Macao was a ghost town last month, with hotel occupancy an anemic 12%. Gaming analysts, in addition to writing off 1Q20, are predicting a 50% declivity in the second quarter, with recovery not taking hold until October. Casino companies, meanwhile, are looking to the government 
for fiscal alleviation. There may be a silver lining to coronavirus, at least for some gambling houses. Reports the Wall Street Journal, “The high rollers—mostly wealthy businessmen from mainland China—may come back sooner than casual gamblers, provided their businesses recover from the hit. Many of them hold business visas, which are subject to fewer restrictions, while casual gamblers may also be more cautious in their travel plans.” That’s good news if you’re VIP-centric Wynn Resorts, not so much if you’re mass-market-oriented Las Vegas Sands. Meanwhile MGM Resorts International, despite minimal Macanese exposure, is taking a pounding on Wall Street while its Chinese subsidiary, MGM Grand Paradise is only off 6%.
Back home, coronavirus worries could dampen the debut of Caesars Forum, the Roman Empire’s big-ticket convention center. Caesars Entertainment has booked 240,000 meeting-related room nights and is counting on $100 million in business (revenue that incoming CEO Tom Reeg is prepared to throw away for unrelated reasons). Even if virus fears do not come to pass in Las Vegas—as they largely didn’t in Macao—gaming stocks are going to have to grit their way through a bear market.
* It’s game over for the Mashpee Wampanoags. A federal appeals court in Boston ruled that the Barack Obama (D) administration erred in taking land into trust for the tribe in 2015 because the tribe was ineligible under 
1934 federal law which states that Native Americans are “all persons who are descendants of such members who were, on June 1, 1934, residing within the present boundaries of any Indian reservation.” The Mashpee Wamps had no reservation at that time. $1 billion Project First Light is now at best Project Life Support, sustained only by a pending case in the nation’s capital. Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell was unbowed, saying, “There’s no question that this is a grave injustice. We will continue to fight, as our ancestors did, to preserve our land base, our culture and our spiritual connection to our homelands.”
In addition to the slim reed of the court system, Cromwell is grasping at straws in the U.S. Senate, where a bill carving out an exemption for the Mashpee Wamps, sponsored by Sens. Ed Markey (D) and Elizabeth Warren (D) has gone absolutely nowhere. Donald Trump opposes it, partly out of anti-Warren animus, calling it a “special-interest casino bill”—and he’s not wrong about that.
* It was “irate and aggressive” patrons 4, police 0 in cage matches at Encore Boston Harbor. It took a stun gun and the combined efforts of two of Massachusetts‘ finest plus an Everett cop to get Brandon 
Wangnoon into handcuffs, in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Wangnoon proved to be a handful, concussing one officer and inflicting back injuries on another. Two hours later, yet another Everett police officer was injured taking yet another unruly patron into custody. Neil Bluhm had better start memorizing Wangnoon’s face: The pugilistic player, who faces several indictments, hails from casino-desiring Brockton.
* Lake Elsinore Hotel & Casino might want to forget about that California gaming license. State investigators have turned up loans from a polygamous sect in Utah, as well as lax anti-money-laundering controls. 
The saga dates all the way back to 1991, when members of The Kingston Group put $4 million into the card room. Through his interest in lender Fidelity Funding, sect leader Joseph Kingston obtained a 50% stake in Lake Elsinore. The late Clyde Elden Kingston held all of LER Lounge Inc. According to the Bureau of Gambling Control, Lake Elsinore is being extremely vague about the extent of its involvement with The Kingston Group, which has headed for the tall grass. The latter’s Fidelity Funding and World Enterprises have been named as conduits of laundered money in an unrelated case.
The whole brouhaha is an indictment of California’s gaming-regulation system, what is described as “a bureaucratic back-and-forth that has stretched for more than 20 years,” with Lake Elsinore getting by on a series of temporary licenses. It’s literally a family matter, as card room COO Chad Benson is a cousin of Joseph Kingston, whose ownership a judge suggested should devolve upon Benson. The California Gambling Control Commission wouldn’t have any truck with that and told Lake Elsinore to get its books in order.
As for the Bureau of Gambling Control, it has recommended license denial, writing, “Respondent and Ted Kingston, as its overall manager, lack the general character, integrity, and ability to be associated with 
controlled gambling. Respondent’s activities, habits, and associations pose a threat to the public interest and create the dangers of illegal practices, methods, and activities … Respondent has displayed a pattern and practice of failing to comply with the United States Bank Secrecy Act … [and] has failed to maintain and implement an adequate and effective anti-money laundering (AML) program at the gambling establishment.” Let’s hope we’ll soon see the last of the Kingstons. One less card room in California isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Jottings: Lawrence Ho has opened his “fourth and last” satellite casino in Cyprus, near Paphos International Airport. How small is it? It only has 50 slots and 25 employees … It’s doubtful that many high rollers are actually paying to stay at the “world’s most expensive hotel room” Empathy Suite at the Palms, but Station Casinos sure is raking in a bucketful of publicity on the strength of the Damien Hirst-designed hangout.
