* Shares in Australian casino company Star Entertainment tumbled after it disclosed that the U.S./China trade war is impinging on profitability. “The 
very large VIPs continue to travel but they don’t take as many risks as they have in the past,” said Star CEO Matt Bekier. It’s not that they’re hurting in the wallet from Trumpian tariffs but “The potential trade wars have just created a level of uncertainty and they’re not as aggressive in their outlook as they might have been in the past.” Star shares took a 17% beating (Star’s worst decrease ever) after the company revised profit guidance from $390 million down to $377.5 million, well below consensus expectations of $413 million. “The update from the company has been quite poorly received,” said one analyst, displaying masterful understatement.
* New York State will throw its four new, upstate casinos a bone in the form of sports wagering late this summer. Regulations have been green-lit that will enable Resorts World Catskills, Tioga Downs, Rivers Casino and Del Lago Resort to take sports bets. (Tribal casinos are getting in on the action, too) It’ll be small change at first: Mobile wagering is still becalmed in the Lege. American sports betting has reached the $8.9 billion mark, probably more when you factor in the states that haven’t reported May revenues, to say 
nothing of New Mexico, which doesn’t report them ever. Wow, time—and money—sure flies in the speedy year since the overturning of the Bradley Act. “From a company standpoint, we went through a merger, opened a retail destination and started online all within months of PASPA’s repeal and a year later, we are the market leader. It has been a proud moment for all of us,” said Fan Duel CEO Matt King.
* Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment is expanding its reach to take over operation of Casino Niagara and Fallsview Casino Resort in Ontario.
MGE CEO Mario Kontomerkos marked the occasion by promising “several hundred million” in capex maintenance. MGE beat out the Ontario Lottery Corp., Hard Rock International and Caesars Entertainment in competitive bidding last year to run the casinos. MGE will be responsible for all tax and upkeep costs, in return for keeping the casino revenue, in a term scheduled to run 21 years.
* It was a hard-luck week for Melco Resorts & Entertainment, delisted from the Philippine stock exchange. Melco had been warned of delisting if it didn’t meet a 10% threshold of public ownership. Melco didn’t and out it went. The company had contemplated a voluntary delisting last yet but it ran aground on the shoals of stockholder opposition.
Elsewhere in the Philippines, gamblers are being warned to stay away from loan sharks. The latter are known to take hostages as a form of ensuring repayment. Recently, three Chinese citizens were held in a “hotel room in Parañaque City” for not repaying their gambling debts. A mostly Chinese syndicate enticed the threesome to play at a Philippine casino with the promise of having their action underwritten. When they lost money, they were abducted and told to phone home to China for ransom. In Macao, this is just the cost of doing business. Macanese authorities assure the media that the majority of their kidnappers and hostages are from out of town. What a relief.
* An S&G thank-you goes out to FedEx Corp., which is holding a Tunica job fair to provide a soft landing for workers left jobless by Penn National Gaming‘s closing of Resorts Casino. Employment in Tunica is at a third of pre-Great Recession levels.
* Congratulations to the Toronto Raptors for the first NBA championship won by our good neighbors to the north. And boos to the NBA itself, which cut off data streams to sports books, in an attempt to screw up their prop bets and payouts. It’s part of a cheesy movement to extort “integrity fees” from sports. We like the attitude of Jimmy Vaccaro, director of sports relations for Rivers Casino Pittsburgh and Las Vegas veteran: “My database in my brain is just as much or more than the database that they can send out. People like me have been doing it for their entire life and it always comes out about the same, we hold about the same percentage wise … We don’t need help. What are they going to offer me that I can’t already see? We don’t need their database that bad.”
