Strike deadline passes; Delaware first to take sports bets

As of last midnight, 34 Las Vegas casinos are operating without a Culinary Union contract. Negotiations are evidently going well enough for the strike deadline to pass without any picketing. However, just to show that it means business, the Culinary has opened a “Strike HQ” next to its offices, printed up placards and invited the media to stop on by. In the Culinary’s latest explanation of its position, wage increases have fallen to the bottom the list, below protection from sexual harassment, outsourcing of jobs, loss of jobs due to technological upgrades and protection for immigrant workers. (ICE is reported to be rampaging through entire neighborhoods, albeit not in Vegas … yet.)

“We have not set a strike date yet,” the Culinary’s Bethany Khan told a reporter, another sign that negotiations are going well. “Caesars Entertainment continues to meet with the Culinary union to finalize a new 5-year contract. We are confident that we will achieve a tentative agreement without a work stoppage,” said the company’s Richard Broome. Both Caesars and MGM Resorts International have remained upbeat as the contract deadline drew near. Although the Culinary has voiced distinct grievances, the atmosphere around the talks has been one of amity, unlike some previous negotiations in which the two sides spat nails at one another. With 120,000 conventioneers set to descend upon Sin City in the next fortnight, there’s a fair amount of pressure on the casinos to get a deal done … or at least find enough common ground to keep everyone at the bargaining table.

* It looks distinctly like Delaware is going to beat New Jersey to the punch when it comes to taking sports wagers. The action begins Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. According to The Associated Press, “The offerings will include single-game and championship wagering on professional baseball, football, hockey, basketball, soccer, golf and auto racing.” Delaware’s coup is a combination of proactivity (provisional legalization of sports betting nine years ago) and infrastructure, since the state already allows parlay betting on the NFL. The Tuesday launch means that the inception of wide-open sports betting coincides with the NBA finals, so Delaware should see heavy action — and maybe lure some much-needed drive-in business from surrounding states.

“We’ve had sport betting for nine years, so it’s not new to us. We’re not surprised the software works because it’s been working fine. We didn’t have to make any significant changes,” lottery director Vernon Kirk told the AP. The action will be initially restricted to the tiny state’s three racinos, with mobile wagering (“the future of sports betting,” says a prescient Kirk) to be incepted at some later date. The big winner may not be the racinos nor the tax coffers of Delaware but Scientific Games, which provides the infrastructure and will be able to market itself to other states as having been firstest with the mostest. The only drawback (and it’s not a minor one) is that single-game bets will only yield the sports books one-fifth as much as parlay bets. Says Kirk, “You need a lot more gaming in order to generate the same amount of revenue.” Truer words were never spoken.

* Turning to a deeply distasteful chapter in casino history, we have to report that child-murdering Jeremy Strohmeyer has had the nerve to ask for parole. In 1997, Strohmeyer strangled tiny Sherrice Iverson in the bathroom of a Primm casino, a crime that sickened Nevadans. However, in the interim the Supreme Court has ruled that juveniles (Strohmeyer was 18 at the time) who commit on murder should have a shot a parole instead of being sentenced for life. The Strohmeyer plea will hinge on the nuances of whether he had the mental capacity of an adult when he committed his heinous crime. Expect on ruling on the hearing request in the next trimester. We will be following this case with disgust.

* The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, better late than never, is taking comments on the banning of bump stocks, the accessory that enabled Stephen Paddock to rain death upon concertgoers at Mandalay Bay with such rapidity that 58 lives were lost. If you’re against bump stocks, sign here. If you’re in favor, I guess you don’t need to do anything — or at least I don’t know where to make your opinions known and if I did I’m not sure I would publicize the fact.