Sounding like anti-casino zealot, Las Vegas Sands Senior Vice President of Government Relations & Community Development Andy Abboud had a dire message for Pennsylvania lawmakers: “Gambling was never supposed to be everywhere. It’s not an entitlement; it’s a vice. It needs to be doled out to the public in a very careful way.” Later, he tipped his hand toward the reason for Sands (and Sheldon Adelson‘s) adamant opposition. Said Abboud, “the [profit] modeling never came back as anything other than marginal. [It’s a] small opportunity, but with a tremendous liability.”
“To us, it is just such a fundamentally stupid idea to go down this path,” added Abboud, raising the far-fetched specter of class-action suits that would ‘doom’ the casino industry.
Abboud was one of several casino executives cautioning the Keystone State to hasten slowly. SugarHouse Casino‘s Wendy Hamilton said “there are no facts that exist yet to tell us whether it’s going to be helpful or harmful.” Meadows Racetrack & Casino General Manager Sean Sullivan was worried about the state’s image, should technical glitches arise. “Are we ready yet? Is it trustworthy,” he asked. “Because we’re adding it to the Pennsylvania brand.”
Caesars Interactive General Counsel Michael Cohen, while only supporting online poker, “urged the legislature to act quickly, to preserve 
Pennsylvania’s right to get into Internet games before any potential federal attempts to control or ban the games outright.” Queried about his poker-only stance, Cohen cited its popularity with younger demographics, the ones Adelson claims to be protecting. Other arguments advanced on behalf of Internet poker were that it reaches an audience that doesn’t go to casinos and that giving it all casinos puts them on an equal footing that their brick-and-mortar counterparts don’t enjoy.
* Meanwhile, a sponsorless, Caesars-penned bill draft (and we’re not even sure about that) has been left on the steps of Capitol Hill like an orphan at the church door. Nevada Sens. Dean Heller (R, below) and Harry Reid (D) 
aren’t going anywhere near it, especially with no one wanting to claim parentage of the infant. Heller, who is equivocally taking the lead on the issue, would rather reverse-engineer anti-gambling legislation backed by Adelson, carving out an exemption for Internet poker. (That’s Reid’s stance, too.)
“We will treat it like any other proposal. We’ll take a look at it, we’ll read it and determine whether or not it is something we can support,” said an exquisitely noncommital Heller. “I’d like to get all these ideas on the table at one time and move in the appropriate direction.” Reid went further, saying that Caesars is freelancing policy and his office learned of the bill from news sources. Meanwhile, the promised Heller-Reid i-gaming bill remains AWOL. Heller predicts in the lame-duck session, but I remember Gary Loveman saying that … four years ago. We’ll believe it when we see it.
* Would-be casino developer Dynam Japan Holdings Co. Ltd. is taking a dramatically different tack in the land rush for a Japanese casino. It doesn’t want to try for Tokyo or Osaka — too earthquake. It would prefer the Yamaguchi area where, not coincidentally, investment could be held to $1.5 billion-$2 billion.
