Steve Wynn has been doing a lot of interviews with the media this week in preparation for the opening of Encore. The interviews often turn to his business sense. I have plenty of reasons to not like the guy, especially how he destroys landmarks for his own creations. OTOH, I think/hope that is outlook on Las Vegas is right on track.

For Encore, he says to give the people what they want, give them something that they will tell their friends about, and give them something to make them want to come back. He also teases the viewer by saying Encore will be something like you have never seen before without going into specifics.

For his employees, he says their jobs are secure. As long as they are honest and good to the customers, they will always have a job here. The economy will not put them on the streets.

For the future (and this is where he earns my respect), he says get rid of those mega-mergers. He says corporate greed does not cater to the consumer. Las Vegas rebounded in the past by having a lot of competition to keep the next guy honest, and that's what it needs now. He goes on to say that he will pressure the gaming commission to stop the mergers and buyouts because it is not healthy for the industry.

I say Steve is right about the mega mergers. I don't know how much he can pressure the gaming board or what they can do about what has already been done. Selling off TI to Phil Ruffin was a step in the right direction. I think we can look for more sell offs from all of the biggies. I don't know if the timing is right at this point or if the Phils in this world have deep enough pockets. I think it's close enough that if enough independents can go out and offer the games people want, the food the people want, the shows people want, the prices people want to pay, and the service the people want, the big boys will start to panic and look at selling off more. Then the cycle begins. Once the big boys learn that the board room doesn't dictate where the consumers spend their dollars, things might start to turn around.

I agree that we are going to see more asset sales. The big mergers and especially Station Casinos and Harrahs going private had to incur a huge amount of debt.
Current cash flow is not going to cover this, so they are going to have to sell off things to reduce the debt load. Since the big operators each has multiple properties in Las Vegas as compared to single site operations elsewhere, it would be expected that they would drop properties that do not fit their model. Harrah's might sell off the Rio since it is off strip, MGM might give up the Mirage since it is sort of tied to TI.

I am looking at the possibility Of an imperial palace sell off. After all,Harrahs raided the show room for the impersonator show to play at Harrahs. impo

Local buzz points to Mirage, Rio, Ballys, and Circus for sale, as well as several combinations of pieces of City Center.

Last I heard, the impersonators were still at the IP. I don't know if the remodeling of the Harrahs showroom is the reason. They've been remodeling that showroom for a long time now.