Caesars Entertainment got caught with its pants down by Howard Stutz, who wrote that the company “committed public
relations suicide” by lavishing a $200,000 bonus on General Counsel Tim Donovan. This is the same Caesars that is trying to stiff its junior creditors and the same Tim Donovan who — as Stutz pointed out — defended the company’s denial of pensions to 63 former employees. Moneybags Donovan isn’t exactly a charity case: he already takes home 700 grand a year plus a cool million in stock awards. Caesars’ huffy attitude toward the whole issue was that news coverage of it “wasn’t warranted.”
This is the sort of imperial arrogance and wretched corporate governance one has come to expect from Chairman of the Board Gary Loveman. Since bonus awards are usually the province of the 
board of directors, either Loveman and his cronies are guilty of being imbeciles or of showing their contempt for public perception. Remember, these are some of the same characters who awarded themselves bonuses for saving the company money (but not as much money as it would have saved without the bonus-hogging). Greed, thy name is Caesars Entertainment.
* Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley recently took the “Jon Ralston primary” and blew it. When Ralston asked O’Malley a 
question about casinos, the ex-guv said he was “flummoxed” by the query. Impressed though we are with O’Malley’s vocabulary, all we can say is that while such a non-answer might be acceptable coming from most of the presidential candidates, it’s inexcusable when uttered by the father of Maryland’s casino industry, one of the newest in the nation. While Jeb Bush (and prison inmate Rod Blagojevich) had been hellbent on anti-business tax rates for casinos, O’Malley outdid them both, signing into law a 65% tax rate on slots, later relaxed to ‘only’ 60%. If you want someone in the White House who’s sympathetic to gaming interests, O’Malley may have just flunked the test.
* Resorts Atlantic City has swung from deep losses to growing profitability. Could $9 million in new meeting space be the magic 
ingredient that moves Resorts past Trump Taj Mahal and out of last place in the market? Former Resorts veep Steve Norton still thinks the venerable casino is doomed but UNLV‘s David G. Schwartz says Resorts has “what it takes to succeed in Atlantic City today.” Interestingly, owner Morris Bailey insists that the approval of Internet-gambling partner PokerStars will go through in a matter of weeks, even though the company has been stuck in regulatory limbo for months now.
* Poker is back from the dead at The Linq Hotel, returning as mysteriously as it had vanished.
* Using casino revenues, the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians have bought a large swath of land in Sonoma County, originally for residential purchases. But when the county and the tribe signed off on the development — surprise! — it had morphed into a resort. The Lytton Band has agreed to no casino until 2037 and Rep. Jared Huffman (D) is trying to get an even more ironclad pact through Congress. The tribe is merely exercising its prerogatives but it definitely pulled a fast one on Sonoma County residents.
* If you’re attending Global Gaming Expo and tire of slots, find the Alfastreet booth and play Royal Derby, the Slovenian manufacturer’s would-be rival to cult favorite Sigma Derby.
As, perhaps, the only O’Malley supporter south of Fells Point and east of Dubuque it’s clear that the guy never really was going to go after the Casino vote. O’Malley’s presidential bid started with a big double zero given the riot in Baltimore and the fact that the impressive revenue from gambling did not really start to come in until a Republican took over in Annapolis. As for the very important state of Nevada, O’Malley would be well advised to tout his record in encouraging gamblers to do serious business in Nevada and drive on by the tight casinos in Maryland where a beer at a slot machine goes for a near ballpark price of $6.00.