Station Casinos is bringing two name-brand chefs to the upgraded Palms. Between high-in-the-sky Vetri Cucina and Michael Symon‘s Mabel’s BBQ, I wouldn’t know which to choose. (My mouth is watering as I type this.) Fortunately, Las Vegans riding a burgeoning local economy don’t have to choose.
* Ever wonder why U.S. casino operators don’t go into the Philippines? The fact that it’s only a $3 billion/year market might have something to do with it. Even Sheldon Adelson, who has romanced Vietnam, hasn’t bothered with the archipelago.
* Never underestimate the drawing power of a new bridge. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau span has boosted visitation to Macao by 15% in its first full month of operation. Day-trippers are up 27%, overnight visitors 5% (City Hall, eager to length tourist stays, won’t like that metric). Korean (-6.5%) and Taiwanese (-2.5%) tourism is fading, but Hong Kong (+25.5%) is helping make up for it.
* Chalk up one for PokerStars. Parent company The Stars Group persuaded a Kentucky appellate court to throw out an $871 million judgment against PokerStars for losses incurred by Bluegrass State players prior to the federal government’s “Black 
Friday” crackdown on Internet-gambling operators. “Kentucky [law] allows anyone to sue ‘winners’ to recover their lost wagers in games of chance. The distinction made by the most recent appeals court ruling, however, is that the state of Kentucky can’t sue on behalf of any victims,” reports CardPlayer.com. If terrestrial casinos are to come to Kentucky, that law is going to have be taken off the books: One can’t have a casino being sued every time somebody busts at blackjack. Not only was the Bluegrass State trying to collect usury on the $871 million, it had no intention of reimbursing the players on whose behalf it purported to sue.
“We are disappointed by today’s Court of Appeals ruling in the PokerStars case, which will take away from the Commonwealth a billion dollar judgment, including interest. The decision doesn’t appear to even address the substantive issues in the case, but rests entirely on procedural questions,” pouted state spokesman Mike Wynn. Yeah, as Geena Davis immortally observed in Thelma & Louise, “The law is some tricky shit.”
