Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

For those interested, the PBS program, 'CEO Exchange', recently featured Steve Wynn (and Terry Semel, formerly of Yahoo!) on their program.

It was pretty interesting, though no new 'news' came out of it or anything. Our friend Dave Schwartz was featured to give some background.

A random question....

what ever happened to www.ladolcelife.com? there has been no activity there in a while. its unfortunate because i really enjoyed that site.

Another random question...
I've wondered about the abandoned swimming pool on the casino rooftop of the Riviera. Another website mentioned it was built in 87 but never used because it leaked. Why was it abandoned instead of making the contractor fix the problem? Was this part of a bigger revamp that never happened?

Posted by Mark D

Some new details on Atwell's lawsuit against El-Ad over the Frontier deal.
http://www.globest.com/news/961_961/lasvegas/162773-1.html

Posted by detroit1051

What kind of price break would Exclusive get on 30 units at Vdara? Regardless, this has to be a $20-30 Million purchase.

I know Exclusive Resorts have been eyeing Las Vegas for sometime. A few years back E.R. was planning on building something in LV, but scrapped the idea...until now. For fun, I requested a free brochure (it's more like an encyclopedia!) regarding all of their properties. I'd sure like to go on their cruise ship The World sometime. For non members, a night is 1,000 (I think) and you'd have to deal with the bitterness from the actual members. Or so I've heard!

Here's an article about how MGM/Mirage is planning to expand into non-gaming hotels and resorts:

http://www.hotelinteractive.com/index.asp?page_id=5000&article_id=8164

It is probably a good move for them and potentially good for Las Vegas (since MGM/Mirage is headquartered there). Of course, there is already a lot of competition in the world of non-gaming hospitality with the likes of Hilton, Marriott, Starwood, etc.

I remembered this article when I saw the postings here about the quarterly results for Wynn and Las Vegas Sands. I wonder, Wynn and LV Sands have such limited markets, how would they weather a downturn in gaming (if or when such a downturn occurs)? And, could a downturn in gaming be independent of a downturn in travel as a whole? If so, then MGM/Mirage may be on the right track with diversification.

Posted by detroit1051

Steve Friess wrote a piece on Las Vegas and terrorism for the 8/03/07 NY Times. He first discussed this issue on his July 24th Strip Podcast.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/us/03security.html?ref=us
http://www.thestrippodcast.com/

Posted by detroit1051

Not good for tourism: Shootings at Caesars.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/04/america/NA-GEN-US-Casino-Shooting.php

Posted by Michael Lu

excerpt from Gaming Today's report of Gary Loveman's keynote speech @ CTAM:

For Harrah�s, its biggest and best customers are 45 years and older with the time and discretionary income to spend in the casino. Loveman said they�re rewarded with free rooms, meals and Celine Dion concert tickets, among other things.

Loveman added that Harrah�s doesn�t market to 20-somethings who are always broke and too busy, or 30-somethings who are married with kids.

"God bless you, but we don�t need you," Loveman said of the less lucrative demographic groups.

And yet I noticed that Harrah's have been trying to take a share of the "pool party" business by staging events at the Flamingo and the Rio. Because 45 year-olds LOVE to party and have their pictures on napkinnights.com. I guess if my company bought out Caesars, I would get all high and mighty and forget how my customer base used to be fanny packers and seniors on turnaround buses.

Posted by Michael Lu

maybe i read too much into that statement. and perhaps it was taken out of context. but it's still a pretty arrogant to overlook the other 2 age groups.

Posted by detroit1051

Michael Lu, your post intrigued me, so I searched for more on Loveman's remarks to the cable marketing group:

�God may have created all people equally, she did not create all customers equally,� he said. �We treat everybody differently. The cable television industry is at pains to treat everybody the same. You can argue whether that�s well or poorly but everybody is treated the same.

Cable can learn one big lesson from casinos � treat different customers differently. �Somebody has to decide its OK to treat customers differently depending on their current and prospective value.�

Harrah�s has increased revenue per hotel room by using algorithms to assign each customer a different total worth. For New Year�s Eve, for example, when the chain expects to fill some 97% of its 41,000 domestic hotel rooms, a business traveler who spends only $200 a night but books weeks in advance could be denied a room to save space for the heavy gambler who spends $100,000, but waits until the last minute to book

�It�s a meritocracy, our world,� he said of casinos. �You spend more, you get treated better.�

Harrah�s policy of treating customers according to their value to the gambling concern has increased the company�s stock price from a moribund $19 per share in 1999 to $90 this year, he said. That improvement is linked to a focus on customers 45 years old and older. His explanation: 20-somethings are always broke and too busy; 30-somethings are married with kids. �God bless you, but we don�t need you,� he said of the latter category. Harrah�s target group has time and discretionary income to spend, and marketing is executed based on actual play and potential, as determined by software programs. There are now 44 million people in the firm�s �Total Rewards� loyalty program, including diamond-level members spending $10,000 or more per year at Harrah�s, and �Seven Stars� members, at $75,000 in expenditures per year.

Harrah's doesn't care how old you are as long as you're a not too discriminating gambler. If you think 6:5 blackjack or 8/5 Jacks or better video poker are good games Harrah's loves you.

I wonder if that $10,000 for Diamond is theoretical loss. I made it for a lot less, but that was when Caesars had playable video poker and you could make Diamond in a day with a reasonable level of play. Harrah's learned their lesson when they found themselves issuing too many Diamond cards -- they increased the coin-in required for Diamond in a day, and got rid of all their playable VP at Caesars.

Well, my baby reports today. Wynn reports after close today. Any predictions? Is he going to hit a foul ball, or knock it out of the park? I may sign into Chat, if I can, if anyone will be on. Its up to $105 now, are people placing their bets early?

Posted by detroit1051

Brian, WYNN is getting very close to my sale price of $108 last January. Imo, the Quarter will be strong. I'm going to listen to the Call at 5 PM EDT. Steve usually controls his Calls and talks more in abstract than about the financials. It should be interesting.

Detriot, did you do buy back in at $88 ? That would have been a nice $20 ride. Its $107's now. I think somebody knows something we don't. Man that pisses me off! Its not up $6 on no news, trust me! This crap happens to me all the time, on every stock I own!

OMG!!! Can you say HOME RUN BABY!!!

Stock is $119

Rob, thanks for asking about my blog. The truth is, life sort of took over and the blog took a backseat. I said to a few that I'd get back to it when I feel inspired to write on new, personal experience, but I don't want to make promises. I must say, I did just come back from both Vegas and British Columbia and have much to write about, but since I'll be playing "catch-up" for the next few days, I don't know when I'll get to a new entry.

Don't be fooled. Wynn Resorts will continue its international projects. Delays are only temporary but Wynn said that he never meant to imply that they were being put on hold.

Posted by DavidF

Just something a little different, check out these virtual tours from the Ritz Club Casino in London, must be some of the nicest Gaming rooms in the world, and proves that especially with the Venetian Macau, size isn't everything....

http://www.theritzclub.com/tour/360vrtours/

Wonder if they have Frozen Drinks in a Plastic football?????

Thank you DavidF for the link. It looks great.