Casino Royale....Is This Really The Best Time To Build One?

DoWeHaveDebts
NoHonestManCanPay?Ville


So.

I've been sniffing around Paragon Gaming Inc......

You know, the fine folks that are going to take us, and our $500 million dollar gilt-edged, gift roof to Valhalla and back on the back of the broken-down little gambling house currently located on the water's edge on the old Expo 86 Pavilion site.

Which is all fine and good as far as it goes.

But why would these fine folks from Vegas want to do this now when so many other king-sized, destination-style Casino Industrial Complex projects around the world are going bust.

Here is just one example of those busts that is going down right now in, of all places, Atlantic City:

....Morgan Stanley announced yesterday (Apr. 1, 2010) that it is pulling out of the Revel casino project in Atlantic City, N.J., taking a "substantial loss" rather than continuing to invest. Morgan Stanley has already sunk $1.2 billion into the casino. This isn't the first round of bad news for the Revel project. Construction on the casino interior and attached 2,000-room hotel has been stalled since January 2009 when Revel ran out of money and was forced to cut 400 jobs.....

So, again, why would the good folks from Paragon go all in right now, given the current economic downturn?

Well......

What if they didn't make this decision, last month, or last fall, or even last year?

What if they made it in, oh I dunno, say, 2006?

*****

Why do I suggest such a year as being the possible date the big deal really went down?

Or, perhaps, at the very least really got rolling in earnest?

Well, because that is the year that Paragon, whose specialty is turning around ailing casinos, at least in part, by rapidly increasing hotel room capacity, bought the then essentially bankrupt, and tiny/no capacity Edgewater Casino.

2006 was also the year that, as Sean Holman has already noted, a Gordon Campbell government insider named T. Richard Turner joined the good folks at Paragon as a Director with a financial interest in the company.

It is also worth pointing out, again, that this all occurred just months after Mr. Turner stepped down as the Big Boss of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation which is the crown corporation that oversees and regulates all gambling concerns in the province

Including the Edgewater.

It is also worth noting the Mr. Turner is still very much a current Campbell government insider. He just served on the board of VANOC and he is the current Chair of ICBC

****

So, to sum-up.....We have a Las Vegas-based Casino builder and operator that specializes in turn-arounds by massively increasing hotel room capacity....This builder and operator brings on a new Director and investor in 2006 who knows everything there is to know about the local-yokels and who is as plugged-into the local regulatory body, and the government that oversees it, as one can possibly be....Then, the builder and operator, and their new investor, buy a tiny, ailing casino with no capacity at all.....And all this this takes place way back in 2006.....

Wow.

That's a pretty big long term bet to make, against the house, that Paragon took don't you think?

Unless.....of course....their inside man had already made good on his bonafides and lowered the odds considerably....

After all, in the gambling business, not to mention the business-business, hedging matters.

Right?

But here's the really real thing....

Unless I am mistaken the business of government is not to take care of gamblers, financiers, turn-around artists, or insiders with financial interests in private concerns whose success or failure relies on government decisions and/or massive spending of the people's land and treasure on ridiculous retractable roofs.

No.

The business of government is the people.

OK?


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Mostly, it would appear the Paragon's reputation as a takeover-and-build artist is legit...In fact it goes all the way back to principal Diana Bennett's father, the legendary William Bennett, who built his reputation when he took over the Circus-Circus back in the early 70's and rapidly built capacity, and his customer base, by going after middle America rather than the high rollers....
That is not to say that Paragon has not been, at the very least, tangentially involved in some of the American Indian Casino border wars that can even take place across State lines....In fact, there is a big one brewing right now between Alabama and Mississippi....Which has me wondering....Wonder how the Tulalip band, and it's backers, feel about Paragon's new deal up here?....
Regardless, as Vancouver's shiny new Casino Industrial Complex gets rolled out it will always be important to keep Hunter S. Thompson's sage words in mind regarding the Circus Circus, circa 1971...."what the whole hep world would be doing on Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war.".......
Oh, and one last thing anyone who would really like to pay attention should know....It wasn't just Paragon and Mr. Turner that bought the Edgewater back in 2006....There was another, yet-to-be identified third party involved...Here again, is Sean Holman, with that aspect of the story...."That firm, Paragon BC ULC, amalgamated with a numbered company on October 31, 2006 to become Edgewater Casino ULC"......



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