Billionaire Casino Boss Wages War Against Disney

[Viva Las Disney]

Here in CT, 10 years ago the Foxwoods and Mohican casinos were raking in the money......today, both are just trying to keep afloat. I have also read about many other casinos going under!

This is true in Vegas also, during the boom the big players were building and expanding on every available inch of property but since the bust most of the casinos are only surviving the recession via creative accounting.

Caesars Entertainment (Caesars Palace, Harrahs, Planet Hollywood, Paris, Rio, Flamingo, Quad, Ballys) is $24 Billion in debt and has only avoided bankruptcy because its banks keep extending its debt maturity dates.

MGM Mirage (MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, NY NY, Monte Carlo, Aria, Bellagio, Mirage, Circus Circus) is $14 Billion in debt and in the same boat, they have billions due to the banks so the banks just keep extending their debt maturity dates.

Station Casinos, the largest local casino operator with about a dozen properties, went bankrupt a few years ago. Several smaller properties have gone bankrupt as well. The amazing thing is the properties go bankrupt and are sold and 99.9% don't even realize it because it's all behind the scenes and the doors never close.

There are still 2 incredibly profitable properties in Las Vegas, they are Wynn/Encore (Owned by Steve Wynn) and Venetian/Palazzo (Owned by Sheldon Adelson). They are privately ran rather than corporate and were built with their billionaire owners money rather than borrowed money, they were also the first to build in Maccau China, in less than a decade Maccau has become 10 times more profitable than Vegas.

 

[DRDISNEYMD]

For all you Wal-Mart supporters on here, I would like all of you to educate yourself about our debt based economy that we now live in here in the United States.

Every dollar in your pocket is borrowed money from a private bank (I invite all of you to figure out who this private bank is) that has to be paid back with interest. Our government also borrows all of its money from this private bank at interest which is the primary cause of our uncontrollable Federal Debt. Out of the $19 trillion that we owe, most of it is compounded interest owed to this private bank, very little of it is principal. To pay for the interest on this debt we have to borrow even more money from this bank as well as countries like China.

The problem is we have to print more and more money to pay for this never ending debt circle, and it devalues the dollars we earn doing honest work. The more money floating around creates higher prices, and a higher cost of living, which are symptoms of inflation.

Since it costs so much for an American to have a decent standard of living due to all of the rampant inflation, the manufacturers and producers can no longer afford to pay the average Americans wages. That is why we no longer have an economy based on productivity, it is all based on debt. Then companies like Wal Mart take advantage of this situation by selling cheap foreign products that make Americans think they are getting a great bang for their devalued buck. When you purchase these products it kills our economy even more. Phewwwww glad I got that all settled.

~Sorry to go off topic, but I have to agree with this. Walmart is the the biggest welfare queen in the US. Taxpayers are forced to subsidize their low waged employees, while they net billions.

"Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private sector employer, is also the biggest consumer of taxpayer supported aid. According to Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, in many states, Wal-Mart employees are the largest group of Medicaid recipients. They are also the single biggest group of food stamp recipients. Wal-mart’s "associates" are paid so little, according to Grayson, that they receive $1,000 on average in public assistance. These amount to massive taxpayer subsidies for private companies."

~I won't even attempt to address some of what happens overseas.

~It is what it is. I don't shop at Wal-mart but I won't begrudge anyone who does. We're not all so unfortunate to have a choice of where to shop.

~Okay, back to the casinos.

 

[wdwgreg]

From a UK 25 year old perspective

If im going to the US to gamble im going to Vegas, even if the biggest/newest resort is in Florida, in terms of appeal it is not going to be up the with the variety and in built 'fame' of Vegas

If im going for theme parks then its Orlando/South California

From one of the comments, is online gambling illegal in the US?, because that is big business here, and to be honest makes a brick and mortar casino irrelevant, most people who are addicted to gambling will do it the easiest way, and if that means on their couch on a tablet in a dressing gown, rather than traipsing to a mega casino to do effectively the same thing there is only one winner


Companies like Walmart and Tesco here, are able to make the huge profits because they only have to offer minimum wage and not a living wage, and beacuse there is an imbalance between job seekers and jobs, most people have no chance but to accept that.

 

[Candlelady]

We still love Disney, but not enough rides and too many people equals less time for us in the parks. We find ourselves going off site more and more with each visit.

I for one, would love if a world class casino opened in Orlando.
I only gamble once or twice a year, but I certainly enjoy it and would absolutely take a few days to throw my money at someone else besides Disney.

 

[Lewisc]

Just how many casinos can make money in the country?......in Florida?

According to from what I have seen in TV reports, the number of people who gamble in the USA is not increasing and there are plenty of casinos in the country that are not in good shape and others that have closed.

AK

The Seminole Indians contracted with Hard Rock to operate their casino, north of Miami. The Seminole Indians made so much money they were not only able to buy out the Hard Rock early but were able to buy the Hard Rock (US).

I'll agree gaming doesn't seem to be growing. Casinos in Florida will have to draw business from competitors. Could a business decide to hold their convention at an Orlando casino rather then Vegas?

I do not know anything about Mr. Adelson, and mean no disrespect to him.

He doesn't put his name on the casino. He's responsible for the Venetian in Vegas (including a convention center) as well as other casinos in the world.

Neither of us have facts. Disney wouldn't be spending $$$ if it didn't think there was a shot casinos might be approved. People like Adelson wouldn't be lobbying if they didn't think casinos would be profitable.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

The Seminole Indians contracted with Hard Rock to operate their casino, north of Miami. The Seminole Indians made so much money they were not only able to buy out the Hard Rock early but were able to buy the Hard Rock (US).

I'll agree gaming doesn't seem to be growing. Casinos in Florida will have to draw business from competitors. Could a business decide to hold their convention at an Orlando casino rather then Vegas?



He doesn't put his name on the casino. He's responsible for the Venetian in Vegas (including a convention center) as well as other casinos in the world.

Neither of us have facts. Disney wouldn't be spending $$$ if it didn't think there was a shot casinos might be approved. People like Adelson wouldn't be lobbying if they didn't think casinos would be profitable.

Totally right on point, especially the red.!

AKK

 

[mckay15]

Living near a casino, having worked for a tribe that ran one and having visited Vegas, plus loving Disney, I think it would be a shame for gambling to come to that area. Gambling brings in less than desirable elements and causes some people to lose everything. If you want to give your dollars to someone other than Disney, you can always go somewhere else.

 

[yitbos96bb]

I'd love to see Regulated gambling come to Florida. Yes, market share is taken away from the theme parks, but that only ads incentive for continuous improvement to keep guests coming back. The arguments against casinos in big cities are similar to arguments against a Walmart in a small town. Yeah it hurts the little guy and takes away a lot of competition, but it benefits the consumer via variety and the state via added tourism and taxes.

That's the claim. The numbers though don't always back up the assertion though. Certain places like Vegas it's been huge, others not as much. I'd like to find some more studies at some point showing actual growth.

That being said, I want this to fail mostly for petty reasons... To spite Adelson. Guy is righteous scum and I really hope Disney beats him.

 

[yitbos96bb]

Well both are true in the Walmart argument.

Numerous studies have shown Walmart and other big box retailers having a negative effect on local economies... But it's not just in the destruction of the local small retailer. From the destruction of the existing retail infrastructure to lowering of the average wages and available incomes (leading to less goods being purchased) and a lower overall quality of living; the stores are damaging. In fact, it's the wages and lower quality of living that have the more negative effect on the local economy.

I agree though that the days of the five and dime are gone. But then big boxes have also been hurting too... Best Buy has been hurting, we've seen organizations like Circuit City and Linens and Things close... MY guess is we'll see a consolidation of the specialty stores into the likes of Target and Walmart further killing competition. But as you said, as long as they can maintain lower pricing, they'll get the middle class business even as the middle class struggles due to the effect of companies like Walmart... It's a self-perpetuating cycle.

Ideally, they'd operate like a Costco, paying their people a livable wage and good benefits, overall boosting the quality of life and having a net positive on the local economy. Not coincidentally, Costco tends to have better loyalty than Walmart (or for Apples to Apples SAMs Club) and attributes these policies to better productivity (although I've seen no qualitative data on this vs anecdotal).

How did a discussion on casinos get yanked off into a bash Walmart tangent? Thanks, Mr. Roberts

But since that door was opened, it was inevitable we would soon hear the same old tired mantra about "let's go back to the old days of 5 & 10s and the corner grocer." To which I must offer an alternative viewpoint, which is sorry, it's not happening.

Econ 101: scale lowers prices, which is why Walmart has one fifth of the grocery business in this country (average cart price there is 17% lower than going to the local supermarket). Bash Walmart all you want, as long as they offer better value to the middle class -- which BTW doesn't mind the tradeoff of more limited choice -- you will lose that battle.

And let's not even get into the impact Amazon is having on hard goods retail. I can't wait for people here to start attacking them as a job killer and "community wrecker."

 

[yitbos96bb]

my opinion
the free market works..if people want to go to walmart and spend their money then dont be mad at them.... there is a reason people go there in droves .... affordability
does it hurt small business? i would say yes to a certain extent bu the low prices help a far great er number

Except the US doesn't have a true free market economy. We have artificial price points on certain goods like milk, subsidies to many businesses that have been around for a good portion of the 20th century, bailouts of airlines, banks, automakers, etc. Mind you, these are policies that have been enacted and supported by White Houses and Congresses controlled by both parties.

Despite the rhetoric from all sides, We seem to only operate in a true free market when we pick and choose too.

 

[yitbos96bb]

Yes, certainly. Why bother to put yourself through college, compile large student debt and go on to earn a masters, so you can make $30,000 a year as a special education teacher - when you can instead simply drop out of high school and make the same as a burger flipper, because some people want to force employers to pay $15 an hour for that sort of work?

Well, my mother and sister both have Masters degrees and both make a lot more than $30k so not sure which state you are referring too for that wage.

And people do it for the love of their career and to make a difference, same reason some go through law school and become DAs. Not everyone is in it for the money Boris. But please if you have some real actual evidence proving this claim, I for one would love to read it.

I do know every time the talk comes to raising the minimum wage, certain people cry out with statements like yours, and with claims that people will lose jobs, worlds will collide, economies fall, etc. And yet NONE of these things ever come to pass.

 

[yitbos96bb]

This actually proves your point more, but the article said South Florida which I take to mean Miami, Key West, etc. which takes the convention business OUT of Orlando altogether.

Casinos also threaten Disney with a loss of business from convention-goers.

Many convention-goers add a visit to WDW while they're in Orlando for a convention at the Orange County Convention Center, Gaylord Palms, the former Peabody (now Hyatt), or other convention facility. In fact, many conventions include an evening at a Disney park as one of the scheduled events. Many convention-goers also bring spouses, partners, and families with them for the entire convention period or for an added weekend.

It's big business for Disney.

Las Vegas Sands Corporation and other casino companies have their eyes on those convention-goers (or at least on their wallets).

A convention-goer who goes to the "Sands Casino of Orlando," has an expense account dinner there, and spends the evening partaking of what the casino offers will not be spending that money at Disney.

Florida already has casino resorts, including the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa.

So far, there are no casinos in Orlando.

Disney wants to keep it that way -- and I don't blame them.

 

[Jake]

I think this would go in DTD. We need some type of adult entrainment at WDW. Since the closing of the dance clubs. There no place for adults to have some late night fun

 

[Josh Hendy]

My only visit to Las Vegas was 20 years ago, for a convention.

It was right around when there was a campaign to make LV a "family friendly" destination.

My main impressions of LV as a tourist destination were the following:

- the big, new casinos were pretty impressive with their themed architecture, shows and rides ... but ultimately there was not enough to occupy a family for a whole day let alone several days or a week of vacation

- inside the resorts, it made me laugh out loud to see how they forced you to walk through the slot machine room before you could exit ... I especially remember this was the case for the shopping mall built on the side of Caesar's palace ... kind of like exiting through the gift shop as you leave a theme park ride, but this time the gift is for the resort. They had a mean-looking guard standing at the the other end of the mall to intimidate people from trying to leave the mall from the entrance next to the street (which was a one-way moving sidewalk)

- the sidewalks and landscaping on city property were beautiful and immaculate when walking immediately in front of a big, new casino, but as soon as you passed from in front of the casino to a stretch of sidewalk in front of a vacant lot, the sidewalk was cracked, broken, missing, full of mud puddles, garbage, no landscaping, no nothing ... what does the City of LV do with property taxes anyways? Actually I don't want to know.

- on every corner of "family friendly" LV there were men who looked like hobos handing out leaflets with pictures of nekkid ladies as a come-on for peeler bars (or worse) in another part of town ... most people dropped them as soon as they got them so thousands of these explicit photos were blowing in the wind all over the streets and sidewalks ... nice place to bring your kids!

Overall I had fun in LV. I might go there again with adults if the opportunity came up again but I would never bring kids there.

I'm against governments restricting what property owners can do so I wouldn't oppose FL _allowing_ casinos, but I think it would be ludicrous for FL or the Orlando-area municipalities to subsidize or encourage casinos in any way with tax dollars. It's a lousy way to "improve" any region's economy IMHO ... especially for a state and region that is already a golden magnet for tourism. After all, it's not like FL is an empty desert like Nevada or an impoverished backwater like Atlantic City.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

That is simply not true. There is no "free lunch" when the government mandates a minimum wage. The naïve belief that companies simply absorb the costs of minimum wage increases through reduced margins/profits is flawed - businesses respond to such mandates by doing whatever they have to do (automating, sending jobs offshore) to maintain their net earnings.

That is why mandating a burger flipper be paid $15 an hour is a guarantee that we will see an explosion in robotic technology application in the franchise fast food industry.

Which will result in a flood of unemployed burger flippers.

And if you think that is fantasy, visit Asia. What I am describing is already in application there, is being tested in Europe and is coming here whether or not you want it to:

http://mynorthwest.com/920/2312665/Why-robots-could-soon-replace-fast-food-workers-demanding-higher-minimum-wage

However if people cannot live on $8.00 on hour its all meaningless.....there won't be any work the Robots or the business owners themselves.


You keep throwing out that $15.00 figure as a scare tactic...............reality is it is not going that high.

 

[rrali33tt]

That is simply not true. There is no "free lunch" when the government mandates a minimum wage. The naïve belief that companies simply absorb the costs of minimum wage increases through reduced margins/profits is flawed - businesses respond to such mandates by doing whatever they have to do (automating, sending jobs offshore) to maintain their net earnings.

That is why mandating a burger flipper be paid $15 an hour is a guarantee that we will see an explosion in robotic technology application in the franchise fast food industry.

Which will result in a flood of unemployed burger flippers.

And if you think that is fantasy, visit Asia. What I am describing is already in application there, is being tested in Europe and is coming here whether or not you want it to:

http://mynorthwest.com/920/2312665/Why-robots-could-soon-replace-fast-food-workers-demanding-higher-minimum-wage

Reading this made me very depressed. I agree with your sentiments on the minimum wage. The easiest way to cut expenses in a corporation is to cut jobs. If the min wage goes up they will just fire people or as you are showing replace them with automation and technology. Even without min wage hikes...once the technology becomes cheaper people will be replaced and then we will all be subsidizing the former burger flippers with our tax dollars.

 

[Bob Roberts]

That is simply not true. There is no "free lunch" when the government mandates a minimum wage. The naïve belief that companies simply absorb the costs of minimum wage increases through reduced margins/profits is flawed - businesses respond to such mandates by doing whatever they have to do (automating, sending jobs offshore) to maintain their net earnings.

That is why mandating a burger flipper be paid $15 an hour is a guarantee that we will see an explosion in robotic technology application in the franchise fast food industry.

Which will result in a flood of unemployed burger flippers.

And if you think that is fantasy, visit Asia. What I am describing is already in application there, is being tested in Europe and is coming here whether or not you want it to:

http://mynorthwest.com/920/2312665/Why-robots-could-soon-replace-fast-food-workers-demanding-higher-minimum-wage

This post is bang on, a hike with the minimum wage would do all of the stated above. Obama and the rest of the status quo people in Washington say things like they want to raise the minimum wage in order to get the millions of people who are less fortunate on their side. The bottom line is Obama doesn't care about the poor. He is pro International Bankers, pro Wall Street, pro War, pro status quo. He is no different then George W Bush. All of his polices and executive orders clearly state this.

The problem is the Monetary system in the United States. We have a printing press here that creates money out of nothing that makes our national debt get worse and worse. Thus our hard earned dollar gets devalued more and more each day. If we had a sound money system backed by Gold and was controlled and accounted for to the people by our Treasury department and not by International Bankers. We would not have any of the problems that are occurring here.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I said this several years ago...


There is no way that legalized gambling is not coming to Florida...

Are you kidding me? Every state is scrounging for pennies...and if my home puritanical commonwealth of Pennsylvania is running with it/ expanding...then nobody will last long.

Disney has a significant Florida lobby...but they don't have the muscle to stop this when the time comes...
What will they threaten? It's not like they give Florida billions annually over what they are required to...and there investment in the state and municipalities has declined over the years -by choice.

Inevitability.

 

[twebber55]

The average wage in this country is over $44,000 a year. So most people are already living on far more than $8.00 an hour and are able to patronize food establishments that offer them a good value (which will continue as long as said establishments can control their costs). I keep throwing it out?!??! I have nothing on the Service Employees International Union, who has made their push for a mandatory $15.00 an hour minimum wage the centerpiece of a massive, coordinated lobbying effort. Just google "$15.00 minimum wage" and you will see how effectively said union has gotten the MSM to pick up their agenda. The latter are dutifully using all the SEI talking points about "living wages" and "income inequality."

Percentage of workers on min wage is 2.9% of our work force and half of those are teenagers
Agree with everything you day on this topic

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

The average wage in this country is over $44,000 a year. So most people are already living on far more than $8.00 an hour and are able to patronize food establishments that offer them a good value (which will continue as long as said establishments can control their costs).

And the taxes to support the people put out of work by the Robots , we will be paying for! Not to much the other people who will lose their jobs due to the minimum wage people not buying goods and services.


I keep throwing it out?!??! I have nothing on the Service Employees International Union, who has made their push for a mandatory $15.00 an hour minimum wage the centerpiece of a massive, coordinated lobbying effort. Just google "$15.00 minimum wage" and you will see how effectively said union has gotten the MSM to pick up their agenda. The latter are dutifully using all the SEI talking points about "living wages" and "income inequality."

You and they are throwing out that figure as a scare tactic and it will never happen, even the Union has stated that is where they are starting, it will not happen any time soon, like lots of years soon.

The bottom line is these folks need to be able to make a living.

AKK