A Very Mayoral Sunday In The Media

As my pal Amy and I ran our April Fool's errand to L.A. on Friday, the Vegas political blogosphere became engulfed in reactions to the excerpts I posted from my Thursday interview with Carolyn Goodman, the wife of Mayor Oscar Goodman and the frontrunner to replace him.

The Las Vegas Sun's Delen Goldberg wrote a piece on it for the Web and blogger Justin McAffee likened it to the Sarah Palin-Katie Couric moment in 2008 when Palin was flat-footed in response to reasonable questions about current events. Q Vegas' Chris Miller chased down Goodman for a re-affirmation that she doesn't want the state to repeal the domestic partnership law, too. And Jon Ralston's column today on the Sun assesses what Goodman's answers say about her competency as a candidate. (The only place this hasn't been covered? The R-J, whose City Hall scribe spent time on Saturday with Mrs. Goodman and evidently didn't ask. Odd.)

But wait, there's more! MUCH more. First, the entire interview is now available as a podcast so you can hear for yourself what The Good(man) Wife is all about. Obviously, the full measure of any candidate ought to be a lot more than a few controversial or unprepared remarks so listen and decide on your own. Click here to have it play or right-click here to download the LONG conversation and listen at your leisure. After the primary, I hope to do a similarly thorough sit-down for the podcast with her general election opponent.

Meanwhile, my AOL News/Huffington Post Politics piece on the race went online today chock full o' barbs and snark from and towards Mrs. Goodman. In particular, the exchange between County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani attempting to minimize Goodman's role in the formation of the Meadows School and Goodman's slap that Chris' childless life is empty and politically obsessed is a sign of the shape of things to come if these two face one another after Tuesday's primary. It's already getting some buzz, although blogger Christine Kramar is a little off the mark inasmuch as Carolyn Goodman didn't produce any children from her womb, either. Carolyn and I, in fact, delve into how and why she came to adopt her four kids in our Thursday marathon.

Finally, if you just haven't had enough about Las Vegas' mayoralty yet, Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith today has a wonderful column about his lunch on Thursday with the three living mayors and ex-mayors, Ron Lurie, Jan Laverty Jones and Oscar Goodman.

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P.S. There's now a Carolyn For Mayor poker chip in the prize vault for The Strip Podcast. If we select your correct trivia question, it could be yours.

The Nation's First "Racino" Is Bankrupt

I find it difficult to shut off my journalistic sensors while I travel. For one thing, these tough economic times require me to do as much work as I can generate. For another, from the start of my full-blown freelance life when I lived in China, there's always been a rush that came with finding a story where I'm not expected to do so and then selling it. And yes, Miles has a love-hate relationship with this; it helps provide for us and we end up meeting interesting people and seeing unusual things that ordinary tourists never do. But it also means less time to just bump around and power down.

But, anyhow, this explains how I came to write about the Swiss effort to outlaw cat fur in garments last year, why I witnessed the opening of Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem last month and why, over this weekend on our Boston-Rhode Island-Connecticut swing for a family wedding, I covered the turmoil related to the nation's first "racino," Twin River in Lincoln, R.I., for the New York Times.

Here's the lowdown: Twin River opened 61 years ago as a horse track in this bucolic town 15 miles north of Providence. By the 1980s, it was a greyhound track with betting available as well on simulcast races occurring elsewhere. And in 1992, the state and the then-owners, Wembly LLC, agreed to add slot machines. Thus, the advent of the "racino," a word Miles had never heard of before but now finds quite a bit of fun. (?)

The casino part looks like every other casino floor of this sort, see?


There is an itty bitty difference, though. Those 4,700 slot machines are actually known as "video lottery terminals" and are owned by the state. They're administered by the Rhode Island division of Lottery, which keeps 60.08 percent of the revenue and doles out the rest to the owners and other governmental entities.

As I understand it, a VLT is the same as a slot machine except that all of their outcomes are determined by one large central computer for the whole casino which generates random numbers to determine wins. Slot machines, by contrast, are individualized units with their own computerized chips; their outcomes are usually unrelated to other machines. The VLT thing was a way for Rhode Island to add slot machines and call them a form of the lottery without having to get approval of the town of Lincoln to "expand gambling," per state law. The VLT is seen as an addition of an existing gambling practice -- the lottery, y'see.

Oh, and the revenue from these slot-machines-by-another-name now amounts to the third largest source of revenue for Rhode Island behind income and sales taxes.

In 2005, BLB, an investment group that includes the Kerzner folks who own the gigantic Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, bought the joint for $465 million, renamed it Twin River and spent $225 million expanding it. Now it has a larger casino, much more parking, a range of restaurants, a comedy club and a concert venue.


Also, some cute design features:


Oh, yeah. And a greyhound track.


A word about the track before we continue: It's a very weird deal. Twin River is currently obligated by law to have 125 days of live races in order to also have the slot machines. They're also required to give $9 million to the Rhode Island Greyhound Owners Association to fund the entire dog-racing industry and spend about $2 million to operate the track even though it only generates about $1.5 million in revenue. Why? Because Rhode Island is a heavily unionized state and the General Assembly feels it's important to force the casino to keep the 225ish jobs associated with the dog races intact.

But Twin River has bigger trouble. BLB overspent on its upgrades and can't afford its debt, so last week they struck a voluntary bankruptcy deal with their lenders and the Rhode Island governor's office. The lenders will forgive nearly $300 million if the debt, BLB will find another operator for the facility and the state will let the casino stay open 24/7 and dump the dog racing.

This solution has made lots of folks mad. Folks like Hal Perry...


...who lives in this house directly across from Twin River:


He put up that sign himself, by the way. He and his other neighbors -- the Twin River property is bordered by residential homes on 1-acre lots -- are upset by the prospect of more noise, traffic and bright lights coming from the casino if it operates 24/7. As it is, it stays open 24 hours Friday-Monday and closes at 2 a.m. on other days.

And, of course, the greyhound folks are mad. They're also powerful; on Friday, the Democratic legislature voted to increase the number of required racing days to 200, a thumb-in-the-eye to the Republican governor and a move that could compromise the agreed-upon bankruptcy deal. Like I said, it's all a weird deal.

Oh! Oh! Oh! And here's the best part! Guess who wants to be the new Twin River operator?

I'll give ya a second and show some fun images of Twin River I shot. Here's the second-floor glassed-in no-smoking gaming area...


...and the carpeting for those casino-carpeting aficionados out there...


...and I'm not real sure why this sign, which reads "Area of Refuge" means...


...or what "sharps" are.

And imagine my surprise when I found Ed, the cover model for my book, "Gay Vegas..."


...dealing virtual blackjack in one of these creepy machines.


I also have a question here. I get the lottery-like aspect of the slot machines. But what about games that involve skill, like video blackjack or poker? How does the central computer control the outcome? How is that not different than the random numbers generated by a lottery?

But anyhow, so who wants to take over Twin River? Why, these folks do!


As it happens, Harrah's has been trying to get into the RI market for years. They wanted to build a $1 billion, full-fledged resort-casino in West Warwick, R.I., but they got rebuffed again and again until the effort finally went down for good in 2006 with a statewide referendum that rejected it.

Now they've got another shot, and Harrah's veep Jan Jones is all over it, confirming talks are ongoing. "We’re interested, very interested," she told me. "We like Rhode Island, we think we understand that market very well. We think Total Rewards would be a significant revenue driver to Twin River."

I wondered why she loves RI so much. It's half the size of Clark County and has just 800,000 residents. Ah, she said, but it's smushed between Massachusetts and Connecticut. And Harrah's nearest casino is in Atlantic City but they have hundreds of thousands of Total Rewards members in New England that they could bring to Lincoln.

What about the dogs?

"I know the dogs are very important to Rhode Islanders," the former politician said. "That’s a decision made by banks and legislatures, but I know Rhode Island feels strongly about their dog tracks."

So Harrah's would turn Twin River into a destination resort with a hotel and all that?

"Well, you couldn’t build a hotel right now, you couldn’t get the zoning," she said. "So all of this is a process. But it's the beginning of the process and the point is that it's an excellent opportunity."

I'm sure folks like Hal Perry are just thrilled to hear that.

Breaking: Ruffin May Pay MGM The Whole $775m

Yesterday, I interviewed Phil Ruffin for a New York Times piece we later decided not to write about the minor tempest over phone calls Sens. Reid and Ensign made to "encourage" major banks to lend $1.2 billion to MGM Mirage for the completion of CityCenter.

I was interested in Ruffin's take as a fellow in the process of buying the Treasure Island off MGM Mirage. He was supportive of Reid and Ensign's efforts to help MGM. "I wouldn't jump all over them," Ruffin said. "That's exactly what your senators are supposed to do." In fact, one reason the Times lost enthusiasm for the story was that Ensign cleared making these calls with the Senate Ethics Committee and other breaking news took precedence.

But in the discussion, I asked Ruffin about the revelation last week that he was having difficulty finding outside financing $175 million of the $775 million purchase price of the TI. He's putting $600 million in cash into the deal and MGM Mirage even offered him a $20 million discount if he could get outside financing so they could just have all the money now.

Ruffin: Isn't that the craziest thing? We’re putting up $600 million and they’re asking for the moon for the banks to put up $175 million. You ‘d think with that kind of equity, it wouldn't be necessary.

VegasHappensHere: Well, if you're having that kind of trouble on a relatively small loan, who could possibly buy any assets from MGM Mirage or Harrah's even if they were selling them?

Ruffin: It would be impossible unless you’re sitting on a lot of cash. The banks are too leery, they’re jumpy about Las Vegas.

VegasHappensHere: So would you just pay the whole $775 million in cash if they asked you to?
Ruffin: Yeah, I would. I would. If it would help them out, I might just do that.

Also, Ruffin said that in retrospect the decision to build CityCenter and put so much on that 67-acre property was clearly "a mistake. I like 'em. These are friends of mine. I think Jim Murren is a class act and Kirk Kerkorian is a friend. At the time when they started this project, condos were going like crazy and MGM had a very good retail set-up, the kiosks in all their hotels and so forth. Trump and I did the same thing and we had contracts on all 1,200 units. The markets cratered and only 30 percent have closed. The same thing happened in spades to them. But I think if you asked them now, they would say it was a mistake."

Somehow I'm doubting that. At least not now. Maybe in a decade when it all blows over.

Meanwhile, it's also worth noting that I called Harrah's senior vice president Jan Jones for her take on the Reid/Ensign phone calls. She said Harrah's has not asked the senators to intervene for loans but that they also aren't building anything and don't need the capital. But Jones agreed with Ruffin that Reid/Ensign "were just speaking out in favor of the biggest industry in the state. They weren’t asking for any special favors."

Jones also expressed frustration that certain anti-Obama forces want to vilify anyone trying to help out the gaming business. She makes this interesting point:

"It’s become in vogue to bash big business and it's always ben in vogue to bash the gaming industry," she said. "I don’t think they're thinking from the policy perspective. They’re thinking in soundbites. For some reason the word casino – probably mostly thanks to Hollywood's depictions of it – has a negative connoation, but when you really look at the direct and indirect employment numbers for this industry, they're much bigger than the auto industry. This is working class America."

Jan Jones' Assault on Oscar Mayor

Jon Ralston had an astonishing chat yesterday on his TV show, "Face To Face," with Harrah's VP Jan Jones that included some incendiary remarks. The episode isn't available online yet but will be at this link for a few days once it is. Jones, of course, is Mayor Oscar Goodman's predecessor.

Here's some of what she said, courtesy of Jon's daily email blast, the Ralston Flash. See Jon's site here.

On Goodman's remarks to Bob Herbert of the New York Times (read his column here):

"It was inexcusable. Mayor Goodman is elected to represent the people. It's fine to be flippant. It's fine to walk out with showgirls. But, you have an obligation to maintain a sense of dignity and stature about the city you represent. Going off to the New York Times about why we should open up a brothel district downtown is disrespectful."

On whether it's safer for prostitutes to be in legal brothels:

"Trafficking of women is better for women? Having a mayor of a city stand up and say that is somehow acceptable? Making that a way we characterize the City of Las Vegas where many of us are proud to live here, proud of our neighborhoods, proud of our schools, wanting our children to be proud of where we grow up?

I travel not only the country, but the world. I still find myself more often than not having to explain about the real Las Vegas.

The stereotypes all still exist. The first thing they say is crime, corruption, trafficking in women. It's difficult when you know a completely different city.

They (tourists) don't find themselves here for the seedy down and out reasons that are often characterized. They come to have a good time, and they do have a good time. They come to vacation, recreate, gamble, spa and a number of different reasons. But, all of a sudden making this a city about prostitution, what right comes with that? Crime, drugs ... stop it."

On why Goodman doesn't face more scrutiny for his comments:

Somehow people think it's funny, and maybe that's a sad commentary. When our top elected officials are seen as comedians and caricatures, instead of statesmen, is that the direction we want to go?

On whether there's a sense that Goodman's not taken seriously by business leaders:

I think there is quite a bit of that. Nobody wants to offend Oscar, because he's the mayor and he's obviously not shy about the comments he'll make. But, I don't think that's about leading.

Somebody asked me what Oscar should be looking for in his last four years. Oscar, everybody's going to have a legacy. What's your legacy going to be? Bobblehead dolls? Or are you really going to look to make some definitive changes that leave your imprint on the community you served for 12 years? 12 years of service, there's something to be said for that.

On whether he deserves credit for the moves he's made downtown:

"I think that's all fine. I really do. Most of that land, respectfully this is a long process, was set aside before Oscar.

Don Snyder and I have been working on the performing arts center for almost 15 years. That's the time it takes. I hope the furniture mart is an extraordinary success. Downtown needs that. I hope they find a way to link Fremont Street into that corridor. I think all of that is very good. So, focus on that. Don't focus on demeaning the good things you've done by saying foolish things like creating a brothel district."

Yowza! Them's fightin' words!

Clarifying the Record on Harrah's

The item in the Review-Journal this weekend about the IP being integrated into Harrah's Total Rewards Program raised questions regarding what Harrah's VP Jan Jones had told me in late June about the future of the property. At that time, she said that it would be expensive and laborious to integrate the hotel.

That's why I called her today. The R-J item was unsourced, so it was unclear whether it was even true. I wanted to ask Jones myself.

In the process, Jones became aware of my June 28 post, which she had not read. She was concerned about the passage in that report that suggested the company might take Harrah's flagship hotel off-line at some point whenever the massive mid-Strip redevelopment plan is undertaken. That was an impression I had gotten from our discussion, and she says that it is incorrect, that there is no plan to close that property.

She then said she'd check on the IP-Total Rewards tidbit from the R-J and get back to me. Minutes later, she did, to confirm that it's true. She had said earlier that if it were true, it would be because the property was profitable enough for the expense of the integration.

There is still no plan to integrate Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon, the former Barbary Coast, or even acknowledge they own it on the Harrah's Web site, fyi.

Imperial Palace Forever!

Despite the fact that Harrah's VP Jan Jones told me just a few weeks ago that the Imperial Palace is doomed and that it wouldn't be worthwhile to integrate it into their Total Rewards program, the Review-Journal's Inside Gaming column had an unsourced item yesterday stating that it's being integrated and getting room upgrades by the end of the year.

I can't be sure how to know who's right here, but I'm working on reaching Jones for comment.

The last time I asked, you might recall, she pricelessly stated:

"If you owned Imperial Palace, would you want it in your rewards club?"

Stay tuned...