Word: wynn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most of us armchair movie critics, predicting Oscar winners is a hobby. For Johnny Avello, it's part of his job. Avello, executive director of race and sports operations at Wynn Las Vegas, runs the only sports book in all of Sin City that sets odds on entertainment. TIME caught up with the Poughkeepsie, N.Y. native to get his picks on which movies will win the hardware Sunday night, and what goes into setting Oscar odds in general. (See TIME's Oscar guide...
...there and what's coming up. Then, in December, I try to see which films ordinary people are talking about. Through the Oscar nominations and other awards shows, I adjust my expectations. Finally, before I hang my odds, I talk to some regular people who work here at Wynn. They go to the movies and share their input. They are consumers, just like everybody else, and their opinions are important...
...then, as if on cue, here comes Steve Wynn. Three days before Christmas, he opened the new addition to his swanky Wynn Las Vegas resort, a $2.3 billion, 2,034-room playground called Encore. The new property is easily the most decorative and jubilant in the city; it lets in an abundance of natural light while somehow managing to keep the view of a struggling city...
...casino opening always pumps some energy into Las Vegas. But Vegas shares with the rest of the country the feeling that things will get worse before they get better. Whether Encore signals a new beginning for Las Vegas, the way Wynn's Mirage did in 1989, is not a bet to take lightly. "We're still in a fairly early phase in the downturn," says Schwer. "I don't see Steve Wynn sticking his finger in the dike and holding it back...
...Freitag, despite Steve Wynn's recent announcement that he will lower room rates, thinks the picture may not be all gloomy. "If you look at the hotel occupancy rate of 83.5%, well, people in other cities would be ecstatic," says Freitag. "But it's just in Las Vegas, the benchmark is 90%." And while there are reports of some struggling hotels offering free rooms to visitors who gamble as little as $100 at the tables, Scott D. Berman of PricewaterhouseCoopers says the better properties are doing relatively well, at least on weekends. "It's a segmented market," says Berman. "What...