Posts Tagged ‘Fighting’

Las Vegas is Fighting Back From the Credit Crunch But What Happens When Gambling Online is Legalized

Las Vegas is a fantastic place and like no other on the planet. Yes macau is there in terms of revenue but you rarely hear people talk of going to Macua for their Bachelors party or their 50th wedding anniversary. Las vegas has something extra, some king of magical quality that is impossible to touch or even package and sell but it is there non the less.

It is this very quality that could be the thorn in the side of Las Vegas as the next decade unfolds. It keeps the gambling revenue up on the back of the magical quality but what if the gambling diminished and the resort was left as simply a vacation spot.

The large Las vegas companies such as MGM Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, Steve Wynn and Harrahs have all been through the wars in the recent 6 months. The biggest stories have come from the MGM Mirage group as it has battled to complete its Citycentre project in Las Vegas. This project is the largest ever private development undertaken in the United States and very nearly brought down the company.

After much rumor and pain the company came out fighting and secured financial guarantees from its Middle East Partner to complete the project. Las vegas Sands also has a big development currently underway in Singapore named the Marina Bay Sands and is believed to be looking at an IPO in Hong Kong to raise $1 billion.

Steve Wynn however has always had a certain flair for being in the right place at the right time and was not caught out in the middle of an expensive new development when the credit crisis struck. He has been quick to capitalize as soon as the Asian markets began to regain their appetite and has just raised an estimated $1.6 billion with a 25% sale of his Macau ventures in a Hong Kong IPO.

All the big Las Vegas Casinos have been beaten up during the last 12 months but they have come out fighting. They simply cannot fight against peoples opinions though and this is where the problem lies as we move forward.

Let us split the Las Vegas business into two halves. First let us look at the entertainment side of things such as the fantastic shows and concerts. This has always been a major tool to get people onto the casino floor. Why else would you have to walk through the slots to get to your boxing match or concert. As a loss leader for bringing in gamblers this has always been a very successful strategy but has finally exposed it one flaw. Traveling to Vegas does not fit into peoples budgets as they have re-evaluated their finances.

The credit crunch has finally made people sit up and take note of how much they are spending as the torrent of easy money and cheap credit has dried up. No longer are they willing to spend vast amounts on travel and hotels simply for a weekend away and this is where the Casinos face their biggest threat. Gambling online.

Now we all know that it is illegal to gamble online in the United States of America and therefore you will not be able to do it. We also all know that you can do it and millions and millions of dollars are flowing over the internet right now into online poker rooms and online casinos. The debate about whether this is right or wrong can be left for another day and to people far cleverer than I but suffice to say it is happening and those figures are getting bigger each day.

If the online casinos can be taking such revenue when it is illegal just stop for a second and think how much they will take when it is legalized as it surely will be, have no doubt about that. Senator Barney Franks bill to legalize online gambling had 58 co-sponsors at last count and is moving forward albeit slowly. Gambling online will be legalized in some form at some point in the future and what does that mean for those big Las Vegas companies. Although it is still gambling the online world is a very, very different place and the big companies are losing ground every single day.

Lets take Las Vegas Sands as an example again. It has registered the domain name sandscasino but there is no website there. This proves that the company has no strategy at all for its online venture when it arrives as to have an effective website requires it to be ranked very highly on the search engines for those all important keywords such as casino and slots and this take time.

Time is the deciding factor as a website also has to have age on its side and while the domain sandscasino is sitting in storage it could have been aging nicely like a good bottle of red wine. It need not be a site that is actively taking bets but a site stating the Las Vegas Sands position on Legalized online gambling. The domain name was registered in 1998 and that is a lot of aging that has been missed.

This is the crux of the problem that the established bricks and mortar companies face in the brave new world and if they are of the opinion that they will simply buy their way to the top just remember Party Poker. They were valued at around the $4.7 billion mark when they floated on the London Stock Exchange and that was built from revenue coming out of the American market when online poker was still in its infancy. Today the market is much bigger and those companies that are still taking the business could very easily take on the Las Vegas boys in a dollar for dollar fight to gain online supremacy.

So what is the answer? Well before anyone claims to have the answer the big established casinos simply must start to build their online presence as every single day is another one lost to the competition. Harrahs seem to be the most proactive with the WSOP brand under their belt and the recent formation of a new company to build online presence in Europe with the former Party Poker CEO Mitch Garbor at the helm, but still they build no online presence in America.

It would be easy to see a merger or acquisition as the route to take but I fear pride and the belief that they know everything about the gambling market and these new upstarts should just bow to them might prevent the Big boys from paying what would be vast sums of money to take over one of the big online names, so the path forward remains at best cloudy.

My money would be on Steve Wynn and his ability to be in the right place at the right time and would not be surprised if he is the one with the most successful online plan in the bottom draw of his desk, he just needs to get it out and get moving with it before it is too late.

Ultimate Fighting Championship showing its age in Las Vegas

Ultimate Fighting Championship showing its age in Las Vegas
UFC 109 on Saturday at Mandalay Bay features Randy Couture, 46, and Mark Coleman, 45, in the main event. The question on seemingly everyone’s mind: When will Brock Lesnar fight again? For the third consecutive Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Las Vegas, one question dominates: So, when is Brock Lesnar fighting again?

Read more on Los Angeles Times

anyone know of any fighting events in las vegas on october 13, 2007?

I am going to be in Las Vegas the weekend of October 13, 2007 and I want to see a fighting event. Boxing, UFC, Pride, any would be fine.