Colorado closed out its first full year of sports betting with an April decline, presaging a summer slump that is likely to prevail until football season. Handle was $244.5 million, which left $10.5 million in revenue after promotional credits ($6.5 million) were deducted. “In U.S. sports betting, there isn’t any real substitute for the popularity of the NFL or the NCAA Tournament,” understated Play USA analyst Ian St. Clair. “But even with a monthly decline in wagering, Colorado continues to fare well compared with similarly sized states.” The only real loser in Colorado’s first year of sports wagering is the state tax collector, who only brought in $6.5 million (on $2.3 billion handle and $147 million gross receipts), which some warned may bring a second look from the guvmint. NBA wagering ($84 million) led the Rocky Mountain State in April, distantly followed by baseball ($48 million) “a total likely dampened by the struggles of the Colorado Rockies.” The Colorado Avalanche scared up $10.5 million in hockey wagers and table tennis was almost as popular—$9 million in handle. Just imagine what that latter number will be when the summer Olympics finally roll around.
“An essential part of managing the future successfully is learning from what just occurred. We’ve taken some heavy financial losses, and we’ve lost men and women that we worked with. It’s naive to think that this can’t happen again, and the next time, we better show we were better prepared.” Those words of wisdom—when so many are suffering from sudden Covid amnesia—hail from Eureka Casinos COO Andre Carrier. Eureka has been fighting the pandemic in ways big and small. It offered $100 to every employee who got vaccinated against Coronavirus and another $100 when workforce immunization reached 75%. The company also sponsored a competition to come up with virus-resistant technologies, ranging from recyclable sheets (saving vast amounts of water) to photocatalytic processes that kill the virus on sight. Said Carrier, “We really consumed ourselves with uncovering those innovations and right now, we’re really consumed with getting those products to market.” More power to you, sir.
A New York State grand jury will ponder “whether the value of specific properties in the Trump Organization’s real estate portfolio were manipulated in a way that defrauded banks and insurance companies, and if any tax benefits were obtained illegally through unscrupulous asset valuation.” Donald Trump exaggerate the value of a resort? Perish the thought!
The ex-President could have largely avoided or delayed some of these New York tax issues by simply paying the attorney fees and sticking by the side of his ex-attorney Michael Cohen, who was pinched by the Feds for paying off Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf… He pardoned Manafort, Stone, and Bannon, but for reasons unknown he let Cohen go… Another tax issue he has is the way he wrote off the reimbursement payments to Michael Cohen as “legal expenses”, it was literally notated on the checks… This is going to be a Florida gambling license impediment, how in the heck can a state award a casino to a company that manipulates their books so brazenly… The rule of law is being tested like never before in our history…