Bally's abruptly closed their large Sports Book this week claiming it will re-open in September and are directing guests to the considerably smaller Paris Book instead. Since there is no remodel planned, this is merely another ill-fated cost cutting move by the wizards who run Harrahs and in typical arrogance actually released this comment through a spokes person... "The Paris sports book is in such close proximity (to Bally's) that we didn't think it would inconvenience our guests to filter them over to Paris for the time being," Pettit said. "It's a captive group within Bally's and Paris, so we should be able to service our guests with the Paris sports book."
Captive? Really? Are there not 75 other casinos in Las Vegas with at least 10 within walking distance of Bally's? At least one of their customers disagrees with them... "Besides, it's just as easy for me to get across the street as it is to walk over to Paris, and Bellagio is nice." said visitor Harvey Cherces. Way to go! In an save to save a few bucks, they suceeded in driving even more of their customers to the competition!
I have hardly been a huge fan of Harrah's and moves such as these have been the exact reason why. How much money are they really saving by making this move? I'd venture not all that much in the grand scheme of things for a company of it's size. What is worse than removing a major feature of the resort is the attitude that their customers are merely sheep who can be simply herded next door to a lesser facility and will be fine with it.
It's not all that shocking though considering this is pretty much how they have always treated their customers. They have operated under the assumption that if they threw free rooms at people, no one would notice the horrible games in their casinos. Every casino they have acquired has systematically been gutted and replaced with games designed to extract maximum cash out of midwestern tourists in the quickest possible manner. They are almost single- handedly responsible for the scourge that is 6:5 Blackjack. The irony is they call their slot club Total Rewards but aside from the free rooms, there is very little in the way of rewards.
The upside for the Vegas visitor is that with the ginormous debt load they are carrying, somewhere around $20 Billion, they will almost certainly be forced to sell off some of their properties. New owners = Competition = Value for Customers. If you're not a Harrah's debt-holder, it's all good!
Adelson loads up on LV Sands stock
Sheldon Adelson, builder and majority owner of the Venetian and Palazzo purchased 4.7 million shares of his company's stock on the open market this week. I have been a regular basher of Mr. Adelson in this space as the problems at LV Sands, while not entirely his doing of course, were made worse the business model he swore by. I would like give the guy props on this occasion however for nutting up $15 million of his own cash which shows faith in the company. As high as Vegas flew a few years back, I think it has been beaten down so far that if you pick a survivor, there is a ton of money to made. Apparently Adelson believes he will survive. It remains to be seen.
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