Disney teams with casino owners; Tribes on the march

In the strangest coalition I have ever seen, the anti-casino Disney empire has joined with the Seminole Tribe to author a proposal that would take casino approval out of the hands of the Legislature (which hasn’t done a great job, admittedly) and put it solely in the hands of the electorate. The odd couple has to obtain 766,200 signatures, covering all of Florida‘s 27 congressional districts and they’re getting close. The petition drive has also already survived one legal challenge in the courts. While I can understand Disney’s rationale up to a point — you’ll never see any Marvel– or Star Wars-themed slots — I’m not sure what the Seminoles hope to gain. Should renegade counties vote to authorize blackjack or craps, that runs a cart and horses through the tribe’s compact with the state. Perhaps that is the tribe’s endgame: To get out of its revenue-sharing obligation to the state. At any rate, it is difficult to disagree with attorney Marc Dunbar, who called it “a parade of uncertainty.”

Taken at face value, it is a wager that Florida counties will vote down additional gaming, although events have been trending in the opposite direction, even in the benighted Florida panhandle. Disney has a lot of skin in the game, having given the Voters in Charge PAC $2.325 million over the last two years plus. No Casinos Inc. rounds out the strange ménage a trois that is backing the initiative. They have a high hurdle to clear: The initiative must pass by a 60% supermajority. Reports Casino.org, “Voters in Charge’s social media presence is struggling to gain a following. On Facebook, the group has just 10,290 likes, and on Twitter, just 581 followers.” At any rate, the fact that Florida’s two 800-lbs. gorillas are working off the same script is news enough.

* Cantankerous slot manufacturer Stan Fulton has died at the age of 86. Fulton’s place in history was secured by the founding of Anchor Gaming and, more consequentially, the development of Wheel of Gold, predecessor to the all-time slot leader, Wheel of Fortune. Unfortunately, Fulton is probably best remembered for his clashes with then-UNLV President Carol Harter. Having endowed the International Gaming Institute, ensconced in the Stan Fulton Building, he grew incensed when the decorative palm trees grew — as palm trees are wont to do — to the extent of covering up his name. So dyspeptic was Fulton that not only did he order the trees cut down, he tried to stage a coup d’etat against Harter. He failed miserably and retired into the horseracing industry for the remainder of his 86 years. A controversial figure, Fulton will be missed.

* Why do Ohio racinos perform so well? The Columbus Dispatch has a theory: “They are generally in more suburban locations that are perceived as easier to get to, easier to park at and safer than casinos in more urban locations.” Incidentally, the only Buckeye State casino to post a decline from 2016 to 2017 was Jack Cleveland. Given the size of the market is there any excuse for Dan Gilbert’s failure to capitalize upon it?

* Indiana casino owners have to be bracing themselves for the impact of Four Winds Casino, owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and located in southwest South Bend. How did the Pokagon get around a generally anti-gaming Hoosier State government? By eschewing table games and deploying 1,800 Class II machines in lieu of slots. The Pokagon have moved with record speed, finishing the casino in little more than a year. It will mean competition for Blue Chip that the latter could do well without.

* As though the upstate New York market were not sufficiently saturated with gaming, the Oneida Indians are just weeks away from opening a new casino in the greater Syracuse area. It will deploy 500 slots and 20 tables, a fraction of the Oneidas’ repertory at their flagship Turning Stone casino in Vernon. Although the upstate market has proven soggy, the Oneida have pushed back aggressively with Yellow Brick Road Casino and now Point Place Casino, in suburban Bridgeport. Good luck. They’ll need it.