In the casino biz, “pot” is now something other than what you put your poker bets into. It’s a source of money that’s not welcome at Ye 
Olde Casino (and you thought gambling moguls didn’t care where you got your gambling budget). Not only are casinos now obligated to spot and 86 patrons stoned on loco weed, players wagering money made through the marijuana business are personae non grata — or at least the subjects of suspicious-transaction reports. True, in Las Vegas, weed is (in theory) now as legal as booze, the sweet nectar that lubricates the casino machinery. However, since the federal government still regards it as verboten, casinos are put in an awkward spot.
To this end, American Gaming Association President Geoff Freeman has asked Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin to clarify whether lucre derived from pot sales is OK for casinos to accept … or whether, by accepting the dough, casinos are engaged in a form of money laundering. (As if they didn’t have enough headaches on that front already.) “The dichotomy,” between state and federal policy, “imposes a costly operational burden both on the casino industry and law enforcement,” Freeman wrote. We hope Mnuchin will give him the green light, as it were, but are not optimistic.
* It’s an open question whether Glenn Straub has cut a deal to sell Revel or not, a mystery that is headed into its third week. However, we read that it is “solid” that ex-Sands Bethlehem boss Mark Juliano is involved in efforts to buy the defunct megaresort. Straub would certainly do a lot better hiring Juliano to run Revel’s casino than clinging to inexperienced crony Robert Landino, whose licensure is no sure thing.
* Caesars Entertainment CEO Mark Frissora got his first taste of adversity when, only days after the development pact had been 
inked, Australian authorities nixed a joint-venture metaresort on The Spit, a popular tourist spot along the Gold Coast. The government of Queensland cited The Spit’s environmental sensitivity in throwing out a plan that called for five (!) hotel towers and a Caesars-managed casino. Frissora’s partner in the abortive venture was Chinese firm ASF Group. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said of The Spit, “This is a unique site — the equivalent to what Central Park is to New York.” The spiking of the project is a particularly bitter blow for ASF, which had been planning it for four years.
* Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) had some good news to report, 
tribal gaming revenues having risen 5% in 2Q17, of which a $26 million slice goes to the state, where it will be divided between education and emergency services. The news promises only to get better for Ducey, as his recent conclusion of a compact with the Tohono O’odham Nation‘s Desert Diamond Casino will bring even more revenue to the state.
* Parimutuel licenses in Florida aren’t fungible and portable — at least not without lengthy preliminary vetting by the Department of Business & Professional Regulation, which has an entire division devoted to parimutuels. This edict comes as bad news for The Casino @ Dania Beach, in Broward County, which had hoped to sell its license to Argentine investors, who would set up shop elsewhere in the county. It also comes as a relief to Hard Rock International, which envisioned parimutuels hopscotching all around Seminole Tribe territory (not to mention the incursion of major casino operators), had the Dania decision gone differently. While Dania ownership make take its case court, the Seminoles have dodged a bullet for the near term.
