12 | May | 2008 | David G. Schwartz

With much, but not all of the site work done, I’m taking a bold leap back into the gaming news blogosphere today.

I haven’t heard much about this possible bidder for the Columbia Sussex casino empire, but that might just be because I’ve spent more time poring over css style sheets than reading the news. And before you ask, I’m not related to Gerald Schwartz. From ReportonBusiness.com:

Onex Corp. is ready to place a bet on the U.S. gambling industry, with struggling casino icon Tropicana Entertainment LLC a potential target for Gerald Schwartz’s buyout firm.

Onex has top-end help in its hunt for a gambling deal, teaming up with Alex Yemenidjian, the former president of Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM Grand casino empire. The firm is employing the same strategy in another beat-up business, building products, where Onex has joined with Masonite International Corp. founder Philip Orsino to seek deals.

In gambling, the focus isn’t just on the neon and flash of the Las Vegas strip, where the Tropicana is a well-known name in lights, but in more out-of-the-way places. Onex made a bid for Gateway Casinos Income Fund, which runs gambling operations in Western Canada, but fell short in that 2007 takeover battle.

Onex eyes move into gambling

I wouldn’t exactly call Columbia Sussex a “casino icon,” but what do I know?

Onex is a private equity company:

We also pursue opportunities to create value by putting a portion of Onex’ substantial cash resources to work in additional asset classes that we believe will generate superior returns. Through Onex Real Estate Partners, our acquisition partnership with a team of highly experienced industry professionals, we are investing in high-quality commercial and multi-unit residential real estate. We may invest in other asset classes where we believe we can achieve appropriate returns and where the activities can lead to acquisition opportunities.

I wonder if the US/Canadian exchange rate would make this a good bet for Onex? At the very least, TropEnt owns some pretty valuable real estate on the Strip.

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Book review: Super Casino

Re-reading after seven years, I’m struck by two things: I’m not entirely comfortable reviewing books that I don’t like, and the general quality of writing about Las Vegas has not much improved.

Let me explain: as a writer, I absolutely hate saying negative things about other writers. I know how hard it is to find the discipline and vision to write a book, then go through rounds of revisions and editorial haggling. To do all this and then see your work ripped to shreds is just heart-breaking.

But sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, I’ve heard, and sometimes the writer isn’t the victim, the reader is. Maybe the writer took a nice advance then realized that he didn’t have anything meaningful to say on the topic. In that case, I’ve got no pity: I’ve been offered projects that I didn’t feel I could do justice to, and I’ve turned them down, even though it meant passing up a payday. Before I start writing, I feel an obligation to the reader to approach the topic in good faith.

And the more crap that’s out there, particularly the more well-marketed crap, the less room there is for real writing in the book ecosystem: it’s literary kudzu, or snakeheads, or whatever invasive species you can think of. Theodore Sturgeon was probably right when he said “ninety-five percent of everything is crap,” and in regard to Las Vegas/gambling that’s probably a generous estimate. But since for whatever reason I’m in a position to have some influence, I try to encourage good writing. I’m not saying I practice it or anything, I’m just saying I can recognize it and, like a soused undergrad seeing that guy from his o-chem class across the haze of a frat party, say, with an equivalent nod of the head, “Dude!”

As you’ll see, I’m not saying “dude” for this book.

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