effe
giacutter,
Show your wife those cliff-diving Case-Shiller charts!!! You really don't want to be buying until they show signs of leveling off a bit.
Some thoughts:
- The last recession hit Vegas pretty good.
- The new casinos always kill the old ones.
- Who needs Vegas when you have Wall Street?
The Trop is the oldest hotel on the strip now that the Hacienda and Stardust have been demolished. They haven't done anything but ride the coat tails of the other hotels when it comes to advertisement or remodeling. The decisions not to update left them lacking in appeal and customers as other hotels began to attract the Tropicana's last customer base: XXX-based conventions and events.
"Subprime. It's not just for breakfast anymore."
Actually it sounds kind of cool. A place for serious gamblers, real underworld types. Gambling as it should be.
Nah - I stopped by a couple years ago - it smelled of old lady perfume and busloads of senir citizens. Very very few table games.
The Trop is 15 years past its prime.
The Trop has been a dump for 10 years.
Went to Vegas in January. I used to love going there, but its not very fun anymore. They nickel and dime you for everything now. God help you if you are going for or during a conference because they gouge the ever loving crap out of you on room rates.
You used to be able to get free drinks while playing the slots, but now they purposefully under staff the waitresses so it takes 45 minutes to get a watered down gin and tonic. Guess the corporate bean counters will realize very soon that they ruined the experience.
"I've managed to keep my wife at bay from buying a house for over three years now.
I doubt if anyone else could do better. (And I couldn't have lasted THAT long without CR and Tanta's site, BTW).
Anyway, she sees blood in the water. Prices are down 10% already, so if we lowball another 10-20%, well.........".
We sold in the summer of 2005 and have been leasing ever since. If you think, like I do, that it would be financially prudent to continue leasing, try this: show your wife a few of the homes that you can buy now ... and then take her to see a few of the homes that you can buy if you wait another couple of years. It is working for me.
So just curious, if LV is in decline, what year would everyone say we had "Peak Vegas"? 2003?
My best friend is in Vegas for a produce convention right now...very big rollers. Money is flowing normally from the conventioneers into the normal events at the hotels and golf courses.
But today, she walked from Bally's to the Mandalay Bay, 9-11 am. Yesterday afternoon she was at the Venetian for late lunch; & last night, at the Paris for the big opening night affair.
She heads one of the most profitable divisions of a Fortune 100 company.
She reported to me at 11 this morning: lots of people in the malls, but very few carrying shopping bags; meaningful numbers of people in the shopss, but few holding shopping bags. Her conclusion: Few Sales; ergo Vegas is in financial trouble.
My observation: Vegas is the adult Disneyland; they'll come, stay at hotels with discounts (she was assigned to Bally's!...talk about squeezing shut the Fortune 100 purse!), buy drinks, spend some money on drinks & average meals, and come home "happy".
Maybe Vegas should charge a toll to enter onto Las Vegas Blvd?
Tonite, she'll be dining at the priciest restn't in the Bellagio. I'll post again if it was packed, and how full the shops are in that joint, later tonite.
To paraphrase a report in NJ.com, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission stripped The Tropicana of Atlantic City of its gaming license on December 12, which touched off a "funding crisis" leading to today's announcement. Apparently the commission no longer believed Tropicana management could run a "first-class operation" required by state law.
Tropicana Entertainment to file for bankruptcy | New Jersey Real-Time News - - NJ.com
Did Tropicana Entertainment get Bear Stearned?
One day pot smoking will be legal in Vegas, just like nearly everything else. Their revenues will be up until the water (for the bongs) run out...
Gary writes:
AllenM, was there much attention given to mass transit at your convention?
So many that they've earned a group moniker; TODLERs.
Transit Oriented Development LovERs. As distinguished from the NUTS, New Urbanist Transit Supporters.
SmUG = Smart Urban Growth
SmUGLers = Smart Urban Growth Lovers
NUTS = New Urbanist Transit Supporter
TODLers = Transit Only Development Lovers
FOAMers = Forces Of Anti-Mobility
TROGlodytes = Transit Only Groupies
PEVERT = Promoting Exclusion of Vehicles Except Regional Transit
OPAC = Obsolete Pre-Automotive Cities
As you may deign I don't think much of modern planning practices.
Vegas has an embryo cord to Los Angeles and Orange County..All my high flying bretheren in L.A. during the housing boom were throwing a lot of money into Vegas but they are now looking at thier spending a wee bit different.
I agree that nighttime action is only action to compare, I spent a month of convention time their thru-out last year and day was always slow..
Vegas's big problem is water, they won't have any in 20 years. The first guy to build a desalienation plant near Guaymas, Mexico or Los angeles basin has a great customer.
Ben is advocating lender principle write downs tonight!
Bernanke Urges Action to Avert Further Foreclosures (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
If Dubai goes ahead and legalizes gambling, Vegas is going to have to do something for economic development. I do like the pot idea IMHO.
I got to play spouse, hence the time to scout- too many nervous/unhappy folks there. Food was very high compared to past years.
Judging by the literature, nothing has changed. You would think they would be proactive in delivering up to date topics.
Instead it looked like the same old same old.
Reasonable small bus transit will never appear under our central planning nuts.
Someday this war's gonna end...
gicutter:
About a year ago my wife and I decided it was time to downsize -- again. I wanted to sell fast, at any cost, but she wanted to get the house ready to show. That took about 4 months and we didn't get the bloody thing on the market until August.
After six months (including 2 months negotiating with the sucker ... er ... GUY who finally bought it) we sold it for the same price as another of the same model sold for 18 months earlier. I'm told the other had "better finishes".
We had planned all along to rent for a while, so we moved only three blocks away and are very pleased.
Now she thinks it will be time to buy again at the end of this 13 month lease. I tried to rely on the arguments of this blog to say "No", but had to give up. Although I think have convinced her I can't go through another house search and move until at least the end of a second year's lease.
The secret to a long marrige is to choose wisely in the first place. She had dozens of suiters, but she made the best choice.
Allen M:
I read on a blog that city/high rise living is not energy efficient even though we can walk to the grocery store. This because all our food has to be trucked in. Doesn't sound right to me -- food has to be trucked to suburban grocery stores too.
Comments? Links? Anyone?
Danke Schoen
Dated Vegas Mansions Flooding Market
'Dated' Vegas mansions flooding market - Salt Lake Tribune
Ahh, Dawg, we've had these fights before . . fortunately we're on different coasts and the threads are big enough for both our egos.
Sic Semper Traffic!
There's like 10,000 check cashing/payday loan stores in Vegas. If the CEO of Tropicana would just go out and write a $500 check at each one, his problem would be solved for two more weeks, by which time Harry Reid could arrange a bailout with the Fed.
Here's the coup d'grace on Vegas.
Convention traffic is down 20%.
The nightclub business remains steady.
The rest of the cab traffic is down yet again, among the 80% convention attendees.
Worse yet, food costs are way up, energy operational costs will, in a free, competitive market, be price adjusting up, and attendees are spending MUCH LESS MONEY per capita.
Vegas is not the gambling capital. It's as I said the Adult Disneyland, with a permissive note of naughtiness.
What's the impact?
I'll say it again, Vegas should charge a toll fee to enter Las Vegas Blvd as that's the Fun Zone for nearly all who go there. If not, they'll be giving away their free entertainments along the Strip without earning recompense, and that spells bankruptcy, which in today's market is now spelled, "insolvency".
The short sellers are on notice.
For every Vegas biz that's high overhead, BK, and soon!
How's that for another gift from the free marketeer, trickle down, piss in your face, you voted for the monkey Bush Administration!
Everyone's a winner in Vegas. Vote Red, eat Red.
Let's just say the USD will do its own Vegas magic trick and collapse. That's a helluva trick. Good goin Paraguay Cowboy; your n'er do well moniker fits you well, now.
If one is not thinking Weimar via commodities, one's imo a fool.
The Tropicana hotel was previously owned by Aztar Corporation. In 4/2006 a private equity firm, Columbia Sussex, purchased Aztar, which only primary asset was the Tropicana, for $2.75 billion plus the assumption of debt.
The Tropicana sits on 34 acres of prime real estate (across from the MGM Grand). The value of the deal put the $/acre at $80.8mm.
$81 million dollars per acre! This was one of a few deals at the top of the market where each successive deal was "valued" at a higher and higher $/acre.
The amazing thing about this price besides $81mm/acre, is that is BEFORE any redevelopment costs.
http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2006/05/19/breaking_news/04news.txt
Las Vegas casionos have come to rely far more heavily on revenues from hotel rooms, luxury services and shopping malls.
Now combine that fact with the economic body blow its customer base has suffered via the housing depression. Its SoCal customers are not feeling so rich, and the cheap travel via automobile is not so cheap any more. And of course Vegas residents are experiencing some of the fastest home-price declines. They're not going to be gambling so much either.
Tough times ahead for casinos.
Gaudia, I just got back from Bellagio yesterday after a weekend there. We ate at Circo on Saturday, and it was packed at 8:00 or so.
Only a bit busier overall than it was in December, which is to say not that packed relative to the average of the last few years.
All evidence in the media is that the premier hotels are offering deep discounts for rooms.
Bellagio upgraded my sister and BiL on Thursday from a 1000 square foot upper floor suite to a 2000 square foot monstrosity on a middle floor, and indicated that the upgrade was due to availability. Never heard of that before, and certainly not on a weekend in May.
Either way, I hope the place does okay. The place is run by pros, and there is little to complain about but the price.
Josh, your sis's experience is indicative of the 20% drop off in convention attendees, and my friend's experience being shovelled into Bally's shows the belt tightening by those carrying the $$ tab for that now 80% of the prior human volume.
It's 10:30 pm in Vegas, still too early to hear back from the reveller.
FYI, her outfit often included the dine-out game of drinking all the $500 bottles of wine possible at a single seating to see who can drink the most; money is no object when they're doing biz, so this downgrade to Bally's for two of their top people (they sent 2 to the show) is quite newsworthy.
End of an era. The Trop was about the last survivor from the 50s. Sic transit gloria mundiĀ
And for those of you wondering "why Vegas is there:" remember that at least it's not covering arable land. In fact, they'd even have plenty of water if they managed it intelligently (e.g., xeriscapes instead of lawns, etc.). The Spring Mtns to the NW charge a large aquifer. Lake Mead is not their entire water source by any means.
Finally, if there's anywhere solar is going to be practical, it's places like Vegas:
Cover Story. Renewable Top Plants: Nevada Solar One, Boulder City, Nevada | Power | Find Articles at BNET
My wife and I came back from Vegas a week ago. The local paper reported a 1.7%drop in traffic at McCarran. (Contrast that with yearly gains to get the swing in momentum.)
We stay off-strip in a casino frequented by locals. Dead, dead, dead, in contrast to two years ago, when the party was hearty. I asked a barkeep, who chanted the party line that it will spring back, Vegas is Vegas, etc.
The crowds have changed over the last twenty years. Now, the younger people seem to be acting like they are part of a Hollywood possee, like in the HBO series Entourage. But then, their elders all played at being astute capitalists when they bought their sheetrock barns and lived it up on credit cards and HELOCS. Is America now all about make-believe?
Imagine my guilt complex: On April 23rd my small V with topspin beat the Trop's high-surface craps table pretty bad. Now they're bankrupt and maybe 20 showgirls are out of work. What would Bugsy say? I feel terrible....
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