VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
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the basics Pick 'Em Get smart Power tweets Power Lunch The Numbers Overheard Sin City Media talking points Done Deal the numbers Chatter We hear .com YOUR AD HERE Buy high Sell low Smith's world Mike Smith is an award-winning editorial cartoonist featured daily in the Las Vegas Sun. Smith's work also is distributed nationally by King Features Syndicate. See archives of his work at lasvegassun.com/smithsworld. $1.2 billion VEGASINCmag Executive class Read this! The Pitch is back American dream Moonlighting NOW SERVING 95 LAS VEGAS Vegas then ? ? ? ? ? ! The innovator VEGASinc2021 Gate keeper The amount Nevada casinos lost in 2012. It was the fourth consecutive year that Nevada's major casinos $ posted net losses. FortuneCookie Grilled The Survivor $350 million The amount Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh is investing in the Downtown Project. The money will help small businesses and startups, schools and cultural institutions develop downtown. Hsieh laid out his plans as part of a 30-minute presentation during the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce's Preview Las Vegas. 100 The number of condominiums up for sale at Veer Towers. New York-based Ladder Capital and Florida-based Pordes Residential Sales and Marketing put the units back on the market in January after the companies bought 60 percent of Veer's condominiums in December for $119 million. 2045 The year futurist Ray Kurzweil expects nonbiological intelligence to be more powerful than human intelligence, potentially pitting machines against humans. Kurzweil spoke last month at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Audi Speaker Series. 45 The number of days construction was stopped on the SkyVue observation wheel on the Strip while developer Howard Bulloch got financing in order. Construction has resumed on the 500-foot wheel across from Mandalay Bay. $12 million The listing price of Gavin Maloof's mansion in Southern Highlands. The 13,489-square-foot home at 27 Eagle Landing Lane has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, an elevator, a movie theater and 10-car garage. 15,000 The number of movies available for rent at Movies and Candy, a new movie rental store in Henderson. Owners Trevor Layne and Katie Crispell opened the store in November. Movies rent for $1. 4 The number of months the Palms has to pay a $1 million fine to the Nevada Gaming Commission. The resort was fined after its nightclub hosts, security guards and bottle runners offered undercover officers prostitutes and drugs. | 4 FEBRUARY 2013 20130204_VI21_F.indd 21 | Reader comments We want to hear from you. Visit vegasinc.com to post your opinion. On Rick Velotta's Jan. 28 VEGAS INC column about why room-tax money should be earmarked for the UNLV Now stadium project ("Make UNLV Now happen"): This is a project that benefits a lot of different people. It will provide jobs in the construction phase and draw huge events in the years to come. The Thomas & Mack Center isn't one of the busiest arenas in the country because the Runnin' Rebels are the only event there; it would be the same concept with UNLV Now with over three times the capacity. — Louis_G (Louis Gregory) The problem is not with devoting a portion of room tax to subsidize yet another tourist venue. It's with establishing a special tax district that diverts revenue away from general government. The last we heard, this project would require about $300 million in sales and property tax revenue. Another subsidy to tourism and sports won't diversify our economy. — truthiness On Anjeanette Damon's Jan. 28 VEGAS INC story about the bills being proposed for the 2013 Legislature ("8 bills to watch in Carson City"): They should research what other states have done so they know what they are talking about instead of just trying to submit "feel-good" laws. Posting of nutritional information has done nothing except cost companies money in the areas that have required this. A tax on junk food has raised money for states but has not slowed the buying of junk food and has been mostly a tax on the poor. We already have enough people overseeing the water department. Another layer of government is not going to fix anything. All business, home-based or not, should share in the costs. If $200 a year is going to break them, they need to get a job and stop their losing business. — vegaslee On Ron Sylvester's Jan. 26 vegasinc.com story about progress being made building the SkyVue observation wheel ("After temporary stall, SkyVue wheel back in motion"): It's so easy to lob insults at developers who take risks making this city grow. Who else invested capital and reputation to create a magnificent worldclass destination exhibit in the midst of a recession? Certainly not the critics. — JanG (Jan Glaser) On Ron Sylvester's Jan. 24, vegasinc.com story about the Nevada Gaming Commission giving the Palms four months to pay a $1 million fine amid drug and prostitution charges ("Nevada Gaming Commission approves $1 million fine against Palms"): The only way for these casinos to get the message is to suspend their gaming license. This nonsense goes on all along the Strip and will continue unless a real hard line is taken. — artswanson (Art Swanson) 21 1/31/13 3:07:52 PM