On the brink: MGM Mirage plays the odds

A long-simmering controversy over MGM Mirage's (MGM) choice of development partners is just one in a long line of setbacks that has the company teetering on the edge of losing its entire stack of chips.

The latest blow was a report by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement concluding that gambling mogul Pansy Ho was an "unsuitable" partner in partner in MGM MIrage's intended development for Macau. Ho, the daughter of Macau's onetime capo Stanley Ho, suffers a shady family reputation that led Singapore to refuse the family any role in its $5 billion development on Macau's Sentosa Island. (Luckily for the Hos, that development is turning into a world-class disaster.)