Instead of waiting for an incremental creep of acceptance of gambling in Georgia, MGM Resorts International is taking the bull by the 
horns. While it says that it is in the “very preliminary” stages of proposing a casino for Atlanta, it also called it “a beautiful market.” MGM has at least been confident enough to share its plans with state Rep. Ron Stephens (R, left), who said, “I’ve seen what they want to do, and it’s going to blow your mind. It’s massive in its size and its elegance. ” He called the $1 billion project a “game-changer,” although the governor and most lawmakers seem inclined to play by the same rules as before.
There is, however, a Stephens-penned constitutional amendment working its way through the legislature that would permit local jurisdictions autonomy in deciding whether they want gaming or not. If it goes through, MGM could be building on the site of the doomed Georgia Dome (or a couple of other locations) in a few years. Stephens is potentially helped by the fact that the HOPE scholarship program is gasping for funds. However, he’ll still have to make a convert of Gov. Nathan Deal (R, right) and overcome the opposition of the Religious Right. Stephens’ need for a two-thirds majority in the Lege makes this a long shot but there are signs and portents that the Georgia GOP is coming around to his way of seeing things. The arguments in Stephens’ arsenal include MGM’s lack of need for public subsidies. Even Deal might have to reconcile his approval of gray-market gaming machines with his opposition to casinos. Stephens says “this would be bigger than the Volvo deal, and not one dime of public money. They don’t want a dime of incentives, they just want to come.”
* Georgia’s online lottery is the latest bogeyman in Sheldon Adelson‘s war on Internet gambling. His lobbyists are using a video showing a Virginia man hacking into the Georgia lottery. (Had 
Adelson been so concerned about hackers two years ago, Las Vegas Sands might not have been ransacked by Iranian cyber-saboteurs.) However, Adelson’s surrogates are playing fast and loose with the truth. The problem isn’t that Georgia’s lottery is online but that it uses inadequate safeguards. The Poker Players Alliance hit back, releasing its own video in which GeoComply demonstrates the five-tier system of geolocation with which New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware protect their online casinos. The battle on Capitol Hill over Internet gambling is looking more and more like a footrace between hysteria (Adelson) and rationality (everyone else).
* Negotiations continue in Schenectady, where Neil Bluhm‘s Rush 
Street Gaming made a public relations blunder by redesigning its casino project to look like nothing so much as a $300 million Target store. Rush Street, having scrapped a more modernistic design, now concedes its retrenchment may have been “too drastic.” The plan includes one of the more unusual casino amenities of recent times, a marina with 50 boat slips, so you can drop anchor and gamble.
* Congratulations to Pechanga Resort & Casino, which USA Today named “America’s favorite casino” on the basis of a 10Best.com poll, a 
big win for the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. For all their recent struggles, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino also remained popular with players, snaring the second- and third-place spots. Fourth-place winner was another surprise contender, Pinnacle Entertainment‘s L’Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles, Louisiana (the most important gaming market you probably haven’t visited).
Another dark-horse favorite was Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Biloxi, while Harrah’s Resort Southern California (#6, formerly Harrah’s Rincon) continued the march of tribal dominance. 
Atlantic City got on the board at #7, thanks to Borgata, where else, and Las Vegas finally made the list with another surprise winner Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa, a big feather in Station Casinos‘ cap. (If you put it on the Strip it would arguably be the best boutique casino in Vegas.) Considering its low ranking in Indiana casino revenues, French Lick Resort was a real shocker at #9, while tribal Thunder Valley Casino Resort, near Sacramento, rounded out the list.
The Strip having been completely skunked (ditto several major casino chains), it might behoove some gaming executives to hotfoot it to Pechanga and some of the tribal winners and see what they’re doing differently. Kudos to Pechanga on 20 successful years, which are being crowned with a $285 million expansion described as “a luxury spa, new ballroom and meeting space, a resort-style pool complex, two restaurants and several other upgrades.” In other words, there’s going to be a new megaresort on the block.
