It was Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission 1, Penn National Gaming 0 in an Iowa appellate court. Penn had been trying to get the license of its Belle of Sioux City reinstated, claiming it was deprived of due process. That argument continued to fall on deaf ears, with the Iowa Court of Appeals ruling that the IRGC was within its rights to reassign the Sioux City license to a Hard Rock-branded project when Penn was unable to cut a new deal with Missouri River Historical Development. (Iowa law requires that all casinos partner with a local nonprofit.) Penn will undoubtedly take this matter to the Iowa Supreme Court but it’s been on a long losing streak and should probably quit while it’s behind.
* MGM Resorts International‘s REIT, MGM Growth Partners is rolling out an initial public offering that’s conservatively expected to raise $100 million. What does it plan to do with the money? It might buy MGM properties that currently fall outside the REIT — although that would cost a lot more than $100 million. Or “will also actively seek to identify additional entertainment and gaming-related properties for potential acquisition from non-MGM entities.” So if you’ve got a low-cost casino that you’d like to unload, MGM Growth Properties will probably take your call.
Atlantic City casinos have done a 180 on the PILOT program, which allows them to make fixed payments to the city in lieu of property taxes. The program was born from some very contentious disputes between the city and the casinos over their property-tax 
assessments. PILOT was expected to save the casinos money. But with casinos in north New Jersey now a very real possibility, Boardwalk casino operators are suddenly willing to take their chances with the taxman if north-Jersey casinos are approved by voters this fall. For Mayor Don Guardian (R, right) that could mean future headaches in the form of more tax wrangles. And although the change overwhelmingly passed the state Senate, Gov. Chris Christie (R, right) is threatening to veto PILOT if the opt-out is part of the final bill. This drives a wedge between allies state Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D) and Christie, Sweeney having been the point man on the amendment.
“The effort here has been to strike a fair number that is predictable and stable and fair. And fair also includes fair to the taxpayer, which in this case is the casino. And if you have 
casinos up north, it’s a whole new equation,” said supporter Sen. James Whelan (D), speaking for big business. Taking the populist stance was Assemblyman Chris Brown (R, left), who asked, “Where is the fairness for our hardworking Atlantic County families and retirees who also pay property taxes?” The latter could be hit hard: Already Atlantic City’s property tax base has plunged from $20.5 billion in 2010 (when casinos were already on the decline) to $7.3 billion in 2015.
“The concerns we have, if the properties continue to go down, then so will the taxes because they’ll file tax appeals,” said Guardian, who’d mainly like the Lege to get on with PILOT, as his city’s bank account continues to run dry. With Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D) still entrenched against certain aspects of the state takeover — another sine qua non of Christie’s approval — chaos appears inevitable.
* After months of hanging tough on its plans for an 80-foot-tall marquee at its $330 million Schenectady casino, Neil Bluhm‘s Rush Street Gaming has pulled in its horns and meekly deleted the offending sign from its plans for the site. Said Rush 
Street, “Although the city has approved a pylon sign, it is not currently included in this signage package. It has been our goal throughout the design process to solicit feedback from all stakeholders and apply thoughtful consideration to the design of the facility in order to bring the best possible development to the City of Schenectady.”
Rush Street also released a passel of new renderings, which showed a halving of the amount of signage, including deletion of a Mohawk River marquee. The company appears to be bowing to complaints from the Stockade neighborhood, which remains skeptical. Community activist David Giacalone warned, “they don’t have a branding sign yet and there’s no way a casino is not going to have a branding sign. Every time they have ever said anything ambiguous, you can bet they’re hiding something.” Then again, Rivers Casino & Resort will be the only game in town. Maybe it doesn’t feel the need to shout that from the rooftops.
