“I look forward to entering the Miami gaming market through this acquisition. We have exciting plans for Casino Miami that we will be 
revealing in the near future.” With those words Phil Ruffin took possession of the $155 million casino, unloaded to him in reaction to the November election results that went well for the Seminole Tribe and badly for everyone else in the casino biz. While Ruffin’s new place holds 1,012 slot machines, Phil can upsize that to 2,000 one-armed bandits. The casino, which is on pace to gross $72 million this year, also contains a jai alai fronton. Other than adding a hotel Ruffin plans no radical changes to the property.
According to Ruffin spokeswoman Michelle Knoll, Ruffin “felt that it met his financial parameters for acquisition. This purchase became even more valuable with the Florida law that will seriously impair the issuance of future gaming licenses.” If that’s the case this may not be the last casino flip we see in the Sunshine State.
* First the bad news: A bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that would require states to grovel before the Attorney General before they could legalize sports betting. The good news: The sponsor of this misshapen afterbirth is Sen. Orrin Hatch (R), who’s a lame duck and will probably see the bill expire along with his Capitol Hill career. Nothing personal, senator, but good riddance.
* Evidently Wynn Resorts is less than convinced it will keep Encore Boston Harbor. It is sending none other than Chairman Phil Satre to 
Massachusetts to ask for clemency from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Global Gaming Business predicts that Satre’s salient argument will be that all the bad actors at Wynn Resorts have been expunged from the company. “What I’m saying is that we can separate Steve [Wynn] from the company and still accomplish everything we promised here,” Satre told the magazine.
Meanwhile, in the Who Asked You? Department, Mohegan Sun butted into the regulatory process, announcing it “is prepared to participate in a process that would assign that license to another operator — and enter into negotiations with the appropriate 
parties to acquire the facility under construction in Everett.” This drew a heated response from Mayor Carlo DeMaria: “Mohegan Sun is not welcome to operate a casino in the City of Everett. We made a deal with Wynn Resorts to operate a 5-star international destination resort and I will never accept anything less — certainly not a gaming parlor that would be used to protect their interests in Connecticut at the expense of our community and residents.”
Closer to home, Wynn Resorts is being sued in Clark County for allowing Steve Wynn to breach his fiduciary duties by violating company rules against sexual harassment and misconduct. In 
addition to Wynn himself, the suit names CEO Matt Maddox, former counsel Kim Sinatra and who’s-who of Wynn board members that includes ex-Gov. Bob Miller. Plaintiff Robert Bruce Bannister is seeking $15,000 in punitive damages from El Steve plus court costs. That seems like a lot of trouble to go to for such a small sum. Two Bay State pension funds are also suing Wynn Resorts. It’s quite a baptism of fire for Satre.
At least WYNN shares are performing better now that the U.S. and China have called a temporary truce in their trade war. Las Vegas Sands and MGM Resorts International shares were also buoyed by the news. As Stifel analyst Steven Wieczynski put it, Macao continues to hold up better than the ‘fear’ that is associated with it. In 
a market driven by momentum, Macau’s November gross gaming results result [+8.5%] should be viewed positively given the negativity around Macau in general right now.” Union Gaming Group analyst Grant Govertsen added that junketeers have yet to “hit the panic button. Most are still seeing growth and are cautiously optimistic about their prospects.” Perhaps that cautious optimism will translate to Wall Street, which remains eagerly skeptical about Macao.
* Having failed to give the state budget a shot in the arm through casino expansion, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will now try to do it with sports betting, revenue from which he has baked into his next set of budgetary numbers. That prompted normally circumspect
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow (D), the point man on gambling in New York State, to call sports betting “a done deal … New Jersey is doing even better than expected with sports betting because they’re getting all that New York action, which is what I said would happen and it’s happening. I read in New Jersey they brought in $24 million from sports betting in September, which is huge,” Pretlow told GGB. To gain momentum, Pretlow will throw online poker to the sharks. He explained, “I would choose this over online poker just because the revenue stream is so much better.” No argument there. But, according to the Empire State constitution, casinos are juiced into sports-betting exclusivity, which could prove problematic. Stay tuned.
