Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Sad news about Binions and what the crystal ball holds for that place. Althought its more the economy than anything else, some blame has to put on Harrahs as they got the ball rolling downhill. The Horseshoe's personality really did change when Harrahs bought them 5 or 6 years ago. The new owner now, who I think was an ex-dealer long ago, really has an uphill battle to regain its kitsch. That place was home to the real legends and Harrahs just ripped the heart out of the place. The decor didn't matter, it was the people and stories that came out of that place. If you really wanted to gamble, there was only one place to go, the Horseshoe.

It's only a matter of time before Binion's goes into bankruptcy and changes hands again. I would be interested to hear what the Golden Nugget thinks about this considering their new tower just opened. Less competition means higher room rates, but if they board up Binion's it will leave a huge hole on Fremont which will definitely hurt business downtown.

How was the Sands able to issue more debt (aside from the equity)? Only $500M from the IPO is going into Cotai. Where is the rest going? I understand they need to keep cash to stay within their debt covenants, but someone needs to force them to start paying down debt.

And on a related note, who is lending Harrah's the money to go after PHo? I'm guessing the private equity firm which financed the buyout has put together another round of financing, which essentially means they are doubling down their bets.

So which of these three stories is the uninteresting one? Macau?

Posted by Hunter

Whoops. Corrected.

Posted by mike_ch

You know what Binion's Post-Harrah's Edition (or even before that) really needed to do? Sell off some land a few years ago! That casino owns a ton of property used for parking garages. TWO garages behind the casino (and the further north you go, the grungier it gets) and an employee garage on the other side of the road with a skybridge connecting them. This helps nobody except maybe Boyd, whose Fremont has an extremely tiny valet-only lot.

This is clearly a holdover from the family days when the WSOP could pack all of Fremont Street, but Binion's doesn't draw that many people now. There's no reason to have more parking spaces than Bellagio.

Fantastic. Pretty soon it won't matter what property you want to stay / play at, it will just be which side of the strip. Maybe they should swap each other MGM Grand for Caesars and get it over with.

Personally, I really like P-Ho. They have a pretty unique thing going. Unfortunately judging by the amount of people that are usually there, I am in the minority.

I really like P-Ho, and the room we stayed at last month was the best value in Las Vegas, bar none. But the prices and gaming odds are in line with Harrah's Strip properties already, so the only thing I think could get much worse is the food service. Planet Dailies and the Spice Market Buffet are both very good and it seem like a Harrah's corporate policy is for the food quality to be rated "mediocre, at best".