Sheldon Adelson may have charmed out a back-door exemption to Spain‘s antismoking policy. The national government is drafting legislation that would give provinces wiggle room where the ban is concerned. Which means that Madrid could go ahead and give Adelson the latitude upon which his $22 billion EuroVegas is predicated. Closer to home, Adelson’s legal team is trying to stave off the reinstatement of a defamation claim against the mogul.
It’s a well-established Las Vegas Sands tradition to hit people below the belt but Judge Michael Cherry didn’t sound to sympathetic to the arguments of ex-Sands China CEO Steven Jacobs. This is the latest twist in a zany case in which Sands tried to hide certain materials from the court by claiming they were on hard drives in Macao, all the while knowing they were in Las Vegas. Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez wasn’t having any of Sands’ “the dog ate my homework defense” and the company came out looking damned silly.
The Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin is bringing in a heavy hitter to 
put its Dairyland casino proposal over the top. Hard Rock International has been tapped as the operator. (So all that talk about Potowatomi Bingo running it was Kabuki theater after all.) Hard Rock could be in for a 25% slice of the pie. We’d be more excited about this if three Dairy State tribes and Gov. Scott Walker (R) weren’t dead-set against Menominee casino expansion. That being said, the tribe is very fortunate in its choice of partner … and Hard Rock is no doubt chafing at the bit for a new project after its Massachusetts casino bid got shot town.
“Trailer Station” fans, head on over to the old Castaways site on Dec. 10. Station Casinos will be holding a statutory, 16-slot, eight-hour casino, certain to attract a few curiosity seekers, if little business. If you miss it, don’t say we didn’t warn you. Although both a sale and a redevelopment of the land seem extremely remote, it certainly behooves Station to keep the underlying gambling entitlement alive.
Gold Spike fans — if any of you exist — abandon all hope. The ex-grind joint, which became a respectable casino under Siegel Group — is to be turned into apartments, with an Internet cafe where gambling used to be. As the Las Vegas Review-Journal put it, the Spike was once known as a “cheap place for food, booze and gambling.” Well, you can scratch the gambling and even the alcohol service has been somewhat curtailed. Throw in the partial demolition of the Western, and some of the lesser vestiges of the Jackie Gaughan era are being effaced from Downtown. They weren’t that great in their day but I’m strangely sorry to see them go.
