Now that he’s assured of four more years, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) can tidy up some unfinished business … like compact negotiations with the Seminole Tribe. The 
$1 billion/five-year deal currently before the two parties would reward that tribal largesse with “exclusive rights to blackjack and other table games.” That doesn’t make it inevitable that resort casinos are toast but it takes away a very great deal of economic incentive. Time to dust off that argument that you can make multi-billion-dollar properties pencil out on 37% gaming revenue. Companies like Las Vegas Sands, which kept their options open, will probably come out of this looking better than Genting Group, whose Miami waterfront acquisition looks more and more rash in retrospect.
The Seminoles aren’t the only ones wanting something from Scott. Parimutuels would like table games (unlikely) and a reduction in their stiff 35% tax rate. Hard Rock International, meanwhile, seems to be gearing up for something big at Seminole Paradise, where it’s torn down three restaurants to make room for a project that management is still keeping under wraps.
* Churchill Downs continues to diversify. Already it has added “instant racing” to some of its tracks. Now it is venturing into the mobile-gaming sphere with an $885 million buyout of Big Fish Games, maker of social casino Big Fish Casino and slot-like Gummy Drop. Churchill Downs already offers parimutuel wagering over the Internet via TwinSpires.com. Thanks in part to “freememium” play, in which online punters pay to accelerate their gaming, Big Fish booked $266 million in revenue last year. The deal is structured to pay $15 million in Churchill Downs stock, $485 million in cash and $350 million contingent on Big Fish hitting certain 2015 benchmarks. Big Fish CEO Paul Thelen will also collect a $50 million bonus — not a bad payday.
* Anybody remember Archie Karas? The man once best known for a $40 million winning streak is now a confessed casino cheat. In return for copping to one count of felony burglarly, Karas got three years’ probation. The conviction can be reduced to a 
misdemeanor if Karas (real name: Anarygyros Karabourniotis) fulfills certain conditions, including repayment of $6,860 to Barona Casino. Noted for its super-high-tech surveillance apparatus, Barona caught Karas on camera, marking cards. It’s hardly the first time Karas has been nabbed tipping the odds in his favor. In Nevada he has four arrests and a misdemeanor conviction on his rap sheet, including accusations of “marking cards, secretly exchanging cards with a partner or pressing bets, that is, increasing a wager after he already knew the outcome.” Once the paperwork has been processed, Karas gets to leave California and becomes Nevada’s problem once more.
