You can't play poker for money on the Internet but you can now play the ponies in Illinois via the Web. This is yet another example of legally enshrined hypocrisy under UIGEA, the parting gift of "Slick Billy" Frist and Jim Leach to the American people. (Speaking of Dr. Frist, M.D., if we must, he just sat like a bump on a log when Bill Maher stupidly railed against the swine-flu vaccine last week. Thanks, doc.)

Setting Sun? The incoming chief of the Mohegan tribe is saying the right things about the imminent need for diversification. Specifics, however, are few on the ground. Mohegan Sun, meanwhile, finds itself between several rocks and hard places: potential competition from Massachusetts and Long Island, $1 billion in debt, falling revenues and the economic inability to finish planned improvements. Depending on how quickly Massachusetts gets its act together, Mohegan's moment in the sun could soon pass.

You've heard of "pocket pool," now the Review-Journal's intrepid Howard Stutz reaches deep into the demimonde of PocketCasino, the new, portable sports-betting technology in play at Venetian/Palazzo. No word yet on whether excessive play causes blindness or hair growth on one's palms.

(Seriously, as a longtime skeptic of Cantor Gaming's portable-gambling applications, I have to say it looks like the Cantor boys have come up aces this time. As for handheld substitutes for table games, the jury is still out on that, four years after their legalization.)

Fontainebleau Las Vegas from Running Bull Productions on Vimeo.

Pennies for F'bleau. What's Fontainebleau worth? Jack shit, according to Penn National Gaming (aka, 15 cents on the dollar). In return, Penn is willing to accept a 10% return on investment ... provided it can bring the project in a no more than $1.5 billion (not counting the billions already spent and written off).

This remains an iffy proposition, in part because it's predicated on increased profitability at Penn's patchwork assemblage of casino properties. Those have to be welded into a Harrah's Entertainment-like loyalty program that drives visitors to Las Vegas. This is a huge "if," as Penn currently has no casinos in major destination markets, unless you stretch that to include recently singed Empress Joliet. Bringing customers to Vegas or even Atlantic City is terra icongnita for Penn.

To put it bluntly, Penn was a third-tier operator -- mainly of racinos -- that "married up" by taking over Argosy Gaming, the classiest of the riverboat operators. However, the Vegas market is notoriously unforgiving of new-to-town operators and Penn will have a very steep learning curve. Also, Penn is not associated with upscale properties, so F'bleau will either have to be repriced downward to reflect the Penn customer base or may need to offer promotional allowances up the ying-yang (more likely both).

If that weren't sufficient cause for concern, Penn's oft-brandished $1.5 billion (the breakup fee from an ill-advised and abortive LBO) is covering multiple bets. Penn is the primary mover behind a pro-casino ballot initiative in Ohio -- partly to protect its Hollywood Lawrenceburg investment just across the border in Indiana. It also recently bought out Cordish Gaming in hopes of getting piggybacked onto the Kansas Speedway casino license, should the Sunflower State's lottery board approve.

At least Penn is working on ways to trim the completion price of F'bleau. Costs to date -- and projected ROI -- being what they are, it behooves Penn CEO Peter Carlino to get this rampaging beast under some semblance of control.

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At least 28,000 have done so over the two years-plus (probably more when you allow for the people still moving here). What are the likely consequences of Las Vegas' pegging its future on a one-trick economy? And is it going to be like one of those Rust Belt cities (like Pittsburgh) that turned it around or one of those (say, Detroit) that continues to decline?

Those questions and others are posed in a splendid article that connects most of the dots regarding Vegas' economic plight. One of the most disturbing points raised by Las Vegas Sun reporter J. Patrick Coolican is that cities doing well at present tend to be ones that possessed robust institutions of higher learning -- and invested in them. Neither can be said of Nevada's dismal education system, the recipient of savage budgets, thanks to our governor and the ever-feckless Lege.

If Las Vegas' future hinges on well-funded and -respected academic institutions, then the near-term prognosis is grim.

Speaking of Detroit, casino owners and politicians there may be casting a wary eye on rising pro-casino sentiment in Ohio. In whichever form casino gambling is legalized by Buckeye State voters, it stands to take a big bite out of Motown casino receipts -- and sap state and local revenue collection, too. A helpful Detroit News map shows precisely which Detroit, Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia casino operators have reason to be fretful about the emergence of a casino industry next door.

Like their Strip brethren, tribal powerhouses Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino went all-in ... into debt, that is. Now that it's time to pay the piper,  they find themselves in binds comparable to those facing non-tribal casinos. However, they have fewer options for relief, as they discover the downside of being a tribal operation.

Dog's breakfast at Tiffany's. Few readers of this column can probably afford to buy anything at the Tiffany mega-boutique that will be part of the Crystals mall at CityCenter. However, it will make for some lovely window-shopping. (Click on the pictures to see them in a larger size.)

Atlantic City reprieve. Although New Jersey's three-way gubernatorial race is up for grabs, casino owners can take one consolation. Whichever of the two leading candidates is elected, continued opposition to racinos is promised.

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Wrong again. There I was, thinking the proposed $10 million upfront fee for table games in Pennsylvania was a done deal when the GOP-controlled state Senate upped it to $15 million (and if you don't pay by June 1, it goes to $20 million). Chalk that up as a "loss" for casino owners.

The latter did, more or less, get what they wanted on taxes, where they'll pay an aggregate state/local rate of 14%. Despite publicly requesting a 34% tax rate, Dems in the lower house are muttering that one in the "high teens" might be acceptable. The question is: In return for what?

Casinos also banked a "win" when the state Senate ashcanned an amendment that would have tripled the slot base at "resort" casinos. Since this amounted to preferential treatment for a tiny percentage of the Keystone State casino industry, it's good to see it get the back of Lege's hand.

Power play in New York. In the competition for the racino contract at Aqueduct Race Track, those in the hunt include MGM Mirage, Penn National Gaming, Harrah's Entertainment and Seminole Tribe-owned Hard Rock Entertainment, along with numerous and sundry joint-venture partners.

But none of the seems to have the juice of Larry J. Woolf's Navegante Group. After the New York Lottery Division had deemed Aqueduct Entertainment Group (in which Navegante is a partner) unqualified, Gov. David Patterson's underlings put the word out that the five-member consortium is indeed qualified. Somebody in Aqueduct Entertainment's got pull, that's for sure.

A win for Adelson. While no casino company was remotely near the top of Newsweek's ranking of the 500 greenest companies, Las Vegas Sands can claim a victory of sorts. Sheldon Adelson's firm clocks in at #128, well ahead of MGM Mirage (#164) and Wynn Resorts (#176). Given the extent to which MGM has publicized its green-friendly initiatives, particularly with regard to CityCenter, finishing so far behind LV Sands is tantamount to a smackdown by proxy.

Several years after the publication of Beneath the Neon (now available in e-book format) publications are still shocked -- shocked! -- to learn of Las Vegas' large (and growing) subterranean community. Alas, we no longer have the Hooverville that had sprouted about a half-block north of LVA HQ. Those hobos were a tidy bunch and made our street seem halfway populated.

Marie Osmond pix. I'm just sayin'.

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Only $14 million in cash (plus a $100 million equity infusion), according to The Donald. Bondholders say, we'll see your $115 million and raise you $100 million. The latter would recoup at least some -- but not very much -- of their $1.25 billion debt under their plan, while Das Trump would send them away virtually empty-handed. (Moral: When Donald Trump asks you for a loan, take a page from Nancy Reagan and Just Say No.)

The bondholders' assignment of a $75 million valuation to Trump Marina seems awfully optimistic for what is, in essence, a corpse that can't be sold. In essence, the real value proposition is resurgent Trump Taj Mahal, with the other two casinos scarcely better than throw-ins. The Marina is, if anything, an albatross around the company's neck. Still, given that CEO Mark Juliano is going to exceptional lengths to champion the Trumpster's bid, which is a big "screw you" to the debtholders, here's hoping Judge Judith H. Wizmur holds firm for a more responsible solution.

Ho: No! "I don't see major resorts opening for the next couple of years now," says Lawrence Ho. thereby raining pessimism on the expansion plans of Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and Galaxy Entertainment. The younger Ho also speculates upon the Chinese government's motivation for throttling, then somewhat relenting upon travel to Macao. Interesting tidbit: Marketwatch.com reports that "Venetian Sands" [sic] has cut its number of table games by 25%.

Nevada revenues in. And yeah, they suck. They're much less sucky than usual (-9%), showing an upward trend in baccarat plus two locals-oriented bright spots in the form of Aliante Station and M Resort. It's unclear, though, how much of the growth generated by the last two is new business vs. redistribution of dollars from elsewhere in the valley. The Sun's analysis is far more informative than that found in the R-J.

Wait 'til next year. That's the timeline for casinos in Massachusetts. Even though western Mass looks like slim pickings, lawmakers will probably have to put a casino there just to get the bill onto the floor.

Penn bid falls. Lenders to bankrupt Fontainebleau won a small victory or two, as the judge overseeing the case seems determined to keep lead developer Jeffrey Soffer as far from the disposition of F'bleau as possible. (Soffer is both a debtor and creditor on the project.)

F'bleau, for its part, revealed that Penn National Gaming's offer is now "substantially less" than $300 million, but would include money to replace the windows that are reportedly falling off the building. (One more reason not to build a Strip megaresort tower flush against the "pedestrian realm.")

Groundbreaking today for the long-awaited SugarHouse casino in Philadelphia, under the shadow of a stick-it-to-SugarHouse tax that's been proposed in the Lege. Table games, meanwhile, might be off the table in the face of a $200 million lawsuit. You see, non-racino casinos are allowed to have 5,000 slots (in return for a $50 million fee). Small "resort" casinos -- known as "Category 3" -- only have to $5 million and get 500 slots (accessible only to guests). That's proportional, obviously, and seems fair.

However ... lawmakers want to tilt the playing field by giving Category 3 casinos 30% as many slots as, say, Rivers Casino or SugarHouse, instead of 10% ... and open those games to the general public, not just guests. Of course, the state can't go to the one existing Category 3 casino and ask for another $10 million -- can it? Casino operators are also solidly behind the GOP position on table games: $10 million upfront plus a 12% tax. But, unless House Dems completely capitulate, the gaming bosses are unlikely to get what they want, at least where the tax rate is concerned.

Penn whiffs again. Although Penn Nat'l was supposed to be a bidder in the bankruptcy auction for the Lone Star Park racino, it evidently didn't get into the action and the track went to the Chickasaw Nation for $27 million. (A lot less than Harrah's Entertainment paid to get into Ohio.)

Which means that if/when gambling is legitimized in Texas, the Chickasaws will have a double advantage (parimutuel + tribal status), while Penn will be looking at yet another missed opportunity. Penn's corporate strategy is a baffling alternation of rashness and hyper-caution.

In other tribal news, much-criticized National Indian Gaming Commission Chairman Phil Hogen is gone, thank God, and with him his new, more-restrictive Class II rules. Hogen was justly pilloried for attempting a rollback of hard-won gains in what games tribes could offer. His new rules reflected Bush administration paternalism toward tribes and while they're officially postponed for a year, I think it's safe to say they're dead.* No wonder Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK) is smiling. Watch out for that doorknob, Mister (Ex-)Chairman.

(* It's probable the same thing would have happened under a President McCain, as either candidate would have brought a more enlightened attitude to D.C.-tribal relationships.)

Supporters of video gambling are starting to push back in Illinois, at least in rural, conservative McHenry County. So far it's been the urban areas where this expansion of gambling hasn't been gaining traction.

A repeal of UIGEA continues to gain ground in the House of Representatives, even if it got pulled off the floor in the Senate. (Thanks for nothing, Harry Reid.) The money quote, literally, is a reference to an amendment Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) which would would specify that "corporate taxes owed on regulated Internet gambling activities are collected, as they currently are from the land-based casino industry." [emphasis added]

If that means what it implies, it would remove the spectre of industry-wide federal gambling taxation from the discussion and leave taxation to the states. If not, then the nose of the federal casino-tax camel is still sticking through the legislative tent. And you know where that leads.

We've seen a nationwide gaming tax get shot down during the Clinton administration but there are desperate times, obviously. Republicans like Mike Huckabee and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) have been looking to sock it to casinos at the federal level for some years now, so I fear it could have bipartisan support, should such a debate come to pass.

It's playoff time. A tired, flat-footed Minnesota Twins squad looked positively dreaful last night, flailing at outside pitches from C.C. Sabathia (if you couldn't reach that slider in the first inning, your arms aren't going to be any longer in the seventh, son). Cliff Lee made short work of the Colorado Rockies (besides, Jim Tracy can't win in the postseason), the St. Louis Cardinals look set to continue their tradition of postseason underperformance and my Anaheim Angels are forever reduced to a quivering heap of Jello in playoff games against the Boston Red Sox. Why am I having visions of brooms? 

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Forbidden by New Jersey law from directly contributing to political campaigns, casino companies are making an end run through Virginia. Harrah's Entertainment, Boyd Gaming and IGT are among those funneling campaign cash into a reverse version on the Underground Railroad. No wonder Gov. Jon Corzine (D) is able to carpet-bomb his opponents with advertising, if he so chooses.

Hey, big spender. The New Jersey gubernatorial race may be chump change compared to the cash being expended in the battle over Issue 3, which would permit four Vegas-style casinos in the Buckeye State. This is boiling down to a proxy fight between Penn National Gaming (pro) and racino specialist MTR Gaming (con). You'll recall that the Ohio Supreme Court nixed Gov. Ted Strickland's plan to unilaterally add slots to the state's horse tracks, which might have given MTR a level playing field with Penn.

While I can understand why Penn or Harrah's would be willing to pay 23% in taxes in Iowa or 27% in Kansas, it's mind-boggling that Harrah's would be chomping at the bit in Rhode Island, where the rate is 73%. Oy vey!

A green shoot. The Baton Rouge Business Journal reports that Pinnacle Entertainment is inking contracts to begin driving piles for its Lake Charles project. Called "Sugarcane Bay" and budgeted at $407 million, this is the first positive movement we've seen out of Pinnacle in a while (unless you count its hijinks with the President license up in Missouri). Good on them.

Manilow on the move. The Las Vegas Hilton has confirmed what all suspected: Barry Manilow's contract expires Dec. 30 and will not be renewed. As we reported in Question of the Day, it's nearly a done deal that he will now set up shop at Paris-Las Vegas, whose main showroom has gone long unused.

Good luck trying to get the Vegas constabulary interested if your car is stolen or your home burglarized. They're too busy going undercover to get lap dances. As Richard Abowitz notes, rampant prostitution on the Strip goes unchecked in the meantime. It's an open secret around here, although many of the "working girls" look downright scary, so you have to wonder how they turn tricks, especially in this economy.

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Meet Wilbur Ross. He's an investor of all trades with an appetite for distressed assets. And he's turning his sights to the casino industry. In particular, he's drawn a bead on "companies [who] are also looking at selling assets in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau to support struggling operations in Las Vegas."

That means either Las Vegas Sands or MGM Mirage, and it's old news that Sheldon Adelson has been peddling a couple of retail malls and the non-casino aspects of Sands Macao (above). MGM is attempting a reboot (successful so far) of MGM Grand Macau but still might come up short on completion money for CityCenter, especially if condo prices have to be reduced. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that one Macanese casino beats any number of hotel rooms or retail outlets.

Un-Trumped? Thwarted Trump Marina suitor Richard Fields is making another run at the property, which he's been trying to buy since Homer was a pup. Better still for him, he could get it for as little as $75 million. However, he's got dark-horse competition from a Maryland-based private equity fund that's making a play for all three of the Trump Entertainment Resorts casinos.

Notorious for mainly hanging its corporate shingle in tax-haven Green Valley, would-be casino operator Empire Resorts is not only re-headquartered in New York State, it's got new partners. Some of them bring checkered pasts to the table.

Also, Empire's hopes hinge upon the current administration reversing an especially paternalistic ruling from the George W. Bush years: namely, that casino sites must be within commuting distance of the tribal owners' -- in this case the St. Regis Mohawks -- reservations. If economic self-sufficiency is the endgame of federal/policy, Uncle Sam needs to loosen the apron strings.

Unready for some football. The unceremonious scrapping of Monday Night Football events at The Cannery is explained (second item). Magic word: clearance. Columnist John Katsilometes also notes that the second weekend of Zowie Bowie's Vintage Vegas was better than the first. Which would mean it's graduated from "bad" to "mediocre."

New England moralists are apparently OK with slot machines in Rhode Island, so long as they're covered by the fig leaf of mandatory greyhound racing. At least the slot players have a chance of actually catching the rabbit, metaphorically speaking. Animal cruelty is bad enough but when it's enshrined in state law it's even more objectionable, if such a thing is possible.

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Presumably foiled once again by the Comment-Eating Server, reader kerr_mudgeon writes:

From the article about the A.C. contract settlement: "In his praise of the deal, Don Marrandino, the Eastern Division president of Harrah's, appeared to refer indirectly to tortured negotiations with the United Auto Workers involving dealers, which have degenerated into a costly, bitter fight that is scaring away customers.

Two and a half years after the union won representation elections at four Atlantic City casinos, it has yet to sign a contract with any of them.
"Harrah's is proud of its record as a responsible union partner as further evidenced by this contract which was developed and agreed to in just a few short weeks and without disruption to the business and employees," he said."

- Is Harrah's equally proud that, after 2 1/2 years, it can't negotiate a first contract with the other union?
~~~
As for the hotels' prices for sheets, towels, etc., other posters' comments are correct: these are long-standing inflated charges intended to deter theft by room guests - and yes, I read of cases where guests stole the (unusable) TV remotes... and even the pictures on the walls.*

(By the way, I bought a $10 3-cup coffee maker at Walgreen's Drugstore, downtown LV, on my last trip to use in my room; I'll buy another next trip.)
There is a new revenue stream that David alludes to: High-end resorts selling robes, mattresses, wine glasses, etc. to hotel guests who appreciate the supposed superior quality of those goods - and are willing to pay inflated prices to own them.

* -- Editor's note: The pictures in the hotel rooms at Casino X were the only things looked to be worth stealing -- but they weren't for sale.

Give that man a blue ribbon: State Senate President David Williams of Kentucky may not be a friend of racinos but he hit the nail on the head recently. In a multi-point statement outlining his opposition to slots at Bluegrass State tracks, he said that horseracing was beset by "endemic" problems. He's the first public official that S&G can recall stating an overdue truth: that the ailments afflicting the horsey set can be temporarily soothed by slot revenues, but not cured.

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Pay taxes, that is. Two Indiana racinos are pushing back against a tax rate that averages 38%. Considering that the two tracks -- one run by Cordish Gaming -- are the newbies on the Hoosier State scene, one could fairly ask them, "Didn't you know what you were getting into?" As the article notes, neither Harrah's Entertainment and Boyd Gaming -- both which recently heavily reinvested in Indiana -- aren't whining about their tax rates.

But the racinos have a point. In states where the number of casinos is artificially capped by the Legislature, solons become the custodians of the industry's economic future, like it or not. And it only stands to reason that if the market is going be diluted, tax relief is in order. Considering that same-store revenues in Indiana have been nothing but down since the racinos opened, some push-back on the tax front was probably inevitable.

Hell no, they won't either. Allow casinos in Penghu, that is. Voters on the Taiwanese island voted against gambling expansion there, putting the issue off-limits for three years. The notion of planting mega-million-dollar casinos in remote, hard-to-reach parts of Taiwan never made that much sense to S&G, but big industry players like Sheldon Adelson and Gary Loveman have kicked Taiwanese tires in the recent past.

Did Adelson and Steve Wynn mistime their leap into the Hong Kong stock market? One Wall Street Journal columnist thinks so. Bad timing isn't the exclusive province of the public sector, though: A Washington State tribe borrowed $375 million on the strength [sic] of revenue forecasts that proved grossly over-optimistic. Percentage-wise, neither Harrah's nor Station Casinos missed the mark this badly.

Bob Stupak, R.I.P. The penultimate Vegas maverick is gone, having spent much of the last decade as a recluse. One especially thorough obit contains a quote by former Klondike owner John Woodrum that ought to be engraved on Stupak's gravestone (or at the base of that now-vanished Stupak statue): "If ever there was a guy beyond the rim of reality, there was Bob. But somehow he made reality happen."

Just what we don't need. They're baaaaack. Never mind the smoking wreckage they've made of Harrah's and Station, private-equity firms are rooting amidst the flotsam, looking to extend their morbid clamp on the casino industry. Leading the pack is Leon Black's inaptly named Apollo Management. Both indirectly (Planet Hollywood by way of Harrah's) and directly (Cosmopolitan, Fontainebleau), Black is reported to be scarfing up what few independent properties remain, raising the prospect of a Total Rewards oligopoly stretching from just above CityCenter to the southern frontier of the The Mirage.

There are also a few bottom-feeders in play. Hooters hardly seems worth buying unless Onex Corp. wants to do a tear-down and extend the Tropicana Las Vegas eastward. Current ownership of the Riviera is tapped out but the place still has prospects as a fixer-upper (not something that fits with Apollo's sack-and-pillage business model). If non-bottom-feeder Green Valley Ranch is really on the bubble of insolvency, then Penn National Gaming ought to quit chasing F'bleau, and try to drive a wedge betwixt Station and its Greenspun family partners. Penn would stand to inherit a beautiful property with far fewer problems than Big Bleau.

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Five dimes worth of damage, $40,000 bail -- and all to wrest a measly two grand from some vending machines at Harrah's Atlantic City. That's the losing bet made by two security guards. Couple this with the floormen who destroyed their careers for a comparably picayune sum of money they allegedly scammed from Planet Hollywood, and we're seeing a level of desperation in casino crime the likes of which I can't recall.

City of Dreams. Voters in Ohio haven't approved casinos in any form yet, but that's not stopping Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who's already had a design executed. Gilbert has lined up critical support by promising to forego hotel rooms and restaurants (though he's left himself a little wiggle room there).

But don't be fooled: Phil Satre used the same Trojan Horse strategy to get an onshore casino in the heart of New Orleans. A few bankruptcies and legislative showdowns later, Harrah's N.O. has a hotel and a couple of restaurants. (Like it or not, Satre was brilliant.) I'll be so not surprised if Gilbert gets his casino, then discovers the numbers don't pencil out at a 33% tax rate, and starts waffling on his non-aggression pact with hoteliers and restaurateurs.

Damn that vox populi! Seems that Harrah's Entertainment had a bit of contractual noblesse oblige written into its pact to purchase Thistledown Racetrack. If the issue of racinos has to be put to a vote of the people, all bets -- so to speak -- are off. Which means that Harrah's can take its $89 million and skedaddle, leaving bankrupt Magna Entertainment holding the bag. For the moment though, Harrah's is playing the issue down, saying talk of a pullout is "premature" and hasn't been given much thought.

Even Las Vegas Sands appears to be feeling disappointed with early results from Sands Bethlehem. A massive, 2,000-slot expansion, slated for November, has been scaled back by 88%. Even so, Pennsylvania casinos are busy planning for the addition of table games (although the Lege hasn't approved it yet). The price of table games will probably be higher (18% tax + $15 million upfront) than casinos want, but at least they've been successful in battling back an expansion-sapping 34% tax rate on tables. For slots, they still have to pay a usurious 55%, one of the worst rates in the nation.

But if Sands wants to maximize its drawing power, it might want to think about finishing the hotel and other amenities that got shoved onto the back burner when Sheldon Adelson's coffers began to run dry. At least Sands has gotten a temporary reprieve from sliding to sixth place because -- even with financing in place -- Neil Bluhm is taking a go-slow approach to his $355 million Philadelphia casino, out of deference to historical preservations. (Funny how Bluhm can build a Philly casino complex for half of what Adelson blew on his unfinished Bethlehem resort.)

Fortune favors the bold, which means it won't smile upon Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who apparently caved to pressure from increasingly useless and counterproductive Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). It looks like Hapless Harry is behind Wyden's craven withdrawal of an amendment that would have taxed Internet gambling to help pay for health care reform.

Incidentally, an amendment that would have authorized $100 billion to close the infamous Medicare "doughnut hole" was voted down yesterday. Jeez, those 'Net-bet taxes could have come in handy as an alternative means of plugging the hole. (Oh, and fuck you too, Max Baucus.)

And that goes double for you, stock-picker Jim Cramer, whose spam rips through our LVA filters like Japanese torpedoes through the hull of the U.S.S. Oklahoma. It makes me sorry I ever said anything nice about you, Jimbo.

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During his absent-minded interregnum as Tropicana Las Vegas CEO Scott Butera nearly denuded the casino of on-property entertainment. Only the hasty re-signing of Xtreme Magic left the Trop with a show in the house. Over time, Butera's people added a slew of second- and third-tier acts.

"Too much," said some. Those "some" would appear to include new CEO Alex Yemenidjian. Virtually unpublicized Beatles tribute act Penny Lane? Gone. Impressionist Rich Natole? Going soon. Bobby Slayton? Going a little later, perhaps. (Anthony Cools' track record as a producer is looking dire.) Although I've heard good things about the new venue created for Soprano's Last Supper and Hypnosis Unleashed, apparently they will be relocated elsewhere within the Trop.

To no one's surprise, Dirk Arthur will yield the prime-time slot (where he was, in all honesty, a placeholder) to incoming Wayne Newton. The Wayner will keep the Tiffany Theater warm until a Trop-owned show replaces Newton's morbidly titled Once Before I Go.

The Harmon Theater's ill-publicized Tickled Pink has also closed and it sounds as though that place is experiencing cash-flow problems. Normally, I'd be sanguine that departing acts would soon find new homes elsewhere in town. However, in these desperate times, entertainment has been one of the first items on the chopping block, so the evicted performers can probably use all the positive vibes they can get.

Casino explosion in Ohio? Not only will Buckeye State voters get to say "aye" or "nay" to Gov. Ted Strickland's creation of racinos, the state could get as many as 11 gambling venues -- not the seven Strickland envisions. Another ballot measure (pushed by Penn National Gaming) would authorize four casinos in four major Ohio cities. Minimum capital investment will be $250 million and the tax rate would be set at -- Ouch! -- 33%. Somehow, I doubt that will scare anybody away.

And they're off! Congratulations to Ocean Downs, the first racino approved in Maryland. By June, reels should be spinning on the first 200 of an eventual 800 slots, to be fully phased in within 11 months.

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