Jottings: The opening of Philadelphia Live is set for January 19th. The Cordish Cos. casino will debut only to invited “Live” cardholders. The general opening will be at an as-yet-unspecified date later this month … Covid-19 is resurgent in China, where additional cities have been placed under quarantine. Better put those ‘Macao is back’ stories on hold … Harness racing resumes at Empire City Casino in Yonkers today, albeit without fans. (The meets can be watched online.) 234 days of racing are scheduled. MGM Northfield Park in Ohio launched its 2021 racing season last week, 219 days of racing at (for now) 50% capacity in the stands … Tribal gaming banked a record $34.6 billion in FY2019, led by the Oklahoma City market … Great Canadian Gaming has succumbed to Apollo Management‘s embrace for $2 billion. Let’s hope Apollo doesn’t do to Great Canadian what it did to Caesars Entertainment … Undoubtedly much to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey‘s dismay, a poll she commissioned showed 67% of her constituents supporting casinos and 71% backing a state lottery. Let’s hope public sentiment translates into votes in the Lege.
Ahh Covid 19… I think its time for the United States to make some moves, this ridiculous notion that a slow motion vaccine rollout is sufficient, acceptable, or sustainable is just ignorant and dangerous… At this point I am just not sure corporate America is 100% on board with ending the pandemic swiftly, certain companies and industries are currently killing it, the stock market is doing just fine as a whole. Why no outcry about shipping millions of doses to hospitals for it to sit in special freezers? I think the hotel, cruise ship, casino, and restaurant industries need to band together and demand action before its too late, the only path forward at this point for hospitality industries is to swiftly vaccinate the population, at the current pace it would be years, not weeks or months, to get it done. If the current lame duck President wants to do the right thing before his term runs out, he should start talking about this honestly and immediately invoke the Defense Production Act and get vaccine supply lines in swift order, Biden will do this on day one, he has a chance to get the ball rolling right now. There is no other path forward I am aware of, either this works or it fails and we fall down hard as a country. Las Vegas needs action, regional casinos need action, the entire tourism business needs action. This vaccine rollout disgusts me, I thought at least the United States could be exceptional one freaking time during this pandemic, the only exceptional things so far have been death, destruction, misery, and death…