Three casinos in Pennsylvania have been cleared for Internet gambling. Of the trio, tiny Mount Airy Casino may loom the largest, being affiliated with both 888 and also PokerStars, which has been having a few issues of late. (Interestingly, Presque Isle Downs, which has yet to be licensed, 
opted out of online poker). The other approved casinos are Harrah’s Philadelphia and Parx Casino, the former having a well-tested ‘Net brand of its own. Interestingly, no casino has as yet stepped forward to pony up the $10 million required to offer sports betting. The fact that regulators won’t meet again until Sept. 12 may have something to do with the lack of urgency. All three casinos were approved to offer online slots but, due to a 34% tax rate, they may not wish to deploy such a low-margin game. A similar levy on sports betting may inhibit casinos on that front. There’s no point in logging on to try and play some Internet faro at Parx: There’s still much regulatory work to be done before the sites can go live. Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Director of Communications Doug Harbach said, “while we’re getting closer to being able to launch it at this point we’re still a little bit down the road from seeing that happen.” Year’s end is the target date.
* Kiss the W Hotel brand goodbye, Las Vegas. It’s leaving town as the Meruelo Group takes the keys to long-suffering SLS Las Vegas. (And, please, change that name soon). In a sign of faith, Meruelo is investing $100 million in capex maintenance in SLS, hopefully to dedouche-fy the property. In a more questionable move, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is out and Meruelo is in as the booking engine for the resort, which needs all the clout it can wield. There’s a bit of a disconnect at Meruelo, which says it isn’t going to take the toxic SLS brand off the hotel yet is filing building permits under the slug “Grand Sahara Resort.” That’s a name that will have some brand equity. Why is Alex Meruelo hesitant to use it?
* Speaking of brands, Macao hotelier Chan Meng Kam is slapping the “dragon” moniker on his chain of hotel-casinos. This is perceived to be a warmup for a bid to have a casino concession of his own when Macao enters the 2020-2022 renewal process. Since Kam’s Golden Dragon Group only hosts casinos subleased 
from Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, he has made a point of saying that local businesses should have the right to participate the concession-bidding process the next time it rolls around. Said Union Gaming Securities analyst Grant Govertsen, “We continue to expect all of the service provider casino operators to jockey for position in the context of a potential seventh or eighth gaming licence ultimately being issued. Golden Dragon is in a unique position in that they control more casinos and more gaming devices than other service-provider operators. We would not be surprised to see further activity … over the coming years.” So far Kam’s rebrands include Grand Dragon Hotel, Macau Million Dragon and Royal Dragon. Let’s hope they work out better than Lucky Dragon Casino in Vegas.
