Put me in the one-third of Americans surveyed who wouldn’t give up their annual bonus to see their team win the Super Bowl. That’s one of the findings of a WalletHub study that, incredibly (at least to me) ranks Las Vegas as the fourth-worst city for football fans — bad news for the Las Vegas Raiders if true. The metrics used, however, tend to involve college football. Sin City is 184th for performance in college football, 96th in minimum ticket cost, 210th in stadium capacity and — this is dire — 213th in fan engagement. The Malosos are going to have to get that last number up. No surprise, cities with NFL teams topped the list, with — this is a pleasant surprise — Pittsburgh leading all comers. Green Bay, Titletown USA no less, was only third, bested by Boston. At least Lambeau Field leads in accessibility. It also has the “most engaged” fans, Los Angeles the least. While Cleveland has the worst team, according to WalletHub, it has the most affordable tickets. The priciest college tickets are at Notre Dame, as you’d probably predict.
While we’re on the subject of sports, Harrah’s Philadelphia has tapped Scientific Gaming as its sports-betting provider, putting its money on SGMS’ OpenBet platform. In-casino betting is available right now, with online and mobile wagering to follow by the end of March. Meanwhile, competitor Mohegan Sun Pocono is putting its money on Internet sports wagering, inking a pact with Kindred Group (better known as Unibet) to be its online provider. The five-year deal also provides for a Unibet-branded sports lounge at the racing. The deal awaits regulatory approval.
* Watch out, Tunica: Southland Gaming, in West Memphis, Arkansas, is going all-in on this racino thing. Southland announced plans for a $250 million expansion, including a 
‘casino complex,’ 20-story hotel and culinary academy. (We particularly like the last part.) When it’s all done Southland will have deployed 2,400 slots and 60 table games. In addition to enlarging its steakhouse and buffet, Southland will add a food court, three bars and a player lounge. Showing that he’s a good sport, anti-casino Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) was on hand for the rollout, saying it was the biggest capital infusion in tourism in the state’s history. The casino should be finished by midsummer 2020, the height of the racing season. The hotel will be open sometime around the following Christmas.
* Ten cars and 100 artifacts, all valued at $255 million, related to the history of Ferrari are on display in Macao in a new exhibit entitled “Ferrari: Under the Skin.” That sextastic title aside, the exhibition is another step toward achieving the local government’s goal of having attractions more diversified than gambling. City of Dreams President David Sisk said of the display, “The collaboration between the two ultra-luxury brands highlights our shared values.” I’m not sure how you square high speed with a casino — other than the alacrity with which you lose your money — but both brands definitely have a common propensity for sleek lines. Incidentally, two Sociedade de Jogos de Macau casinos suffered power cuts over the weekend. No word on whether players found themselves out of money as result or not.
Speaking of SJM, Pansy Ho appears to have finally gained the upper hand in the long-running, King Lear-like struggle for the empire of Stanley Ho. Pansy aligned with the 
Henry Fok Foundation to achieve a controlling position of SJM stock, which leapt at the news. This doesn’t mean that the dynastic struggle is over, as Stanley Ho spouse Angela Leong and right-hand man Ambrose So are expected to push back against the new order. “The hope that the Pansy Ho-Fok alliance can change the direction of SJM is just that at this stage—‘hope.’ There remain strong imbedded influences in the SJM organization that leave us skeptical that real solid changes can manifest in the near to medium term,” wrote Sanford Bernstein analysts, adding that So and Leong “may not be as simple to replace.”
As for Lawrence Ho, he may have one less foothold in the highly coveted (especially by him) Japan market. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike‘s redevelopment plans for the prefecture don’t include casinos, forcing Ho lean more heavily on Osaka and Yokohama, his initial choices.
* On the subject of regime change, there may be a hint of one, or at least of a change of 
priorities at MGM Resorts International, which has added hedge-fund manager Keith Meister to its board. Reports Global Gaming Business, “Meister used to work for Carl Icahn and has a history of pushing changes on his investments.” We’ll definitely keep a watching brief on that.
* Demonstrating that enforcement tools are working, albeit perhaps slowly, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement laid a $30,000 fine on PlaySugarHouse.com for a software flaw that permitted minors to play online between November 2016 and January 2018. (The online portal incorrectly recorded players’ birthdates.) The problem was subsequently addressed but online casinos need to be more vigilant about this sort of thing, which tends to provide grist for Sheldon Adelson‘s mill and is particularly unfortunate to be making headlines at a time when the Department of Justice is looking at a potential crackdown on Internet gambling. “As soon as our team discovered the misconfiguration, we self-reported it to the gaming commission and took immediate action to correct and prevent recurrence. Responsible gaming is a top priority for us,” said a Rush Street Gaming press release which apparently begged the question of why the vulnerability went undetected for so long or why discipline was so tardy in coming.
