“The Trump administration seems a lot more aggressive on wanting to get this done,” says Ho-Chunk tribal President Wilfrid Cleveland. “This” is a new casino, plus water park and retail mall in Beloit, Wisconsin. Says Cleveland, “The atmosphere is changing. Even in Las Vegas, they are beginning to look to more family-oriented destination points. Individuals in the Chicagoland coming into Wisconsin heading up north would see this as a destination stop along that travel path” The Ho-Chunk have been pushing this project 
for five years but are finding Donald Trump‘s regime more tractable to it than was Barack Obama‘s. There’s still the question of getting the $400 million project past Gov. Scott Walker (R. pictured) but the Ho-Chunk have an ace up their sleeve in the form of an agreement with the state that permits them to build one more casino at an unspecified location. While we don’t expect the path to be free of controversy, the Ho-Chunk seem to have a winning project in hand.
* A Colorado game inventor has come up with a new way to get to 21. Angel Espino‘s Blackjack Burnout allows players to “burn” a card that doesn’t fit with their strategy and get another one, in other words, getting to hit once more. Casinos will like this, because players have to pay the house a 20% commission to get the “burnout” but we don’t think players will cotton to it, since it means having to share their pot with a third party. If Blackjack Burnout passes regulatory muster, it could be seen in other states early next year.
* Boyd Gaming paid 7X cash flow for Valley Forge Casino in Pennsylvania. While that’s par for the course in casino transactions, it should be regarded as a bargain since Internet gaming (in which Boyd has some experience) comes with the property. The only cloud on the horizon is that nearby Reading wants one of the new mini-casinos and, not having closed the sale nor been licensed in the Keystone State, Boyd is temporarily in a look-but-don’t-touch situation.
* The normally laid-back Roger Gros gets his dander up about what passes for casino regulation in Bermuda. Minister of Tourism Shawn Crockwell juiced a dicey Florida outfit, Banyan Gaming, into an arrangement whereby it is the mandatory supplier of management systems to Bermuda casinos. Enter Tourism Minister Jamahl Simmons who, in a legislative coup d’etat, unseated Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission Chairman Allen Dunch (who had the temerity to suggest that the Banyan deal go through channels) and took control of the BCGC. Painting a picture of a crony-capitalist Bermuda that reputable companies will avoid, Gros says sternly, “As a result of this bill and the oversight of the legislature, Bermuda has officially become the ‘third world’ of gaming regulation. When a regulatory body is required to answer to any politician or political party, the possibility of corruption becomes a probability.”
* The saga of the M Resort bandit becomes stranger and stranger. The robber, who was caught in part because he used the exact same parking spot every time, turns out to have been Grace Bible Church Pastor Gregory Bolusan, who benefited from some inside knowledge: Wife Lisa Bolusan was a casino cashier. But really, should it have taken *three* robberies of the same casino in the same manner for authorities to nab Rev. Bolusan?
* In a comparably strange odyssey, we have the case of a casino riverboat in Goa that was launched imprudently during monsoon season and ran aground, rendering it unseaworthy, and another riverboat that couldn’t land a casino license. The solution? Take the license from the semi-sunken MV Lucky 7 and transfer it to the MV San Domino. Goa officialdom would like to move all casinos ashore but hasn’t been able to translate desire into policy … yet.
