Caesars Entertainment‘s cutoff of payments to several dozen pensioners drew the attention of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, taking up the bulk of Wednesday’s 
hearing. NGCB Terry Johnson member told Caesars attorneys, “The pensioners are an important matter that should not get lost in this discussion.” The group had been told, via a sort of ‘Dear John’ letter that their Supplemental Employment Retirement Plans “are considered a general unsecured pre-petition obligation of the debtor and cannot be paid without specific authorization from the bankruptcy court.”
“The issue will be addressed in a manner that is legal, fair and equitable by the company … This is being looked at seriously,” promised Caesars attorney Steven Pesner. Adding a welcome human consideration to the discussion so far, Pesner added, “If I were in charge of the world, people would come before banks.”
The Control Board was in a feisty mood. It gave Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. CEO John Payne grief for presiding over the subsidiary (popularly known as ‘Bad Caesars’) from New Orleans. When reference was made to Chairman Gary Loveman‘s insistence upon running the Caesars empire from Massachusetts was alluded to, NGCB Chairman A.G. Burnett said, “That hasn’t worked out too well,” although S&G thinks he could have cratered the company from anywhere.
* “By selecting Tyre, the [Gaming Facility] Location Board is effectively allowing Peter to be robbed to pay Paul,” zings a lawsuit filed against the board and the Lago casino 
project, filed by Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack, a nearby racino. It wants the Lago location award nixed and ditto any gaming license Wilmorite Inc. gains for the site. Finger Lakes has some good lawyers: They’ve found holes in the Location Board’s process, arguing that it made a “strikingly inconsistent and contradictory decision … “Allowing extreme cannibalization in this decidedly rural market, while refusing even to consider six applications due to cannibalization in a far larger and less-saturated market [Orange County], is manifestly arbitrary and capricious.”
The Location Board isn’t commenting on the lawsuit but Chairman Kevin Law sounded decidedly nettled at a recent meeting. “This was a competition. There are always going to be 
winners and losers,” he said. “This is not modern-day Little League where everybody goes home with a trophy.”
Regardless, it is beyond argument that Lago will have a deleterious effect on nearby racinos and tribal casinos. University of Texas-Pan American‘s Prof. Clyde Barrow has already conducted a study that depicts Lago getting two-thirds of its business from competitors in the region. Even Lago’s own study, done by TMG Consulting, shows the casino getting 51% of its business ($133 million) from rival casinos and racinos in the area. Even if Lago owner Thomas Wilmot prevails in court, the path is not going to be smooth.
* Well here’s a new one (to me, anyway): a gambler suing several casinos for comps he felt he deserved but didn’t get. The player in question is one Darryl Abramowitz and he says the Tropicana Atlantic City, Borgata and Revel short-sheeted him on 30 grand in comps
he deserved. (Good luck collecting on those Revel comps, bub.) He took Borgata to the cleaners for $105,000, then demanded a freebie worth $5K. Allegedly promised “for 
shopping and more,” Abramowitz won big, then asked “Where do I pick up my $5,000?” He dropped $900 at a Hugo Boss store but Borgata allegedly didn’t pick up the tab and “was advised that the Borgata understood why he left while he was ahead, but ‘we are running a business here and we don’t need customers like you.’“
Abramowitz adds that the Trop offered “RFB with butler service, entrance into a $50,000 winner-take-all blackjack tournament and $25,000 in match play,” but when he arrived he only got $10,000 in match play. The sin of Revel — which has been released from the suit — was to charge Abramowitz $3,747 for a poolside cabana and other goodies upon which his visit had been conditional: No cabana, no Darryl. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.
