Yung and the restless

Yung and the restless



The Deal Magazine


By Ben Fidler






Published July 18, 2008 at 12:42 PM


The halcyon days when real estate endlessly rose seems a long way off. But it was only a little more two years ago when Phoenix-based Aztar Corp. found itself to be one of the hottest commodities in Las Vegas. Aztar, the owner of a casino empire stretching from New Jersey to Sin City, owned a 34-acre Tropicana Las Vegas property containing some of the last undeveloped real estate along the Strip. Rivals drooled at the prospects.



So when Aztar put itself up for sale, some gaming notables -- Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., Ameristar Casinos Inc., Colony Capital LLC -- joined the auction. Pinnacle and Ameristar had been duking it out as favorites to win Aztar, but Crestview Hills, Ky.-based Columbia Sussex Corp. emerged as a wild-card bidder and eventually won in May 2006. Columbia Sussex was a hotel company. With Aztar's Vegas property came New Jersey's largest casino, the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City, N.J. Columbia Sussex president and CEO William J. Yung III hailed the $2.75 billion acquisition as a "breakthrough transaction" that would create "one of the leading owners, developers and operators of hotels, resorts and casinos."


Yung had reason to gloat. He had waged a brilliant bidding battle for Aztar and won. "That guy wanted to win it at all costs," says one source present at the auction.


Alas, that victory would represent the top for Yung, and it's been a long way down ever since. Today, Yung is gone, having been ousted from the management and board of Tropicana Entertainment LLC, the subsidiary Columbia Sussex created in the aftermath of the Aztar buyout. Tropicana Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington on May 5. And now the fate of both Tropicana Las Vegas and the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City is up in the air again, making bondholders more than a little restless. And to make matters worse, the Tropicana Casino & Resort, which is Tropicana Entertainment's largest source of cash, is now under the supervision of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and may never be within bondholders' reach.


"This is all uncharted territory," says Scott Butera, a gaming industry veteran who is now running Tropicana Entertainment and sits on its board.


The rise and fall of Yung is a cautionary tale -- one that begins with a dramatic and expensive acquisition, runs through massive management miscues and ends in bankruptcy. In the end, it's the story of a man drawn out of his element by the glitter and flash of a very different business who then makes a series of fatal errors, made worse by an economic cycle that removed any margin for error.


By the time Columbia Sussex purchased Aztar, the company owned 70 hotels, which Yung had assembled through acquisitions in the '70s and '80s. Yung carved out a management style that could be successful in a certain kind of hotel: extracting significant cost savings, typically through extreme job reductions, says one source, who notes, "He cuts the work force down to the bone." Under Yung, staffers were typically required to work longer hours for less money. "That's how he distinguished himself in the hotel business," says the source.


Attempts to contact Yung were unsuccessful, but Butera defends his predecessor. "He built that company from nothing to a company with over 70 hotels," Butera says. "He is a very successful businessman. I've spent a lot of time with him, and I know him to be a man of strong character."


Yung began to dabble in gaming with the 1990 creation of Wimar Tahoe Corp., a vehicle to purchase and run casinos. Among Wimar's stable of assets are the Lake Tahoe Horizon Casino and Resort, the River Palms Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nev., the Belle of Baton Rouge, La., and the Lighthouse Point Casino. Although those properties certainly got Yung's feet wet in the gambling business, none of them qualified as a flagship.


Aztar was just what Yung was looking for. It not only had bulk -- 14 casinos in the U.S. and the Caribbean -- but two of its properties were legitimate trophies: the Tropicana Las Vegas and the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City.


And, of course, there were those undeveloped acres of land along the Strip. More than two-thirds of the Tropicana Las Vegas' 34-acre footprint was untouched. "The idea was to get a prime piece of property at a time when real estate prices in Vegas were at an all-time high," says Barbara Cappaert, a senior vice president and high-yield bond analyst at KDP Asset Management Co., who's followed gaming for years.


A feeding frenzy ensued. Pinnacle, which at the time owned casinos in Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana and Argentina, was based in Las Vegas but lacked a casino there, Cappaert says. It, too, needed a flagship, and Tropicana Las Vegas would fit the bill.


The undeveloped acreage held another lure. The source at the Aztar auction explains that Pinnacle wanted to build instead of buy. So the Las Vegas property would kill two birds with one stone. "That was the perfect asset purchase for Pinnacle," the source says. "It's a fit they will probably never see again."


Pinnacle didn't waste time, striking a $2.1 billion deal for Aztar on March 13, 2006. Priced at $38 per share in cash and including $723 million in assumed debt, the deal would kickstart a bidding war. Ameristar on April 3, 2006, supplanted Pinnacle as the leading suitor, offering $42 per share.


Two weeks later, Columbia Sussex showed up, making a $47 per share bid through Wimar Tahoe that shocked participants and analysts. "Columbia Sussex was a bolt out of the blue. Nobody expected them," says the auction source. "They were an unknown quantity. [Nobody knew] how much leverage they had, since they weren't public."


But as Pinnacle, Ameristar, and Colony (which, the source indicates, never made an official bid) discovered, Columbia Sussex wasn't bluffing. Aztar's price had climbed higher and higher and soon eclipsed $50 per share; Ameristar then folded. Pinnacle and Columbia Sussex stared each other down, then Pinnacle folded after Yung offered $54 per share.


Yung found himself deeply into something very different from hotels. For one thing, gaming is highly regulated: Each operator must apply for and receive a gaming license from state authorities. At least one analyst, Brian McGill of Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP, had said that in the heat of the battle for Aztar there was "some concern" over whether Columbia Sussex could get licensed in New Jersey. "In gaming properties, you have to have integrity, you have to have good management and you have to run a first-class operation," says the lawyer for Tropicana Entertainment's bondholders, Ed Weisfelner of law firm Brown Rudnick LLP.


By the middle of 2007, the gaming industry was flagging. Casinos in Atlantic City had already been struggling because of a smoking ban and the emergence of gaming facilities in Pennsylvania.


But Yung pressed forward. To complete his acquisition of the Tropicana AC, he had to go through a procedure called "interim casino authorization," says NJCCC spokesman Daniel Heneghan. "It allows you to go ahead with your business deal while preserving the state's integrity."


Specifically, New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement, or DGE, undertook a full investigation of the casino's practices. In the meantime, Tropicana AC put its casino license into a trust (allowing Columbia Sussex to close the Aztar deal in January 2007). Once the investigation concluded, the NJCCC held hearings.


Typically, the process proceeds smoothly. In fact, only once in 29 years of legal gambling in New Jersey has a company's casino license been revoked. That was in 1989, when the owners of the Atlantis Hotel & Casino were stripped of their license because of financial concerns.


Clearly, Yung thought the process would be perfunctory. He was more focused on the sweeping changes needed at Aztar, given the weakening economy and payments coming due on the debt Tropicana Entertainment shouldered to make the deal. He directed his energies at the Tropicana operation in Atlantic City. He did what he always had done: He began cutting rank-and-file workers at the hotel-casino. This was a particularly sensitive issue for Tropicana, since it had already had issues with its labor unions, according to KDP's Cappaert. "Sometimes, when you're new in an operating market, you can make a move ... that can have bigger ramifications because of the history of the market," she says.


But the Atlantic City workers' union, Unite Here Local 54, wasn't interested in making history. "The unions [there] are very strong," Cappaert says.


The union didn't sue Tropicana Entertainment, and it didn't go on strike. It did something much more devastating: It launched a campaign against Tropicana Entertainment's license renewal in New Jersey.


Union members helped compile information from Tropicana customers about the casino's physical condition, leading to a scathing report by the DGE that argued that cutbacks had led to lousy service and a fall in casino revenue. Local 54 also denounced Tropicana publicly, announcing to media outlets that it was opposed to Tropicana's licensing. It even lobbied the New Jersey Legislature for support and pleaded with the NJCCC to be part of the licensing hearings, which began in November. "The involvement of the union was a little out of the ordinary," says one source. "They normally don't get involved in a licensing hearing."


Tropicana AC's dirty laundry -- literally -- was aired, exposing not only problems with its overall cleanliness but also ugly details about how the casino was managed and how it responded to requests from regulators. Among other things, customer reviews cited in the DGE report criticized the casino for roaches, bedbugs, dirty floors and overflowing garbage pails. Tropicana AC has disputed the use of the reviews.


"The impact of the union's activities to kill our business [is] really working," Yung said at a hearing before the NJCCC on Nov. 21. He also claimed layoffs didn't have "anything to do" with the decline in Tropicana's AC business. "They ... ought to be proud of that," he said of the casino's unions.


They were more livid than proud. Yung had laid off about 1,300 employees at the Tropicana AC by October, saving roughly $40 million.


Despite the Yung-bashing over the job cuts, Butera believes they were among the unpopular things he had to do because of the dramatic shift in the casino market, which was making it much more difficult for the company to come through with its debt payments.


The campaign by the unions only gained steam as the hearings progressed, but what irked the NJCCC and DGE the most wasn't that too many security guards got the ax, but that the Tropicana in Atlantic City lacked a functioning independent audit committee for the first six months after Columbia Sussex assumed control -- flouting the state Casino Control Act requiring such a thing -- and that Yung lied to the NJCCC about the extent of the job cuts.


Court papers depicted Yung telling two different versions of his plan to cut staff, one for investors, the other for NJCCC. Upon applying for interim casino authorization in 2006, Yung testified there "might be some layoffs" but that most of them would come through attrition. However, when looking for financing, Yung told investors that there would be between $30 million and $40 million in savings to be had by slashing staff, as well as other expenses.


Even more damaging were revelations from former Tropicana AC president Fred Buro about a conversation he had with Yung. After preparing for yet another round of job cuts, Buro called Yung from his cell phone to say he had just visited with regulators since it was his "duty" to do so.


"Bill, we have to inform the regulators," Buro testified on Nov. 28 he told Yung. "It's our duty, it's our responsibility. It's my duty to protect this asset, to protect you, protect your license, the property's license."


Yung, Buro testified, responded, "I told you not to tell the regulators. Now you go back and make these cuts or I will find someone else that will."


Last August, Buro was fired.


"He was caught in a couple of lies," Weisfelner says of Yung. "And for an agency responsible for ensuring that casinos are owned and controlled by people showing the highest degree of integrity, I think blatant falsehoods really rankled them."


The hearings dragged on through November and December, leading to a Dec. 12 decision that would send Tropicana Entertainment spiraling toward a Chapter 11 filing. The NJCCC didn't mince words in its ruling. Citing a "lack of business ability, a lack of financial responsibility, and a lack of good character, honesty and integrity," as well as a record of regulatory compliance that was "abysmal," the commission stripped the Tropicana AC of its gaming license. The casino was then placed under the control of Gary S. Stein, a former New Jersey State Supreme Court judge, with the mandate to sell the facility. "It reeks of a lot of the complaints the unions lobbied for," Cappaert says of the NJCCC's "extraordinary" decision. "The company probably just assumed there's no way that they'd lose the license."


The timing couldn't have been worse for Tropicana Entertainment. As Cappaert points out, Yung and the company had been "laying the groundwork" to go public. "It's too bad," she says. "I think their intentions were good. The piling on that they're getting as a result of the [lost] license, I think it's a little too much."


But there was blood in the water, and Tropicana Entertainment bondholders started circling. They hired Weisfelner almost immediately to analyze the bond indenture to see whether the license revocation represented a default or, at the very least, a prospective one. The NJCCC's decision had already triggered a default on about $1.3 billion in Tropicana Entertainment senior debt, leading the company to begin damage control and talks with its lenders on how to resolve the situation and gain more breathing room.


The immediate solution for Tropicana Entertainment was to put another casino on the block: the Casino Aztar in Evansville, Ind. (The company had already struck a deal for the Horizon Casino in Vicksburg, Miss.) It also needed to obtain a waiver on its senior debt. Yung told the banks that, by selling the two casinos and the one in Atlantic City, he could generate enough proceeds to retire the debt and position Tropicana Entertainment for long-term growth.


Unfortunately, Yung never took the trouble to discuss the plan with bondholders. "Yung went out of his way to publicize [that] in his view, his problem was isolated with the banks," Weisfelner says.


The banks appeared to be "pretty well covered" in terms of collateral value, he notes, while bondholders were "ignored." Weisfelner adds, "There's a lot of mistrust."


The Tropicana Entertainment bondholders were already peeved at Yung because of the New Jersey situation. They worried that the company's largest producing assets were being put on the block on a forced-sale basis and were scared that the company would try to cheat them out of equity value in the Las Vegas property.


Their anger only intensified as Yung continued to stonewall them. The bonds are a so-called fulcrum security, which means they are the first security in the Tropicana Entertainment capital structure in which there's not enough collateral to pay off holders in full (for example, if first-lien lenders are getting paid in full in cash, but second-lien holders are getting 50 cents on the dollar, the second liens are holding the fulcrum security).


As Weisfelner says, in a situation where the bonds are the fulcrum security, a company will typically organize talks and agree to pay the fees of the bondholders' attorneys while negotiations progress. But Yung never made either gesture.


So the bondholders had to force their way to the negotiating table. How? By filing a lawsuit against Tropicana Entertainment in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Jan. 28. "We became convinced that there was an immediate default under the bond indenture," Weisfelner says.


At first, that assessment appeared far-fetched. Tropicana Entertainment went on the offensive, calling bondholder assertions that a default took place "simply untrue." The company argued that the bondholders had no right to demand immediate payment and that their actions were jeopardizing the sale of the Tropicana AC. What also appeared to undermine the case of the bondholders was the lack of a provision in the bond indenture that addressed a revocation of a gaming licensing.


"As long as you're current with your bondholder payments, and technically there's nothing else in the indenture [describing a default], they can limp along, say it's not fair and it doesn't matter," KDP's Cappaert says.


Undaunted, bondholders based the suit on five grievances, two of which dealt with an alleged technical default of the indenture. Specifically, bondholders argued that by putting the Tropicana AC under Stein's control, the NJCCC had actually triggered a "disposition of assets," because the stock of Tropicana Entertainment's Adamar of New Jersey Inc. subsidiary had been placed under Stein's care as well. Because of that default, the bondholders contended they had the right to accelerate their debt after 60 days from the time they first asserted a default had occurred.


Though Chancery Vice Chancellor John Noble agreed that the indenture contained no provisions alluding to a gaming license, he argued that "it does not necessarily follow that every consequence flowing from the loss ... is immunized from the reach of the indenture's requirements.


"If a collateral consequence of a license nonrenewal or denial triggers a default provision, the issuer will not be protected merely because the initial precipitating cause was the nonrenewal or denial of the gaming license," he wrote.


Noble reasoned that while appointing Stein didn't create a default by itself, one was tripped when assets were handed over to him, constituting an asset disposition under the indenture that is considered a breach of the agreement. "Title was transferred; the casino assets were disposed of; and the remaining elements of an asset disposition have been satisfied in accordance with the words of the indenture," he wrote.


In his Feb. 28 ruling, Noble decided that the bonds weren't in default immediately. But he did subject Tropicana Entertainment to a pending default, or one that could be asserted at the end of a 60-day period that had already half-expired.


The door was thus flung open for the bondholders. As Weis-


felner recalls thinking, "Now Yung's got to focus on us, because the clock is running."


Tropicana Entertainment didn't exactly sprint into action. It appealed its license revocation to the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court on March 4, which was nearly three months after the NJCCC ruling. Then Yung and Stein tried a maneuver that sources say incensed the commission again. Rather than appeal Noble's decision, Tropicana Entertainment had Stein go back to the NJCCC to try to get it to approve a method of curing the technical default.


Stein asked the NJCCC to "reconvey," or transfer, the title of the Tropicana AC back to the Adamar subsidiary. The transfer would have served to eliminate the disposition of assets and thus cure the default. But it didn't pass the smell test with the commission, which one source says "excoriated" Stein for taking such a position. "Our gaming counsel said this was undoable as a matter of gaming law," Weisfelner says of Tropicana Entertainment's title transfer attempt. "The commission said [to Stein]: 'This is between the bondholders and Yung. You have no business getting involved in it.'"


Weisfelner says Yung further complicated things by firing his legal counsel, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP.


Tropicana Entertainment was really left with only one option, which was to file for bankruptcy. That eventuality gave bondholders the leverage they had been seeking. Tropicana's secured debt was originally scheduled to come due on April 20, but bondholders agreed to a forbearance, if only because they felt the company was ill-positioned at the time to file for Chapter 11. "We didn't want [Yung] to file for bankruptcy without dealing with and making sure that the regulators all over the country were on board," Weisfelner says. "The last thing we wanted to see was regulators yanking licenses and shutting down operations."


Kirkland & Ellis LLP was hired to be Tropicana Entertainment's debtor counsel, and the firm got to work on staging the largest bankruptcy filing of the year.


Tropicana Entertainment already had Butera, a seasoned hand at complex gaming bankruptcies, in the corporate suite. He was the CEO and president of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. during its messy 2004-2005 Chapter 11 case and effectively revamped Donald Trump's Atlantic City casino empire. He was serving as the chief operating officer of the Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino in Las Vegas when his phone rang in February.


Tropicana Entertainment's investment banker, Lazard, recruited him for the top spot. "They were looking for someone to spearhead the same kind of thing [as what happened with Trump]," Butera says.


Butera was introduced to Yung and took the job, knowing all about the NJCCC's decision and Tropicana Entertainment's hostile relationship with bondholders. But Butera saw a hidden gem. "It was a very big opportunity," he says. "You've got the fundamentals of a very good company."


With Butera in place, the papers ready and a $67 million debtor-in-possession loan available from Silver Point Finance LLC, Tropicana Entertainment made its filing. Not included in it, however, was Tropicana AC, since it was no longer under Tropicana Entertainment's corporate umbrella.


Again, Tropicana Entertainment tried to get out in front of the situation, claiming in first-day motions that a perfect storm of tough financial conditions had victimized the company. Too much debt, a steep drop in consumer spending and declining real estate values all conspired against the company, and then the cruelest slap -- a "very public, political and vociferous campaign" by the unions.


"We obviously got caught in a very bad market," Butera contends. "Yung bought it at the height of the market only to have to operate it in the trough of the market."


With Tropicana Entertainment now in bankruptcy, the bondholders started viewing Yung as a major distraction and wanted him out. Soon after the filing, Weisfelner didn't even try to disguise the bondholders' intention. "If Yung wasn't there," he said, "I think the restructuring would fall into place fairly quickly and without contentiousness."


The bondholders launched their attack by asking the Delaware court to oust Yung in favor of a trustee, alleging he carried out "grossly misguided business decisions" with an "autocratic and contentious managerial style."


Tropicana Entertainment countered with the proposed establishment of a Butera-headed five-member board, with Yung holding a seat that was to be considered a nonofficer position. The matter headed to a three-day trial in the beginning of July but was diffused after the first day of testimony, when Butera, Kirkland and the bondholders came to a settlement under which Yung would be ousted and the other four board members -- Butera, Thomas Benninger, Michael Corrigan and Bradford Smith -- would all stay. The bondholders, in return, dropped their demands for a trustee.


"From all of our perspectives, not having a trustee was very beneficial," Butera says. "The trustee was a wild card, and I think it was important for us not to lose momentum."


An order approving the settlement was entered on July 3, and while Yung still holds all the equity of Tropicana, he will be hard-pressed to retain any piece of the casino conglomerate he amassed. Most of the time, reorganizations end with equity holders getting wiped out unless they either buy into a more senior piece of the debtor's capital structure or find a way to get all of the company's debt paid off.


In fact, Yung wouldn't get anything until the bondholders are paid back in full. "As it stands now, bondholders would recover less than par," Cappaert says. Adds Weisfelner: "Frankly, I think he's out of the money big time."


Even though Yung is no longer on the scene, bondholders hardly have a clear path to determining their recovery. Tropicana Entertainment's stable of assets, including the Tropicana AC, twists in the wind. Though Stein allegedly drew offers from several prospective buyers for the hotel-casino -- among them Colony Capital; a group formed between Baltimore developer Cordish Co. and former Tropicana AC executive Dennis Gomes; an investor group led by New York developer Joseph Palladino; and Mohegan Sun -- the state of the market and the lack of leverage on Stein's behalf led to bids that he determined were unsatisfactory.


Says Weisfelner, "It's in everyone's interest to buy more time for regulators to see those sales get done in a meaningful way, without having to hit the bid on the low-ball bids we've gotten."


The NJCCC has given Stein more than one extension to sell the Atlantic City casino (his original engagement required a sale within 120 days), but bondholders have moved for a different, and perhaps unprecedented, tack. They have asked the bankruptcy court whether they could initiate discussions with the NJCCC and the DGE in an attempt to get the Atlantic City casino returned to the now Yung-free Tropicana Entertainment and include it in that bankruptcy case. Just how Tropicana Entertainment would adjust its case with Tropicana AC's involvement is unclear. But the company would have to develop a plan and structure the agencies agreed with.


"With Yung gone, I think all of the legal complications to reconveyance are likewise gone," Weisfelner says.


Then there's Tropicana Las Vegas, still the main prize. It's likely it would take more than a Section 363 sale under the federal Bankruptcy Code to truly unlock the potential, and the value, that resides with that property. "The number of people that can afford to buy it is a lot more limited than when Aztar was on the market," the Aztar auction source says. "It's a beautiful asset, but you need deep pockets and lots of patience."


That won't please Tropicana bondholders, but their only choices may be to wait or unload at bargain prices, with the bigger gamble being the former. But on the strength of the Vegas acreage alone, it may be a bet worth taking.

The Cultural Cold War

Written By: Fred A Buro

Casino Enterprise Management
August 2006

The Cross Functional Integration of Marketing reveals invisible silos

Brand Awareness and Performance Marketing Advance.

While gaming companies remain chronically focused on competition, growth and consolidation, they face the acute challenges of fostering brand awareness while evolving marketing and performance strategies using in-house technologies that are often jumbled and obsolete. Layer on older equipment, the brain trust of old school shared best practices, and progressive discussions about the total integration of marketing and brand emersion become all but doomed. The daunting task of integrating emerging technologies and trying to change performance orientation throughout an organization to “perform the brand” can yield a perverse feeling of barely controlled chaos - the cost of which is frightful.

As it should be, every department within an operating business performs solely and specifically to achieve one very specific objective; to make their numbers. Those numbers are typically revenue based, performance based or cost based. Therefore, any potential distraction from that objective is literally, a cultural enemy. So it is not surprising that within every organization exists resistance to change. One might argue that people do not intentionally resist change, and that organizations unintentionally do. The flaw in the organization is that it is set up to resist anything perceived to have the potential to cause lingering distractions or rippling ramifications to performance - and change certainly has the potential to do that,.

So it is no wonder that separate business silos along with separate agendas and vastly different performance objectives exist to some degree within every organization. They are physically transparent but every bit lethal to emerging technology and new ideas – literally a cultural blockade that inherently quashes any sign of entrepreneurial spirit or imagination. Cultures like that become more and more reactive every day and are the antitheses of evolution. In other words, they obfuscate new projects as long as the numbers are good. . So gradually but consistently the comprehensive performance can fall behind because they compete less effectively over time - which can ultimately cause an otherwise healthy company to end up on the block

The point is an important paradox; marketing is excessively forward thinking, creative, imaginative and all about new ideas which is in contrast to a stay safe, stay the course reactive type thinking. So taking calculated risks to stay competitive enough to reap long term rewards requires much more than an expectation that everyone see the obvious value in emerging technology. Most executives will not simply buy-in on your recommendation. An example of this in today’s marketing environment may be the growing popularity of Mobile Video on Demand (VOD). And that most marketers will look back on 2006 and realize that they knew they were on the cusp of a technological milestone, and that they really should have pushed to have more resources allocated to it.

Unfortunately, the task of selling the idea of cutting edge technology (VOD in this case) requires more political capital than most marketers have to spend. Not withstanding, the current prediction is that the popularity of VOD and its effect on targeting strategies, reach, content, and delivery options will be profound.

Effective branding requires every media channel to be fully integrated – with targeted branding messages that stick. And every employee within every vertical business must be trained to reinforce the brand and to be the brand – consistently. Separate silos must give way to complete consistent branding and performance integration. A consistent Word of Mouth messaging strategy precipitated by every executive and every employee should embrace and augment ever-changing advertising and marketing methods.

As you know, every branding and call to action initiatives when deployed via broadcast TV have two significant restrictions – time and cost. For the most part, commercials are written and produced to fit a message that strikes an emotional cord with consumers into a thirty second spot which is broadcast to viewers at cost that can be excessive depending upon ratings and demand.

And even when prime time is purchased, your expensive masterpiece is diluted by two or three dozen other spots during your target consumer’s favorite TV show. The sad part is that; after a long hard day, most of those viewers would choose not to view commercials if they had a choice – although commercials do provide the perfect opportunity to use the bathroom or to prepare a quick snack from the fridge without missing any of their favorite show.

The forecasted paradigm shift is that: as VOD usage climbs, conventional TV commercials will take a back seat to the completely different format and function. VOD cell phones will be carried by everybody. I-pods and pod-casts are currently a hot medium. On demand mini movies which can morph a target consumer’s desired entertainment with branding, information, promotions and hotlinks, will be deployed among other devices, via cell phones - on demand, and completely at the viewer’s discretion.

Cost effective targeted reach. Since cellular telephones access the internet with increased speed these days, web based applications can satisfy a user’s impulse to “go there now” which may precipitate a transaction process in a way that wasn’t feasible before. The obvious appeal is that your viewer is viewing your spot by their own choice which, in and of itself, qualifies him as a desired prospect. Not only does this technology allow impulsive transactions, it potentially captures important information such as; e-mail address, or cell phone number and origin about new target customers which is much more than a billboard, print, or a broadcast spot ever could.

By reverse appending that data, postal mail prospecting would likely enjoy much greater response percentages – eventually it too will become obsolete. Why not allow customers the ability to print their offer at home, or not at all – present a bar code on the video display of their cell phone at the promotions center to receive their promotion. Hence, the economics of the conventional thirty second broadcast spot, and direct response postal initiatives may soon be eclipsed by the value of a more liberal, targeted, interactive, cost effective VOD technology.

Of course, lying in the shadows of the VOD ground swell is your major concentration on developing an effective CRM program - which as we know is a process that never ends. It can easily gobble up every hour of every day and is impacted by the varying degrees to which all relevant and detailed information is captured and utilized. The fact is that; postal direct response, public relations, consumer marketing, advertising, promotions, special events, entertainment, and i-media initiatives such as; key word strategies, viral campaigns/ugm, organic and paid search strategies, e-mail blasts, sms text messaging, v-cast, pod-cast, and web site transactions, all create new types of files and transaction records about customer responses to a plethora of marketing campaigns. It must all be completely integrated, tracked and analyzed to be of any real value.

So how do we get there from here? Don’t underestimate the ground swell of resistance to new ideas. As marketers, we are paid not to get frustrated and must accomplish great things. Therefore, marketing internally is as important as marketing to your most revered customers. So end the cold war! Dismantle the separate silos by strategically marketing to key people across your organization. Provide information. Update and educate corporate influencers on emerging trends and the long term returns of new technology, new projects or creative ideas.

The orientation you provide each executive must be formatted specifically for them individually and must answer many questions about how each of their lives will change by supporting and implementing your new idea. How many people in your organization live its brand every day, and how many know about or even care about VOD?

Courier Post Article

Columbia acquires Tropicana parent

By WILLIAM H. SOKOLIC
Courier-Post StaffATLANTIC CITY

Columbia Sussex Corp., a little-known hospitality company, will acquire Aztar Corp., ending a two-month bidding war for the parent company of the Tropicana here.

Columbia CEO William Yung said the Aztar board signed a merger agreement Friday for $54 a share. The company will be known as Columbia Entertainment.

Yung flew to Atlantic City to meet with the Casino Control Commission to pursue licensure of its key executives. He'll also pay a visit to the Tropicana, which he said will be the flagship of the company's growing gaming empire. With its acquisition of Aztar, privately held Columbia will operate a dozen casinos, including the Tropicanas in Atlantic City and Las Vegas.

Pinnacle Entertainment, the chief rival in the quest, refused to move off its $51 a share offer, paving the way for the conclusion of the merger. "After careful consideration and due diligence, Pinnacle's management and board of directors have determined not to increase Pinnacle's offer to acquire Aztar," Daniel R. Lee, Pinnacle's chairman and CEO, said in a statement. Aztar must pay Pinnacle a break-up fee in the neighborhood of $78 million, said company spokeswoman Pauline Yoshihashi. Pinnacle initiated the bidding at $38 a share in mid-March.

Colony Capital LLC, which owns Resorts and Hilton in Atlantic City, offered $41 per share. In April, Ameristar Casinos entered the bidding, followed by Columbia. Colony didn't raise the stakes, and Ameristar threw in its chips earlier in the month, leaving a two-horse race.

"We would have gone as high as we needed until we got Aztar," Yung said.

Aztar had no choice but to accept the highest bid, as long as the bidder has the financial means to complete the deal, said Dennis Gomes, the former Aztar executive and the man behind the development of The Quarter, the successful dining, retail and entertainment center at the heart of the Tropicana in Atlantic City. "They've put up a lot of cash and have the financing in place," Gomes said. With no new jurisdictions except in Pennsylvania, gaming companies like Columbia have few opportunities for growth, and acquisition of a proven corporation is one of the best avenues, said analyst Cory Morowitz, of Morowitz Gaming Advisors, in Galloway Township. "Aztar is one of the few viable companies ripe for a takeover," he said.

Columbia, based in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, entered the hotel business more than 30 years ago with the purchase of Days Inn properties. Over the years, the company added Holiday Inn, Marriott and Westin hotels to its portfolio, now up to 83 hotels. Yung entered the gambling market 15 years ago with the purchase of the High Sierra in Lake Tahoe. But it wasn't until the aftermath of Sept. 11, that the company made a serious turn into gaming. "The hotels got hurt by 9/11, but casinos didn't miss a beat, so we decided to get more into the casino line as opposed to hotels, he said.

Yung credited his chief marketing officer, Fred Buro, for taking a hard look at Atlantic City. Buro worked for Trump's casinos in the resort, including a stint as president of Trump Plaza Hotel Casino.

"Atlantic City was the one place that scared me a lot about this deal. I was concerned about Pennsylvania having gaming. And Yonkers. But Fred showed me how when Connecticut casinos opened, they didn't impact Atlantic City much. I feel comfortable right now."

Columbia is not an unknown quantity, Gomes said. "Industry people are aware of Columbia Sussex," he said. "They do have expertise. Fred Buro is knowledgeable. He used to be my protege. I helped him along early in his career, and he knows the gaming side. They can always hire others to broaden their expertise."

Colony Capital and Pinnacle were also unknowns before they sought entry into the Atlantic City market, Morowitz said.
For the first year or two, Columbia will continue with the renovations planned and under way by Aztar to bring the rest of the Tropicana up to the level of The Quarter, Yung said Friday.
Reach William H. Sokolic at (609)823-9159 or wsokolic@courierpostonline.comPublished: May 20. 2006 3:10AM
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It's Never Apples to Apples

Casino Enterprise Management - March 2006

By: Fred A. Buro

Marketing and Metrics for the Off Brand Casino

You own an off brand casino in a market where you compete with bigger brands. If you haven’t already, you’ll soon find out that early on in your time line, it is simply not equitable to try to compete with the major brands across the board. The trick is to quickly understand your customer metrics, and to establish a profile of the customers who reside in your better performing segments. Those profiles must be analyzed and a model developed that best represents the basis for their affinity to your property. You can forecast growth for those segments by determining how many more of those customers are in the market. That model should serve as the foundation for an aggressive initiative to reach each of those customers and woo them away from the competition.

Analyzing your existing customer base should include; accurately identifying desirable and unprofitable customer segments, learning the specific reasons for customer loyalty and defection, analyzing fluctuations in their frequency or spend, and separating them based upon geographic origin and amenity utilization. This process should flush out segments within which, customers frequent an off brand property over the bigger brands and why. But it will also flush out product deficiencies and performance short falls.

Of course, while all of that is going on, developing an accurate understanding of the dynamics of your fair share against that of the bigger brand properties is imperative to the complete functionality and efficient operation of your property. Meaning; marketing to garner your fair share of any market requires a realistic appreciation for what your fair share should be. This requires an unbiased appraisal of your physical plant, its location, an evaluation of gaming product, food cost and quality, service performance and reinvestment strategies, against each of your competitors; individually and collectively. Almost like handicapping a horse in a race or creating a line on a game; your strengths and weaknesses against the competition.

The major brands are most likely armed with an abundance of cash, superior brand equity, and a newer functional property. They often house a plethora of non-gaming amenities like ultra lounges, clubs, celebrity chef restaurants, luxury retail, convention space, day spas, gyms and the like. And of course; they are staffed with a crack team of marketers marketing to personas that most likely differ from yours. Hence, aggressive misguided marketing can have a disastrous effect on your P&L. Bigger, across the board promotions are usually not the solution to efficiently acquiring more customers – why should they defect if ultimately, your comprehensive product does not appeal to them. They may show up for a promotion but many won’t return.

Play to your strengths

Having identified, and by distinguishing your product to those who find its attributes comparatively appealing, you’ve identified a niche. By marketing directly to that niche and others who fit that profile, the generic product differences between properties matter less, and, those newly acquired customers are more likely to become loyal and give you multiple trips - thereby precipitating growth, profit and the potential achievement of your fair share.

Station Casinos is an excellent example of identifying a niche and competing for it in a market that consists of all the major brands and many other very competitive organizations. Nevada is a $10 billion dollar market. Las Vegas is about $5 billion. Much of that is generated by the major brands in gaming. Station spent years in Las Vegas developing an intimate understanding of their key customer metrics. Their key customers were locals. They locked up their loyalty and aggressively sought more of them.

The big brands were busy gobbling up real-estate on the Las Vegas strip, with a primary focus on domestic and international players, and conventions. They could have, but Station chose not to compete for those segments. Instead, they turned their focus away from the critical mass of the bustling strip to the suburbs of Las Vegas where they cater primarily to one segment; the local customer. And for that segment, they are fierce competitors and handsomely rewarded.

Station’s Green Valley Ranch in Henderson, Nevada is an off strip neighborhood casino and an excellent example of a well executed comprehensive strategy. Personas should drive the way marketing executives develop strategies, not only as a way to funnel customers to and through a web site, but also as a way to efficiently attract and funnel customers to on premise transactions through a collective set of multi channel marketing efforts .

At on time, Station Casinos was a small fish in a big pond. But they found an attractive niche for which they developed a keen understanding. That understanding provided them with the confidence they needed to invest significantly in their business model by adding properties at off strip locations with the appropriate non-gaming amenity set, the appropriate reinvestment strategy in players and player loyalty, and the appropriate investment in staffing and service. The good news for the off brand casino is that, for one reason or another, the major brands don’t appeal to every segment, so there is always opportunity.

So ferret out and analyze key customer metrics against market metrics. They have an important story to tell. They provide meaningful insight about your product and performance, but will also point out where to invest capital and how to build market share without starting a promotional war. Metrics create a theater where great thinking can take place and where triumphant strategies can be developed. Metrics provide the market topography necessary for the off brand casinos to succeed in any market right along side the bigger brands.

Written by: Fred A. Buro, Chief Marketing Officer - Columbia Sussex Corporation, 732-232-6000

River renaissance

Casino Journal March 2006

Written by: Fred A. Buro

Once thought of as a dying market, Laughlin, Nevada just might be a safe bet to hinge growth prospects on

Who's laughing at Laughlin? I think everyone did at one time or another-but no one is laughing now. For many years Laughlin was a mature, moderately growing gaming market, but one where few people aspired to work or visit. The summer heat was said to be so hot it would melt car tires. It must have cooled down quite a bit because seemingly overnight, Laughlin has become a boomtown again-a hot real estate play and an expanding gaming market.

Inflated California real estate is being cashed in and reinvested in the Laughlin renaissance. Residential and retail developments are everywhere. You can find condos along the Colorado River for $400,000 to $700,000, and thousands of new homes and gated communities are planned.

Laughlin, still a value play, may also be feeling the overflow from more costly gaming resort destinations. Lying in the shadows of Las Vegas, Laughlin is just over an hour away.

The 'value' demographic

Laughlin customers are far more than their less than flattering monikers. They may be the savviest of casino customers. For years they have been frequenting the casinos in the exotic desert valley reaping exceptionally high returns for the dollars they spend; unconsciously leveraging the sluggish demand and an abundance of product in the market.

As the weather grows colder in the north, the "snowbird" migration to Laughlin's warm, dry desert climate commences. Retirees? Yes, but not your typical peripatetic sightseer-these folks are on a four month winter vacation. Their mission is cash preservation as they dine, relax and swim-and they gamble a little. They roam the banks of the Colorado ducking in and out of casinos as heckles of $1.22 ham and egg breakfast specials, $5.99 lunch buffets consisting of all you can eat peeled shrimp, snow claws, beer and wine, which include a plethora of meats, cheeses and ethnocentric foods, vie for their patronage. After a robust meal, a dip in their "$19 per night" hotel pool and a short nap; they ready themselves for and evening of value packed entertainment and dinner, and oh yeah...bingo.

As spring arrives, marked by the annual "River Run" event in April, the snowbirds are abruptly displaced by forty thousand or so bikers.

Motorcycle aficionados from everywhere in the country converge upon the tiny resort town, temporarily turning it into a biker's Woodstock. For about five days, the hotels are sold out at premium rates, the restaurants are packed, and the days are filled with concerts, motorcycle rallies and parties. Complementing the music and the dust; the air is energized by the continual thunderous roar of freedom and liberation as thousands of bikers parade up and down the strip showing off their expensive rides. By Monday, the thrill is gone, and so are the bikers.

After the long weekend, Laughlin is so empty and immaculate, the silence is deafening and the sights in contrast to the weekend are surreal. But in a day, Laughlin is ready for the locals and the river enthusiasts to return and carry it through the summer.

Good bet for investment

Laughlin is approximately a $620 million gaming market, with an estimated 5 percent growth in 2005. To create a context against other jurisdictions; Atlantic City is a $5 billion market, and its 2005 growth was 4.4 percent. Missouri is a $1.5 billion market, and its 2005 growth was 4 percent. Illinois is a $1.8 billion market, with 2005 growth at 4 percent. Iowa is a $1.1 billion market, and 2005 growth was 3.9 percent. Although smaller and but seemingly in line with growth in other jurisdictions, it has a comparatively modest tax structure. Laughlin's gaming market will most likely enjoy an incremental lift in gaming revenues resulting from non gaming residential and retail developments as they come on line.

Laughlin is currently home to 10 casinos which are nestled in picturesque settings along the banks of the Colorado River where California, Arizona and Nevada meet: Avi Resort and Casino, Colorado Belle Hotel & Casino, Edgewater Hotel & Casino, Flamingo Laughlin, Golden Nugget Laughlin, Harrah's Laughlin, Pioneer Hotel & Gambling Hall, Ramada Express Hotel & Casino, Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino, and the River Palms Hotel & Casino.

Further validation of Laughlin's looming renaissance may be found on the short list of its newest players. Recent acquisitions by Carl Icahn's American Real Estate Partners, and Tilman Fertitta's Landry's Restaurants, with commitments to invest hundreds of millions in expansion and additional capital improvements for those properties would lead you to believe they have confirmed forecasts of a very bright future for that market.

And so the cycle goes. Having survived throughout the slower years, it looks like Laughlin is finally on a roll. Soon, the $19 room will be gone. More properties will likely turn over as some owners will sell into the forecast of Laughlin's robust future and cash out now. Larger, high-profile brands may exit to focus resources on expanding internationally.

Fred A. Buro is the chief marketing officer for Ft. Mitchell, Ky.-based Columbia Sussex Corp, where he is responsible for the performance of the company's 10 casinos. He has extensive gaming experience and has held top positions at Trump Entertainment Resorts and Penn National Gaming.

Emotional Rescue

Casino Journal - January, 2006

Written By: Fred A. Buro

If anything is to be learned from the mounds of data garnered from social studies about the high school drop out rate, it is that detachment is a key ingredient in student defection from high school.

Detachment could be a key ingredient in customer defection from casinos as well. The energy on a busy casino floor comes from the games, lights, sounds and the people. It is an up beat party atmosphere with a lot going on everywhere that is hosted perceivably by the front line staff of the brand. If you have ever hosted a party, you made sure that none of your guests were abandoned or had a bad time. You involved everyone in the experience. And if your friends had a great time, they told you about it and they talked about it with many of their friends long after. But if they had a bad time, they told everyone about it except you.

In casinos, every front line employee is hosting the party. They are trained to interact and focus on customer needs in order to insure that the guest’s experience is a good one throughout their stay. As modern casinos become technologically advanced, customers have fewer reasons to interact with traditional floor staff. For example; as automation proliferates and more real-time data is provided behind the scenes about customers on property, key decisions can be made about everything a customer desires during a trip without the customer actively participating in a dialogue with a real person.

In the slot world, consider down loadable games and ticket-in ticket-out; once they are deployed together, the staff interaction a player may have on property may be limited to a few words at hotel check-in, one or two words with a restaurant host, from there its up to the waiter. Conceivably, the only slot decision a player may need to make in a casino may be one of geographic preference since any game, with every player parameter including custom graphics, points, cash back and comp information, can be downloaded to any slot device at any location within the resort. In other words, a slot machine in every hotel room may not be a far fetched idea.

These slots can contain anything including every game and every denomination a player may want to play. Even specific player parameters such as hold percentage or customized pay tables based upon desired reinvestment percentages for individual players may be at the real time discretion of the casino, and may be changed at any time; on a day-by-day or, on a game-by-game basis. Slots may be priced based on volume – extending time-on-device on slower days, and shortening time-on-device on busy days.

In addition to downloadable games, slot machines may host a pseudo belly glass - really just a flat screen monitor with a default image; a marketers dream. Once a player card is inserted into the game, an interactive touch screen could appear displaying a variety of information or personal financial options. A custom graphics package could unfold with images designed specifically for an individual player. Programs could include images of their favorite landscapes, food, celebrities, broadcast TV, cable, or photos of past player events or the grand kids - truly a new dimension in CRM dynamics.

In the table game arena, arrivals like automated Roulette is perhaps the real “Hal” of the casino floor, sans a soft calm voice; an authentic Roulette wheel spins under a glass dome with a dozen or so automated betting devices around it, but no dealers are utilized. On another front, the newest card reading technology reads every card a black jack player is dealt. Skill levels may be analyzed and a player profiled instantly. With smart chips, how a player bets is also tracked and monitored. Integrating information like that could easily impact old school pit strategies related to the timing of fills, dealer breaks, changing cards and of course, reinvestment.

The effects of interfacing operational gaming technology with marketing databases can have a profound effect on the gaming event by minimizing human interaction. From the moment a gaming trip is triggered, the gaming event may become increasingly more impersonal which can fuel detachment.
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Fundamental marketing strategies dictate that only meaningful customer differences should delineate market segments, and that the customer relationship should be perfectly managed against those segments. Not withstanding, consumer groups are getting cut into smaller and smaller segments as if more segments guarantee better results. Ultimately, too many segments yield only vague differences between customers. And as CRM strategies place the “right offer in the hands of the right customer at the right time”, technology is right there dehumanizing the redemption process further detaching customers from service staff.

Of course with simpler processes, less staff, faster service, and better tracking, expanded operating margins can be achieved. But that success may also camouflage the defection of really good players. Player’s club transactions, slot attendants, slot techs, change attendants, pit staff, security guards, redemption staff and operators to name a few; all the folks customers interact with on the casino floor, are slowly going away - the consequence of which may fuel detachment.

Gaming is an event but is also a psychological experience which fulfills an emotional craving. Hence, passionate driven employees can make an extraordinary difference to a customer’s gaming experience. Employees personify a brand as well as the gaming experience. When a brand makes a commitment to a customer about a product or service, it’s like someone giving you their word; it is a promise that strikes an emotional cord. It feels good and you want it to come true.

To that end, seek opportunities to make emotional connections with customers where segmentation and technology fall short. Essentially; make promises and keep them. Identify and satisfy the natural desire of your customers to be socially engaged and honored and you will transcend stand alone CRM and reinvestment strategies. Connect with your customers in a way that makes them feel emotionally attached to your brand and you will ultimately solidify their loyalty to it. It may be the single most important thing about your success that your competitors can not easily copy because to them, the process would be invisible.

Benign Betrayal

Global Gaming Business, August 2005

Written by: Fred A. Buro

Through out history, almost every social, political, religious or industrial movement was marked by a major event – usually precipitated by one person with a dream few could completely comprehend. Columbus, Fulton, Gandhi, Einstein, and Galileo to name just a few, were people who sparked life into outrageous ideas that would betray conventional wisdom and ultimately change the world.

Experts are never short of opinions. In fact, numerous inventors, worshipers, navigators, scientists and entrepreneurs often have conflicting views about the same thing which is why many of history’s most famous were infamous fools first. Robert Fulton comes to mind as his folly ushered out the mule barge business and changed river navigation forever. From complex theories about the galaxy, God and gravity, to horseless buggies, motors, electricity, the steam engine, or men flying and going to the moon, most were concepts not contemplated by the average person during a normal day.

Christopher Columbus was considered a lunatic and heretic by some for betraying conventional beliefs about the shape of the world. The earth was truly flat at the time. That was a long time ago. But even in our life time at one point medical experts were certain that it was impossible for a human to run one mile in less than four minutes. Those who kept trying were fools simply wasting their time.

Change threatens. The equity holders of powerful intuitions can fear it for a variety of reasons. Change could meet with resistance from the sponsor of a poorly performing strategy because it means keeping a really good job. And even though corporations need innovation to reinvent them selves, resistance to change can be devastating to a career. Common objections are usually risk/reward based and since change means moving against history, statistics, conventional wisdom and unknown agendas, an innovative idea can be cast as a folly and easily quashed. The ground swell of resistance can be like traveling south on the north bound side of a highway during rush hour. The encouragement to turnaround would be most compelling.

So what does all this mean to marketing and positioning casinos? One example would be when Steve Wynn first presented the concept of the Mirage for the Vegas strip. The idea was considered outrageous by some. But he secured funding and in the face of his critics who by the way assured its failure, built it. The Mirage was no folly either. It became the standard for mega casino resorts the world over. Sheldon Adelson did something similar with The Venetian. The willingness to betray convention fuels innovation and perhaps is the essence of vision, leadership and progress, and are traits that these men and other icons in our industry share. Their journeys seemed to be navigated within dynamic parameters; the powerful and the visionless, and, the visionaries and the powerless.

Building a casino bigger and better to cannibalize customers from competitors is like using a battering ram to open a door. Which is exactly what The Mirage did in Vegas and the Borgata did in Atlantic City. Despite the demagoguery and dispersions, the conventional styles and concepts of the prototypical physical plant in those markets was betrayed. The strategy seems extremely risky as it requires obscene amounts of capital and belief in a vision few could share. The proof of which may be the names on the buildings. Those deals were not preempted by anyone

And from the day they opened they were instant success stories. They immediately gobbled up market share although they ultimately grew the market. Of course, precise timing, a strategic location and excellent performance are mandatory components. And as always, the score card is graded by customers. At the recent opening of Wynn Las Vegas someone was quoted as saying ‘what I think about the property doesn’t matter any more. It’s up to them now”. I think it was Christopher Columbus reincarnated.

If you don’t have the stomach for the battering ram approach, performance excellence may suffice to sustain growth for shareholders. But a precise allocation of resources and assets to short, mid and long term yield strategies may not be enough because with consolidation, emerging jurisdictions and expansion, those strategies must remain fluid. The Harrah’s Caesars acquisition has created a single operator with over 40 casinos in several countries and over 47 million loyal customers in its database with a potential mega hub that could make Flamingo and Las Vegas Blvd the most significant intersection in the entertainment world.

Imagine a couple dozen super Wal-Marts, in a row, on a single street or strip in the middle of the dessert, with similar stuff inside, at competitive prices. As a customer, which one would you walk into? Harrah’s tracks are pretty clear - and if you trace the steps and add a little vision; the picture at this stage anyway, once again may betray the conventional physical plant and the proven strategy of simply building “one” newer bigger and better than all the others. Imagine “seven” bigger and better properties stratified by their individual amenity set but physically and seamlessly linked in some way smack in the center of the ultimate gaming and entertainment destination of the world.

Harrah’s, Caesars, Bally’s, The Flamingo, Paris and The Rio; the ultimate place for every gambler including each of its own 47 million loyal customers to stay and play when they visit Vegas - truly the perfect location within the only location of its kind in the world.

Of course, what ever the manifestation, that foot print will not create doom and gloom for the Vegas market. In fact just the opposite is more likely; perhaps another spectacle in a spectacular city that is a”must see”. Although, I suspect calling it an attraction or the next generation volcano would be a slight understatement. Hence, the barriers to entering the Vegas market may get even larger along with exit barriers for the Harrah’s Caesars Total Rewards customer.

This looming development reminds me of a Star Wars movie when the immense Death Star was almost complete. Not comparing anyone to Darth Vader mind you. Not withstanding, he was really smart and a good Jedi Warrior at one time. Anyway, while driving EPS quarter after quarter dominates gross amounts of resources from every company, the focus for a while anyway, may remain on what impact Goliath’s next move will have on the rest of us Davids. Figuring out that master plan beyond Las Vegas lay in the cross hairs of a few I would suspect.

And given the fundamentals of price, product, performance, and distribution; one option to be considered would be; expanding the product distribution network through other distribution channels. A merger with a mega entertainment or communications giant such as Time Warner or Disney might be one vision which if realized, could eclipse the gaming industry in a way that could leave the revered monoliths of the Vegas strip far behind as old generation gambling halls.