Give CEO William Yung III credit for capitalizing on at least one asset that came out of his capture of Aztar Corp.: the Tropicana brand name. Columbia Sussex’s hodgepodge of casino-hotel properties will now start to be rebranded under the umbrella of Tropicana Casinos and Resorts. The company has even rolled out a Web site featuring the new brand-to-be. Unfortunately, it’s cheap-looking and only half-finished. Hmmm … sort of a metaphor for Columbia Sussex itself, no?

VegasTodayandTomorrow.com has a rendering of the planned, 10,000-unit-plus Tropicana 2.0; you’ll notice that the podium level will come all the way out to the street. Also, the convention-and-banquet area looks like it’s going to stay put. Too bad: that’s one of the most tired areas of the property. Try reimagining the view in the rendering from street level, with the current towers dwarfed by the planned ones and it should be rather … overwhelming, I guess.

Trouble in paradise: Violent protests in Macao? A heavy-handed police response? Macanese residents feeling squeezed? A black market for construction labor? Given the finite amount of housing and labor within Macao itself, and restrictions on the importation of day laborers (not to mention real estate being cannibalized for casino-hotels), such a conflagration was inevitable. Experts on the region have been warning of this for a while now.

Equally predictably, Peking characterized this canary-in-the-coal-mine moment as an "attempt to disrupt Macau’s stable development (which) would not be tolerated." Now that there is an economic and civl-rights crisis right on his doorstep, maybe Sheldon Adelson will have to start paying attention to the rot behind China’s facade of prosperity.

Good day for Trump: Under company President James Perry’s direction, Trump Entertainment Resorts is righting its financial ship. Improved results, however, haven’t translated into buyers queuing up to bid on what’s left of Trump’s casino empire. Nor can it be a confidence-booster to see a board member leaving and being supplanted by Trump’s daughter, Ivanka. Some have already tired of Trump’s featherbedding ways.

Elsewhere in Atlantic City, the dealer unionization move is spreading. And security personnel are getting in on it, too. It looks as though the days of benevolent paternalism are coming to an end.

Bad day at Speaking Rock: After being royally screwed over by Jack Abramoff, Texas’ TIgua Indian Tribe got stiffed by the Lone Star State’s lower house. Republican House members particularly disgraced themselves with racism-tinged characterizations of the Tiguas as "criminals" and gambling addicts, while shedding crocodile tears for exploited poor people. (Betcha they’ll sing another tune when it’s time to build schools or fund addiction programs.)

I guess that’s what’s to be expected from the Party of Abramoff, whose scurrilous spirit seems to be alive and well in Austin. The Texas Lege appears to have a healthy double-standard, seeing as it’s only too happy to leave the upper-crust gambling habit known as horse racing intact.