Deutsche Bank, in its role as 25% shareholder in Station Casinos, continues to draw fire from the Culinary Union. Let’s clear up a couple of things first. Yes, the Culinary still has an axe to 
grind with Station over the non-union status of the latter’s casinos. No, nobody is implying any wrongdoing on Station’s part here. The focus is strictly on Deutsche Bank and its culpability in rigging interest rates. Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer said Deutsche Bank “undermined the integrity and the competitiveness of financial markets everywhere.” Nor is Uncle Sam finished investigating Deutsche Bank, which may have circumvented U.S. sanctions against dealing with Iran, among other matters, including money laundering — a sore spot with Washington, D.C., where the casino industry is concerned.
However, just as some companies (Caesars Entertainment) are too big to fail, others are too big to investigate and DB seems to be an example. The Nevada Gaming Control Board is an outmoded, understaffed instrument, built to police the gaming industry of 25 years ago, not today’s. Just as it has shown no appetite for licensing Tamares Group, a multinational 
conglomerate with thumbs in every flavor of pie, including telanovelas, the NGCB appears to have no inclination to enter the labyrinth and confront the Minotaur that is Deutsche Bank. This is a company that’s been fined $2.5 billion, ordered to pink-slip two vice-presidents and four directors, and accused of corporate “cultural failings.” We may be dealing with a different branch (Deutsche Bank Group Services Ltd.) of the corporate tree than the one that holds a quarter of Station (and has a former Deutsche Bank analyst, Marc Falcone, in the CFO’s chair) but it ought to open its books, if only to reassure Nevadans that this branch of Deutsche Bank is on the up-and-up.
Somehow, Deutsche Bank has never had to undergo a suitability review, a startling oversight for such a major player in the Nevada casino industry. Then again, it’s a long-established tradition for the NGCB to come down hard on the small fry and give monied interests a pass. Just recently, Sam Nazarian got a gaming license despite admitting to the kinds of malfeasance that cost Ted Binion his. The motives for the Culinary Union’s crusade may not be pure but neither is Deutsche Bank and it has escaped NGCB scrutiny for far too long.
* Yesterday, I counted at least 10 ads for daily fantasy sports during the first half of the Green Bay Packers/Chicago Bears game, 
including several for NFL.com/fantasy, plus a running plug for the NFL site on the Fox Sports ticker. There is no way that this anything other than gambling and, except for the time commitment of assembling fantasy teams, it’s not discernibly different from what goes on in a Nevada sports book. Contrary to what it says, the NFL is into gambling up to Roger Goodell‘s scalp and the league’s antipathy to legalized sports betting can be chalked up to greed: It doesn’t want to share one more penny of the action if it doesn’t have to.
* Tribal casinos continue to get closer to the Las Vegas locals model of being your friendly, one-stop convenience hangout. Take Choctaw Casino Resort, in Durant, Oklahoma. It just rolled out a new entertainment arena, called The District. Now, in addition to gambling, Choctaw Resort will have a video-game arcade, a two-story arena for laser tag, a bowling alley and a cineplex. Sound familiar? Aside from being smaller than most of its Las Vegas equivalents, Choctaw Casino Resort might easily be mistaken for one of them, demonstrating the ongoing integration of casinos into the fabric of American daily life.
