Kasich wins, Caesars caves

Why is this man smiling? Because Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and partner Caesars Entertainment just displayed all the backbone of a wet noodle, conceding to unspecified annual fee payments, so that they can get on with their Cleveland and Cincinnati casinos. Rival developer Penn National Gaming almost signed this shameful pact but walked out at the 11th hour. Rock Ohio Caesars (more like “Squishy Ohio Harrah’s”) has put Penn in a not-very-tenable position but one applauds the latter for not bowing to Gov. John Kasich‘s extortionate tactics. (One would applaud it more if Penn’s reason for balking wasn’t a desire to relocate its potential racinos in such a way as to maximize its spread of gaming positions across the Buckeye State.)

The “significant payout” to which ROC conceded was dressed up as “not involving tax increases.” There’s a word for that and the word is “bullshit.” It looks like a tax, it walks like a tax and it quacks like a tax. Speaking of which, casino owners were thrown a sop in the form of a tighter applications of the state’s commercial activities tax, which was to have been applied to all wagers, not just casino winnings. However, by folding like a pup tent, ROC has opened the door to similar shakedowns in every other casino-enabled state (like Iowa, where Gov. Terry Branstad has been pressing the state’s casinos for considerably more money).

The next time Gary Loveman gets up at G2E and starts to bloviate in mock outrage about the discriminatory tax levies imposed on casinos, somebody needs to throw his speedy Ohio capitulation right back in his face. If Loveman had been president of the United States in 1861, the North would have surrendered right after the Battle of Bull Run was lost. There’s no spine there. No spine whatsoever.

“The saddest shopping mall.” That’d be Crystals, according to the New York Times. Even if the very top tier of Americans can afford to spend more now (unlike the remaining 98% of us), that’s not been enough to make Crystals seem less of an anachronism from the go-go spendaholic mentality of five years back. If, as Vegas Inc. recently reported, most of the shopping being done at Crystals is either out of site or off-site altogether, then why build that King Tut’s Tomb of retail, known mainly for its emptiness? Eighteen months after opening, little there appears to have changed.

However, the Gray Lady gives shout-outs to Miracle Mile and The Cosmopolitan for including retail that’s more affordable than, say, a Louis Vuitton bag. Brett Torino‘s Walgreens-anchored mini-mall across from The Cosmo looks like a better bet every passing day.