NFL bettors sacked; Strip resort folds; Caesars plan panned

Life at S&G HQ is seriously clouded by the critical illness of a beloved fur baby. Nevertheless, we shall endeavor to gather our thoughts, starting with the consequences for bettors of the life-threatening Damar Hamlin injury on Monday Night Football. Those who placed their wagers on the Buffalo Bills/Cincinnati Bengals tilt via WynnBet have had their action refunded swiftly. Not so lucky are Circa punters, as Derek Stevens is hanging onto the money until or unless the NFL reschedules the game within eight days of the Hamlin tragedy. Other slackers include DraftKings, which is keeping bettors in on call waiting, piously claiming its thoughts were with the Hamlin family instead. PointsBet and Caesars Sportsbook also took the ‘thoughts and prayers’ line, diving under the table alongside Circa and DraftKings. Since the game wasn’t replayed by yesterday, BetRivers patrons got their money back, though.

It’s not been a positive week for sports betting. Even before it went live in Ohio on Jan. 1, DraftKings was slapped with a $350K fine for marketing to minors. And if you lived in New Jersey, good luck betting on the Citrus Bowl. Garden State regulators took it off the tote boards due to the participation in the game as a sideline coach of outgoing PointsBet shill and former NFL great Drew Brees. This was a conflict of interest the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement would not countenance. (Other states thought it was all jim-dandy.) All New Jersey bets taken on or after Dec. 15—when Brees signed with Purdue—must be voided. PointsBet tried to take the high road: “While this is an exciting next step in his career, after careful review, we have decided to end our ambassador partnership agreement with Drew. Regulatory and legal compliance, responsible gaming practices, and the integrity of legal sports betting are top priorities for our organization and this decision will allow us to uphold that commitment. We wish Drew all the best as he returns home to his alma mater.”

Good for them but this does highlight the incestuous relationships between sports betting entities, broadcasters and active athletic figures. For instance, it’s more than a mite discomfiting to see Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms offering football picks every Sunday on behalf of FanDuel. As for active athletes who promote sports betting, that’s a line of activity that should be heavily rethought, if not retroactively banned, which we would prefer.

Salmon mogul Claudio Fischer has given up on his never-very-credible aspirations to reinvent himself as a Las Vegas Strip casino magnate. His planned, 2,000-room resort, on ex-Riviera land to be purchased from the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority for $120 million, has been scuppered. The LVCVA is still $7 million richer, thanks to a non-refundable deposit and is relisting the land, hoping to bag another live one. According to the Nevada Independent, “Fischer is co-founder of Sun Dreams, the largest casino resort operator in Latin America, with 19 properties in Chile, Argentina, Panama, Colombia and Peru.” That’s still not a surefire indicator of Las Vegas success.

Fischer claims he lost his nerve due to rising mortgage rates in the U.S. and an “economic crisis” here. Considering that the LVCVA’s official construction bulletin didn’t list Fischer’s casino-hotel as an active project, we can chalk this up as another failsino from a Sin City newbie, of which there has been no shortage over the years.

Traditionally, Sardi’s is the restaurant where Broadway insiders hang out and await opening-night reviews, often with trepidation. What its owner, Max Klimavicius, doesn’t want it to be is part of a casino district. He’s thrown in his lot with the Shubert Organization and others who oppose a Caesars Entertainment casino in Times Square. He fears that it would suck the Theater District dry, particularly of patrons for whom ‘dinner and a show’ is a Great White Way ritual. If Klimavicius seems awfully gun-shy, he’s coming off a 648-day, Covid-induced darkening of his venerable and vulnerable eatery.

“No matter how much emphasis promoters try to place on glitz and glamour, a casino in Times Square has the potential to jeopardize the character of the Theater District and the fate of its restaurants,” he wrote in the New York Post, adding, “There are significant reasons why most casinos in the United States aren’t located in the middle of heavily populated areas (and certainly not in an area as heavily populated as Times Square). For one thing, casinos clearly bring the most benefit to areas where there are no existing businesses to devour,” citing in-casino dining and retail. He’s got a point. Caesars and partner SL Green would have to eschew certain amenities to placate their Big Apple opponents, and that doesn’t seem likely to happen.

If Caesars does prevail, it will come at a price. New York State wants $500 million upfront for each of the three New York City casino licenses. That’s a minimum, mind you. “An applicant may propose to pay a higher license fee,” said the siting board, in what most of us would regard as bribe solicitation. We saw what happened in Chicago, where an unqualified contender won out by offering the most upfront money. Plus, the more advance moolah, the longer the license will run—potentially as much as 30 years. As with online sports betting, Empire State officialdom is treating this as a shakedown operation.

70% of the winning score goes to “economic activity and business development factors” while impact-mitigation rates a mere 10%. Diversity gets you another 20%. Area support is also a prerequisite, which should bode well for incumbents MGM Empire City and Resorts World New York. Caesars could get in by default, depending on whether Wynn Resorts can commit to the West Side, whether Steve Cohen is just blowing smoke about Flushing and whether an oddball consortium can put in a convincing bid for the Coney Island area. Given those prospects, we still think it’s Caesars’ to lose.

Gaming proponents are on the ascendant in the Georgia Lege, which means we could finally see real movement on the issue this session. State Sen. Ron Stephens (R) favors a bifurcated approach, one that champions both racinos, to bring equestrian sports to the Peach State in force, and (later) resort casinos. “There’s an appetite for equestrian horse racing and the whole equestrian market, if the local folks are allowed to vote, and I believe they will,” he told Georgia Public Radio. “Then, at some later date, come back with that question of destination resorts when the time is right.” So racinos would be the, ahem, Trojan horse that gets full-scale casinos through the gates. Fine by us.

This is the soft-target approach because, despite the fever for collegiate and major-league sports in Georgia, sports betting sees opposition stiffen considerably. Stephens would also have the state opt out of selecting casino and racino sites, leaving that up to counties and municipalities. While Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has opposed legalized gambling—other than the lottery that he inherited—in the past, he is taking a hands-off approach this session. With lawmakers looking enviously at Florida‘s $156 million horseracing industry, that may be the right position to take.

Joe Lupo having decamped for The Mirage, there’s a new boss at Hard Rock Atlantic City. It’s George Goldhoff, accompanied by new General Manager Mike Sampson. The appointments are awaiting regulatory approval. Goldhoff comes by way of successful Hard Rock Cincinnati and, prior to that, Pure Canadian Gaming. He also helped open Bellagio and weathered Hurricane Katrina with Beau Rivage, so Hard Rock A.C. should be a piece of cake. Sampson, a Boardwalk veteran dating back to Trump Entertainment Resorts, has been interim president at Hard Rock while Lupo steels himself for the challenge of the Las Vegas Strip. We wish both men the best of luck.

Jottings: Macao simply has to do better this year. Why? Because casino stocks are depending on it. Between 35% and 45% of the Wall Street forecasts for Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts are predicated on a Macanese recovery … After almost three full years of closure, Buffalo Bill’s in Primm has tiptoed back into operation. That being said, we can’t think of a reason for going there and say that from experience … Before casino opponent Gov. Clay Ricketts (R) could scuttle from office, yet another Nebraska racino opened. In this case it was the temporary casino at Fonner Park. The Dec. 27 debut will generate monies to fatten horseracing purses and (we hope) lower property taxes … One concrete accomplishment of the outgoing Congress was passage of the Old Pascua Community Land Acquisition Act, which adds 30 acres to the Pascua Yaqui reservation. Part of that will be dedicated to a new casino, converted from defunct, Tucson-area cineplex.