Yesterday the Culinary Union announced that a tentative pact had been reached with Caesars Entertainment, in the wee hours of Friday morning, the first such in the current round of labor talks on the Las Vegas Strip. “The historic new agreement includes groundbreaking language on worker security 
regarding sexual harassment, workload, technology, and immigration,” enthused Culinary spokeswoman Bethany Khan. As for pay increases, the actual amount was withheld (no doubt to keep the pressure on at other companies) but Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline characterized them as “the highest wage increases that workers have ever had.”
The Culinary promises more detail on what it has received once workers have voted to ratify the contract. Late on Saturday the largest employer, MGM Resorts International came to terms with the Culinary, effectively putting pressure on 16 other casinos to make a deal. A formal statement on the agreement has yet to be issued but it spares MGM the potential nightmare of picketing when the Stanley Cup finals return to T-Mobile Arena. Most the remaining casinos seem sufficiently prosperous to meet Culinary demands, save for SLS Las Vegas, which is in a world of hurt.
A Global Gaming Business analysis of the agreements read, in part, “Several other factors have combined to make employee safety a major concern in the talks—the #MeToo movement and the allegations that forced Steve Wynn out of Wynn Resorts have cast a national spotlight on sexual aggression against women. The 
mass shooting on the Strip last October in which a heavily armed gunman firing from a suite at Mandalay Bay killed 58 people and wounded hundreds has made security a priority across the industry.” MGM has already taken the lead in issuing safety buttons to housekeeping staff and the peaceful resolution with Caesars strongly suggests that a similar policy will be installed there.
The Culinary was feeling so expansive, it even gave Caesars a forum in which to comment. Lead negotiator Tom Jenkin wrote, “We are pleased that all economic and personal security issues have been resolved with this new contract and that employees will continue to provide guests superior service and experiences.” (emphasis added) Since Caesars is looking a three-year tax holiday, a fact which still staggers me, it was the best-positioned of all Strip companies to meet the Culinary’s wage demands. Now that’s done how about retiring some of that long-term debt with which Gary Loveman encumbered the Roman empire?
* Buyers remorse may explain why MGM paid a staggering 11.5X cash flow for Empire City racino. MGM could have had Aqueduct Raceway years ago but passed, allowing the strategically located property to fall into the hands of Genting Group, which has 
prospered there. MGM’s purchase price for Empire City shoots $50 million upward if and when New York State‘s Legislature legalizes sports betting, but it appears unlikely that lawmakers will get a deal done before adjourning for the summer. MGM is also betting on New York become one of the next fiefdoms of Internet gambling but there’s little sign of it as yet. Once MGM builds an Empire City hotel and other amenities it will pencil out as one of the company’s most expensive projects. The racino might pull in valued Asian-American customers if table games are installed but that’s four years away, part of the legislative bargain that seeded Upstate New York with four new casinos (none of which is doing gangbusters business).
* Veteran gambling regulator Richard Schuetz opines that “it” casino product e-sports needs adult supervision. “If it is to achieve sustainability as a gambling product it will need a voice, and I have not yet been able to discern that voice,” he writes.
* The World Series of Poker is on at The Rio, lasting an endurance-testing seven weeks. This year’s tourney features some new twists in the rules.
