Nevada
Control Board Recommends Licensure for Aladdin
Execs
State gaming regulators
on Thursday recommended the licensure of six
executives with the Aladdin Resort and Casino
who are slowly moving to transform the property
to the Planet Hollywood brand.
One of the executives approved --
Michael Belletire --received a little extra
scrutiny from regulators for his role in two
incidents investigated by authorities in Illinois.
The state Gaming Control Board recommended
the licensure of executives with OpBiz LLC who
will be voting members of the Planet Hollywood
board of managers. The Nevada Gaming Commission
will take up the recommendation later this month.
Among the executives winning approval was company
President Mike Mecca, who told the Control Board
about the process of injecting the resort, bought
out of bankruptcy in 2003, with celebrity appearances
in an effort to transform the resort out of
its Arabian theme.
Mecca also explained the hierarchy of the new
board of managers, comprised of six executives
with 33 share votes. Licensed executives Jess
Ravich, Belletire and Mecca each have a vote
while Starwood Resorts representative Theodore
Darnall, financier Douglas Teitelbaum and Chief
Executive Robert Earl have 10 each.
The resort executives earlier this week unveiled
some of the plans to change the physical appearance
of the property, but Mecca said celebrity appearances
at special events would give guests a better
feel for what's to come.
Mecca said several growth indicators - profits,
cash flow, room and occupancy rates, for example
- are higher as a result of appearances by comic
Louie Anderson and socialite Paris Hilton. Mecca
said the property is optimistic that appearances
by singer Frank Sinatra Jr., golfer Billy Mayfair
and "American Idol" discovery Kelly
Clarkson would produce similar results.
For now, Mecca said, the company wants "to
be the best Aladdin it can be."
While all the executives eventually won favor,
Belletire, a former gaming administrator for
the state of Illinois, received a grilling for
his roles in two incidents, one reported in
the mid-1990s and the other investigated two
years ago.
Belletire said he was associated with a high-tech
collection agency that was investigated by the
Illinois State Police and the FBI and was an
unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving
an insurance broker who defrauded his own company.
In both cases, Belletire, who is representing
the Aladdin note holders on the board of managers,
said he cooperated with authorities. Regulators
said after a staff investigation they were satisfied
that Belletire did not have a bigger role in
either case.
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