The unexpected split between Bloomberry Resorts and Global Gaming Asset Management LLC, the company the former hired to run operations of the $1.2-billion Solaire Casino and Resort, may have come as a surprise to a lot of people, but those who had intimate knowledge of the relationship apparently weren’t as surprised.
That was the revelation the Inquirer’s Daxim Lucas alluded to after talking to sources, who said that Bloomberry boss Enrique Razon Jr. had grown disenchanted with GGAM’s management style months leading up to last week’s split.
It appeared, at least according to those sources, that despite a glowing resume that included running the Las Vegas Sands, GGAM and its boss Bill Weidner, wasn’t able to deliver on its promise to bring high rollers from Macau, Hong Kong, and China through junket operators and those that were coming came from the efforts of the Bloomberry boss himself. “Very few high rollers were coming in to play in Solaire,” the source said, as quoted by Lucas. “And those who were coming in were doing so thanks to EKR’s (Razon) efforts. So what was the point of having them around?”
Another point of concern that allegedly troubled Bloomberry Resorts was GGAM’s Vegas-style design of the casino, which raised numerous issues that Bloomberry reportedly didn’t like. Ultimately, Razon decided to part ways with GGAM because he reportedly felt that the partnership wasn’t going to work despite GGAM’s glowing reputation in the industry as one of the best service operators in the business.
“The GGAM people had very good resumés,” another source told the Inquirer. “They looked very good on paper, but they simply didn’t deliver.”
For now, it appears that Bloomberry is holding off on finding a suitable replacement as was previously reported and is prepared to run the business by itself using the experience it had accumulated since the casino opened earlier this year.
Needless to say, there are more sides to this story than meets the eye and we’re no closer to getting to the bottom of it in the near future.
UPDATE (September 19): Global Gaming Asset Management has responded to CalvinAyre.com’s request for comment, which can be seen here.
