Don’t mess with Texas

The Grinch who stole Dallas has struck again. Already Dr. Miriam Adelson put her malign stamp on the Dallas Mavericks by trading away their most beloved player, Luka Doncic, for the equivalent of two sagging basketballs and a rusty air pump. Now she’s hiking ticket prices 8.5%. (Premium seats will cost 20%.) To add insult to injury, the bad news was rolled out on the same day that a fourth starting player, Kyrie Irving, joined a swelling disabled list. With Dallas in 10th place in the Western Conference and running on fumes, playoff hopes are undoubtedly toast.

More to the point, if the Widow Adelson is trying to make the Mavericks so hopeless and overpriced that people will gladly see them go to Las Vegas, her evil plan seems to be working perfectly. (Hey, it sure did for the Oakland Athletics, baseball’s least-loved franchise.) As one Mavs fan who was also blindsided with the price increase said of the Doncic trade, “I’ve never felt more betrayed by a sports franchise in my entire life.” But if you feel that way, don’t express it. In a truly Adelsonian display of intolerance for dissenting views, Mavs management is ejecting fans who show displeasure. For good measure, Doncic opened a can of whup-ass on the Mavericks at their most recent meeting.

Yes, paying more for Mavericks tix will still be cheaper than getting them from scalpers (read: StubHub) and, yes, jettisoning incompetent Bally’s Sports will blow a $50 million hole in the team’s budget. But Adelson and sidekick Nico Harrison have quite a way of kicking fans when they’re down. Perhaps the only bright spot for roundball fans in Dallas is that Las Vegas Sands is beavering away at a 108-acre casino megaresort site in Irving, cheerfully oblivious to the fact that casinos are still illegal in the Lone Star State. They’re getting all the requisite approvals as though it were business as usual.

Trouble is, casinos were already on life support in the current Lege. Worse still, a mega-scandal involving the Texas Lottery has killed any hopes of casinos or even sports betting stone dead. In short, the Lottery sold massive batches of tickets to a courier service (a third-party ticket buyer) in every conceivable winning combination to an investment group. This exploitation of a vulnerability—or carelessness—in the Lone Star lottery has caused a great rush to bolt the barn now that the $83.5 million horse has fled. Gov. Greg Abbott (R, above) has sicced the Texas Rangers onto the case, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), the real power broker in the state, wants courier services banned and Attorney General Ken Paxton is talking about fraud. The ‘E-word’ (as in Enron) is even being bandied about. At best, DraftKings subsidiary Jackpocket has got its corporate tit caught in a wringer, and the ruling GOP establishment is well and truly pissed off.

None of that is remotely the fault of Sands but, with a lobbyist in every legislative district (and we do not exaggerate the overkill) it makes a huge target for a ricochet from the Lottery gundown. Sands’ approach to Texas has been a mix of arrogance, maladroitness and bad luck. Between Dr. Adelson’s mishandling of the Mavericks and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Sands’ image down there isn’t likely to improve for at least another two years.

As long as we’re tangentially concerned with sports, a word about betting on baseball. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred—the worst of our lifetime and we remember Bowie Kuhn (but not Kenesaw Mountain Landis—we’re not quite that old)—is toying with putting Pete Rose in Cooperstown. Rose may have been a great player but he was the most degenerate gambler the national pastime has ever seen. It’s not clear which was the chicken and the egg, but the whole idea gained momentum when POTUS put his oar in. After a pro forma statement that Rose shouldn’t have been gambling on baseball, tsk tsk, the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue opined that it was OK because Charlie Hustle was just betting on his own team to win. (To be pedantic, Manfred—pictured above—could only make Rose eligible for the Hall of Fame; jockstrap-sniffing sports writers will do the rest.)

Now, there is so much wrong with that statement (although it is factually correct) we don’t know where to unpack it all. It would take too long to explain how having a bet riding on the game you are managing warps one’s ability to do what’s best for the team in the next game or the one after that. (Maybe you overuse your bullpen in an effort to salvage a losing cause, for example.) Let’s concentrate on the message Manfred and his presidential enabler are sending to players who are tempted to bet on themselves.

You’d think after the Jontay Porter debacle, and the Iowa State football one and Fresno State basketball scandal, the dangers of having players anywhere near gambling would be abundantly clear. But no, what’s to happen the next time a baseball player gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar? “It’s OK, commish, I bet on us to win!” Yeah, that makes it hunky-dory. Not! Heck, players and coaches who throw games to win a bit or help their gambler pals (or shave points) can now legitimately claim to be victims of a Manfredian double standard. Just ask Brad Bohannon, late of the Crimson Tide. If only he’d colluded to win that LSU game, not lose it. He’d be welcome at the White House and MLB headquarters anytime.

One more straggler from January has checked in with revenue figures. That’d be Ohio, which saw a $181 million payday, up 3% from 2024 and a whopping 29% from pre-pandemic 2019. (Our national appreciation for life having been sharpened by Covid-19, it hasn’t exactly dulled our appetite for gambling.) Slots-only MGM Northfield Park continued to defy logic and lead the state with $23.5 million, up 6.5%. Strangely, MGM Resorts International has actually made noises about selling the racino. Executives of Boyd Gaming were seen on-property but evidently declined to buy. We sure hope they’re happy with last-place Belterra Park ($6 million, -2%).

Even without its in-progress hotel, Hollywood Columbus put on a dramatic show, surging 12.5% to $22 million. Jack Cleveland faded 7.5% to $19.5 million while Hollywood Toledo leapt 11.5% to $18.5 million. Whatever Penn Entertainment is doing, keep on doing it. Hard Rock Cincinnati was becalmed at $17.5 million and bested by Miami Valley Gaming, another slots-only racino that did a robust $18 million. Scioto Downs ceded 2% to $16 million, Jack Thistledown was flat at $14 million and the two Penn racinos performed comparably: Hollywood Dayton did $12.5 million, up 7.5%, and Hollywood Mahoning Valley made $13 million, up 7%.

Sports betting was a black hole for books, whose winnings plunged 27%. Handle exploded 25% to $992 million but win was a mere $80.5 million, as books held but 8%. Nearly half of what was won ($37.5 million) went right back out the door in the shape of free play. At least FanDuel was able to claim undimmed market share AND revenue predominance with $39 million. DraftKings lost share and finished second with $22 million. The Buckeye State continues to be a bright spot for Bet365 ($6 million), if not for BetMGM ($4 million), ESPN Bet ($2 million) or Caesars Sportsbook ($1.5 million). Upstart Fanatics did $3.5 million. That lowly Caesars number reminds us that the Roman Empire is trying to get people excited about a possible IPO of its digital operations. We haven’t had such a great opportunity since Amway tried to recruit us. Hey, Tom Reeg, got any Florida swamp land to sell, too?

Consumer confidence has been on the wane and it might be showing up in gambling grosses. Maryland was 2.5% down last month (albeit 13% higher than 2019). Every casino was revenue-negative except of course MGM National Harbor, flat at $67 million. A glimmer of hope for Rocky Gap Resort faded fast and by 10.5% as it grossed $4 million. Sorry, Century Casinos, we were pulling for you. To say that Horseshoe Baltimore had a meager month ($14 million) would be to state the thrice obvious, although the 6% decline wasn’t as bad as usual. Maryland Live slipped 4% to $57 million and Ocean Downs was down 4% to $6 million. Hollywood Perryville didn’t escape either, being minus 3.5% to $7 million, best among the small fry.

While Soo Kim was fart-assing around in Australia, of all places, trying to pick up insolvent Star Entertainment for cheap, Bally’s Casino in Chicago was having a dismal month, down 11% to $9 million. Even Bally’s Corp. brass is done pretending that Medinah Temple isn’t a dud, admitting in the last earnings release (before they ran and hid from Wall Street analysts) that it wasn’t up to expectations. Coming from boaters on DeNile like Bally’s that’s saying a lot. We like CEO Robeson Reaves, President George Papanier and CFO Marcus Glover but they’re hostage to Kim’s unrealistic schemes and forced to compute numbers that stubbornly fail to add up. If $1.6 billion Bally’s Chicago isn’t the greatest gambling juggernaut known to Mankind, they’re fucked.

Overall, the Land of Lincoln was a mixed bag in February, up 2.5% to $141 million—but 11% down when adjusted for new products. Wind Creek Southland, in a far more competitive dynamic than Bally’s, obliterated the competition with $13.5 million, second in the state. It even put a sizeable hurt on Rivers Des Plaines, which fell a staggering 13.5% to $37.5 million. So Rivers is mortal, after all. Scarcely to be overlooked was Hard Rock Rockford, which catapulted 80% upward to $11 million. Only venerable Grand Victoria, in Elgin, put up much of a fight, posting $10 million (a 16% plunge, however). The one property in Chicagoland that doesn’t seem to have a morning-after strategy at this point is Harrah’s Joliet, which tumbled 18% to $8.5 million. Penn Entertainment has two new casinos coming on line. What does Caesars Entertainment have up its sleeve? Nothing, it would appear.

Hollywood Joliet dipped 8% to $7 million and Hollywood Aurora slipped 4% to $7.5 million. Not bad, given the age and limitations of two ancient riverboats. The Temporary at American Place held its own in Waukegan, surprisingly, down just 1% to $9 million, despite being in an unglamorous tent. Downstate, Golden Nugget Danville had a dreadful month, plunging 22.5% to $3 million. By comparison, fellow newbie Walker’s Bluff Casino slipped just 2.5% to $2.5 million. Nobody knows where Par-A-Dice is going to end up but Peoria players are having a hard time finding it now: It dropped 17% to $4.5 million. Bally’s Quad Cities ceded 3% to $5 million but Harrah’s Metropolis hopped 7% to $4.5 million. In the St. Louis market, Argosy Belle slipped 5% to $2.5 million and DraftKings Casino Queen was down 6.5% to $6 million, preventing us from ending on a positive note.