Except for sometime business partner and perennial booster Phil Ruffin, casino owners in this town probably haven’t given much thought – and certainly no lip service – to the idea of Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Although Steve Wynn claims to have patched up his long-running feud with Trump, he is on record as saying not to underestimate him because not everyone can go bankrupt three times in the casino business. (The spark for their emnity was a 1985 struggle for ownership of the Atlantic City Hilton.)
Trump responded by squinting into a TV camera, pursing his fish lips and saying, "I played Steve Wynn twice at golf and beat him badly both times" – no great feat when you consider that Wynn is legally blind. He’s also attempted to wrest control of the Golden Nugget Las Vegas (in 1987), saying, "I’ve always wanted Steven Wynn to work for me.") When Wynn tried to reenter the Atlantic City market in the mid-1990s, Trump fought him tooth and nail, especially since Wynn was getting government assistance with his (never realized) project, specifically a tunnel that would have acted effectively as a driveway to Wynn’s resort – but also to Trump Marina, which badly needed the business. Atlantic City never recovered.
Since then, relations between the two moguls have become more cordial. Trump even attended Wynn’s most recent wedding reception.
In truth, a president can have little influence on the casino industry. Barack Obama put a temporary chill on convention business here when he chided companies receiving government relief from holding meetings in Sin City, although his remarks came at the depth of the Great Recession and profligate corporate spending was under intense corporate scrutiny. (Remember "Occupy Wall Street"?) Wynn was repeatedly and heatedly critical of Obama at the time but he’s playing his cards close to his vest in 2016, not even ruling out a Hillary Clinton endorsement. (The Republican presidential field contains more gambling opponents than supporters.)
Gaming policy is arrogated to the states, under the Tenth Amendment, which sets forth that all powers not explicitly granted to the federal government devolve to the state level. Ways in which Trump could impact the gaming industry would be to pursue a narrow interpretation of Native American gaming rights (as happened under George W. Bush) or an expansive one (as occurred with the Obama administration). He could also throw his weight behind Sheldon Adelson’s attempt to re-re-interpret the Federal Wire Act, rendering Internet gambling illegal, maintain the status quo or endorse a still more liberal interpretation of the law. Since Internet gambling hasn’t risen to the level of a hot-button campaign issue, nobody’s really discussing it.
Trump is least likely to side with Adelson on this issue. In 2011, he, Ivanka Trump and Avenue Capital Group filed with the SEC that they were forming a joint venture to explore online gambling. "We have been looking at this for a while. We have the hottest brand in the world according to many and we think we will do extremely well because of the Trump brand," The Donald said, sounding several familiar themes. "We have been looking at this for a while. The U.S. is missing out and New Jersey is missing out and everyone else is getting it." Indeed, United Kingdom-based Betfair briefly teamed with Trump Plaza before the latter’s closing sent Betfair over to the Golden Nugget Atlantic City, where it has done very well.
In summary, unless a President Trump were to try to interfere with Las Vegas’ business, either by a war of words or siccing the IRS on casino companies, there’s not much he could do for it, for better or worse. Besides, as part owner of Trump International hotel on the Strip, it’s in his financial interest to keep tourists coming to Las Vegas in greater numbers than ever.
Trump is also one of the few people to turn a profit off the Riviera, buying 358,000 shares in 2002-03 for $2.7 million, as a means of getting preliminary gaming licensure in the State of Nevada. He promptly unloaded the stock at a $900,000 markup. He turned his attentions instead to Trump International, a terrible flop and symbol of the condo bubble – a planned second tower was never built and, in all likelihood, never will be.
In the meantime, Trump keeps making outrageous pronouncements – and has the rest of the GOP presidential field running scared.
