Donald Trump‘s policy toward China may be fairly unevolved at this stage, unless you count the agglomeration of additional trademarks in Macao. 
Technically speaking, the trademarks are registered to DTTM Operations (itself co-registered to The Donald), which operates from within the president’s favored pied a terre, Trump Tower. According to Reuters, the big man recently recorded trademarks for “real estate services, construction and development, hotel property, food and beverage and conference facilities.” Trump’s business operations are ostensibly in the hands of his sons but they make no bones about discussing them with Dad, so it’s what I call a seeing-eye trust.
Of course, the Trump family can’t get into the casino business in Macao unless it builds a hotel and lets one of the six existing casino concessionaires operate gambling within it. Trump pals Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, of course, are already well-entrenched in Macao and might provide a cloak of legitimacy, much as Stanley Ho used to do for dozens of hoteliers. One thing is for certain: If reelected, Trump will be well into his second term when Macanese authorities re-bid concessions in 2020. Sheldon and Steve are no doubt grateful that they have a friend in the White House who could wield a bit of leverage when that time comes.
Speaking of Stanley Ho and his legacy, Sociedade de Jogos de Macao has received the go-ahead to restart construction on Grand Lisboa Palace on the Cotai Strip™. The local government had put a lengthy freeze on work there after an on-site fatality. “We were allowed to resume work today. Of course, the contractors need some time to commission the set of workers and so on. It will take a little time,” said CEO Ambrose So. “In the meantime, of course we have already lost about seven to eight weeks.” Even so, pun unintended, SJM still expects to open the megaresort in late 2018.
* For the second day in a row, Caesars Entertainment CEO Mark Frissora has bad news to digest. The company lost nearly $1.5 billion in 2Q17 ($9.68 a share) and eked out only a $8 million revenue 
increase. Frissora would undoubtedly see the glass as half full, as those numbers are not as dire as their counterparts from 2Q16. He said, by way of explanation, “stronger gaming fundamentals across most of our properties were offset by expected unfavorable year-over-year hold, primarily in baccarat, and the impact of more hotel rooms off the market for renovation.” At least Frissora’s made a high priority of capex maintenance, something predecessor Gary Loveman was loath to do.
* Japan may be ambivalent at best towards casinos but it has an open-door policy toward poker. To that end, the World Poker Tour will make its first-ever stop in Tokyo. The tourney, arranged in conjunction with the Japan Poker Union Corp., will take place around Thanksgiving.
* Joe Average will take solace in knowing that job cuts don’t always happen from the bottom up. Take the case of Mohegan Sun Pocono, where seven executives were pink-slipped as part of a 
reorganization, Explaining the purge, PR Manager Cody Chapman said “It is … a reflection of Mohegan Sun Pocono preparing for and responding to external factors such as new gaming options currently being explored in multiple states and competitors’ aggressive promotional programs such as free slot play offers.” (Damn those evil free-play coupons!) Mohegan Sun has suffered some of the worst from Pennsylvania’s inelasticity in slot play, experiencing a 5.5% decline in April.
