Inside Asian Gaming

October 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 45 Briefs $1.8 billion senior bank credit facility, which matures in April 2013. The facility is expected to be increased to $3 billion as additional commitments are received. MGM Mirage Chief Financial Officer Dan D’Arrigo said CityCenter, which has a budget of $9.2 billion, has received additional signed commitment letters totaling more than $500 million. “Even in the current difficult lending environment, strong well- conceived projects attract financing. CityCenter is such a project,” D’Arrigo said in a statement of the development, which is scheduled to open next year with a 4,000-room hotel-casino centerpiece, boutique hotels, high-rise residential and an entertainment, dining and retail complex. The news, which had been highly anticipated by Wall Street, did not help the casino operator’s slumping stock price. “On the positive side, these announcements show that the banks are willing to work with MGM Mirage to relieve potential balance sheet pressure,” Goldman Sachs gaming analyst Steven Kent said in a note to investors.“However, the credit facility amendment is also a potential signal that MGM Mirage will likely increase the leverage on its balance sheet and operating conditions remain challenging.” Republicans Retain Anti-Online Gaming Platform According to IGWB magazine, the Republican Party Platform Committee last month reinserted anti-Internet-gambling language into the party’s platform, just days after stripping the language that urges prohibition. In August, the committee agreed to drop two sentences from the draft platform, which read: “Millions of Americans suffer from problem or pathological gambling that can destroy families. We support legislation prohibiting gambling over the Internet or in student athletics by student athletes who are participating in competitive sports.” The short-lived removal was thought to be a victory for the Poker Player’s Alliance, which lobbied hard for its exclusion. The PPA, headed by former US Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, a New York Republican, claims several hundred thousand members. But on the eve of last month’s Republican National Convention, the language was put back in, albeit without the references to “student athletics, student athletes” and“competitive sports”. Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain was for years the leading opponent on Capitol Hill of betting on college sports, a stand which placed him at odds with the American Gaming Association, the casino industry’s voice in Washington, which is headed by another prominent Republican, Frank Fahrenkopf, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. McCain ultimately was unsuccessful. Web gambling advocates have been busy buttonholing the Democrats as well but with little to show for their efforts to date.The Democratic Party, which currently holds majorities in both houses of Congress, is believed to be more amenable to relaxing federal laws prohibiting the industry. But a PPA petition to their presidential nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, elicited a noncommittal response that reads in part: “I recognize both the need to comply with federal and state laws and the desire of many Illinoisans to not have the federal government over-regulate their behaviour. As opportunities to re-examine this issue arise, I will certainly keep your concerns in mind.” Curtain Drops on Themed Casinos The Las Vegas-Review Journal reports on the newest method of remodeling in Las Vegas: taking the theme out of themed hotels. “Nefertiti’s Lounge is gone, the Nile will probably never run through Las Vegas again and it could very well take an archaeology degree to find a hieroglyphic in the Luxor casino these days. “The street lamps of New York-New York have been snuffed out. Treasure Island’s skull and crossbones belongs to a sign museum now but may as well have been sent to a watery grave.Years ago, the yellow brick road met its dead end at MGM Grand. “In the town where implosions became a tourist attraction in the 1990s, buildings have stopped going ‘boom.’ Instead, casino operators are blowing off their hotel’s theme in favour of the latest Strip trend, vacation luxury.” Not all are in favour of the new trend, however. “The families love the themes,” says Mark Adams, a Las Vegas-phile who runs vegastodayandtomorrow.com , a Web site that tracks casino construction and remodeling projects. “They want to come and play in adult Disneyland, bring their kids with them. Everything is chichi and cool now, but how many modern chichi hotels can the city support?” The Luxor CityCenter