New Jersey is hoping the third time is the charm in its attempt to get sports betting OK’d by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. With four major sporting leagues and the NCAA aligned against it, New 
Jersey’s is a Hail Mary pass, especially with its opponents citing that old bogeyman, game fixing. Frankly, I wonder if the leagues don’t wink at point-shaving already, especially after seeing an NFL playoff game in which the Carolina Panthers frittered away a massive lead until it was within the point spread. Besides, the professional leagues are already in deep connivance with daily fantasy sports to offer Internet wagering. Their attitude stinks to high heaven of hypocrisy.
The Garden State’s own argument is not without its problems, especially as the law currently on the books would permit unregulated sports wagering, just the sort of thing to strike fear into those who equate sports betting with putting the fix in. New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association attorney Ronald Riccio tried to salve the court’s worries by pointing out that the oil industry, legal profession and real estate business are self-policing industries. (I’m not sure how reassuring those examples are.) The Third Circuit will now mull the issue for several months before issuing its opinion. And if that goes against New Jersey, there’s still the Supreme Court, so the fun could be just starting.
* Early results are in for MGM Resorts International‘s 4Q15 and business is solid on the Las Vegas Strip, up 2%. Only MGM Grand (down 3%) and The Mirage (off 9.5%) were laggards. The firmness of Las Vegas business helped soften the blow dealt by Macao, where business fell 31%. MGM Macau slid to $499 million from $719 million in 4Q14. To put that in context, Bellagio‘s net revenue last quarter was $312 million.
Update: MGM took a $1.5 billion writedown related to its partial buyout of Pansy Ho from MGM Grand Paradise. It also announced the postponement of the opening of megaresort MGM Cotai until 1Q17, to get some breathing room from the debuts of The Parisian and Wynn Palace.
* To what Strip headliner’s tunes does your favorite presidential candidate groove? Local entertainment columnist Doug Elfman has the answer. Bernie Sanders loses points for favoring Celine Dion‘s sappy power ballads (but picks up the ABBA constituency) and Donald Trump gets props for rocking out to the strains of Elton John. Elfman’s employer, the Las Vegas Review-Journal did owner Sheldon Adelson‘s bidding, incidentally, issuing a Marco Rubio endorsement. Two, in fact.
* If Germany can have online poker, why can’t we?
