In the days leading up to the SLS Las Vegas opening, Sam Nazarian’s phone was ringing off the hook. Nazarian, 39, the visionary behind the SLS, quickly learned he had support from the competition for the $415 million renovation of the Rat Pack-era Sahara.
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Inside Gaming
Richard N. Velotta’s Inside Gaming column appears Sunday and Wednesday in Business.
rvelotta@reviewjournal.com … @RickVelotta on Twitter. 702-477-3893
The opening of the Showboat Atlantic City 27 years ago carried the hoopla of a Las Vegas celebration. But on Sunday, the Showboat closed with considerably less fanfare.
The online gaming community believes PokerStars’ planned entrance into New Jersey’s Internet wagering market in October is the fuel needed to kick-start the state’s stagnant gambling activity into overdrive.
Activist investors believe the real estate underneath casinos owned by Pinnacle Entertainment and Boyd Gaming Corp. is key to unlocking hidden value within the Las Vegas-based regional gaming operators.
Borgata, the company’s flagship resort in Atlantic City, may see a revenue boost from a far different means – Atlantic City is shrinking.
Dina Titus introduced a bill last month to repeal the tax on all sports wagers.
A leading gaming executive was asked on background a few months ago if he understood Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s financial maneuverings to restructure the casino company’s $24.2 billion in long-term debt. He just smiled.
James Packer, CEO of Melbourne-based Crown Resorts Ltd., is forming a company with ex-Wynn Las Vegas President Andrew Pascal and investment firm Oaktree Capital Management to construct a hotel-casino on the 35-acre site where the New Frontier once was.
The combined $11.5 billion in lottery company-slot machine company mergers in the past few weeks has the investment community relieved.
In his first meeting as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, Tony Alamo Jr. turned the Sawyer Building conference room into a doctor’s office.
Less than 10 months ago, Gavin Isaacs was jobless. By early next year, he expects to be CEO of a company that controls two of the top three slot machine manufacturers in world.
While a photographer adjusted lighting equipment, Aristocrat Leisure Ltd. CEO Jamie Odell relaxed in the Australian gaming equipment manufacturer’s south Las Vegas showroom and played a few free spins on a “Batman” slot machine.
Analysts have long speculated about the coexistence of online poker and live casino poker rooms in Nevada.
There is reason why Wynn Resorts Ltd. quarterly earnings conference calls are never boring — you never know when Company Chairman Steve Wynn is going to drop a few verbal gems.
With six months in the books, the investment community has clear picture of the casino industry in 2014. And Las Vegas is on an upswing.