Reasons To Go To Las Vegas

Las Vegas is a place people come to have the time of their life, and you are going to as well.

If you want to have fun in Las Vegas, you will want to take a look at these reasons.

1) The Strip

This is why people come over to Las Vegas, and it is the reason you are going to want to as well.

The Strip goes for miles and is home to some of the most beautiful casinos, bars, restaurants, and stores that you are ever going to find. It is a beautiful sight and one you are going to soak in.

2) Great Casinos

Want to soak in the casinos that are in town? Well, Las Vegas is renowned for its casinos, and you are going to notice this as soon as you walk around the Strip. There are so many that you will not be able to visit them all.

3) Beautiful Weather

The weather is good in the desert. Yes, it can get humid at times but where else would your rather be than Las Vegas?

You won’t have to fret about the rain nor will you have to worry about the snow.

You will know it is going to be t-shirt weather all the time and that is as good as it gets.

4) Best Nightlife In The World

If you are into clubbing and want to have the time of your life, it is Las Vegas that should be on your list. It doesn’t get better than Las Vegas when it comes to the nightlife. It will blow you away.

This is why you should be heading over to Las Vegas and having a good time. It is going to blow you away, and you will never want to go anywhere else. Yes, it is that fun!

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Public Bettors Have Been Beating Las Vegas Bookies for 8 Months Now

LAS VEGAS – In Hollywood, the actors would wake up and realize it was all just a bad dream. But a few hours’ drive away in Las Vegas, it’s been all too real the last few weeks. And if you look back, the “Favorite and Over” horror show has been going on for quite a while.

“That pretty much describes the last eight months or so,” Jay Kornegay, who runs the Las Vegas Superbook as vice president of race and sports for Westgate Las Vegas, tells sister site Covers. “It’s been a tough run. We know it can be streaky at times, but it just kind of feels like on this side of the counter, we’ve been on the challenging side.

“The big games are going against us: NFL playoffs, Clemson beating Alabama, the Super Bowl. For the Super Bowl, a lot of books were balanced going in, but by the third quarter, all that in-game wagering on the Patriots to make a comeback went against us.”

Now, the NBA Playoffs are piling on, as public bettors – the so-called squares – rack up winnings by betting on favorites and Overs, often parlaying those two options to double their pleasure. Much of the damage has been done by the top teams in each conference: West No. 1 seed Golden State and East No. 2 seed Cleveland (let’s be honest, Boston is not better than Cleveland, no matter what seeding says).

The Warriors, who have already advanced to the NBA Finals, are a perfect 12-0 SU and 8-4 ATS in the playoffs (5-1 ATS last six), and the Over is a scorching 9-3 in that stretch (5-0 last five). The Cleveland Cavaliers won their first 10 postseason games and, after failing to cover the spread in the first two, they then went on a 7-0-1 ATS tear. LeBron & Co. finally slowed down this week, losing Game 3 against Boston outright and failing to cover in Wednesday’s Game 4 win. The Over is 8-4 in the playoffs for Cleveland.

The NBA conference finals have been rough for sportsbooks with the favorites and Over consistently cashing in for basketball bettors. We talk to Jeff Stoneback, sportsbook manager at The Mirage Las Vegas, who assesses the damage and discusses what books are doing to stop the bleeding.

“The last three weeks have been terrible,” Nick Bogdanovich, director of trading for William Hill US, which is based in Vegas and operates more than 100 books across Nevada, tells Covers. “The thing is, when the public bettors get on a run, they have a little more money to bet, and they get a little more dangerous. So if you get a prolonged run, you tend to notice the hits more.”

Jeff Stoneback, director of trading for MGM Resorts books in Las Vegas, said his shops – including home base at The Mirage on the Strip – have several big casino players taking the favorite and the Over on every game. And he cited one player – not a sharp bettor, but a big player – as an all-too-regular winner.

“I’ve got a guy who comes in for every NBA playoff game, betting $10,000 to $25,000 on favorites and Overs. So sometimes that’s $50,000 a night,” Stoneback tells Covers. “He has not bet one underdog at all, and it’s straight bets, not parlays. But all the parlays have been hitting too, and those add up.”

And it’s not just the final margin of victory and total points that public bettors are taking to the bank. By halftime, they’re cashing in on the same formula.

“We’re not only losing games, we’ve been losing first halves too. They’ve just been blindly betting first-half favorite and Over, much more than in the past. That’s been a big loss for us also,” Stoneback says. “The public has just cleaned up in these playoffs. Celtics-Cavs on Wednesday night was the only one we could say was a significant winner. We’ve had several significant losers.”

A big reason MGM books finally got a winner on Celts-Cavs Game 4: the two teams combined for 104 points just before halftime, the first-half total was 105, and Cleveland missed a shot that would have brought in another first-half over.

“We’d have been a big loser if that shot had gone in,” Stoneback says.

Added Bogdanovich, “We get beat more on first halves than on the game. And it’s just favorite and Over, favorite and Over, favorite and Over. The full game, that’s been no fun either, but the fact that you lose more to the first half is rare.”

Bogdanovich said 2017 as a whole has generally been a boon for the squares and a bust for the books. Like Kornegay, he noted the NFL playoffs were a big loser in January, as was Clemson’s victory over Alabama in the College Football Playoff title game. Clemson was an underdog in that game, but everybody was on the Tigers in the championship rematch. The Patriots’ miraculous comeback for a 34-28 Super Bowl victory soiled William Hill’s ledger for February, as yet another favorite-and-over cashed.

“March and April, that righted the ship. March Madness was great, and baseball and NBA were good in April. But that’s obviously turned in May,” Bogdanovich says. “Baseball has been no good, with favorites and popular teams winning, and there’s been plenty of Overs too. And it’s the key Overs, the ones that look obvious, where the public says, ‘Wow, there’s no way this can’t go Over.’ When those go Over, you’re gonna get hurt.”

All three bookmakers agreed about what’s gone missing for far longer stretches than normal the past several months: unpredictability. That element of sports, where underdogs pop up more often to nab not just covers but outright wins, is generally what keeps prolonged streaks from happening and sportsbooks can absorb the short streaks.

“The unpredictability just hasn’t taken place as often in six or eight months,” Kornegay says, reminding that it’s not sharp players cashing all these tickets. “What we’re seeing is not so much wiseguys, it’s the general public. A lot of things lately have been playing out true to form. The perceived better teams have been winning these games. And parlays, our bread and butter, are the ones that are biting us on the behind.”

Kornegay, Bogdanovich and Stoneback have been in this industry a long time, so all certainly understand the cyclical nature of the business. But those cycles might last a week or two, maybe a few weeks in a football season, not – as Kornegay noted – from October right through the playoffs in the NFL. And certainly not followed by favorites and Overs ruling the day in the NBA playoffs.

“I’ve been in the business for 31 years, and that was the worst NFL playoffs I’ve ever seen, and now the worst NBA playoffs I’ve ever seen,” admits Stoneback.

That said, these sportsbook operators aren’t throwing a pity party, understanding none would be forthcoming anyway.

“I’m not looking for sympathy. I’m just trying to explain what’s happening. I’m not sure if I can explain the results,” Kornegay says. “We’ve seen streaks before, but I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a prolonged streak like we’re in right now.”

All they can hope for is that the NBA Finals bring a positive wake-up call to this extended nightmare.

Patrick Everson is a Las Vegas-based senior writer for Covers, a sister site also owned by Tribune. Follow him on Twitter: @Covers_Vegas.

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Renewable-diesel manufacturing company plans Las Vegas operations

The former Bio Diesel Las Vegas facility on 5233 E El Campo Grande Ave., on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. Bizuayehu Tesfaye Las Vegas Review-Journal @bizutesfaye
The former Bio Diesel Las Vegas facility on 5233 E El Campo Grande Ave., on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. Bizuayehu Tesfaye Las Vegas Review-Journal @bizutesfaye
The former Bio Diesel Las Vegas facility on 5233 E El Campo Grande Ave. on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. Bizuayehu Tesfaye Las Vegas Review-Journal @bizutesfaye

A renewable-diesel manufacturing company is setting up shop in Las Vegas.

Ryze Renewables makes 100 percent renewable diesel fuel from distiller’s corn oil and other non-food feedstock.

Ryze CEO Matthew Pearson said those raw materials will largely come by rail from the Midwest, and, he hopes, from casino restaurants.

“We’ve started talking to some suppliers in here in Las Vegas and are trying to assess the size of the marketplace,” Pearson said. He earlier joked, “Casinos don’t like to leave their grease overnight,” while discussing his company’s tax abatement application with Gov. Brian Sandoval.

Expanding before operating

Ryze Renewables received tax abatements last year to set up a $140 million diesel plant at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. Pearson said that facility is slated to produce 40 million gallons of renewable diesel once operational. Equipment is starting to move into the facility, he said.

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development board approved an additional $9.4 million in tax abatements Thursday for the company to set up shop in North Las Vegas, repurposing an existing biodiesel processing facility for a total investment of about $187 million. The operation in North Las Vegas is expected to produce 4,500 barrels per day.

Federal requirements for low carbon-emitting diesel along with California’s requirement for low carbon-emitting diesel is providing demand for Ryze product, Pearson said.

A “Fortune 30 company,” as Pearson described it, has already agreed to purchase the entirety of the Renewable Diesel product for use in the southern California market.

Ryze plans to hire 67 employees at an average hourly wage of $26.16. The company is expected to generate about $9.5 million in new tax revenue over ten years.

Other actions

In other action, the board approved spending more than $3.9 million in tax abatements in return for more than $32 million in new tax revenue, including:

— Scientific Games Inc. will receive about $403,239 in tax abatements and is estimated to generate about $9.3 million in new tax revenue over 10 years. After a merger with Bally Gaming Inc. and WSM Industries Inc., the company plans to renovate its headquarters in Las Vegas, according to the company’s tax abatement application. Scientific Games plans to hire about 50 new employees at an average hourly wage of $30.86 within the next two years.

— eCig Distributors Inc. will receive about $72,131 in tax abatements and is estimated to generate about $4 million in new tax revenue over 10 years. The company, which sells and ships vapor products to 48 U.S. states and 83 countries, plans to lease a 33,819 square foot distribution facility in Las Vegas. eCigs plans to hire 55 employees at an hourly wage of $21.42 an hour. The company plans to partner with UNLV to deploy a recruitment program targeted at local students to fill part-time positions, according to the company’s tax abatement application.

— Geofortis Pozzolans LLC. will receive about $1.5 million in tax abatements and is estimated to generate about $12 million in new tax revenue over 10 years. The company supplies natural pozzolan minerals, formed by volcanic ash deposited over thousands of years ago in a California lake, to the concrete industry in the western U.S. Geofortis Pozzolans already has facilities in Reno and Moraga, California, but plans to expand and build a new 30,000 square foot mineral processing facility in Reno. The company is slated to hire 72 employees at an average hourly wage of $22.89 per hour within two years of processing operations.

— SA Automotive Ltd. will receive about $276,933 in tax abatements and is estimated to generate about $3.5 million in new tax revenue over ten years. SA Automotive supplies automotive interior trim to clients like Tesla, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The company plans to expand operations from current locations in Michigan and Puebla, Mexico, to Reno. It plans to hire 54 employees at an average hourly wage of $20.27 from the Reno area within the next two years.

— Asia Union Electrical Chemical Corp. Inc. will receive about $1.7 million in tax abatements and is estimated to generate about $3.4 million in new tax revenue over 10 years. The company, which is headquartered in Taiwan, produces and distributes manufacturing products to the global microelectronics industry. The corporation is planning to open its North American headquarters in Northern Nevada, about 13 miles east of the Reno Tahoe Industrial Park, according to its tax abatement application. The company plans to hire 30 employees within the next two years at an average hourly wage of $30.87, and anticipates growing to 100 employees witin five years.

Contact Nicole Raz at nraz@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @JournalistNikki on Twitter. Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.

Sandoval on Ryze Renewables

Ryze Renewables intersects with several of the state’s targeted industries.

“It’s advanced manufacturing, it’s renewable energy — those are two of the big sectors we’ve wanted to capitalize on,” said Gov. Brian Sandoval. “It’s just another example of how we’re starting to diversify.”

The company also falls into the logistics category moving raw materials into Nevada and moving product into Southern California.

“They’re going to be making over a $200 million investment in Southern Nevada,” Sandoval said. “It’s just another great brick in the wall in terms of building a very strong and robust state.”

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Las Vegas Sands: Should You Wager On Its 5% Dividend?

High Quality Dividend Stocks, Long-Term Plan

Casinos can be a boom-or-bust industry. The past two years were easily in the ‘bust’ category.

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) has seen its revenue and profits plunge since 2014, due primarily to the anti-corruption regulatory crackdown in China.

This has suppressed gaming activity in Macao, a major market for casino operators.

Las Vegas Sands had aggressively raised its dividend over the past five years, and now has a current dividend yield of 5%. It is one of 295 stocks with a 5%+ dividend yield.

You can see the full list of established 5%+ yielding stocks by clicking here.

Its dividend yield towers above the average dividend stock in the S&P 500 Index, by several percentage points, making it an appealing stock pick for income investors.

However, there are some red flags that the dividend may not be sustainable. The company’s fundamentals have deteriorated in recent years, and it is no longer generating enough profit to cover its dividend payout.

This article will discuss whether income investors should place their bets on this high-yield dividend stock.

Business Overview

Las Vegas Sands is an integrated gaming and leisure company. It has a variety of properties, including casinos and hotels.

The company operates five segments:

Casino (72% of revenue) Rooms (12% of revenue) Food & Beverage (7% of revenue) Mall (5% of revenue) Convention, Retail & Other (4% of revenue)

The downturn in Macao gambling has hit Las Vegas Sands hard. The vast majority of its revenue is derived from casino operations.

In addition, through its 70% ownership of Sands China Ltd., Las Vegas Sands owns and operates a number of properties in Macao, including The Venetian Macao, Sands Cotai Central, The Parisian Macao, Sands Macao, and more.

In all, Las Vegas Sands generates more than half of its total EBITDA from its Macao operations.

Macao is a very important market for casinos, because it is the largest gaming market in the world. It is also the only market in China where casino gaming is legal.

According to government statistics, Macao gaming revenues were $28.1 billion in 2016, a 3.4% decrease from the previous year. This is due to the aforementioned government crackdown.

The industry downturn has clearly affected Las Vegas Sands, as it has invested approximately $13 billion in Macao since 2002.

Because of the Macao downturn, Las Vegas Sands’ revenue peaked in 2014 at $14.58 billion, but declined over the next two years.

In 2016, revenue fell to $11.41 billion. From 2014-2016, the company’s earnings-per-share fell 40%.

Growth Prospects

The past two years have been painful for Las Vegas Sands.

The good news is, Macao finally saw a recovery in the first quarter. Adjusted property EBITDA rose 20.5% year over year.

This resulted in an increase of Las Vegas Sands’ total revenue of 14%, $3.11 billion. Diluted earnings-per-share increased 50% from the same quarter last year, to $0.60 per share. One of the contributors was a return to double-digit growth in the lucrative, high-margin mass-market segment.

There is hope for a sustained recovery. Not only has overall Macao gaming activity returned to growth in 2017, but Las Vegas Sands’ most recent addition to its Cotai Strip portfolio—The Parisian Macao—is ramping up.

The Parisian Macao was a $2.9 billion development, with more than 2,700 hotel rooms and over 200 plaza suites. The Parisian Macao had its grand opening on September 13, 2016. In the first quarter of 2017, it generated $82 million of EBITDA.

Thanks to the recovery in Macao gaming activity in early 2017, and the opening of the Parisian Macao, things were looking up in 2017 for Macao—and by extension Las Vegas Sands. That is, until the Macao government announced a new ATM rule on May 8.

Under the new rule, anyone holding UnionPay ATM cards will have to present identification cards and undergo a facial recognition scan, before they can withdraw money from the ATMs.

The jury is still out as to how this will affect gaming activity in Macao. It could be just a short-term impediment. Nevertheless, it could suppress use of ATMs by gamblers, which Las Vegas Sands does not need during an already-fragile time for Macao.

Dividend Analysis

Las Vegas Sands aggressively raised its dividend over the past several years. Dividend growth averaged 24% per year, since 2012.

The company also allocated significant resources to buying back stock. All told, Las Vegas Sands returned $16.4 billion to shareholders in combined cash returns since 2012.

The question is, did Las Vegas Sands raise its dividend too much?

There are two major concerns regarding the sustainability of Las Vegas Sands’ dividend. First, the company is not currently earning enough profit to cover the dividend payout.

2016 was the second year in a row in which earnings-per-share fell below declared dividends. Las Vegas Sands declared dividends of $2.88 per share, but earnings-per-share were just $2.10 per share.

This represented a payout ratio of 137%. A payout ratio exceeding 100% is unsustainable over the long-term.

And, even though Las Vegas Sands’ revenue and earnings recovered significantly in the first quarter, earnings-per-share still did not cover the quarterly dividend rate. Consequently, further recovery is needed before the company’s dividend is sustainable.

The second red flag concerning the dividend is that Las Vegas Sands has a high level of debt. At the end of last quarter, Las Vegas Sands held $9.91 billion of debt, with a cash balance of $1.97 billion.

Over the past two years, Las Vegas Sands’ free cash flow has not covered its dividend. The company has filled the shortfall by issuing debt and using existing cash on hand, but this cannot continue indefinitely.

As a result, if 2017 is another year of falling earnings-per-share, Las Vegas Sands may have a difficult decision to make in 2018 regarding its dividend.

Final Thoughts

Las Vegas Sands’ fortunes rely heavily on Macao. Some progress in Macao has been made in 2017, but just when it appeared to be gaining traction, the new ATM rule dealt another blow to Las Vegas Sands.

If the ATM rule is only a short-term problem, and gaming activity continues to recover, the dividend could survive intact.

However, there is no guarantee of this. As a result, only those investors unafraid to take added risks, should consider wagering on Las Vegas Sands’ 5% dividend yield.

Las Vegas Sands is known as a ‘sin’ stock. To see another ‘sin’ stock with a high dividend yield and nearly 50 years of dividend increases, click here. A high dividend yield doesn’t always have to be a risky bet. To read about a dividend stock with a 6% yield and increased dividends in 38 straight quarters, click here.

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Ex-Las Vegas stripper who ran drug trafficking ring in four states sentenced

Loren Toelle, 52, was sentenced for running a drug-trafficking ring that stretched from Washington to North Dakota, prosecutors said. (KVRR)

A former Las Vegas stripper who was convicted of running a drug trafficking ring in four states was sentenced Tuesday to more than 17 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

Loren M. Toelle, 52, received an additional five years of probation after she pleaded guilty to leading the drug ring from 2009 to 2016. She was also ordered to forfeit assets of more than $2 million in cash and property.

Toelle entered a guilty plea in January to selling oxycodone, heroin, and methamphetamine in parts of Idaho, Washington, Montana and North Dakota, prosecutors said. Her friends and children from other marriages were also involved in the drug-trafficking ring.

Toelle took full responsibility for her actions and apologized to everyone she harmed during the hearing, the Spokesman-Review reported.

“I did what I did and I deserve to be punished,” Toelle said during the hearing.

"To see some of the people I put poison into, would I want that for my own child? I want to apologize to America because that is not the way we were brought up," she added, apologizing to her father, who was a minister, and her children.

Toelle’s husband, Dr. Stanley Toelle, also pleaded guilty on Tuesday to filing false federal tax documents with the Internal Revenue Service in 2012 and 2013. He told the judge he didn’t know about his wife’s drug dealing at the time.

Stanley Toelle, a gastroenterologist, will have to pay nearly $50,000 in back taxes as part of the plea agreement. He forfeited $150,000 in assets that allegedly came from his wife’s drug dealing, authorities said. The doctor could still face up to a year in prison. He is expected to be sentenced in August.

Loren Toelle, who was nicknamed "Mama" in drug dealing circles, met the doctor in Las Vegas in 2005. They married a year later, making it the fourth marriage for Toelle.

Toelle lived in Las Vegas while her husband lived in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He sent her a monthly allowance and extra cash to pay bills when she asked for money.

Toelle insisted that her husband didn’t know about her drug ring and said she lied to him and told him she had businesses that included a daycare, a hair salon and the sales of hair extensions and beauty supplies, according to court documents.

Ten other people were also charged in connection with the case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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