Crusty Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) eked out a victory on sports betting when a veto-override vote in the Maine House of Representatives fell short of a two-thirds majority. The prudish Mills changed her message 
from an anti-gambling one to a “slow down” one, saying the Lege should see how other states fare (pretty darn well, judging by the latest numbers out of New Jersey). It’s a bitter victory for casino owners Penn National Gaming and Churchill Downs. Thanks to Mills, tribes and OTBs won’t get sports betting—but neither will they. Meanwhile, state Sen. Louis Luchini (D) promised to be back next year with another bill, saying “The big thing is that people are doing this illegally now. They’re going to continue to do this illegally. Maine won’t get any taxes from it, and Maine people won’t get any consumer protections.” Unless you count Mills, the real winner is New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), whose state will be open for business to all those sports bettors driving in from Maine.
Meanwhile, proposed sports betting in Nebraska is raising a banshee cry of opposition, dimming hopes for its passage. “Outdated laws are counterproductive,” argued state Sen. Justin Wayne but his arguments fell on deaf ears like those of Pat Loontjer (emphasis on “loon”), executive director of Gambling with the Good Life. “We have seen the devastation that comes with gambling: addiction, crime, divorce, embezzlements and even suicides,” she shrilled. “The state exists to benefit our families and businesses, not to prey upon them.” Wayne tried to persuade listeners that, for instance, fantasy sports is a game of skill, not chance. Besides, he pointed out, Nebraskans are already voting with their feet. Over in Iowa (where sports betting is legal), 80% of the license plates on the cars in the parking lots of Council Bluffs casinos have Nebraska plates. That’s a reality that Loontjer and Les Bernal would prefer to ignore.
* If the Culinary Union endorses anyone for president it’s not going to be Sen. Bernie Sanders (I). In a statement released yesterday, the 
Culinary extolled its health plan and unleashed the following broadside: “It’s disappointing that Senator Sanders’ supporters have viciously attacked the Culinary Union and working families in Nevada simply because our union has provided facts on what certain healthcare proposals might do to take away the system of care we have built over 8 decades.” For “certain healthcare proposals” read “Medicare for All.” Be on your guard, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D). Bernie has awoken a sleeping giant and it’s in a grumpy mood.
* Slot machines and a roulette wheel in a St. Petersburg apartment? You better believe it. Russian politician Oleg Kalyadin had to resign his post after a police raid uncovered what you might call a residential casino. Twitter footage of the raid went viral. Gambling is illegal in all but five areas of Russia and St. Petersburg isn’t one of them. Like any good politician, Kalyadin said he was shocked—shocked!—that gambling was taking place on his property, which he said he’d sublet (still making him a beneficiary of the casino). The raid, which has a tangled political subtext, also cost Kalyadin his membership in the United Russia party.
* Macao is a ghost town these days, evoking comparisons to The Shining. The Los Angeles Times found that “at the Galaxy Macau complex, 
hotels used to having nearly full occupancies such as the JW Marriott doted on the handful of remaining guests. The desolate 1,000-room property, which shuttered all but one of its dining areas, had the eerie feel of a luxury Overlook Hotel.” Still, the LAT reports that casino operators are content to eat $100 million in daily costs for shuttered properties because they’re taking the long view.
“Casino operators have now given a strong signal to the government that they are willing to sacrifice revenue for greater societal cause,” explained 
the University of Macau‘s Desmond Lam. “This reflects well on them and potentially on the renewal of their licenses.” Some fear that Las Vegas Sands‘ concession could be at risk due to CEO Sheldon Adelson‘s fealty to Donald Trump, with IGamiX Director of Gaming Operations Eric Coskum warning, “If any American operator were to lose a license or not successfully win a new license, it would be Sands.” However, Adelson has invested more in Macao than anybody and, in politics, money talks with deafening volume.
* Two new coronavirus cases have cropped up in Singapore, one of them at Resorts World Sentosa. The most worrisome aspect of the news? “Neither had been to China recently.” Thirty-eight cases are still being treated in the city-state, which reports nine recoveries. Whew.
* Jeffrey Glen Haverty, 35, will be a very old man indeed when he finishes serving his sentence for decapitating a casino patron, a man who was carrying $6 (yes, six dollars) after leaving Montana Lil’s. Haverty was sentenced to 50 years plus 20 years probation for chopping off Marlon Knight‘s head to get those six bucks. Knight had won $120 but consigned most of it with the casino staff, fearing for his safety, even as he agreed to accompany Haverty and alleged co-conspirator Donald Ray Cherry to the homeless encampment where they were staying. Although Cherry did not indulge in his cannibal fantasies of eating Knight’s brain, the duo was sufficiently enlivened by the homicide to proceed to Magic Diamond Casino and gamble some more.
