Inside Gaming

Frank Fertitta Jr., the patriarch of Station Casinos, is also considered the father of the locals casino concept.

Hindsight is 20-20, but Boyd Gaming Corp. executives don’t regret demolishing the Stardust to make way for the $4.8 billion Echelon.

If you find the constant legal wrangling between rival slot machine makers International Game Technology and Bally Technologies perplexing, you’re not alone.

The challenge for Station Casinos in opening Aliante Station is to not scare away the customers. In other words, the $662 million North Las Vegas hotel-casino may resemble Red Rock Resort in Summerlin, but it better not have Red Rock prices.

Like a mistress who has lost her allure, the gaming industry is getting the cold shoulder from Wall Street.

Maybe we’ve become jaded in Las Vegas. Or maybe Midwest residents are little uptight.

The delay of a $734 million expansion at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut says as much about the economic state of the gaming industry as the Aug. 1 announcement by Boyd Gaming Corp. that it was halting construction of the $4.8 billion Echelon.

The public relations machine for the $9.2 billion CityCenter was churning this week. Aria, the project’s centerpiece, topped off. Restaurants and high-tech hotel room enhancements were unveiled.

A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August gave Wall Street the impression that International Game Technology had acquired 22.5 percent of casino technology provider Progressive Gaming International.

Twelve months ago, Wall Street analysts never imagined having concerns about International Game Technology. The Reno-based company, which has a large corporate presence in Las Vegas, controls the lion’s share of the worldwide slot machine market.