Steve Wynn was exuding confidence this week that Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace wouldn’t be nationalized by Macao, telling investors, “We are so stitched into that 
community, with our employees and our company, that we feel comfortable in this situation.” On background, other casino executives are less sanguine, feeling that Fernando Chui‘s administration is keeping them on tenterhooks. That’s certainly been the way Chui has liked to deal with the casino moguls. However, Wynn says he has received positive feedback from City Hall with regards to expanding Wynn Palace, something upon which politicians are historically slow to move. The government could throw the existing licensing up for re-bid in two years (Wynn’s turn comes in 2022) and if they do things could get pretty ugly. The casino bosses should be glad they’ve taken so much money out of Macao in so little time.
* Casinos along Mississippi‘s “Redneck Riviera” eked out a tiny increase in revenues this years, which is more of a victory than it looks when you consider they lost a weekend to Hurricane Nate. That’s five straight years of gains. The news was less good along the Mississippi River, where gross gaming receipts fell to $885 million from $932.5 million. MGM Resorts International has dispatched executive Bill Boasberg to do for Beau Rivage what he did for MGM National Harbor. One challenge he will have to weather is the advent of a new casino in Gulfport. That will probably dilute the Gulf Coast market but if widespread sports betting is legalized it should more than balance the scales and Mississippi is itching to get into the sports-book bidness.
* Massachusetts regulators have decided that problem-gambling interdiction is a frontier to be developed in tandem with casino companies, rather than from an oversight perspective. These eastern outposts of the casino industry would like “to be treated as good 
corporate citizens, not like the casinos of Bugsy Siegel,” in Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby‘s colorful phrase. Penn National Gaming already has its PlayMyWay system in place which “prompts cardholders to voluntarily set a daily, weekly, and/or monthly budget to track their spending. Once enrolled, patrons receive automatic notifications as they approach 50 percent and 75 percent of their spent budget.”
Given Las Vegas‘ positive track record on diversity and historical preservation in the Bay State, Crosby looks forward to this next step in the process, saying it will be more “nimble” to develop anti-gaming-addiction programs in tandem with the casinos themselves. Budgetary limits are on the table at this point but self-exclusion appears to be beyond the scope of the discussion.
* Linq Promenade can give itself a pat on the back for having inspired one of the amenities to be at Angel of the Winds Casino, in Washington State. Representatives of the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians checked out Brooklyn Bowl and liked what they saw. Said General Manager Travis O’Neil, “There’s this cool vibe and energy and that’s what we want to do with our casino.” Score one for Caesars Entertainment.
