In a wise move, Las Vegas Sands is investing $75 million in the event sphere being built behind Venelazzo by Madison Square Garden Co. By taking an equity position in the innovative venue, Sands presumably gains the potential to redeploy similar spheres 
in Macao and Japan, which thirst for diverse entertainment offerings. At least we hope so. The sphere will be joined to Sands Expo Center, The Venetian and Palazzo by a pedestrian bridge. Reports the Las Vegas Sun, “The 360-foot-tall by 500-foot-wide facility features a 580,000-square-foot spherical shape wrapped in an open-air trellis structure that includes 190,000 linear feet of LED lighting that is fully programmable to create a digital showcase.”
By partnering with MSG on the sphere, Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson is thinking well outside the box, just as when he was the first Las Vegas casino owner into Macao or when he made the then-revolutionary move of putting minibars into hotel rooms. While Adelson’s contract with MSG requires construction to begin within 18 months and be finished by 2023, MSG isn’t letting any grass grow under its feet, setting a 2020 deadline for completion.
* FS1 is cashing on the new, nationwide legality of sports betting with TV show focusing on the topic, and hosted by Charissa Thompson and the radio voice of the Las Vegas Raiders, venerable Brent Musberger. Fox is modeling the show on ESPN’s Around the Horn, which is setting the bar fairly low — but at least they didn’t compare it to Pardon the Interruption, the most entertaining show on television. While sports-betting shows are already offered on streaming services, FS1 is seen as breaking new ground in cable TV.
* Court challenges be damned, the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is proceeding with a casino in Carter Lake, Iowa. Ground has long since been broken for the casino proper, right on the border of Omaha (where gambling is nixed) and the latter city may find itself hosting the Ponca Tribe’s seven-story hotel. Carter Lake Mayor Ron Gunderson said “this project brings new life to land that’s never seen development in my lifetime.” Added tribal Chairman Larry Wright, “The impact from the economic revenue we look to generate here was just too much to walk away from.”
Even casino opponent Pat Paterson remarked, “The Ponca Tribe can build its casino on its sovereign land with or without the permission of Carter Lake,” adding that payments in lieu of property taxes “will be a reasonable amount of money for the 
extra fire protection and the extra police protection and it will help with the city finances.” Although both Nebraska and Iowa are suing the tribe, Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke (pictured) is standing fast by the Bureau of Indian Affairs‘ land-into-trust transfer. Meanwhile, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson is cowering in fear that the Ponca Tribe will buy up chunks of Nebraska and turn it into a casino state. Horrors!
Peterson complains “in order to get a spirit of cooperation from the state of Iowa made representations it would be a medical clinic … all of a sudden it was going to become a gaming facility.” Wright replies, “We think we are being unfairly scrutinized. This issue with Nebraska, and I don’t think anyone can argue, is largely because at the political level, they don’t want gaming.” Open Door Mission Director Candace Gregory conjures up the nightmare scenario of being inundated with an influx of disordered gamblers — and never mind that adjacent Council Bluffs already hosts three major casinos. What makes the Ponca Tribe the tipping point?
* Casino operators in Macao can breathe a sigh of relief when three bus-concession contracts can expire on July 31. Why? 
Because it will be business as usual for public transit, regardless of the contract situation, and because it presages a delay in the concession reviews for casinos that are scheduled to begin in 2020. Bureaucracy in Macao moves with notorious slowness and the bus situation is a classic instance. “In a nutshell, the likelihood of the process dragging on until the middle of the next decade gives the Macau Big 6 some breathing room and pushes out concession risk further than currently baked into shares,” Union Gaming Group analyst Grant Goversten opined.
Goversten wrote, “Ultimately, we expect [Sociedade de Jogos de Macau] and [MGM Resorts International] to be extended (from their 2020 expiration date) 
until June 2022. At the same time, we do not expect any material progress to be made on how gaming concessions are handled until the next administration takes office (effectively January 2020), at which point we would expect a multi-year study to take place (potentially taking a wait-and-see approach to Japan operations) and thus necessitating concession extensions for all six perhaps well beyond 2022.” He even thinks the number of concessions could swell to as many as eight, despite Beijing‘s rhetoric about seeking Macanese economic diversification.
