LEAVING LAS VEGAS

Posted on | November 6, 2008 | No Comments

By: Rich Bergeron

From my window-seat vantage point on my under-booked flight back to Boston from Sunny Vegas last Tuesday morning, I counted 15 towering cranes in the skyline of the famous strip. As the economy sours, so too do the big crowds and floods of tourists once willing and able to come and dump a bunch of cash on a whim. Now they do more than bat an eye before they settle in and spend. They look for the deals and discounts casinos throw out to get people in the door, and they scrimp and they save unless it’s on the house.

The Las Vegas I witnessed is a dust bowl of desperately overbuilt dreams facing the hard reality of a looming near-depression economy. The novelty wore off for me after my first walk through the endless lavish hallways of the Bellagio hotel (see the outdoor fountain display above). What was I doing, I asked myself, as if the Alice in Wonderland feeling of my visit had finally sunk in. I wasn’t a high roller or a big spender. I was lost trying to comprehend what the grand purpose of such an overbuilt palace of business could really be. I mean, what good is all that waste of money and energy doing society? I don’t know. I don’t want to be a party pooper or anything, but I didn’t feel the magic. Maybe I should have gone to Circus Circus for that.

My visit enlightened me in so many ways to the real breadth of the problems ahead. Where we go from here, why we go there, and who we take with us are important questions moving forward. We are at a precipice where it is do or die, work as a cohesive unit moving forward or break down by infighting. The shareholders are angry, and they should be.

It appears now that Fertitta Enterprises is suffering in more ways than one with the covenants of another loan of theirs in danger of defaulting on a violation of the covenants. SURPRISE!!! SURPRISE!!! Who knew the Fertittas were capable of breaching covenants?

Upon doing some more intimate research into the history of the Fertitta brothers’ aggressive and unprecedented land grab campaigns it’s no surprised that they’ve over leveraged themselves in a market steadily losing more and more value. Their brilliant idea was to take the gambling away from the evil eyes of the strip and bring it deep into the suburbs. Red Rock Casino, Alliante Station, Palace Station, and even a $10 billion dollar vision for a super casino were all groomed to draw people away from the traditional city center with names people knew and were already tired of. The Fertittas knew the people willing to spend the most money had to have the most money. They’d want the spas and the privacy and the intimacy of an out of the way resort. An off the beaten path destination. The problem is, like prescription drugs, the problems of this bad economy have reached the suburbs, too. Everybody hurts.

www.xyiencesucks.com is now on the verge of beginning a major campaign to get the word out about the true story behind what I call “The Enron of MMA.” It’s an awful scandal perpetrated by folks who aren’t afraid to spend hundreds of millions a year on their own family’s wild, carefree lifestyle. I am building a new and improved, full force, balls to the wall legal argument that will surprise all the lawyers who have to wade through it and find out how their clients are culpable. I’ll have volumes of documented support and affidavits up the wazoo.

I’ve also obtained a copy of one of the latest and greatest hearings in this whole saga, the show cause hearing from September 10, 2008:

OFFICIAL SEPTEMBER 10th COURT RECORDING

All in all, I am glad I am at this point in the process armed with the knowledge I need and in the position to really shake things up and promote accountability on multiple levels. The perpetrators will be singled out and appropriately dealt with as long as I can lay out the evidence properly and completely. It’s just a matter of time. The finish line is in sight, and the tables are turning.

Stay Tuned!!!!!!!!!!

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