He came to rob New York; MGM Cotai delays opening

Security at MGM Resorts International properties just got another black eye. In a dead-of-night robbery, an armed man — complete with clichéd stocking cap — stuck up the casino cage, then had the brass to escape via taxicab. (Imagine it: A doorman flagging down a cab for a man who was carrying a gun and an untold amount of casino lucre.) The stickup comes at a time when the robber of the Bellagio casino cage is still at large. As for MGM’s security measures, they seem to border on the nonexistent. Were I inclined to rip off a Strip casino, I’d skip Caesars Entertainment properties and make a beeline for MGM.

* Casino licenses went on sale yesterday in Pennsylvania. There’s no other way to describe a process in which the license goes to the highest bidder, with the location being disclosed after the winning bid has been chosen. The 10 mini-casinos aren’t all being chosen at once: A rolling series of auctions will continue on Jan. 24 and run through May. Casino sites have to sit outside “zones of exclusivity,” a complicating factor because aforesaid zones will be redrawn every time a mini-casino is allocated.

We can expect Penn National Gaming to abstain from the bidding. Instead, it is suing the state for causing “significant and unique” to its eponymous Harrisburg racino. Las Vegas Sands is also trying to play spoiler, so I guess we can rule them out, too. Since winning bidders have six months to submit a completed plan to regulators, the Penn and Sands lawsuits will have time to play out in court.

* Las Vegas casinos are becoming increasingly tech-savvy but it’s nice to know that the concierge desk won’t be going out of business anytime soon. For instance, when a Muslin guest wants to know in which direction to pray to face Mecca, a human backstop is needed to type out, “The window of your room faces to the East. If you pray facing the window, you will be oriented towards Mecca.” Who says Las Vegas isn’t ecumenical?

* MGM Grand Cotai has set its opening for Feb. 13 (two weeks later than planned), to be marked by a “gala dinner.” Despite the delay, MGM Cotai will be in business in time for all-important Chinese New Year, by a whisker: three days. It’s been a long and arduous process for MGM, which first announced the project in February 2014 with a 2016 completion date. Although the megaresort has room for 500 tables, experts think the Macao government will give it no more than 150. Making up the shortfall with tables from MGM Grand Paradise is a robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul proposition since MGM has the fewest tables in the Macanese market.