Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Sucks to be them. I guess they deserved it because they cut 50% of the staff, thats not cool at all. If they want to appeal they must step it up and hire more workers, and get the place running again

Posted by detroit1051

I was disappointed when Columbia Sussex outbid Dan Lee and Pinnacle for Aztar. Analysts are referenced in the following story that Yung will have a very difficult time persuading an appeals court to overturn the decision. On the other side, some are saying this was all orchestrated by the unions in AC. This will become a real soap opera. My question now, is what happens to the Vegas Tropicana? Deutsche Bank issued a statement yesterday saying that they expect no regulatory action in Las Vegas because "...NV does not require licensees to "maintain first
class resorts." That quote struck me as rather odd.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/top_story/story/7522352p-7422640c.html

Posted by Dave

I'm going to swim against the tide of public opinion here and say I don't think this is a good thing for Atlantic City. Private equity companies might be think twice about investing in AC, given that regulators are given this much discretion. A "first class resort" is a wildly subjective criteria, and basing a license denial even partly on that is, in my opinion, a mistake.

I'm not saying ColSux was running a first-class operation. I'm not saying that they didn't let the casino deteriorate, although I haven't been keeping close enough tabs on the place to judge for myself, but I'd feel better about the decision if the casino hadn't already been convicted in the court of public opinion.

As I've said before, you could look in the complaint files of any casino resort and find allegations of the most heinous atrocities this side of a war zone. I wouldn't be surprised if a disgruntled patron accused the Trop--or, for that matter, Bellagio--of waterboarding. So this isn't what you want to be licensing on.

I think that there won't be any shortage of buyers for the property. It might be a good buy for James Packer's Crown Casinos, since it would give him a foothold in AC relatively cheaply. The Trop is no Wynn Las Vegas, but with the Quarter it's got potential. A few hundred million to buy it, plus a few hundred million in upgrades (which hopefully includes softening the dismal exterior), and it might be a quality resort again. If the Gateway AC project goes through, that will be a hot corner of town.

Attila the Yung got just what he deserved and I am very proud of the Jersey Commission for making the right decision. I worked for Columbia Sussex in Vegas for 2 years - the longest and most challenging 2 years in my professional life. He has no loyalty to anyone, thinks that everyone is expendable and treats you like &%%^*. They stranded people in the Caribbean - fired them on the spot because they balked at working 12 hours 7 days a week. All he is concerned with is cutting costs and gets crazy if questioned. Hopefully other jurisdictions will jump on the bandwagon. The culinary should move right on it and strike!! That place is now a mess!!

I have been going to the Tropicana in AC for over 10 years. Since Columbia Sussex took over the place has turned into a dismal HELL HOLE! Everything in that hotel is filthy from the bathrooms to the restaraunts! They just did a renovation of the Seaside Cafe....It went from a very warm comfy place to eat to a cafeteria at
K-Mart! This guy is as cheap as they come! I MEAN CHEAP! HAHA-look at the figures for November! Nobody goes anymore because of FILTH and just a crap atmosphere overall. This is not to say that the staff (whats left of them) are not always kind and considerate because they really are but they all fear for their jobs. Columbia Sussex needs to GET OUT OF ATLANTIC CITY! They CANNOT run a "First Class" casino! I would never saty in any of their hotels using what they have done to the Trop as an example! Maybe they should get out of the service industry all together. Maybe they should just go under all together. Perhaps the CEO will learn not to be such a pompass twitt!

The NJ Commission made the absolutely right decision. The new owner has done nothing with the resort, and it's now a dump. Would people rather have a gaming commission that lets degenerate owners continue to run resorts into the ground and sully the name of the city? We all remember when that happened in Vegas...no good!

So now ColSux is selling off a couple properties (in addition to the mandated AC Trop sale) just to pay down debt incurred in the Aztar acquisition and avoid bankruptcy. The properties being sold accounted for over half their cash flow over the last 12 months. Maybe that Aztar buy wasn't such a good move after all? But thanks for bidding it up and pushing out the competent operators Mr Yung.

http://www.lvrj.com/business/12586836.html

i love staying at the tropicana the rooms were great the ocean view great and the employees great the only complaint i have is we are not getting complimentary rooms anymore so we could go i love the tropicana