Sleeping with the enemy

We can’t help but enjoy it when the holier-than-thou opponents of gambling are caught in bed with Big Gaming. Such is the case in Arkansas, where the churchy set has been cohabiting with a regional casino power. This was exposed by Ministry Watch, a publication that practices what others merely preach. The hypocrites who have been discovered with their pants down are Pastor Larry Walker and Deacon Jim Knight of the First Baptist Church of Russellville. They were so het up at the thought of a casino in Pope County that they rationalized it all the way to taking money from the Choctaw Nation … to the tune of almost $22 million. You evidently can justify a great deal of “pure, unadulterated wickedness at its origins” when your sugar daddy is so munificent.

See, the Choctaw thought they had the inside track on a Pope County casino, when one was voted in back in 2018. But it got tied up in litigation. Besides, Pope County was just 77 minutes’ drive from a competing Choctaw casino in Pocola, Oklahoma, so it wouldn’t do for anyone else to get that license. Walker and Knight took Choctaw money to fund front groups Fair Play for Arkansas in 2022 ($4 million) and Local Voters in Charge in 2024 ($17.7 million). They weren’t shy about their duplicity, piously intoning, “Although the partnership may seem strange and though some may object, through much prayer and deliberation our leadership determined that this arrangement was the most prudent way forward and in the end our desired outcome was the same.” So doing the Choctaw’s bidding is evidently OK if it’s in the Lord’s name, huh?

The Arkansas Baptist State Convention had some qualms about cavorting with casinos—but only to the extent of sanctimoniously omitting any mention of the Choctaw connection from its electioneering. Now everybody is taking refuge under the cone of silence. But there’s no disputing the fact that the Baptist Church is in hock to casino interests in return for its 2024 electoral victory. We wouldn’t call it a Faustian pact … but the Baptists can hardly say their waste byproduct doesn’t stink.

Add Pennsylvania to the roster of states that experienced a February casino swoon. The $257.5 million tally represented an 8% faint from last year and—on a same-store basis—a 20% collapse from 2019. Sports betting would have been a bright spot (14% more handle) were it not for disastrous, 5% hold. Like New Jersey, iGaming stole the show, up 12% to $207.5 million. So people may not necessarily be gambling much less … but they’re not going to the casino to do it.

Parx Casino felt no pain, sailing along flat at $46 million. In the crowded Philadelphia market, it trounced all comers, none of whom had a good month. Philadelphia Live dropped 10% to $20 million, still well ahead of faded Rivers Philadelphia, receding 12% to $16 million. It was another bad month for Harrah’s Philadelphia (nice try, but Chester is hardly Philly) which plunged 14% to $9.5 million, well behind smaller Valley Forge Resort ($11 million, -4%). The Rivers, despite some recent image problems, held its ground best in Pittsburgh ($26.5 million, -4.5%). Hollywood Meadows dropped 10% to $14 million while Pittsburgh Live ceded 6.5% to $9.5 million.

Strongest of the outlying casinos, as always, was category-killing Wind Creek Bethlehem, despite an 11.5% plummet to $38 million. Also well off its feed was Mohegan Pocono ($15.5 million, -11.5%), as was Presque Isle Downs ($7 million, -18.5%). Mount Airy Resort has supposedly been gypping its employees, so it had a 16% dropoff to $12.5 million coming. Hollywood Penn National slipped 8.5% to $12 million, Hollywood York dipped 5% to $8 million and Hollywood Morgantown (above) hopped 4.5% to $6 million. Parx Shippensburg slid 8.5% to $3 million, but the brightest spot in the Keystone State was little Lady Luck Nemacolin, which leapt 15.5% to $2 million. Kicking out Churchill Downs was the best thing it could have done.

The catchall Hollywood Casino license (an odd combo of DraftKings, Penn Entertainment and BetMGM) dominated Internet casinos with $77.5 million. FanDuel managed a respectable $56.5 million while BetRivers did $34 million. Sports books nabbed just $37 million out of $757 million in handle. $26.5 million went right back out to players in promotional form, leaving books with only $10.5 million and causing us to play the world’s tiniest violin. Before promo outlays, FanDuel left everyone in the dust with $22 million, trailed by DraftKings ($8.5 million), while nobody else managed even a million dollars. What a dismal showing for ESPN Bet, BetRivers, Parx and Caesars Sportsbook. To add insult to injury, BetMGM managed to lose nearly $1 million for the month. So sad.

Speaking of sports betting, revenues in Michigan went the opposite direction, soaring 51% to $46 million, on $380 million in handle, although $19 million of that was given away in promos. Caesars Sportsbook finished February in the red, while BetRivers made virtually nothing. FanDuel skunked DraftKings, $23.5 million to $13 million, whilst BetMGM finished third with $5 million. Fanatics did $2 million and ESPN Bet eked out $1.5 million, which doesn’t augur well for it to survive past August of next year. iGaming brought in $222.5 million, an 18% surge. FanDuel edged out BetMGM ($61.5 million vs. $60 million), an unkind blow to a legacy casino operator. DraftKings made $37 million and Caesars Palace Online did $17 million. BetRivers rounded out the picture with $15 million.

Lisa in, Giada out? The sleepy Las Vegas Review-Journal assures us that all is well at The Cromwell, which is being remade in the image of Lisa Vanderpump and her douchebag family. However, no news about Giada de Laurentiis may not be good news for fans of the chef. She just inked a pact with Penn Entertainment to open Giada-branded restaurants in Penn’s new casinos in Aurora and Joliet, Illinois. Such a transgression suggests that her days with Caesars Entertainment are numbered. But don’t count on the R-J to connect such dots, nor observe that the attempt to reposition the erstwhile Barbary Coast into the now-erstwhile Cromwell (soon to be Vanderpump Hotel) was an evident flop. The infestation of Love Island was a harbinger of more ‘reality’ TV shenanigans to come, as the classless Vanderpump clan puts its tramp stamp on the Strip.

Both casinos and a lottery are still alive in the Alabama Lege. Over in South Carolina, developer Wallace Cheves is talking up the idea of a $1 billion casino out in the sticks. And it’s getting legislative traction. But Georgia? The Peach State Lege can’t even tie its shoelaces. Casinos? Forget it. And sports betting? Not much of a chance. Georgians like to think that they’re the leaders of the South but when it comes to gambling, they’re decidedly in the rear.

God forbid they should win. Bettor Mark Aiello held a winning, six-leg parlay on an NBA game. But BetMGM welshed on him. Or rather, it got one look at the potential payout and suddenly developed a case of “obvious errors,” voiding the ticket. $2,000 in wagers on 350-on-1 odds should have been good enough but, no, BetMGM had to prove once again that OSB providers have no stomach for bettors who best them. This isn’t the first time a six-figure payout has run into convenient “obvious errors.” These ‘mistakes’ were discovered prior to game time, so BetMGM didn’t exactly have a dose of bookie’s remorse, but it sure looks like it was up to something fishy.

If you can’t handle the action, don’t offer the odds, and certainly don’t send Jamie Foxx out to brag on what George operators you are. Because you’re not. This is small-time stuff, unworthy even of Lefty down at the barbershop. To add to the fishiness, a CBS News report says ” a BetMGM trader reviewed at least one of [Aiello’s] bets before allowing him to place it.” After Aiello took his case to the Illinois Gaming Board, BetMGM coughed up the $389K. But the operator has been found kicking the ball onto the fairway in Massachusetts and sailed pretty close to the wind here. Perhaps a few, well-placed license revocations would get its attention. In the meantime, Aiello may be giving up sports betting (just in time for Problem Gambling Awareness Month). We’d like to say BetMGM will learn from its mistake. But it won’t. The way Corporate America sees it, there are plenty of suckers out there and one less smart player won’t make a difference. Perhaps BetMGM should alter its slogan to “Winners not welcome here.”