Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith weighs in on the subject of emerging markets. Significant by its omission: Florida. Boyd got its fingers burnt down there and knows better than some in the industry that it’s not the Land of Opportunity (except for the Seminole Tribe, that is).
Sophie Gibbons’s Choice. In his proposed budget, Gov. Jim Gibbons offers this depraved scenario: Either push problem gamblers under the bus or take it out on the young, the lame or the elderly. What’s the likelihood that, once confiscated, that treatment money is ever coming back? If you answered, “When Hell freezes over,” congratulations, you win the door prize. I’d much sooner sell the Governor’s Mansion (and dispose, if at all possible, of the archaic requirement that the chief executive reside in Carson City year-round) than make that morally insupportable Sophie’s Choice.
Like nearly every policy proposal to come off the governor’s desk, this is short-sighted and counterproductive, rife with hidden costs. Or to put it another way, you know Midnight Jim has gone off the deep end when Sheldon Adelson is The Voice of Reason. The “other states are cutting back” argument doesn’t wash, either, not least when you consider A) the sheer preponderance of gambling in Nevada relative to other states or B) the picayune and half-hearted extent of existing state-funded assistance. Nevada does as damn little as possible for pathological gamblers and now offers to do nothing at all. Forget what goes on in the back rooms of Strip nightclubs; here is true depravity at work.
Continuing his profile in cowardice, Gibbons refuses to get out in front on a $32 million fee increase to help fund the Nevada Gaming Control Board. “It doesn’t have to be quite 100 percent [supported by the casino industry], but it is going to have to be real close to unanimous with not a lot of opposition to it,” Fearless Leader whimpered from his foxhole. (It should be noted that Gibbons frequently issues press releases praising himself for his courageousness; live by the accolade, die by the accolade.) God forbid we should direct even a tiny percentage of casino dollars — 4% of December’s gross gaming revenue statewide — into a regulatory board that, according to its chairman, hasn’t seen a staff increase since 1991.
Does anybody seriously think the NGCB is riding herd on a 1991-size industry? Or that the free passes given to some casino owners (think unlicensed Tamares Group or Goldman Sachs) aren’t a direct consequence of an undermanned regulatory apparatus? As casino ownership has grown and become more convoluted, Nevada has been unable to keep up with the times.
Kansas’ dawdling process of casino development continues to bite the state in the ass. This latest bulletin bodes ill for the continued viability of a Lyle Berman-led Chisholm Creek project. Based on the Kansas experiment to date, states should leave casino ownership to the private sector.
Will regulate for food. If you live in Michigan and have a lot of free time on your hands (as many of its citizens, unfortunately, do) perhaps you, too, can be a gaming regulator. Visit casinos! Interrogate executives! Make economically impactful decisions! Trouble is, the job doesn’t pay a dime and there’s a ton of paperwork involved. But there are two vacancies right now — perhaps the only jobs in Michigan that are wanting for applicants.
Ending on an upbeat, bravo to the New Jersey State Senate for voting in tax-increment financing for Revel. While the notion of guvmint assistance for casinos would be preposterous in almost any other state, it’s the only hope that Atlantic City has of ever seeing another Borgata-quality project ever again. What the Boardwalk clearly doesn’t need is any old bunch of casinos but rather a few really competitive, destination-quality ones. Thanks to the state Senate, Atlantic City is one step closer to that ideal.
