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



Rough Rock International does not like what it sees in the previous Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, that the company purchased in March for $50 million.

Rough Rock Chairman Jim Allen, A trump that is former entertainment employee, is now tasked with renovating his previous boss’s grand vision in Atlantic City.

Billionaire Carl Icahn’s discount cost selloff suggested the tricky Rock was acquiring a Boardwalk property for cents on the buck, as former casino developer turned US President Donald Trump built the resort for $1.2 billion in 1990.

But upon better assessment, intense Rock officials state it is likely to cost a penny that is pretty refresh the 2,010-room resort and video gaming space, and rid it of an India-themed décor.

‘The sum of money we’re going to have to spend to eliminate all those minarets and all that purple, Jesus! Just 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 found round the Trump Taj Mahal.

Hard Rock Ups Ante

Though the company owned by the Seminole Tribe in Florida got a spot that is premiere the Atlantic City Boardwalk for a rock-bottom price, Hard Rock professionals state the initial budget of $350 million will not be nearly enough to trnsform the room into a proper rough Rock Hotel & Casino. Allen estimated that the project’s expense shall increase to at least $500 million.

‘It does us no good to place some guitars regarding the wall and carpets that are new and say, ‘I can take five or 10 % regarding the company from Resorts or Harrah’s,” Allen stated.

Anyone who traveled to the Taj Mahal before its October closing understands the serious work that lies ahead. a dark gaming flooring and outdated consuming areas left the casino feeling musty and unclean.

Atlantic City is in the process of locating a norm that is new regards to gaming and hospitality income. Five gambling enterprises closed since 2014, however the economy is showing signs of recovery and turning the corner to an even more time that is prosperous.

For the very first quarter of 2017, the casino that is remaining generated $816.7 million in revenue from their casinos, rooms in hotels, food and beverage services, and entertainment. That represents an 8.6 % gain regarding the same period a 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 home’s relationship with the Local 54 casino workers union.

Previous owner Icahn slashed benefits and pay that is flatlined he purchased the Taj Mahal out of bankruptcy in February of 2016. The union ultimately went on an attack, but the billionaire don’t fold for their demands. The standoff led to Icahn closing, and subsequently selling, the home once dubbed the ‘eighth wonder regarding the world.’

Allen claims he’ll assist neighborhood 54 for a new work contract.

‘There’s going to be no dispute with Local 54,’ he said. ‘we are 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 as the sporting that is international have left a path of destruction, both in a financial and infrastructural sense, in present decades.

It was just nine months ago that Michael Phelps capped down his storied Olympics job in the Aquatics Center in Rio de Janeiro. Built for the 2016 Summer Games at a price of $38 million, today it sits vacant deteriorating. (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 nation striking it rich from hosting the summer that is quadrennial cold weather spectacle are about since likely as a casino gambler hitting that progressive slots jackpot.

Here’s an example: Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s 2016 Olympics price tag was over $12 billion, and what it got in return for its investment that is sizable is cluster of abandoned stadiums and venues that are expected to cost the country millions of dollars in upkeep every year.

Two of the stadiums constructed for the 2016 games were earmarked for future usage. One was to be renovated into a college, but today remains boarded up. Another, some other stadium that hosted rugby while the modern pentathlon, was planned to be transformed into a park that is public. In addition remains vacant, and from the Olympics is still littered throughout the venue.

Good for Gambling, Detrimental To City

One area that does reap the benefits of hosting an Olympics is 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 same oddsmakers created a handle that barely eclipsed $5 million.

Brazil attempted to pass 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 once such mogul who is reportedly interested in building in Rio if the market become liberalized.

Japan won’t be making the same mistakes as 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 catastrophe that is complete it was certainly a scandal-riddled two months in Southern America. Inadequately built venues and housing that is athlete sanitary dilemmas, issues over criminal activity, 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 way for decades in the future due to the ever-growing cost 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 which it requires to host the Olympics. With costs modified for inflation, from 1960 through Sochi in 2014, the price that is average $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 may be looked at as Sin City, but that doesn’t mean the place is awash in booze 24/7. Well, actually, maybe it really is. However when it comes to determining the cities that are drunkest America, vegas hasn’t got a thing on Midwestern metropolises such as for instance Dubuque, Iowa, Lincoln, Nebraska, or Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Regardless of how much this guy can throw back in a night, it won’t be enough to declare the city that is whole of Vegas one of many drunkest places on the map. (Image: o2ip.com)

A study conducted by financial news internet 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 related to alcohol-fueled ills that are social. Record revealed that while Las Vegas’ reputation as a party city may be well-deserved, it barely constitutes a civic health danger.

The study found the largest drunks weren’t seen stumbling across the Strip or passed away in a casino lobby. Spoiler alert: in ranking the cities that are drunkest the top destination was Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Las vegas, nevada didn’t crack the Top even 20. Therefore just what gives? Scroll through record, and some patterns are noticed by you. Most of the towns at the top are in the Midwest, a whole lot come in college towns, and the majority of were in places being super-cold for longer than half the year.

The state of Wisconsin had nine cities on record. Three places in Iowa made the top 20. Minnesota and North Dakota additionally made respectable showings. And even Fairbanks, Alaska, allow it be known they will have something to offer that Las Vegas does not.

Just What Doesn’t Happen in Vegas …

For one, unlike most towns in the list, Las Vegas isn’t much of a college town, at the very least perhaps not associated with the sort where tailgating has made Saturday morning binge drinking a residential district affair. The number of big state school cities that made the list can always depend for a new crop of children moving to city, ready in the future of age not too far from campus.

There’s UNLV, with 28,000 students, but the majority of them are commuters. And even for those who do like to party, it’s not similar whenever they are able to simply merge with the crowds at casinos and nightclubs within stumbling distance (or maybe just a cheap Uber trip) at home.

Similarly, 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 free alcohol and other comps for folks who aren’t necessarily high rollers.

And while tourists visited town to party hard, the Las Vegas metro area is home to nearly 2 million residents, most of whom are not partying 24/7. For every drunken bachelor party on the Strip, there’s a family members 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 research used data that are self-reported the departments of health insurance and peoples services in 381 metropolitan areas to ascertain the prevalence of excessive drinking, which correlated with total number of bars and a share of automobile fatalities where alcohol was involved.

The exact same study additionally compiled an inventory of the ‘driest’ towns in the usa. Another spoiler: Provo, Utah, ended up being quantity one. Despite being a university town, the home of BYU boasts only 10 bars in town and only 8.5 % associated with adult population experienced in exorbitant drinking.

Fortunately, for those charged with marketing Las vegas, nevada because the planet’s premiere party destination, 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, but still nevada couldn’t split the top 20, coming in at number 21.

If anything, the 24/7 study evaluated indicators of problem drinking, not simply amount of booze consumed. So even though many may fondly recall Las Vegas as an accepted place where they drank more than they thought humanly possible, as a city it’s a place that does pretty well holding its liquor.

NBA Finals Odds Favor 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 tells us anything, it’s that the rubber match series is such a thing but a foregone conclusion.

LeBron James’ defending champs will be the 2017 underdogs according towards the NBA Finals odds, but that was also the case a year ago. (Image: Garrett Ellwood/Getty Pictures)

On Thursday evening, the Cavs took care of company by beating the Boston Celtics to end the series in five games. They now have a week to prepare for the warriors, a team that’s a perfect 12-0 in this 12 months’s playoffs.

The best-of-seven showdown doesn’t begin until next Thursday, June 1, but Las Vegas sportsbooks are of course already taking bets. While the NBA Finals odds favor Golden State, the first action has been on the defending champs.

The Westgate SuperBook exposed the series prices at Cleveland +220, and Golden State -260. This means a winning $100 bet on the Cavs returns $220, while the same bet on the Warriors returns just $38.46.

However, chances are tilting in Cleveland’s favor since they certainly 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 activities its second championship that is major as many years. That follows a drought that is 52-year caused so many Ohioans anguish over the decades.

They face Kevin Durant, who had been added towards the already all-star-like Warriors roster last offseason, and mainstays Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.

It’s the matchup every basketball fan outside of the Bay Area and Ohio wanted to see. That includes oddsmakers, which stay 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 returning house from their four-year stint in Miami where he won his first couple of titles. They matched once more last June, and after a record-setting season that is regular the team out west, and down 3-1 within the series, the Cavs pulled down the unthinkable in coming back and upsetting the champs.

Now, it’s Golden State’s seek out get revenge. Final autumn, Green said need the 2 teams meet again, ‘ I want to destroy Cleveland. I desire to annihilate them.’

Along with deciding which team takes the lead within the three-game NBA Finals showdown, analysts believe the identity for the league is also at risk. Will it stay LeBron’s, or perhaps is it time to hand over the reins to Curry and Durant?

James Praises Warriors

Following his Eastern Conference Finals win, LeBron dished down plenty of respect for the ‘juggernaut,’ that he faces next as he called them.

James, that is going to his seventh right Finals and passed Michael Jordan in the all-time playoff scoring list on Thursday, said, ‘They’ve been the best team in our league for the past three years. In addition they’ve added an unbelievable player in Kevin Durant it even more difficult. so it makes’

Ohio Casino Employees Will be Able to soon Gamble In-State

Ohio casinos are about to gain several thousand new players that are prospective thanks to the people who work for them.

The Ohio Senate voted on Wednesday 32-0 to eliminate a prohibition on casino employees gambling in any of hawaii’s four casino video gaming resorts.

A bill ready become finalized into legislation in Ohio will rescind a prohibition against casino employees gambling in the Buckeye state, and instead will simply avoid them from playing during the place they work. (Image: Toledo Blade)

The law that is current which went into effect soon after Ohio voted to legalize casinos on 2010, makes it a first-degree misdemeanor for employees to gamble at any casino in the Buckeye State.

It pertains to dealers, wait staff, executives, entertainers, valet parkers, maintenance workers, and just about someone else who works in or even for the casino.

The stated purpose was to prevent corruption and collusion, while assuring the public that Ohio casinos would never cheat them at the time.

Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) introduced a bill to handle the irrelevance of current statute year that is last whenever he had been 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 home on a 94-3 vote.

His bill revised language of that law to say casino workers were only forbidden from gambling at their place of business, or any affiliated properties in-state.

All Work and No Play?

Ohio casinos employ more than 9,000 people. That is clearly a great deal of potential prospects who presumably are interested in gambling forced traveling to Michigan, Indiana, or Pennsylvania for the nearest place to play.

Existing law doesn’t influence employees at the state’s seven ‘racinos,’ an inequity the bill that is new to address.

Prohibited casino worker gambling happens to be a misdemeanor that is first-degree by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Repeat offenses can lead to felony eventually charges. But this has not been a presssing 22 dukes sister casino issue, as so far, zero casino operators or workers have been prosecuted.

‘After five years of regulating and enforcing what the law states at Ohio’s casinos, we have not possessed a instance of employees from different 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 would be difficult to even attempt.’

In-State’s Rights

Schuler said in a declaration that the brand new law will ‘bring Ohio into positioning with neighboring jurisdictions where such an approach has proven reasonable whilst still being maintains the integrity of casino 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, applying it instead only to an individual’s where you work.

In New Jersey, state regulators lifted a ban on workers’ gambling in-state at establishments other than their very own host to business in the first 1990s.

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