Case Bets

Jottings: Bart Blatstein wants to subdivide the Showboat lot into five parcels. The idea appears to be to build a casino where the volleyball court currently sits, making an end run around the gaming restriction placed on the property by former owner Caesars Entertainment … Yahoo Sports will be the platform of choice for a new joint venture between Verizon and MGM Resorts International. Promised are “unique content experiences and live events.” Note to Big Gaming: When it comes to sports betting, MGM is eating your lunch … The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas‘ whales-only, Daun Curry-designed villa is getting the casino some good press. Take the tour … Much-in-the-news Ukranian Prime Minister Vladimir Zelensky is lending his support to the idea of casinos in Crimea. He also might partner with Turkish despot Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on an unspecified casino venture …  Who likes Monarch Casinos? Macquarie analyst Chad Beynon, for one. He thinks it can overcome recent setbacks, especially if Colorado voters approve sports betting next week …

* John “Mattress Mack” McIngvale will have to wait another night to find out if his $4.5 million bet on the Houston Astros was prescient. The Washington Nationals pulled the fat from the fire in Game 6 of the World Series, forcing a potentially dramatic Game 7.

Edward Norton “didn’t go full retard” in Motherless Brooklyn, short-listing him for Oscar contention. So far 2019 has been short on award-caliber movies other than Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. However, Terrence Malick, Clint Eastwood and Todd Haynes have Oscar-bait movies coming out in December, so don’t place your wagers yet.