Odds favor Bloomberg; Hilton returns to Vegas

As Saturday’s Nevada caucus nears, South Point oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro is boldly going where none of his colleagues have gone before, posting presidential odds. We’ll break them down by category. Vaccaro has Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), as expected, winning Nevada -350. Trailing him are Joe Biden (2/1), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D), way back at 12/1, Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) both at 20/1 and, without a prayer, Tom Steyer at 100/1. Heavy ad buys don’t translate into votes, we guess. When it comes to the Democratic nomination, it’s a different story. Vaccaro favors Michael Bloomberg (7/5) over Sanders (2/1). Biden (6/1) faces an easier odds path to victory than Warren (20/1), Buttigieg (25/1), while Klobuchar (60/1) has worse odds than such undeclared candidates as casino flip-flopper Hillary Clinton and film producer Michelle Obama, both at 40/1.

Donald Trump is still favored to win in November, at even money. Bloomberg and Biden would measure up best (3/2), followed by Sanders (2/1), Buttigieg (8/1), Warren (10/1), and Klobuchar and Steyer (50/1). Clinton and Mrs. Obama fare surprisingly well, at 2/1. In the meantime, the Bernie Bros have been exacting revenge upon the Culinary Union for failing to throw its insurance plan under the bus in favor of Sanders’ “Medicare for All.” We don’t endorse candidates in S&G and even if we did certainly not ones whose supporters use language like “bitches,” “whore,” “fucking scab,” and “evil, entitled assholes.” Ironically, given Sanders’ Latino popularity, union Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline has been vilified for being of Nicaraguan descent. Said Argüello-Kline, “We respect Senator Sanders a lot. We do. We know he’s always been great with the labor and everything. But I think in situations like this he knows what’s going on in this country and he knows this is very dangerous.” We hope so.

While on the subject of the political process, Maryland solons want to take future gaming-expansion issues out of the hands of the state’s voters. The state Senate voted 46-1 in favor of this disenfranchisement, although voters themselves—irony of ironies would have to decide this November whether to take themselves out of the loop (the opposite of what happened in Florida, which may be relevant). If it passes, gambling expansion would become the sole province of the Lege. What could go wrong?

* The accusations just keep on coming in the corruption case of Massachusetts state Rep. David Nangle (D). He liked to play the ponies, evidently, as “NH Casino 1” and “NH Casino 2” are referenced in the 28-count federal indictment. He also financed his golf hobby with a “Campaign Volunteers Appreciation” account drawn from election funds, which underwrote his membership and greens fees. He ducked IRS reporting requirements on the (evidently) few times he won at gambling, getting a fall guy to fill out the paperwork on a $1,221 slot jackpot at a Connecticut casino. Our favorite Nangle allegation is that he deducted for “driving 47,000 miles for [his] consulting company in one year, which prosecutors determined that he would have to drive 345 miles per day for 7 days per week for the entire year.” He must be tired. Ah well, the federal pen is a marvelous rest cure, we hear.

* Resorts World Las Vegas just got a much-needed shot in the arm. Hilton Hotels has agreed to operate three hotels within the $8.5 billion metaresort. One will be Hilton-branded (1,700), another a Conrad (1,500 rooms) and the third a boutique hotel for high rollers. Not only is Hilton’s return to the Las Vegas market welcome, its loyalty programs and customer base will be fuel for the Resorts World engine, not to mention adding a name brand that has vastly more cachet than Resorts World does.

* Hackers based in China are targeting Internet casinos. The cyber-raids ranged from Europe to Southeast Asia. According to ZDNet.com, “hackers appear to have stolen company databases and source code, but not money, suggesting the attacks were espionage-focused, rather than cybercrime motivated.” A group called DRBControl is the prime suspect. While these hackers have operated at the behest of Beijing in the past, they are suspected to be freelancing these days. One of their favorite Trojan horses is Dropbox. In addition to China, North Korea has been identified as a threat to online casinos. Perhaps we can count ourselves lucky that so few Internet casinos are based in the U.S.

Jottings: Add MGM Resorts International to the roster of companies that have had their customer data raided. Last summer, information on over 10.5 million guests was posted on a hacking forum. MGM says it has notified those whose privacy was violated … Is poker making a comeback? The Sahara (left, in happier times) has reinstated its poker room, following a decade-long closure … Work on the casino at The Londoner in Macao remains suspended, even as casinos engage in a soft reopening. One gaming operator said he “did not expect many clients” … Scientific Games has developed its first “historical racing” game and received permission to deploy it in Kentucky, the prime market for these devices. Louisville‘s Derby City and Oak Grove Racing & Gaming will get the first tranche of machines … William Hill estimates 83.5 Houston Astros players will get plunked this season as other teams avenge the ‘Stros cheating. Will “Mattress Mack” McIngvale take those odds? “If players are suspended, that [Astros] win total could drop by 15 games,” DraftKings‘ Johnny Avello adds. The team deemed least likely to win the World Series, meanwhile, is the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sorry, guys.