Winner Takes All, a new book by Christina Binkley will be released on March 4. Binkley was formerly the casino/gaming reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas

Dave Schwartz has an interesting article where the talks about a piece from Wired that is discussing the proliferation of free services in business, especially on the Internet. Dave spins that into a gaming business narrative and breaks it down for us.

http://www.dieiscast.com/2008/02/26/could-casinos-become-free

Wynn Resorts have settled on December 2008 as the unveiling for Encore Suites, the sister resort going up next to Wynn Las Vegas.

Few new details besides the opening timeframe are in the press release, though it does allude to many of the features we've already covered here in the past.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=132059&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1112568&highlight=

We're back with roundtable #2 - this time around the topics include Crown investing in Harrah's/Station, MGM Grand Detroit, Pure being raided by the IRS, Cuba as the next Macau and more.

The participants include:

Jeff Simpson - http://www.lasvegassun.com and http://www.inbusinesslasvegas.com

David McKee - http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/blogs/dmckee/

Dave Schwartz - http://www.dieiscast.com

Chuck Monster - http://www.vegastripping.com

Direct Download: http://media.ratevegas.com/36-podcast_02212008.mp3

Some info on MGM Mirage's quarterly results, announced today:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=101502&p=IROL-NewsText&t=Regular&id=1110879&

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/mgm-mirages-net-profit-soars/story.aspx?guid=%7B74B0CA0C-98F3-4472-B48D-EB7F4B52CDFA%7D

This is still breaking but it seems like the Feds raided Pure, the nightclub at Caesars, today.

Pure is not run by Harrah's, it is a separate entity.

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=7901495&Call=Email&Format=Text

CityCenter: Selling A Dream
"The overall experience is sensually sensational, even elating -- you've clearly reached the aspirational apex of luxury and achievement. It's stimulating and soothing; you feel like you belong. For the moment.
But the view from this summit has a swift kickback, a shadow side. It might leave you feeling curiously deflated -- like maybe you've been living your life wrong all these years. Left out. A loser."
Behold, the tiny, beguiling future

Wynn Resorts just reported their results.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=132059&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1107473&highlight=

That's the press release. I'll update this with some thoughts as soon as I have a chance.

Las Vegas Sands hosted an Investors Day on February 11 in Las Vegas. Management presented detailed information on the company's operations in Las Vegas and Macau as well as on other projects being built or planned both in this country and overseas.

One important announcement was the plan to build a New Sands Expo at the corner of Koval and Sands. Once the facility opens at the end of 2010, the land that the existing Sands Expo Center sits on could be used for another resort or other purposes. The site is 20 acres and is part of the Venetian/Palazzo complex.

The Investors Presentation is available as a webcast and as a slide presentation. The slides of the New Sands Expo and of the 20 acres for future development are very interesting.

Investors Day Slides=Part I
Investors Day-Part II
Webcast Replay Links

Another Strip Walk from mike_ch - Wynn Las Vegas, Trump, Palazzo, Mandalay Bay, Luxor and more.

Photos are here:

http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/most_recent

Continued after the jump...

Continue reading "Strip Walk: February 2008 - Wynn Las Vegas, Palazzo, Mandalay Bay, Luxor and More..."

Baccarat to be offered on private flights to and from Asia:

http://www.lvrj.com/business/15474536.html

The first episode of what could become a new, semi-regular podcast has been posted.

It doesn't yet have a name but the working title is 'Vegas Roundtable'. It's a gaming industry related podcast in a discussion format. Today's participants include:

Jeff Simpson - http://www.lasvegassun.com and http://www.inbusinesslasvegas.com

David McKee - http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/blogs/dmckee/

Dave Schwartz - http://www.dieiscast.com

Chuck Monster - http://www.vegastripping.com

Thanks to all participants. The podcast is in my normal feed for 'The Worst Las Vegas Podcast' but it will probably move to a dedicated feed. Also, if anyone can think of a good name, drop them in the comments.

If you don't subscribe to the feed and want the direct URL, here it is:
http://media.ratevegas.com/35-roundtable_1-02_07_08.mp3

Thanks to David McKee's blog for pointing out this article from Macau with some quotes from LVS boss Sheldon Adelson.

The Macau Daily News says in their piece that according to Adelson, the number of concessions will NOT be expanded in 2009 and in fact may *shrink* as some of Ho's more ghetto places get hit.

Interesting. Sorry Harrah's.

Las Vegas Sands reported their Q4 2007 results and the press release is here:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080204/lam127.html?.v=23

I'll update this story in a bit with some details and numbers once I have a chance to dig in.

Updated: Ok, I took a look at the numbers, which were down a bit. They cited increased development costs, which looks like it makes sense. Net income was WAY down but they had a ton of costs from opening Palazzo and post-opening stuff at Venetian Macau on Cotai. Interest expense was way up which indicates they had to fund some of those through bank loans. The Cotai property didn't perform at the level they wanted in terms of winnings but volume seems pretty strong - the property is already contributing about half of the company's gross. With Palazzo and Venetian Macau open, Sands is setup for a pretty nice story in fiscal 2008.

Some new photos posted this afternoon:

http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/encore
http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/montecarlofire

The Encore shots give a really good look at the final layouts for the big parts of the project. You can see all the skylights in the low-rise for the new spa, plus I assume that lattice roof area will be filled with glass as well. Overall, looking good - can't wait to see more.

Thanks to Brian and Mark for sharing their photos.

Regarding the podcast, I have GarageBand open now - hopefully I'll get this finished shortly.