According to lobbyists for MGM Resorts International‘s Grand Victoria riverboat, the smoking ban in Illinois has stove in casino revenues by 33%. Statewide, the average is -28% since 2008 — costing the state no small amount of tax monies — while nearby Indiana casinos were simply flat during the Great Recession. But rescue may be at hand. The Illinois House of Representatives narrowly voted to lift the prohibition in the Land of Lincoln. Both the state Senate and Gov. Pat Quinn (D) could still block the bill but this is unquestionably the best news Illinois casino owners have received in four years.
Fun fact: Although his anti-gambling stance made him something of a nuisance in Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio (R, left) is the son of casino workers. An S&G reader who was just watching Rubio on TV writes me that Sam’s Town was apparently Mario Rubio‘s place of employment. (The late Mr. Rubio’s son tends to be vague on the matter.) Does this obligate Boyd Gaming to financially support Sen. Rubio’s future endeavors? I’m joking, of course, and I can’t find any Rubio-related donations from Boyd, which owns a jai-alai fronton in Florida that it once hoped to convert into a slot parlor.
Although Sen. Rubio has categorically ruled out a 2012 presidential bid — making him virtually the only American to have done so — he’s coyly vague about his availability for the veepstakes. Was there something about his parents’ employment that inspired Sen. Rubio’s anti-gaming fervor, even if it did put clothes on his back once upon a time? I wonder how far under the rug Mama and Papa Rubio’s casino jobs will get swept if their son runs for national office?
Follow the Bouncing “Boys”: Remember those two guys who bought the Golden Nugget, made fools of themselves in a Fox “reality” show, were often in regulatory hot water but managed to unload the Nugget to Tilman Fertitta at a big markup (in a scheme they cooked up with the Fertitta Brothers)? Yeah, those skirt-chasers Tim Poster and Tom Breitling? The self-described “Golden Boys” later enjoyed a vague sinecure with Wynn Resorts as Geniuses Without Portfolio.
Seriously, Wynncore never ‘fessed up as to what they were doing there although a source of mine speculated that Steve Wynn had ‘adopted’ them, as he sometimes did with executives who intrigued him. Perhaps he entertained the thought of them as successors, particularly since Elaine Wynn disappointed El Steve by failing to produce a male heir … leading to a bizarre episode in which Wynn floated the notion of bequeathing the company to fiancée Andrea Hisson‘s teenage sons.
But I digress. The “Golden Boys” have landed at UFC subsidiary Fertitta Interactive, which is partnering with Internet casino Full Tilt Poker, thereby keeping a two-degrees-of-separation distance between Station Casinos and the online-gambling industry. Since the official line is there will be “no tie-in” to Station, presumably Tim & Tom are being brought aboard to run the startup while Frank Fertitta III minds the store over at Station. Breitling, the smarter half of the duo, send a carefully worded e-mail to the Las Vegas Review-Journal voicing strong support for federal Internet-poker regulation — which he described as the sine qua non for the Full Tilt alliance — but not actively opposing Nevada‘s attempt to legalize same. Full Tilt runs a distant second to PokerStars.com in its number of real-money players. But since Wynn Resorts has tied the knot with PokerStars, getting the second-best choice is still a coup for the Fertittas.
By the way … if not only Station but Caesars Entertainment, Wynn and MGM Resorts International are all agreed that federal oversight (and, let’s face it, taxation) is The Way To Go for Internet gambling, it begs a question of long standing. If they’re willing to trust Uncle Sam to oversee online gaming, then why not have one-size-fits-all federal regulation of casinos, instead of the current state-by-state regime? And if they’re willing to allow Internet-derived proceeds to be taxed, then why oppose a federal tax on existing casinos?
I’m not saying I favor it, by any means; simply that Big Gaming’s sudden appreciation of the virtues of Washington, D.C.-run regulation raises a tantalizing intellectual and ideological conundrum for an industry that has tried to keep The Man at as great a distance as possible … until now.
