For sale: One casino riverboat, heavily used. The former Trump Princess, now Majestic Star II, is on the market for $6 million, along with its sister ship, also costing $6 million. If you want to live large like Donald Trump, here’s your chance. Considering that the two boats cost 
$90 million to build, you’re getting a heck of a bargain. Of course, you’ll have to forego the 1,620 slot machines and 63 gaming tables (the gaming license goes to Terre Haute) but you can fit at least 2,900 of your friends and relations aboard Trump Princess. Broker Storti Marine Services is also selling Caesars Entertainment‘s Glory of Rome riverboat, former home to Horseshoe Southern Indiana. When The Donald got out of Hoosier State gambling, he sold his vessel to Don Barden for $253 million. And people wonder why Barden went bankrupt. (Could Trump go to Macao to meet Xi Jinping? It’s quite possible.)
* Did Pennsylvania casino companies not read the fine print when satellite casinos were being legalized? An interpretation of the law holds that said companies must pay a $10 million sportsbook-licensing fee on top of the $10 million they’ve paid at their flagship properties. This is 
being called “unwarranted, unfair, and economically unrealistic.” State Rep. George Dunbar explains, “Each bill [originally] stood on its own and was dropped into an omnibus bill … Sports wagering didn’t exist at the federal level, so it was just dropped in, and there wasn’t a whole lot of thought as to how it would affect everything else. It was put in with the idea of authorizing sports wagering at as many places as possible.” With some companies owning multiple satellites, this could get very expensive. Since OTBs are fee-free, that may provide a path out of paying the $10 million the state seeks. But if you’re building a sports book you’re SOL.
“An additional $10 million was never considered for newly established Category 4 casinos and it doesn’t make economic sense,” argued state Sen. Kim Ward. “There is no way they can pay $10 million for a facility a fifth the size of these larger facilities … We need to make sports wagering 
accessible and affordable, but it is not at $10 million.” While nobody has suggested that they will hold the law hostage but not putting in a sports book, they’re lobbying the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to let their satellite books piggyback onto existing licenses. Said Cordish Gaming attorney Mark Stewart, “It’s the best solution for Pennsylvania, for the host community, for patrons, and licensees.” The PGCB threw Cordish a bone by letting it take online sports wagers before its Philadelphia casino is ready to open. As to the larger question of satellite fees, that remains to be seen.
* Sports betting, now legal in Colorado, is expected to generate a subsidy for the state’s water-allocation program. Trouble is, the latter is expected to cost $100 million a year. Can sports betting scare up that kind of tax revenue? Probably not.
* Project First Light is “not a question of ‘if’ or even ‘how’, but merely ‘when.’” So says Mashpee Wampanoag Chairman Cedric Cromwell. “Make no mistake that the Tribe is long past the point of no return. We have all the rights, all the plans, all the support, and all determination to 
finish what we started. Timing is in the hands of the litigation and legislation working their ways through the courts and Congress. But the Taunton development remains real and ready.” There’s a pretty big “if” in all that, in the form of Senate inaction on a House of Representatives bill that would fast-track approval of the casino. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) has done nothing and Donald Trump has already telegraphed his opposition.
The tribe also has to get its sovereignty back, because the Trump administration took it away when it also removed permission for First Light, which had already broken ground. Genting Group subsequently fled the project, which has been dormant ever since. And Cromwell faces internal opposition over his leadership. A 2013 compact with Massachusetts ought to—pardon the pun—trump Washington interference. But if the tribe isn’t recognized in D.C., that compact may not be worth the paper on which it’s written.
* Rather than deal with Gov. Brian Kemp (R), the Atlanta City Council wants to take the question of legalized gambling to the people with a referendum. Will it work? We don’t know but it’s certainly worth trying.
