Wynn Partner Gets Ok

07.06.2004, Lesen Sie hier den Bericht über «Wynn Partner Gets Ok».

A $1 billion slot machine company controlled by Steve Wynn's Japanese business partner received unanimous approval Friday for a two-year Nevada manufacturer's license. Wynn told members of the Gaming Control Board of the strong ethical character of Aruze Corp. Chairman Kazuo Okada. Okada and Wynn each have invested $380 million in Wynn Resorts, the company building the $2.4 billion Wynn Las Vegas resort on the Strip.

Okada has been licensed for more than 20 years as the owner of Universal Distributing Co. of Nevada, a once-prominent but now largely dormant slot machine company. As part of the approval Friday, Aruze also will acquire Universal. The control board's action will be reviewed June 17 by the Nevada Gaming Commission. "I really appreciate the opportunity I had at this time," Okada said through an interpreter after the hearing. "I will comply with all the regulations in Nevada. I will do my best to respond to their expectations."

After a hearing that lasted more than four hours, Wynn hugged and then kissed Okada on the cheek. He earlier had vouched for the character of Okada, with whom he also is building a Macau gaming resort. "He is not just suitable, he is desirable," Wynn said. "He is a risk-taking capitalist."

Wynn told control board members that their decision would have an effect on Wynn Resorts. "On the surface, this is not related to Wynn Resorts," he said. "But it is profoundly related to Wynn Resorts. He is an equal owner of the company and your findings will reflect on Wynn Resorts."

During the long hearing, Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander and Scott Scherer repeatedly complained to Okada and his Nevada lawyer, Bob Faiss, about the delays their agents had in acquiring documents from Aruze. Aruze had gone before the control board four years ago to acquire Universal Distributing, but that decision had been put on hold over tax questions in Japan. Last year a Japanese tax court threw out charges that Okada had concealed $35 million in income connected to efforts to boost Universal Distributing.

Faiss said Okada has spent $181,000 in the past year translating documents and providing material requested by the control board. He attributed problems in providing documents quickly to cultural and language differences and not requesting information from the right people. He said that until recently, Japanese business leaders did not place as much emphasis on written documents and contracts as their American counterparts. Instead, a lot of transactions are done by a handshake and the understanding both sides want to perform better than normally would be expected. "There is a significant cultural difference as to contracts, one Americans do not easily understand," Faiss said. "Contracts are looked at as a willingness to do business, not specific details. They simply expect each party will act fairly and do the right thing."

He said most of the problems cited by the control board over Okada's business practices with Universal occurred more than five years ago, when Aruze Corp. was a private company. "These were private companies," Faiss said. "They had a right how to delegate profits and losses."

One transaction questioned by Scherer was the shipping of computer circuit boards for slot machines to Nevada and then shipping them back to Japan. Faiss said the law in Japan required the importing of those parts. He said that during one recent year, Okada paid more taxes than any person in Japan.

Scherer sought the limited two-year slot manufacturing license as a way to ensure Okada responds more quickly to the control board's requests for information. The control board also required Okada to assign a key employee fluent in both Japanese and English to handle their business interests in Nevada. This employee must have decision-making power and must inform regulators of material events affecting Aruze in Japan.

But both men said they were encouraged that Okada's company will operate properly because next year, he and Wynn must come before them for licensing of Wynn Las Vegas.

-------- further articles about Wynn

LAS VEGAS -- Chalk one up for Steve Wynn in his battle for Las Vegas Strip supremacy with fellow casino titan Sheldon Adelson. Construction on Adelson's new $1.6 billion Las Vegas Strip resort, across Sands Avenue from Wynn's $2.4 billion resort, will be delayed over Wynn's complaints that Adelson is not planning enough parking for his project.

An Adelson representative said Wednesday that Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Inc. would look at options to provide the parking necessary to launch the project. Groundbreaking had been planned by the end of June -- it's now unclear when it will happen. The issue was debated by the Clark County Commission during a Wednesday meeting attended by heavyweight representatives of Adelson and Wynn, who has been pressing his claim that Adelson's parking plan is inadequate and that his existing Venetian megaresort already doesn't have enough parking.

After 2 1/2 hours of verbal sparring, representatives for Wynn's Wynn Las Vegas megaresort emerged with what they wanted -- an order from commissioners that Adelson's new Phase II resort and his existing, adjacent Venetian megaresort, have a minimum of 7,600 parking spaces prior to any construction on the Phase II site. Getting that number of spaces won't be easy. The Venetian's main parking garage has about 4,400 spaces. There are about 1,200 off-site spaces, some of which are on land where the new resort will be built.

To provide an additional 2,000 spaces, Venetian officials have acquired and plan to demolish an apartment complex near Sands Avenue and Koval Lane. But the leases don't run out on those apartments until December, delaying the availability of those spaces. Venetian officials intend to convert the land to parking as leases expire in October, November and December.

In addition, the new resort site at Sands Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard currently has 585 parking spaces that would be eliminated to make way for construction. Venetian officials pointed out that a four-story subterranean parking garage would be built first on that site, so parking would be added there gradually as the project progresses.

Typically, parking garages are built in conjunction with the resorts they serve. The Venetian case is different in that the new resort is considered Phase II of an existing development. But part of the problem is that the Venetian received a series of parking waivers when it originally was built. The company sought and received a 30 percent reduction in parking requirements because officials convinced the county that other sources of transportation -- primarily taxis and buses -- would bring guests to the resort and that economies of scale achieved by using shared staff for the two resorts justified the reduction in required parking.

Venetian officials also said when the Venetian was planned that a monorail station 400 feet south of the resort complex, at Harrah's hotel-casino, was another source of transportation that justified fewer parking spaces. Adelson later rejected having a monorail stop on his own property, saying it would take away as many guests as it would add.

County officials said that if existing codes were enforced, the Venetian and the Phase II resort would require 16,045 parking spaces. With the previously approved waivers, the total required now for both resorts is 11,233 spaces. The parking issue became so heated that at one point in Wednesday's meeting Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield warned Greg Borgel, the Venetian's land-use consultant, and Wynn attorney Todd Bice to quit making personal attacks against each other or he would toss both of them from the meeting. They complied. Neither Wynn nor Adelson attended the meeting, but both sides brought their heavy-artillery legal teams. Adelson's team was headed by former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, while Wynn countered with Frank Schreck, considered one of the city's top gaming attorneys, and Bice, a fiery litigator. Commissioners already were cranky after sitting through hearings lasting a total of eight hours before getting to the Venetian matter. The Venetian request was for a use permit for the so-called Palazzo, a 53-story, 3,020-room resort that would be a separate project from the Venetian. Bryan told commissioners that representatives from Wynn Las Vegas met with him and Venetian officials and that they had nearly settled every difference between them. But it became evident when Bice responded that the two sides were far apart on two key issues -- whether the Venetian had planned for enough parking spaces for the new resort and what the landscaping would look like on the north-facing side of the new resort, the side nearest the new Wynn property, due to open next April. Bice said not only did the new resort not have enough parking spaces in its plans, but the existing Venetian also was woefully lacking in spaces. He accused Venetian officials of operating a campaign of deception to win approval for permits, then not delivering the necessary parking. "The Venetian is completely out of whack when it comes to its obligations to the county and to its neighbors," Bice said. "The Venetian has been grossly underparked for years, since the day it opened its doors." The charges of deception were denied by Adelson's team. The Wynn team also brought a letter from Harrah's Entertainment Inc. Chairman Phil Satre and a representative from MGM MIRAGE to complain about the parking issue. MGM MIRAGE attorney Mark Russell said his company has posted signs in the Treasure Island parking garage across the Strip from the Venetian warning Venetian employees that if they were spotted parking there they would have their cars towed. Wynn officials suggested that in addition to requiring a minimum 7,600 parking spaces to begin work on the new resort that the commission take steps toward getting the rest of the resort in compliance, with 11,233 spaces recommended before the company be allowed to occupy the new building. But the Venetian team countered that Wynn estimates were off because parking specifications that were being implemented by the county when the Venetian was under construction in the late 1990s were more lenient than those in use today. The company needs an excavation permit, Bryan said, so that the garage can be built and as construction progresses, more and more of the garage would become available to the 1,000 workers anticipated at the site when construction is at full bore. But Wynn's team said that it is unacceptable that the Venetian wouldn't have enough parking when Phase II construction begins. Commissioners agreed on a 5-0 vote in favor of a conditional use permit for Adelson, with one abstention and one commissioner absent. Among the conditions imposed on the use permit is that the Venetian have in operation a minimum of 7,600 parking spaces prior to any construction on the site. The company would have to confirm the existence of the space prior to a public hearing on landscaping plan for the Phase II resort. The date of that hearing has not been set. Commissioners also imposed some landscaping conditions along Sands Avenue because Wynn wants the street separating his resort from the Venetian's to be inviting, since that is where his VIP entry will be. The commission agreed to the completion of a traffic study for Sands Avenue before the issuance of any permits on the site. Commissioner Myrna Williams, who represents the district where the two resorts are going in, asked that sidewalks be a minimum of 9 feet wide. Another condition is that the landscaped area along Sands Avenue have an average minimum depth of 20 feet. After the meeting, Bryan said it was likely that the Venetian wouldn't be able to break ground by the end of the month as it had planned. But he said the company would explore other options to resolve the parking issue. "There are always other options," he said.

Über Casinos in Las Vegas:

Casinos.ch ist die Gaming & Entertainment-Plattform der Schweiz und mit über 20 Informationsportalen und rund 100 Internetnamen (Domains) das grosse News- und Pressenetzwerk der Casino- und Glücksspielszene in Europa.

Aktuelle News, Interviews, Fotos und spannende Stories - direkt und live aus den Schweizer Casinos, der Spielbankenszene Deutschlands, über das monegassische Casino von Monte Carlo, weitere Casinos aus ganz Europa und der ganzen Welt finden Sie auf www.casinos.ch. Und last but not least natürlich auch aus der Sin City 'Las Vegas'.

Die Informationen sind unterteilt in die Bereiche Casino-Informationen, aktuelle News, Events, Jackpot und Tournament-Informationen, Fotogalerien, Live-Berichte und Interviews sowie ein täglich wechselndes Glückshoroskop.

Top-Brands: - www.casinos.ch CH-Casino-Plattform - www.swisspoker.ch Poker-News - www.casinopersonal.ch offene Stellen - www.nightlife.ch Ausgangs-Informationen

--- Ende Artikel / Pressemitteilung Wynn Partner Gets Ok ---


Weitere Informationen und Links:

Weitere Nachrichten der Gaming-Branche