The opening of The Encore at Wynn Las Vegas may be pushed into 2009. I don't normally sweat delays but the week encompassing New Year's Eve is the most important week of the year. Management must balance a rush opening in December against a smoother opening of the entire facility sometime in 2009. My guess is that WYNN will avoid the never effective piecemeal opening most recently tried by Las Vegas Sands and the Palazzo. In any event, the impact of any delay on the construction budget is the bigger concern. The project budget currently stands at $2.2bn. Recent casino ROIs have shown escalating denominators with no change to the numerators. Analysts: no more backing into EBITDA with your magical 15% ROIs.

Management has yet to respond to our inquiry. Stay tuned.