LOOKING IN ON: GAMING

By Liz Benston (contact)

Friday, May 18, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

The Assembly, feeling heat from Wynn Las Vegas dealers, passed a bill that would effectively derail Steve Wynn's policy that rank-and-file dealers share their tips with their immediate supervisors.

But now that the Nevada Resort Association, previously silent on the bill, has come out quietly in opposition to it, Assembly Bill 248 is languishing in the Senate with little hope of surviving the industry's powerful lobby.

The carefully worded bill would prevent casinos from sharing dealer tips with supervisors who don't normally receive tips directly from gamblers. That would include the supervisors who work alongside dealers at Wynn.

Even though they've been reclassified as nonmanagement "service team leaders" with hourly wages and new job functions, these folks wouldn't usually receive tips from patrons.

Other casinos are trying to distance themselves from Wynn's controversial policy, not wanting to upset an army of sympathetic tipped workers contemplating a similar fate. So, behind the scenes, the casino association is carefully walking the fence. Philosophically, it wants management to retain control over tip pools, so it's in the position of siding with Wynn in Carson City - even though most casino bosses in town don't want to rile the rank-and-file by adopting Wynn's policy.

Little wonder, then, that dealers are wary of MGM Mirage Chief Executive Terry Lanni after he said publicly that tips earned by his dealers "belong to them" and that the company wouldn't implement tip-sharing programs "at any of our resorts," including the upcoming CityCenter.

Paying 11 percent interest on $215 million in debt has long kept the Riviera's parent company from ek ing out much profit, even after improving results in the casino. But the Riviera will come into more money (at least $7 million per year) after it refinances at a lower rate.

Investors may wonder why the company plans to reinvest money in an aging property that's probably going to be razed anyway. One result of that reinvestment is "Ice: Direct From Russia," a new production show featuring ice skaters performing acrobatic feats, replacing the Riviera's tired and long-running topless revue, "Splash!"

The reason is pretty simple, Chief Executive Bill Westerman says: Anyone who acquires the property will need to keep it up for the next four to five years until major developments around it are built. By then, he said, owners will have socked away cash to kick-start redevelopment when the neighborhood is teeming with wealthier visitors. In other words, the old dame has to keep up her looks until a suitor can consummate a marriage. And a purchase is looking more likely by the day: The same group of bidders is back with offers of $30 and $34 per share, topping previous offers of $17 to $27 per share.

If you missed the opportunity to buy the Sahara and 26 acres of vacant land across from the property, there's still a chance to snap up 11 acres behind the Sahara and east of Paradise Road. Once home to General Motors' test drive theme park, the land - with its view of an overhead monorail station - isn't much to look at.

The site, two monorail stops from the Las Vegas Convention Center, is expected to fetch at least $10 million per acre. That might be a steal considering the $17 million per acre MGM Mirage paid for the Sahara land and the $35 million per acre New York real estate firm El Ad Properties is ponying up for the New Frontier.

Betting the farm today has future, intangible rewards: "Las Vegas is considered an important place to have a flag for marketing purposes. It's not all about return on ... capital. You're exposing yourself to millions of tourists," said Carlton Geer, executive vice president of C.B. Richard Ellis' Global Gaming Group and a broker representing the Sahara.