ONLINE GAMBLING AND CASINO GUIDE

Talk about being lowballed.

Today, Penn National Gaming said in a regulatory filing that it will offer $50 million for the 70% finished Fontainebleau.

Given that the projected cost of the Fblue was $3 billion, Penn National’s bid represents a roughly 98% discount.  Penn would also pay $52 million in bankruptcy expenses, but that will do little for the property itself.

Fortunately, this amount will simply serve as an opening bid for the property, which is scheduled to be sold at auction on January 21, 2010.  If nobody else shows up with a higher amount, however, this could conceivably be the selling price for the tallest hotel structure on the Vegas Strip.

Even without the building, the bid price represents an offer of roughly $2 million per acre of Las Vegas Boulevard real estate.  Two years ago, this same land was going for about $27 million per acre.  Were Penn National to knock the existing structure down and start from scratch, they would still be getting one hell of a deal.

To put this into perspective, two years ago the New F’ing Frontier Hotel was sold for $1.2 Billion, or roughly twenty four times the current bid for the Fblue.

This shows just how far we have fallen, and none of this bodes well for the North Strip.

While the auction may finally provide some closure with regards to ownership, it will almost certainly take a very long time before construction is once again resumed on the massive project.

There are also many questions that this sale will generate.

• If they go ahead with development, will every room still get an iMac?
• Will the Performing Arts Center still open?
• Will it sit mothballed like Echelon as Penn awaits a larger and possibly non-existent investor?

We will not know for some time.

I’m just proud that our benevolent Federal Government provided a trillion dollars of bailouts to the financial institutions providing the money for the Fblue project.

Given that Bank of America, the Fblue’s largest lender, received a cumulative $138 billion in bailouts and guarantees, you’d think they could have eased up on large projects in the US city most heavily hit by the recession.

Instead, they grabbed the money and flipped us the middle finger.  My guess is that the CEOs of Bank of America and R&R Partners both took the same “how to rip taxpayers off for fun and profit” seminar.

The banks committed to an over-reaching loan and got a mulligan.  Everyone else from homeowners to developers have to pay, and pay dearly.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the U.S. economy is a dismal failure, and much like slavery, one hundred years from now our great grandchildren will look back and shake their heads in disbelief.  Assuming we have abolished public schools by that time.  If the education system continues on its current trajectory, then it’s safe to say that our best days as a nation are behind us.

These are the things that keep me up at night, until I realize that I won’t be here in a hundred years and thus won’t be affected.  I’m still trying to make it so that global warming kicks in about one year before I pass away.  I want to rent a helicopter and personally watch the tidal wave envelop Manhattan and I want to walk out the door of my home in Rexville and go surfing in my own back yard.

Anyway, I’ve digressed from the subject at hand … possibly because the subject is both depressing and annoying simultaneously.

The shot in the arm that people were expecting for their properties in this area may not materialize, the jobs no longer exist, and the fantastic new casino that would have been within walking distance of yours truly has been put off indefinitely.

There is a ray of hope, however.

I’ve been wanting to open my own casino for some time, and given the extremely low opening bid of the Fblue, that dream is now within reach.

Nude cocktail waitresses.  Yellow Ledbetter: A Pearl Jam Retrospective by Cirque Du Soleil.  A 12,000 square foot opium den.  Turndown service featuring happy endings.  A buffet-style brothel.  Coffee shops that don’t serve coffee.  A casino updated yearly with products from the G2E display floor.  Employees who pretend to give a damn about your visit.

Las Vegas is one step closer to all of the above.

I never thought that I would only be $50 million away from my goal, but at this rate, the dream may very well become a reality.

If I can raise just $25 million from each of my readers, I’ll be halfway there.

Feel free to email for my Paypal address.

Together, we can make this happen.

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