Uri Clinton is out as COO and president of MGM Resorts International‘s $850 million Empire City Casino after only a year in the post, although he’ll be retained as a consultant. Maybe he didn’t take to life in Yonkers. 
Despite his New York posting, Clinton was better known for his lobbying efforts in Hartford, trying to block a tribal casino in East Windsor and gain an MGM megaresort in Bridgeport. Clinton was also starting to jawbone the New York Lege for table games at Empire City, even though it’s not supposed to get them before 2023. Connecticut state Rep. Joe Verrengia (D) took a business-as-usual approach, saying, “There’s plenty of unfinished business to deal with in the upcoming session, and I’m sure MGM will continue to be part of that discussion.” As for the New York legislative push, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) dismissed it, saying, “I am very skeptical about some casino deal put together by casino operators promising billions of dollars and everybody is happy.” Spectrum Gaming Group is going to conduct a market study before any further expansion is enacted.
Maybe Cuomo’s feeling burnt about the relative failure of four new casinos upstate. Speaking of which, a casino-management degree program at SUNY Schenectady has been scrubbed. No wonder: It has had no full-time enrollments for the past three years. Said prexy Steady Moono, 
“the program will not continue the way it is currently configured.” The courses peaked in 2015 with 65 full- and part-time enrollees. It’s been steadily downhill ever since. It seems there are as few people interested in working at Rivers Casino Schenectady as there are playing it. General Manager Justin Moore didn’t see the demise of the degree program as the end of the world, saying, “Many of the college’s offerings are of great value to the casino for helping us develop and hire a skilled workforce, especially their world-class culinary and management programs.”
* Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) has gotten off the dime in terms of her desire to place the Windy City’s planned mega-casino in areas of urban blight. (Nothing says “gambling” like an empty U.S. Steel plant.) 
She’s now placed the James R. Thompson Center and part of McCormick Place in nomination. That moves looks to cut down on some of the infrasture costs, at least. One of the other sites has been (optimistically?) projected to generate $950 million a year … by Year Five. And remember that 72% of that goes to the state and city in the form of taxes. No wonder Big Gaming has found Chicago easy to resist. One alderman furthermore dissed Lightfoot, saying her slum-oriented ideas of casino placement were akin to “putting a casino in Harlem.” Ouch.
Land of Lincoln sports betting, while theoretically legal, remains somewhere in the hazy yon as far as being able to have a flutter. At least regulators will start taking sports book applications before the end of the year. Global Market Advisors thinks sports betting in Illinois could challenge Nevada and New Jersey, generating handle of $5.2 billion by 2023. Sports venues, racetracks and casinos will have to pony up $10 million for a license. That’s pretty stiff unless you’re DraftKings or FanDuel, who would have to chip in $20 million and sit out the first year and a half of legalized sports betting. They’ll just have to grind their molars in envy as Wrigley Field, Soldier Field, United Center and Guaranteed Rate Field all set up sports books. But we think they’ll decide it’s worth it for an eventual piece of a $338 million revenue pie.
* Kudos to Ocean Casino Resort for appointing CFO Terry Glebocki permanent CEO. Judging by recent financial results at Ocean, Glebocki 
obviously knows her onions and she joins a too-small coterie of female gaming CEOs. Glebocki replaced Bruce Deifik‘s man, Frank Leone, last February. Glebocki ought to know Ocean inside and out by now, having been part of its original Revel management team back in 2012. (Time sure flies). She promised, “We have many announcements planned for 2020.” Here’s hoping Glebocki can break the Revel curse that has claimed lives and careers. Just ask Ray Rice.
* More evidence of a possible, long-in-abeyance Harmon Strip: The long-defunct Atrium Hotel, next to the Hard Rock Hotel, will be demolished and replaced by a Siegel Suites-branded hotel/condo. We’re in favor of anything that supplants that eyesore.
You cant touch Harlem these days! Real estate values are too high. The Alderman should educate him or herself appropriately.
Glad the Ocean is doing so well. It still may be in the middle of the crowd, but for the relatively small investment that the current owners have on the table, it appears that it is probably making a nice return on investment by now. It was smart of them to keep the team in place that made it happen! Congrats on a job well done. Keep the momentum going.