Revel gets the memo; Sheldon Adelson knows what’s good for you

Wall Street really hates it when casinos buy business with “promotional allowances” (read: comps) but sometimes — and especially when you’re Revel Hotel-Casino — there’s no choice. In marketing policies as new as its expanded nomenclature, Revel is acknowledging its lack of a customer base and trying very hard to make amends. Under the mantra, “Gamblers Wanted,” it is pursuing bread-and-butter players with a 100% rebate policy on slot losses over $100. Only during July. And only if you have a Revel players’ club card. But you’d have to play — and lose — quite a bit on the slots to qualify, so it’s a brilliant strategy for increasing slot handle. It should also bring in a lot of casual players who, despite their best [sic] efforts will fail to qualify for the rebate. Score one for Revel.

Also, the resort is touting “the introduction of the city’s largest contiguous smoking section” … this from a casino-hotel that prided itself on its initial, 100% no-smoking policy. Well, sometimes you have to swallow your pride (and some cigarette fumes) to start turning a profit.

Self-described “father, grandfather, citizen and patriot of this great country,” Sheldon Adelson would also like to be Big Brother, telling us how we can spend our money. Or at least protecting us from Evil Internet Gambling. In a starchy, stiffly written Forbes op-ed, allegedly penned by Adelson himself, the Las Vegas Sands CEO calls online wagering “fool’s gold … a societal train wreck waiting to happen.” He demands congressional action to illegalize it, forthwith. Adelson has friends and debtors on Capitol Hill — but he’s also made enough enemies up there (especially one Harry Reid) that any bill introduced at his behest is certain to be D.O.A. Even some of Sheldon’s nominal GOP allies would stand in his way.

Citizen Sheldon rather unconvincingly denies that he’s not worried about the potential impact on his monumental and expensive U.S. casinos (besides, by getting into business with mobile-oriented Cantor Gaming, Adelson’s already split the difference between brick-and-mortar and online wagering). He becomes downright laughable when he wrings his hands in mock solicitude for the fate of his private-sector and Native American competitors … for few of whom he’s ever had a kind word, and most of which have been fighting him tooth and nail on this very issue. If they want to get into cyber-gambling and it’s a bad bet — hey, that’s their prerogative.

The would-be developer of $32 billion EuroVegas also cites unsourced “research from a number of European countries” that says Internet wagering has taken a 20% bite out of terrestrial casinos’ foot traffic — which is why he’s trying so badly to crack the European market, right? (If you were a Sands investor, you’d really be scratching your head by this point.)

In addition to unleashing “a plague upon society,” online gambling will cost the U.S. some 400,000 jobs, Papa Sheldon predicts. People will bet while “under the influence of drugs” (imagine that!) or whilst “being coerced.” We are then assured that, “when a person makes an effort to get dressed, join some friends and head to the local casino for a night of entertainment they must show themselves as adults.” When was the last time Adelson was actually in a casino? This cranky-old-man act of his drew swift derision from the Las Vegas Review-Journal‘s Howard Stutz. The latter noted that Adelson was using anachronistic talking points that overlook recent technological advances. He also pointed out that the morally indignant Adelson was for Internet gambling before he was against it. (2001: “Our hat will be in the ring.”) Today he’s wringing his hands like a fretful old maid.