Eldorado Resorts took another big step toward gaming’s major leagues with its acquisition of Isle of Capri Casinos, a deal that closed earlier this week. The purchase gives Eldorado 12 more casinos, including a presence in the important Lake Charles market. Eldorado 
also inherits hard-luck Lady Luck Nemacolin in Pennsylvania, but them’s the breaks. Isle played an important role in American casino history, being one of the pioneers of riverboat gambling in the Midwest. Then-CEO Bernie Goldstein was quick to see opportunity and exploit it. Unfortunately Goldstein and his sidekicks stayed too long at the party, and their declining years were marred by outright disastrous ventures into overseas markets and a period in which Isle was growing cash flow only by dint of opening more and more casinos, not by improving performance.
Eventually former Argosy Gaming executive talent was brought in to reverse Isle’s fortunes, a move whose success can be measured by the fact that Isle eventually became an attractive takeover target. Eldorado more than doubles in size with the transaction, growing to 19 casinos, spanning from Reno to Pennsylvania. As CEO Gary Carano put it, “The combination significantly expands the scale of our gaming operations, further diversifies our geographic reach into new markets and minimizes market-specific risk.” Spoken wisely.
* Seminole Tribe gambling — among other things — remains in limbo after another sorry collapse by the Florida Legislature, congenitally unable to agree of gaming expansion in a session that ends Friday. “We 
just couldn’t get it across the finish line; we were too far apart,” said state Rep. Jose Felix Diaz (R, right). The make-or-break issue was the ability of eight counties to legalize slot machines, which the state Senate was prepared to allow them but the House was intractable. So, for the time being, Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s ruling that aforesaid slots are illegal is definitive. Responded state Sen. Bill Galvano (R), “Gaming is going to continue to keep expanding without us controlling it. The matter now moves to the courts.
DFS also remains in a legal penumbra. Galvano is of the belief that it is illegal and a legislative fix to a 1991 court ruling is necessary. For the time being, FanDuel and DraftKings will have to give the Sunshine State a wide berth. Gambling opponents will rejoice in the Lege’s latest failure but the rest of us can only shake our heads in dismay.
* It’s a downright injustice that you can’t play video poker at Ohio racinos. But the state House of Representatives is aiming to fix that, voting to include it in the budget. Mind you, Gov. John Kasich (R, left) 
can prune it from the bill when it reaches his desk but for now it’s a positive move. The Jack and GLPI/Penn National Gaming casinos will still have a duopoly on table games, but racinos will be one big step closer to parity. (Just imagine what Hard Rock Rocksino could do with video poker, given its current dominance of the Buckeye State.)
Although the Ohio Lottery is coming off a record year, it seeks even more money, funds that would go toward education. Video poker is estimated to be capable of bringing in another $12.5 million a year. Other tinkering with the lottery model is to enable debit-card purchases at VLTs and giving the machines exclusive rights to credit-card lottery purchases. Casino opponents, naturally, are against the amendment, saying it distorts the intention of the original enabling legislation by putting racinos one step short of equality with casinos. But unless Kasich wields his veto pen, the momentum toward the day when all gambling facilities in Ohio are full-blown casinos seems inevitable.
* Don’t expect Japan to be Macao plus pagodas. That’s the message of a much-discussed white paper released by Global Market Advisors. It recommends devoting 45% of casino floors to slot machines and another 5% to electronic table games. “The single greatest misconception a casino operator can make is to assume that Japanese gamers will play the same games as those players that frequent Macau. The Chinese have a table game-centric gaming culture and have long embraced Baccarat and Sic Bo,” GMA writes.
“While the Japanese enjoy Oicho-Kabu, they have a long-established history as a machine-centric gaming culture, as they are enthusiastic 
Pachinko players. Pachinko in turn spawned Pachislots, a hybrid product that combines the convoluted wagering/redemption system of Pachinko with the entertainment value of modern slot machines.” GMA further predicts that over time, an even greater percentage of Japanese casino floors will be dedicated to slots. This will be a boost for the home team — with manufacturers like Konami, Aruze and Sega Sammy already well-versed in Japanese tastes — it strengthens the case for Nipponese game manufacturers to be joint-venture partners in the new casinos. As for table gamblers, they are expected to favor blackjack over baccarat.
