Get your tickets now for next week’s iGaming North America 2014 conference, to be held at Planet Hollywood. The thought of a keynote speech by Ultimate Poker‘s Tom Breitling doesn’t get our pulses racing — but one of the marquee events is going to Las Vegas Sands‘ Andy Abboud and Caesars Interactive CEO Mitch Garber a-wrasslin’ over the merits of online gambling. At least we hope there will be some fireworks. If they were just elaborately polite to one another, that would be a waste of attendees’ money and — at $595 to $1,495 — attendees are entitled to some verbal fisticuffs from those two.
Most people hear the term “a bar” and think it means one bar. Downtown casinos have done some creative listening and taken it to mean multiple al fresco libation stations. Because Mermaids and La Bayou owner Steve Burnstine isn’t a member of Fremont Street Experience, he’s been barred (pun intended) from setting up outdoor liquor stands of his own. He can only grind his teeth as the Golden Gate and other nearby casinos do a brisk trade at their pop-up bars. The Experience has also been trying to have it both ways, urging a crackdown on packaged liquor sales, the better to prop its own business.
City council member Ricki Barlow said, “Fremont Street Experience came to us and said ‘We don’t want any additional liquor stores.’ But on the other hand, it’s okay for downtown properties to have multiple bars. Liquor is liquor. Whether you buy it in the store or you buy it in a glass, liquor is liquor. So to me, you can’t speak out of both sides of your mouth.”
Burnstine has found a sympathetic ear in Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, who ruled that “a bar” means just that: one. Unless Gonzalez’s decision is temporarily stayed, the Golden Gate and Golden Nugget will have to cut back to one outdoor bar each. (Most other Fremont Street casinos are in compliance, while Binion’s is building a second bar.) There are also accusations of price fixing, which will be heard out in due course, I’m sure. It wouldn’t surprise me, considering that Fremont Street Experience conducts its business in secret and the City of Las Vegas has largely washed its hands of the area.
Burnstine’s attorney predicted, “it could be a year before the case gets to trial, and during that year, all the hotels might be limited to one bar.” Oh, the tragedy.
February was kind to Foxwoods Resort Casino, where slot revenue inched 2% upward, despite inclement weather. Mohegan Sun outgrossed Foxwoods by $4.5 million, but suffered a 3%.
If … Scarborough Downs builds a hotel, restaurants and swimming pool, it will be eligible for a casino (subject to local approval). So says the Maine House of Representatives. The state Senate has yet to make its feelings known, although track owner Sharon Terry calls herself cautiously optimistic.
Who ever thought that this would be the sticking point which deflates Las Vegas’ hopes of landing the 2016 Republican Party convention. “We have complete faith that this issue will be completely resolved long before the 2016 convention,” said convention booster Jack St. Martin. We’ve had decades to alleviate the noxious problem of longhauling and you’re going to get it done in two years? Good luck with that.
Burstine sounds like a sore loser. He wants the benefits of FSE without dues.