Internet gaming: More light than heat; Fieri in your face

“We are absolutely shocked by the slowness of the market.” Those are the words of 888.com CEO Brian Mattingley, with regard to Internet gambling in New Jersey. How slow is it? So much that 888 is shifting ad dollars from poker promotion to slots. Boyd Gaming is cutting back on advertising, thanks to operating losses in the cybersphere. As Mattingley says, “We’ve got to think again, the way we market.” Some of the potential cures (allowing unlicensed operators into the market) could be worse than the disease.

Internet gambling has found a champion in Massachusetts, gubernatorial candidate Steven Grossman, who says of the brick-and-mortar industry, “They can have their squabbles out there all they want. We’ll continue to move forward … to study this issue and how it can potentially affect us, one way or another. Any smart business of any kind, public or private, would study that. You have to change to survive and flourish.” Grossman’s plan would administer online gambling through the state lottery and bar the use of credit cards (which haven’t proven a very successful method of Internet-gambling payment anyway). Grosssman, who is also state treasurer added “We’ll simply study and be very careful with any approach to online gaming that doesn’t protect the people of this commonwealth appropriately.”

Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby feels similarly, having stated that the issue should be being debated now, not later. “The AGA’s decision to withdraw from discussions regarding online gaming reinforces the commission’s position on this topic,” read an MGC statement, in reference to the American Gaming Association‘s sudden neutrality on the issue.

Even as the AGA was scuttling away, the Fraternal Order of Police stepped into the vacant advocacy role. “We cannot ban our way out of this problem as this would simply drive online gaming further and further underground and put more and more people at risk. Not only does the black market for Internet gaming include no consumer protections, it also operates entirely offshore with unlicensed operators, drastically increasing the threat of identity theft, fraud or other criminal acts.” FOP President Chuck Canterbury wrote to the House Judiciary Committee.

In the meantime, opponents continue their witch-doctor dance, conjuring up fears of the Mob and terrorists getting rich off Internet gambling. (Les likely to happen in a regulated industry, but never mind.) Sheldon Adelson sock puppet George Pataki “added that it should be controlled since brick-and-mortar casinos keep people from making irresponsible decisions on a whim.” Somebody explain to me please how it is more difficult to make a bad decision in a terrestrial casino. Wherefore this sanctifying power they allegedly possess?

Build it and they still won’t come. That’s the message from Mississippi‘s Gulf Coast, where a plethora of renovations has only kept business flat, even a little down. That means that both unfortunate employees (approximately 1,030) and slot machines (a few hundred) have been pink-slipped. An additional 547 hotel rooms are under construction, threatening to further depress ADRs. At least the Gulf Coast can claim stability. To the north, Tunica and its brethren are looking at a drop to 1994 levels of revenue.

Heart attack on a plate. Vital Vegas has checked out Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen & Bar so the rest of us don’t have to. (Warning: You may need an angioplasty just from looking at the food photos.) “The atmosphere is electric, the service is extraordinary, the cocktails are delicious (and strong) and the food is a pleasing mix of both satisfying succulence and, well, spectacle,” writes VV. The restaurant’s own promo copy is blunter: “In your face food & booze.” Now there’s a mental image for you. Splat!

Noting that the celebrity chefs are scarcely better than front men, VV peels away the curtain: “Celebrity names may be on these places, but since celebrity chefs don’t actually cook in their restaurants, they lean heavily on the expertise of their hotel partners to come up with design, food and drink concepts, and to make those ideas into a reality.” In other words, the people really responsible for the success or failure of Fieri’s [sic] new eatery are the same ones behind Giada, Kerry’s Gourmet Burgers, Nobu and three Gordon Ramsay-branded restaurants. The moral is that, when enjoying one of these places, give your compliments to the on-property, non-celebrity chef, toiling in anonymity.