Replacing Geoff Freeman, the American Gaming Association has tapped Business Roundtable Senior Vice President for Government Relations Bill Miller. A Beltway lobbyist of two decades’ standing, 
Miller should be able to hit the ground running. Thirteen years of lobbying on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce won’t hurt either. Miller is said to run in conservative Republican circles, so it will be interesting to see how this affects AGA policy, particularly in the wake of the centrist Freeman. Perhaps Miller’s relationship with Sheldon Adelson will be less strained than was Freeman’s.
* Route 91 Harvest music festival is mulling a return to Las Vegas, “though probably far from the site of the 2017 shooting, according to a key promoter of the event.” Ironically, the announcement was made 
during a panel at — wait for it — Mandalay Bay. According to the Los Angeles Times, “plans would include finding a way to honor the 58 people killed in the [2017] attack.” (Which reminds me that we’re not one iota closer to understanding shooter Stephen Pollock‘s motive.) At the risk of being insensitive, MGM Resorts International has a perfectly good festival space sitting unused at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip, so Route 91 could possibly relocate there and put maximal distance between itself and MBay.
Las Vegas Metro has issued a 187-page report on the Mandalay Bay Massacre. According to the LAT, it “outlined a portrait [of] Paddock as a man with narcissistic qualities, a high-stakes gambler and a loner who had grown distant from his girlfriend.” We still await an FBI behavioral report.
* And then there were seven. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has received its seventh sports-betting-license application, this one from Presque Isle Downs. At present, three casinos (Hollywood Casino, Rivers Casino and SugarHouse) offering sports wagers, with Harrah’s Philadelphia, Parx Casino and Valley Forge Casino Resort waiting in the queue (and Sands Bethlehem unaccountably hors de combat). Parx is aiming for an end-of-year start, while Harrah’s has yet to announce a start date.
* “I love gaming and I’ll be back,” said Gavin Isaacs in a Schwarzenegger-like pronouncement upon leaving the vice chairmanship of Scientific Games. He remains tethered to 
Scientific by a consulting agreement, so his return may be delayed. Frankly, it is a loss to the gaming industry to have so creative an executive sidelined. The fever of consolidation leaves fewer places for an Isaacs and that’s gaming’s loss. In other Scientific news, the company is admitting no liability in litigation brought by Shuffle Tech despite having paid through the nose to make the jury verdict go away.
* Congratulations to Plaza Hotel CEO Jonathan Jossel on being named Global Gaming Business‘ 25 People to Watch. Kudos on a job well done — and keep bringing that dog of yours to work.
* San Diego Sports Arena is now Pechanga Sports Arena, following a name-rights sale to the casino-owning Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. Unfortunately, excepting the outdoor San Diego Padres, the city doesn’t have a sports franchise worth mentioning these days. Speaking of sports, if CBS-TV analyst Tony Romo hadn’t earned his spurs yet he surely did during the Pittsburgh Steelers near-death experience at the hands of the New England Patriots. Romo diagnosed every Steelers mistake before they even made it, displaying near-psychic prescience.
Missed this one Dave?
Cami Christensen, President and General Manager, Westgate
The new lobbyist does not have the standing of Farenkoff or past AGA chairs. His hard core partisan background should be a red flag for the industry which, previously, tended to take a long term approach toward advancing the gambling industry agenda.
[…] American Gaming Association, we speculated that his relationship with Sheldon Adelson would be “less strained” than that of predecessor Geoff Freeman. Indeed, that already seems to be the case. It would […]