NFL: We Forced Fox To Spike Station Casino Ads

NFL Spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed a short time ago that following my inquiry about the planned Station Casino ads that the Review-Journal reported would appear during the Super Bowl on the local Fox affiliate, the sports league forced KVVU to pull the spots. Station was slated to buy five 30-second ads for a total cost of $360,000.

Responding to my email asking about the decision, McCarthy wrote me:

Correct. We had a conversation before the game with Fox which informed the station it could not air the spots.

I had raised the question of whether such ads would violate the NFL's policy prohibiting Vegas-related advertising during NFL games and especially the Super Bowl. Evidently, it did.

Review-Journal gaming reporter Howard Stutz had said earlier today on Twitter that he didn't think the ads violated the NFL policy because they didn't show gambling or even the exterior of casinos, "just people." The policy states:

Only tourism destinations (e.g., Nevada, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe) are permitted. The prohibition of ads for specific hotels, casinos and other institutions that house gambling will remain in place. Ads may not contain any gambling references or imagery. For example, an ad for Las Vegas tourism with footage of slot machines, dice, cards, or a wide shot of Vegas strip and casinos would not be permitted. However, an ad for Las Vegas tourism with pictures of golf, swimming pools, and performers would be ok.

The content of the ads must comply with the networks’ standards and practices and also meet our standards for being suitable for a mass audience.

But Station did run an ad tonight -- on the post-Super Bowl episode of "Glee." I just posted it on YouTube and it clearly advertises "specific casinos" and sort of makes allusions to gambling. See for yourself:

I continue to be surprised that Station hasn't put the ads up on YouTube or their own site, given that this could become a news story that could garner Station lots of free airings of its commercials on EVERY network as well as plenty of sympathy from Vegas locals.

Still Developing...

Admitting Mistakes

I wonder. Yesterday, billionaire Sam Zell, who bought the Tribune Company in 2007 and has since gutted the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times into near-oblivion while still not solving their problems, admitted he shouldn't have bought the company. Zell told Bloomberg TV:

"By definition, if you bought something and it's now worth a great deal less, you made a mistake and I'm more than willing to say I made a mistake. I was too optimistic in terms of the newspaper's ability to preserve its position."

The same could be said for virtually every major deal in Vegas and Vegas' "ability to preserve its position" in the past few years: Las Vegas Sands' bizarrely aggressive approach to Macau, Station Casinos and Harrah's going private, the major mid-decade mergers, MGM Mirage building CityCenter and so on.

Who in Vegas, I wonder, will be first to stand up and admit that they made an error in judgment? Who will be first to acknowledge that the misery visited upon this city and these companies right now is not merely the helpless result of an unexpected economic disaster? Who will say, "We screwed up, we should have had a contingency plan because these are uncertain times and anything could have happened?"

Just asking.

They Can Call It CityCenter Station!

The Wall Street Journal reports today that MGM Mirage may have a new sugar daddy, Colony Capital. These are the folk who own the Las Vegas Hilton but, more importantly, own 75 percent of Station Casinos which, from what we've been hearing, is about to go into bankruptcy itself. They also own Resorts Atlantic City, which is facing foreclosure.

So I'm baffled. Why is Station going into bankruptcy if its major owner has money to invest in another risky project on the verge of bankruptcy? Is it all, as we've always suspected, just Monopoly money after all? The WSJ says that Colony has raised $1b in capital to invest in distressed assets. Shouldn't they invest it in the distressed assets they already own?

On a similar but different front, I continue to be confounded by the dollar figures involved with CityCenter. Dubai is a 50-50 partner with MGM Mirage. MGM Mirage said last week that the project cost is $8.7 billion, although the WSJ used $8.6 billion today. Either way, the WSJ says Dubai World has already kicked in $4.3 billion. Why does Dubai still owe anything? Or is the $8.7 or $8.6 billion figure inaccurate? If Dubai still needs to give more, then MGM Mirage must know the project will cost more than $8.7 billion. Or maybe the WSJ is wrong and Dubai has not yet actually kicked in $4.3 billion? ACK!

Am I the only one confused here?

And the dominoes begin to fall

After months upon months of reporting that almost every major gaming company was on the brink of bankruptcy, the first has finally declared.

Arnold Knightly of the Review-Journal posted a piece a few hours ago indicating that the locals-joint king Station Casinos plans to file by April 15. MGM Mirage, Las Vegas Sands and Harrah's also are teetering on the brink. (I don't count Herbst Gaming and Tropicana Entertainment as a major interest upon whose fate Las Vegas as a whole depends, but technically they were first to bankruptcy, I suppose.)

Wynn and Boyd appear to be stable for the time being and Boyd, of course, is still in the market to buy Station assets. One wonders if Station ought to swallow its pride and take the $950 million or wait it out and give away more for less. It's not like revenues are going to get much better in the coming months.

Yoo-hoo!!!

[UPDATE, Noon: The online guys fixed it. I wonder how they knew!]

It's 10:30 a.m. Surely by now, somebody at the Review-Journal has realized that the largest headline on the front page has a glaring error. It reads: "Stations granted extension." Who's "Stations"? Last I heard, the company that owns Palace, Boulder, Texas, Sunset and all the other locals casinos was known as Station Casinos, not "Stations."

OK, so they can't correct this embarrassment in the dead-tree edition. But it wouldn't take much to fix it online, would it?


Sigh. Whatever. They're probably real busy filming their publisher's next illuminating RJTV commentary.

Boyd Buying Station?!?

I don't understand. Boyd's stock is at $3.40 a share. They've halted construction on Echelon. And now they've sent a "non-binding preliminary indication of interest" indicating they want to buy a whole bunch of Station Casinos properties for $950 million in cash? The letter says Boyd has $2 billion in liquidity.

It's times like these I'm glad I'm not on the Vegas Gang podcast. I'm not qualified.

Am I the only one...

...who thinks that this...


...looks like the brochure for a nursing home?

It's not. It's the cover of the invitation for the Nov. 11 opening of the latest Station Casino, Aliante Station, which is so far north in the Las Vegas Valley that you might want to bring your passport just in case. Here's the other side of the invite, which promises great opening night entertainment. Last time, with Red Rock, that meant Sting.


Here's what the place looks like from the outside:

It cost $675 million and has 200 rooms. Red Rock or Green Valley Ranch it's clearly not. I'm sure it'll be nice, though. I just think they could've picked a more lively motif for a, uh, CASINO, than the silhouette of a pair of birds, is all.

And now for something silly...

The Sahara just became, according to a weird little press release, the "first casino to open a separate players club for locals" that "includes a designated part of the casino floor called Locals Lane."

Uh, what? A rundown hotel on the Strip now wants to magically claim to also be a locals joint? Whose brilliant idea was that? Why would anyone go there when they can hang out at one of the Station properties which are nicer, have excellent rewards benefits, are closer and have decades of experience catering to this clientele?

Well, let's see how THEY explain it:

Locals Lane will feature machines that have better odds and payback percentages, comparable to those offered in neighborhood casinos. While locals have long been a prized patron of many casinos; the Sahara is the first strip property to openly cater to and reward local gamblers. In the sea of glitzy resort casinos that save the red carpet for the occasional whale or high-roller, the Sahara instantly classifies local gamblers at a VIP status. In conjunction with the designated local’s area, the Sahara has a new “Gold Card” for locals that offers bigger incentives and discounts for meals, shows, drinks, hotel rooms and merchandise. Card members will be treated like royalty at the Sahara, earning immediate access to all “Loyalty Pays” benefits, free gift days, and daily free pulls for a chance to win a $10,000 cash prize.

Wow. Times must really, really be tough. What happens if a tourist decides he wants to play on the machines in the Locals Lane because, as this press release admits, those machines are looser?

Am I missing something here?

BREAKING: Station Casinos Lays Off 70

(UPDATE: This replaces the earlier post with a fix on the numbers.)

Station Casinos is laying off about 70 employees at the corporate level including some managers and support staff. It's not as eye-popping as the 400 that sources had cited earlier, and there's no way to officially say whether projects are delayed because other than Aliante Station, "we haven't announced any timetables for any other projects," said Lori Nelson, the corporate spokeswoman.

Aliante Station, at the extreme north end of the Las Vegas Valley, is due to debut later this year.

It's not terribly surprising that Station would be tightening its belt. Although they're not a public company anymore and don't have to report earnings in the manner they used to, the LVCVA's reporting for January and February 2008 show a gaming-revenue decline of 3.8 percent for the non-Strip Clark County and -- and this is shocking -- a 15.3 percent drop for the Boulder Strip. That's probably a good reflection on how Station's doing because the only two casinos of any significance over there are Boulder Station (owned by Station) and Sam's Town (owned by Boyd.) And the demographics for Boulder Station are an awful lot like that for the Palace, Texas and Santa Fe Stations.

Still, 70 people a company the size of Station is kind of the equivalent of the 440 middle managers fired by the mammoth MGM Mirage.

Off to the dentist now.

Other Stuff Around The Media

Since I guess I'm playing catch-up today as I recover from my kidney problem and never-ending sniffles, I figured I'd point to a few interesting things I've spotted in the media this week:

* Another Casino Brigadoon Coming Soon: The R-J's Inside Gaming column reports that the owners of the plot of land at the Strip and Sahara Ave where the late, great Holy Cow stood is getting its approvals to have a Trailer Station, an 8-hour casino to maintain the gaming zoning on the land, some time in March. Fun, but I'm glad I did the piece in January; setting up a trailer in a massive, vacant parking lot is so much more interesting to look at and read about than turning on some slots in an existing building. I may go, though, if only to see if I can repeat my 150 percent winnings from the last time.

* Cindy Adams May Be Right. Or something. Howard Stutz reported in the R-J on Saturday that Las Vegas Sands is buying a pair of new jets to retrofit with baccarat tables for Asian whales. Stutz writes that LVS brass have approached the Nevada Gaming Control Board about the legality and tax issues involved with gambling revenue while aloft. Cindy Adams, in that piece I mercilessly picked apart, mentioned something about this, though of course she had the details a bit off. Maybe they'll their airborne casinos "Phoenicians," eh?

* Utter, Utter Heartbreak. Just read this and, yes, weep. The bride dropped dead during the couple's first dance. Wow.

* Utter, Utter Stupidity. My "Petcast" colleague Emily Richmond had a shocking piece in the Las Vegas Sun a week ago on the notion of the "minimum F" in Clark County schools. That is, there are schools where teachers have to give students at least 50 points even if they don't do their work so as to avoid them becoming so hopelessly down in grades that there's no way they can pass. It is just an amazing tale, one I have every intention of ripping off for someone soon.

* Bye Bye, Lovie. We do so love our Fatburger. Maybe not as much as those Grits To Glitz chicks, but yum! Too bad you have to take a gun into the area of Nellis and Vegas Valley that's nearest us to get us some. But, regardless, we were sorry to read that Lovie Yancey, the woman who invented the chain, has died. And, no, not of a heart attack. She had pneumonia. At 96.

* You want to know why people love coming to Vegas? Sure, it's the entertainment and gambling and all that. But it's also because good customer service is generally the rule and not the exception. And that's what MGM Mirage knew when it handled those displaced by the Monte Carlo fire. I'm sure you've read as much as you want to about the fire by now, but this piece by Jennifer Robison is still worthwhile.

OK. Enough being sick. Time for me to get back on my horse and get back to work. Listen for me at about 9:45 a.m. PT or 7:45 p.m. PT on Monday on KNPR (or via their site, knpr.org) discussing my NYT piece on the lily-livered Vegas celeb-media corps.

Winning BIG at Casino Brigadoon!

Like the Scottish village in the Broadway musical that appears for one day every century, Station Casinos opened what the R-J's Arnold Knightly dubbed months ago as "Trailer Station," an 8-hour casino on the site of the former Showboat/Castaways about six miles east of the Strip. The point was simply to hang on to the 26-acre plot's unrestricted gaming zoning, for which state law demands there be live gaming on the site for one shift every two years. This is what the splendorous thing looked like from afar:

... and from anear...

...and from inside...

Sixteen multigame video poker/blackjack machines stood along with a group of guys associated with the construction company that furnished the trailer, which is wheelchair accessible and has a portable toilet next door, per law. Station also needed seven permits and voted approval from the City Council and Nevada Gaming Control Board, and two code enforcers from the city stopped in to check off some boxes on some forms.

These were older machines -- no touch-screen, sort of cumbersome navigating through the menus -- and it only took bills, of course. So I figured, why not? (Journalistic ethics, schmethics.) I slipped $1 into the machine, which I did NOT have to jostle away from some little old lady with smoking through her oxygen tank...

...and lo and behold, after three hands of poker and three hands of blackjack, I was a big winner of $2.50! Don't scoff; as of mid-day, that was the biggest payout of the day!

Of course, when I cashed out, it made me get my money from the kindly man working as the casino floor operator.

Now I have some money to buy my NYT tomorrow when my piece on this is buried amid post-New Hampshire Primary coverage! Yay!

BREAKING: STATION'S 8-HR CASINO OPEN ON TUESDAY

Station Casinos imploded the former Castaways on Boulder Highway in January 2006. According to the law, they have to have active gaming on a site for eight hours every two years to keep the gaming zoning designation.

That day has come, rather quietly. Station is opening a trailer from 8 am - 4 pm on Tuesday, Jan. 8. It's just a bunch of slots operated by United Coin, which is pocketing the proceeds. They've done pretty much NO publicity.

If you're unaware, the Castaways site is at 2800 E. Fremont Street. Here's a Google map.

Should be a fun little off-beat slice of Vegas history. I'll have pix tomorrow.