Steve Wynn's application of verbal pressure on state Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio seems to be having an effect. According to an extract from the Nevada Legislature Senate Daily Journal, on short notice Raggio had AB 248 (into which AB 357 has been reincarnated) pulled from the Judiciary Committee and relegated to the Committee on [...]

No, not the e-mails S&G gets from readers (like the one offering an informative dissent on my view that Harrah's would try yet again to cut The Rio loose) but rather ones that are meant for third parties but are kindly shared with us by the readership. After an ugly wrangle with irate casino dealers, Nevada [...]

The Culinary Union is taking a gloomy view of the pace of negotiations for its next mega-contract. The hangup with MGM Mirage actually looks substantive and I'm pretty sympathetic to the company's stance: Independent third parties should be able to negotiate their own deals with the Culinary, not be bound by whatever agreement MGM eventually [...]

Riv Acquisition, the consortium of Brett Torino, Robert Sillerman, Paul Kanavos and Barry Sternlicht, has picked up additional support for its bid to push out the current Riviera Holdings board of directors in favor of an insurgent slate of candidates. Today, Arrow Capital Management, which controls 3% of RIV stock, released the following statement: Arrow Capital [...]

Assemblyman Bob L. Beers (my candidate for Nevadan of the Year) credits grass-roots organizing and letter-writing by dealers and their allies with the resurrection of his AB 357. This bill, which would put an end to Steve Wynn's heinous practice of confiscating Wynn Las Vegas' dealers' tips and using them offset payroll costs, has been [...]

  Frank Fahrenkopf's American Gaming Association has announced the newest entrants to its Gaming Hall of Fame (why can't they just call it "Gambling"?), to be inducted on Sept. 20. Three of the choices should be non-controversial. For instance, I can't imagine anybody (except maybe rival illusionists) having a beef with the choice of David Copperfield. [...]

  Say what you like about Paul Kanavos and his confederates at Riv Acquisition — Robert Sillerman, Brett Torino and Barry Sternlicht — they don't have any "quit" in them. Yes, they've had two takeover attempts of Riviera Holdings rebuffed, once by the shareholders and once by the current board. But rather than take "no" for [...]

That's the message from Wall Street, courtesy of Deutsche Bank's Bill Lerner, who tells one local newspaper: "They still seem to be the best-paid dealers on the Strip, … There hasn't  been any financial implications (to the company) so investors aren't too concerned about this." Implication: neither should you be concerned. I don't know [...]

After being tipped as a potential equity partner for Steve Wynn or for Phil Ruffin's New Frontier (or for a Wynn buyout of the New Frontier), James Packer's Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. (PBL) has landed a Strip venture and it's … none of the above. It's buying a 19.6% chunk of privately held Fontainebleau Resorts. It'll [...]

Venetian Macao is coming along and a big PR push is scheduled for its July opening. Anyone who's visited the Vegas version will find the property's look very familiar indeed. I don't love the night life. Or so I discovered during a weekend visit to Empire Ballroom. Oh, they rolled out the red carpet, treating the [...]