Eldorado Resorts continues to slim down as it prepares for a takeover of Caesars Entertainment. Assuming the deal as a fait accompli, it is ditching Isle of Capri Kansas City in favor of Harrah’s North Kansas City. It is also 
shedding Lady Luck Vicksburg. The new owner of both will be Twin River Worldwide Holdings, broadening from its New England roots into wider regional operation and injecting an intriguing new name into the sale-and-acquisition fracas. The $230 million deal gives Twin River a second Mississippi casino (it also owns Hard Rock Biloxi) and an expanded presence in ‘flyover’ country between its Rhode Island and Delaware casinos and its three in Colorado. For Eldorado, the sale somewhat reduces the onus to cut costs by a half-billion dollars to make the Caesars deal fly.
The most strategic piece of the puzzle, for Twin River, is Kansas City, “where the property lies within an area near downtown that has been targeted by local officials for development, we feel there is opportunity for capital investment in the property which we believe will have a transformative impact and integrate well with local development efforts in the area.” Caesars shareholders seem to 
be happy with the way things are progressing: Eight of 11 board members (including most of Carl Ichan‘s faction) recently stood for re-election and all were returned to office, including CEO Anthony Rodio. The latter is expected to go anywhere before next year, at which point the executive suite may become too small for both him and Eldorado CEO Tom Reeg, who’s already making plans for a post-takeover Caesars. As for the much-speculated-upon asset(s) sale on the Las Vegas Strip, it’s a seller’s market. There’s no develop-able land to be had and it will cost significantly less to buy than to build, so Reeg can let the market dictate terms.
* Is it too late to enter artificial intelligence Pluribus in the World Series of Poker? Would the best and brightest human players want to go up against it? It’s already knocked off Chris Ferguson.
* In the tortoise-powered race for Japanese casinos, Nagasaki looks to be in position by this autumn … for authorizing requests for proposals. One can never get carried away with excitement at the pace by which things in the Land of the Rising Sun transpire.
* Normally when a business threatens to shut down over government regulation it’s just a bluff. But William Hill doesn’t make idle threats. With the British government having capped bets at £2, William Hill is retaliating by shuttering approximately 700 betting shops, with another 200 slated for oblivion in 2020. Surely this is not what Parliament envisioned when it intervened so heavy-handedly in the gaming industry.
* Add Puerto Rico to the list of U.S. states and territories that have legalized sports betting. True, the bill lacks the signature of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares but that’s almost a formality at this point.
* It will take nine months for the Quapaw Indian Nation to build its $100 million, permanent casino in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. However, the tribe isn’t letting any grass grow under it. A temporary casino will open in September. Let the dice roll!
