Hard Rock to Roll Dice on Trump Taj Mahal, Upping Renovation Budget to $500 Million

Tricky Rock International does not like what it sees in the Trump that is former Taj in Atlantic City, that the company purchased in March for $50 million.
Intense Rock Chairman Jim Allen, a former trump entertainment resorts employee, is now tasked with renovating his previous boss’s grand vision in Atlantic City.
Billionaire Carl Icahn’s deal cost selloff intended the intense Rock was acquiring a Boardwalk property for pennies on the dollar, as former casino developer turned US President Donald Trump built the resort for $1.2 billion in 1990.
But upon better inspection, tough Rock officials state it’s going to cost a penny that is pretty refresh the 2,010-room resort and gaming area, and rid it of a India-themed décor.
‘The amount of money we’re going to have to invest to remove all those minarets and all that purple, Jesus! What were we thinking?’ Hard Rock Chairman Jim Allen told the Associated Press this week.
The minarets Allen relates to would be the spire and crowns that are onion-shaped ornaments discovered across the Trump Taj Mahal.
Hard Rock Ups Ante
Though the company owned by the Seminole Tribe in Florida got a premiere spot on the Atlantic City Boardwalk for a rock-bottom price, Hard Rock professionals say the initial budget of $350 million won’t be nearly enough to trnsform the area into a suitable tough Rock Hotel & Casino. Allen estimated that the project’s cost will increase to at least $500 million.
‘It does us no good to place some guitars on the wall and carpets that are new and say, ‘I can simply take five or 10 percent for the company from Resorts or Harrah’s,” Allen stated.
Whoever traveled to the Taj Mahal before its October closing understands the serious work that lies ahead. a dark gaming floor and outdated consuming areas left the casino feeling musty and unclean.
Atlantic City is in the process of finding a new norm in regards to gaming and hospitality revenue. Five gambling enterprises closed since 2014, nevertheless the economy is showing signs of recovery and turning the part to a more time that is prosperous.
For the very first quarter of 2017, the remaining casino licensees produced $816.7 million in revenue from their casinos, resort rooms, food and beverage services, and entertainment. That represents an 8.6 percent gain on the period that is same year earlier.
State of the Union
Atlantic City officials will welcome the increased gladly investment from Hard Rock, as well as perhaps more to the point, the organization’s revelation that it plans to reestablish the house’s relationship with all the Local 54 casino workers union.
Previous owner Icahn slashed benefits and flatlined pay after he purchased the Taj Mahal out of bankruptcy in February of 2016. The union fundamentally continued an attack, but the billionaire don’t fold to their demands. The standoff led to Icahn closing, and afterwards attempting to sell, the house once dubbed the ‘eighth wonder for the global world.’
Allen claims he will use Local 54 for a labor contract that is new.
‘There’s going become no dispute with Local 54,’ he said. ‘We’re going to place individuals back to work.’
Rio Olympic Infrastructure Left in Economic Chaos, Was It Worth the Gamble?
The Olympics no longer have the hand that is upper determining where its summer and cold temperatures games will be contested. That’s since the sporting that is international have left a course of destruction, both in a financial and infrastructural sense, in current decades.
It absolutely was just nine months ago that Michael Phelps capped off their storied Olympics career within the Aquatics Center in Rio de Janeiro. Built for the 2016 Summer Games at a cost of $38 million, now it sits deteriorating that is vacant. (Image: Mario Tama/Getty Pictures)
Cities are finally wising up that the gamble on hosting the Olympics far outweighs the reward that is potential. The likelihood of a country striking it rich from hosting the quadrennial summer or winter spectacle are about as likely as a casino gambler hitting that progressive slots jackpot.
Case in point: Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s 2016 Olympics cost tag was over $12 billion, and just what it got in substitution for its investment that is sizable is cluster of abandoned stadiums and venues that are required to cost the country millions of dollars in maintenance each year.
Two associated with the stadiums constructed for the 2016 games had been earmarked for future use. One was to be renovated into a school, but remains boarded up today. Another, an outside stadium that hosted rugby plus the modern pentathlon, was scheduled become changed into a public park. It stays vacant, and from the Olympics is still littered through the entire venue.
Good for Gambling, Detrimental To City
One area that does take advantage of hosting an Olympics may be the gambling industry. When London welcomed the 2012 Summer Games, UK sportsbooks took in over $100 million in bets. Four years earlier in Beijing, the oddsmakers that are same a handle that barely eclipsed $5 million.
Brazil attempted to pass video gaming laws prior to its Olympics hosting, but failed. Legalization talks continue in an effort to find new forms of tax revenue today. Las Vegas Sands billionaire Sheldon Adelson is when such mogul who is reportedly interested in building in Rio should the market become liberalized.
Japan defintely won’t be making the mistakes that are same Brazil. Its National Diet passed a built-in resorts bill to end commercial gambling prohibition in December, and the expected two casinos could be ready in time for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
Few Suitors Remain
While the 2016 Olympics avoided complete catastrophe, it was certainly a scandal-riddled two months in South America. Inadequately built venues and athlete housing, sanitary dilemmas, issues over crime, the Zika virus, and more plagued the games.
The International Olympic Committee can cross Southern America off its list, leaving Africa as the only continent that is inhabitable to host an Olympics. But it will probably stay that real means for decades in the future due to the ever-growing price surrounding the Games.
Los Angeles and Paris are the two finalists for the 2024 Summer Olympics after Budapest, Rome, and Hamburg all withdrew their bids.
Bottom Line
Oxford University recently compiled data on what it requires to host the Olympics. With costs modified for inflation, from 1960 through Sochi in 2014, the average cost ended up being $5.2 billion for the Summer Games, and $2 billion for the Winter Games.
Las Vegas not Enough that is drunk to List of Top 20 Booziest Cities
Las Las Vegas can be considered as Sin City, but that doesn’t mean the accepted place is awash in booze 24/7. Well, actually, maybe it’s. However when it involves determining the cities that are drunkest America, nevada hasn’t got a thing on Midwestern metropolises such as for example Dubuque, Iowa, Lincoln, Nebraska, or Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
No matter how much this guy can throw back in an evening, it will not be enough to declare the whole city of Las Vegas one of many drunkest places on the map. (Image: o2ip.com)
A report conducted by financial news web site 24/7 Wall Street looked to determine the 20 drunkest cities in the us based on rates of excessive imbibing rate and other factors associated to alcohol-fueled ills that are social. Record revealed that while Las Vegas’ reputation as a party city may be well-deserved, it scarcely constitutes a civic health danger.
The study discovered the biggest drunks weren’t seen stumbling across the Strip or passed out in a casino lobby. Spoiler alert: in ranking the drunkest cities, the top destination was Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Las vegas didn’t even break the very best 20. So what gives? Scroll through 21 dukes casino mobile the list, and some patterns are noticed by you. Most of the towns at the top are into the Midwest, a great deal come in college towns, and nearly all were in places that are super-cold for longer than half the season.
Hawaii of Wisconsin had nine metropolitan areas on record. Three places in Iowa made the top 20. Minnesota and North Dakota also made respectable showings. And even Fairbanks, Alaska, allow it be known they’ve something to offer that Las Vegas does not.
Exactly What Doesn’t Take Place in Vegas …
For starters, unlike many towns on the list, Las Vegas isn’t much of a college town, at least perhaps not associated with the kind where tailgating has made Saturday morning binge drinking a residential area affair. The number of large state school cities that made the list can always depend on a crop that is new of moving to city, ready to come of age not too far from campus.
There’s UNLV, with 28,000 pupils, but the majority of them are commuters. And even for those who do like to party, it’s different when they could just blend in with the crowds at casinos and nightclubs within stumbling distance (or maybe just a cheap ride that is uber at home.
Likewise, casinos may have reputation for plying gamblers with free booze, but really that trend is rescinding, as corporate Las Vegas casinos are reducing the breeziness with which they dole out alcohol that is free other comps for those who aren’t necessarily high rollers.
And while tourists visited town to party hard, the Las Vegas metro area hosts nearly 2 million residents, most of whom are not partying 24/7. For every drunken bachelor party on the Strip, there’s a family in the surrounding areas not rocking out, but rather at home getting ready for school the next day.
Boozer’s Methodology
The methodology in this study used self-reported data from the departments of health and peoples solutions in 381 metropolitan areas to determine the prevalence of excessive drinking, which correlated with total number of bars and a percentage of automobile fatalities where alcohol was involved.
The study that is same compiled a list of the ‘driest’ metropolitan areas in the usa. Another spoiler: Provo, Utah, had been quantity one. The home of BYU boasts only 10 bars in town and only 8.5 percent of the adult population experienced in excessive drinking despite being a college town.
Fortunately, for those charged with marketing Las Vegas due to the fact world’s premiere party destination, Las Vegas was nowhere close to making that list.
Another study that is recent of Cities in America’ by The Daily Beast used somewhat different metrics, whilst still being Las Vegas couldn’t break the top 20, coming in at number 21.
If anything, the 24/7 study assessed indicators of problem drinking, not simply amount of booze consumed. So while many may fondly recall Las vegas, nevada as destination where they drank more than they thought humanly possible, as a city it’s a place that does pretty well keeping its liquor.
NBA Finals Odds Prefer Golden State Over Cleveland in Rubber Match Series
The NBA Finals odds in Las Vegas favor the Golden State Warriors to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy over the Cleveland Cavaliers for the third straight year. But if history informs us such a thing, it’s that the rubber match series is anything but a conclusion that is foregone.
LeBron James’ defending champs will be the 2017 underdogs according towards the NBA Finals odds, but that was also the case an ago year. (Image: Garrett Ellwood/Getty Images)
On Thursday evening, the Cavs took care of business by beating the Boston Celtics to end the series in five games. They now have a week to prepare for the warriors, a group that is a perfect 12-0 in this year’s playoffs.
The best-of-seven showdown doesn’t begin until next Thursday, June 1, but Las Vegas sportsbooks are of course bets that are already taking. Even though the NBA Finals odds favor Golden State, the first action was on the defending champs.
The series was opened by the Westgate SuperBook prices at Cleveland +220, and Golden State -260. That means a winning $100 bet on the Cavs returns $220, while the bet that is same the Warriors returns just $38.46.
However, chances are tilting in Cleveland’s benefit since these were first posted. The moneyline has shrunk the Cavs’ chances to +200, with the favorite now at -240.
LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love look to repeat and provide Cleveland sports its second championship that is major as years. That follows a drought that is 52-year caused many Ohioans anguish over the decades.
They face Kevin Durant, who was simply added to the already all-star-like Warriors roster final offseason, and mainstays Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
It’s the matchup every basketball fan outside the Bay Area and Ohio wanted to see. That includes oddsmakers, which stand to see heavy betting on the Finals rivalry.
More Than Rings on the line
The Warriors took the 2015 title, defeating LeBron in his first year after coming back home from his four-year stint in Miami where he won their first couple of titles. They matched once again last June, and after a record-setting regular season from the team out west, and down 3-1 within the series, the Cavs pulled off the unthinkable in coming back and upsetting the champs.
Now, it’s Golden State’s move to get revenge. Final fall, Green said need the two teams meet again, ‘ I want to destroy Cleveland. I wish to annihilate them.’
Along side deciding which team takes the lead within the NBA that is three-game Finals, analysts believe the identity for the league normally on the line. Can it stay LeBron’s, or perhaps is it time to hand the reins over to Curry and Durant?
James Praises Warriors
Following his Eastern Conference Finals win, LeBron dished out plenty of respect for the ‘juggernaut,’ that he faces next as he called them.
James, who is going to their seventh straight Finals and passed Michael Jordan regarding the all-time playoff scoring list on Thursday, said, ‘They’ve been the team that is best in our league for the last three years. Plus they’ve added an unbelievable player in Kevin Durant so it makes it also more difficult.’
Ohio Casino Employees Will be Able to soon Gamble In-State
Ohio casinos are about to gain a huge number of new players that are prospective as a result of the people who work for them.
The Ohio Senate voted on Wednesday 32-0 to eliminate a prohibition on casino employees gambling in some of the state’s four casino video gaming resorts.
A bill ready to be finalized into legislation in Ohio will rescind a prohibition against casino employees gambling in the Buckeye state, and instead is only going to avoid them from playing at the spot they work. (Image: Toledo Blade)
The law that is current which went into effect soon after Ohio voted to legalize casinos on 2010, causes it to be a first-degree misdemeanor for workers to gamble at any casino within the Buckeye State.
It applies to dealers, wait staff, executives, entertainers, valet parkers, maintenance workers, and just about anyone else who works in or for the casino.
During the time, the stated function ended up being to prevent corruption and collusion, while assuring the public that Ohio gambling enterprises would never cheat them.
Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) introduced a bill to address the irrelevance of present statute year that is last when he was a state Senator. Term limitations forced him to go out of the Senate, but upon being elected to keep serving in the home, he brought the bill with him, and by February it won approval from the House on a 94-3 vote.
His bill revised language of that statutory law to state casino employees were only forbidden from gambling at their place of business, or any affiliated properties in-state.
All Work and No Enjoy?
Ohio casinos employ more than 9,000 people. That’s a great deal of potential prospects who presumably are interested in gambling forced traveling to Michigan, Indiana, or Pennsylvania for the place that is nearest to play.
Existing law doesn’t affect workers at the state’s seven ‘racinos,’ an inequity the new bill sought to address.
Prohibited casino worker gambling happens to be a misdemeanor that is first-degree by as much as 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Repeat offenses can lead to felony eventually charges. But this has not been a presssing issue, as so far, zero casino operators or employees have been prosecuted.
‘After five years of regulating and enforcing the law at Ohio’s casinos, we never have possessed a situation of employees from various casinos working in collusion to cheat,’ Matthew Schuler, executive director of the Ohio Casino Control Commission, testified in February. ‘In fact, given the systems of surveillance, segregated duties, and controls that are internal to each casino operator, it might be difficult to also attempt.’
In-State’s Rights
Schuler said in a statement that the law that is new ‘bring Ohio into alignment with neighboring jurisdictions where such an approach has proven reasonable and still maintains the integrity of casino video gaming.’
Pennsylvania had a prohibition similar to Ohio’s in place whenever they legalized gambling in 2006. They rescinded the limitation on in-state gambling in 2012, using it instead only to one’s place of employment.
In New Jersey, state regulators lifted a ban on workers’ gambling in-state at establishments other than their own host to business in the first 1990s.