It wouldn’t be a fight for a Chicago casino if it weren’t down and dirty—and it is. Bally’s Corp. already sounds desperate, throwing a Hail Mary pass in the form of a report that rival bidders Rush Street Gaming and Hard Rock International would effectively get a tax break by diverting business to their nearby casinos in Des Plaines and Gary, respectively: “Granting the Chicago casino license to an operator with an existing operation in the same market runs the risk of revenue being manipulated away from Chicago to the operator’s financial gain, but at the detriment to the city.”
Confronted with this contention, Rush Street Chairman Neil Bluhm went into apoplexy: “We’re not investing all of this money in Chicago to lose money. We’re not investing this money to raid Chicago.” He also pointed out that a site desired by Bally’s was controlled by a business partner of his. Bally’s, somewhat ludicrously, tried to equate a $150 million renovation of Twin River in Rhode Island with building a $1.5 billion Chicago casino. Nice try. (We have no dog in the Bluhm vs. Hard Rock fight but Bally’s really is out of its depth.) For his part, Bluhm has reason to be defensive, as his Rivers 78 site is owned by Nadhmi Auchi, a British tycoon who rather inconveniently has been convicted in France of taking kickbacks (how very Chicagoan of him).
Bluhm says Auchi will sell him and partner Related Midwest the land for a knockdown $70 million but talk is cheap. An actual bill of sale will probably be required to satisfy Illinois regulators. Related Cos. President Stephen Ross is a george backer of politician Donald Trump, “something that won’t make him many friends in Chicago government.” For that matter, Bally’s close ties with conservative-oriented Sinclair Broadcasting may be an albatross around its neck. Sinclair was also fined $48 million by the FCC for deceptive practices during an ill-fated attempt to buy Tribune Broadcasting. The only contender to emerge spotless so far is Hard Rock but there is that small matter of ignoring federal court orders and going rogue when online sports betting is concerned. We’re still months from a final decision by the Lori Lightfoot (D) administration and there’s undoubtedly worse mudslinging to come.
Smartly on the heels of a public opinion poll supporting the current modus vivendi of casino gambling in Macao, the enclave’s regulatory bureau came out with a new set of rules for having a casino in the Pearl River delta. The on-site governmental supervision previously mooted is a fait accompli and The Man plans to take a bigger equity stake in the casino as well as (despite public disapproval) regulating dividends. All of this is a prelude to the re-tender process for the casino concessions, which begins on June 26.
This all might sound like bad news but not to Big Gaming. Shares of Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands rebounded, as did those of MGM China and Galaxy Entertainment, ending a long slump for casino stocks. “We maintain our view that these gaming licenses are very likely to be renewed, based on our stance that expertise and liquidity profiles of existing operators offer the best formula for the government to achieve its stated goal of making Macao a world tourism destination,” opined Morningstar. Most of City Hall’s nostrums were pretty vague but “social responsibility” was one of them, implying a lack of it hitherto. You don’t know paternalism until you’ve done business in Macao.
We’d never have believed it but the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s First Light casino project has returned from the dead. Having been disenrolled by the Trump administration, the Mashpee seemed done for. The Biden administration’s Interior Department, however, issued a 55-page ruling ratifying the legal status of the tribe, which has been through myriad ups and downs. This means the Mashpee Wamps can reclaim 321 acres of reservation land, which they had taken into trust in 2015 (having been recognized federally in 2007), then taken away by Trump five years later.
However, The Donald’s usual ‘They don’t look like Indians to me’ shtick got kicked out of court in June 2020 as “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law.” The Biden administration scuttled an appeal of that ruling, thereby handing the Mashpee a victory. Wednesday’s filing means that billion-dollar First Light is presumably back ‘on,’ throwing further uncertainty into the suspended casino award for a private-sector casino in southeastern Massachusetts, undoubtedly much to the dismay of Neil Bluhm and other aspirants. After all, who wants to invest at least $500 million only to go up against a tribal casino in your neck of the woods? And, as good as the Massachusetts market is, it’s not very elastic.
Jottings: Good news for Lake Tahoe casinos—Zillow has rated their neighborhood tops in the country as both “most popular small town” and “most popular vacation town.” This will no doubt goose real estate values, adding to the preponderance of potential ‘whales’ on the shores and slopes … 2029 is now the target for opening MGM Resorts International‘s megaresort in Osaka. MGM will hold a 40% stake in the $9.5 billion project (above), well over a decade in the making … Will a la carte pricing for amenities take the place of odious resort fees? Some experts think so.
Looks like MGM ditched modified the MGM AC plans for Osaka (ie ditched the 3 glass towers). Should be interesting.
I think since Neil Bluhm is from Chicago he will probably get the casino license. I would be surprised if Lori Lightfoot runs for mayor again, Chicago has lots of problems and its just a real difficult job for anyone to succeed in.