Next stop: Virginia; Lady Gaga erupts

Lawmakers in Virginia have voted a “mashup casino bill” out of committee, sending it along to the Senate Finance Committee for further scrutiny. The legislation would authorize five casinos in Bristol, Danville, Portsmouth, Richmond and Norfolk respectively and juices the Pamunkey Indian Tribe into one of the casinos. The latter has declared its willingness to waive sovereignty and operate a private-sector casino along the same rules as everyone else. Why? Because the Pamunkey tribe is pursuing federal recognition and runs up against the same Carcieri v. Salazar hurdle that has stalled the Mashpee Wampanoag in Massachusetts. The Pamunkey had been looking at Richmond as a casino market but have lately shifted their courtship to Norfolk. How could they own a casino if not federally recognized? A concerned reader in Virginia reports that they’ll transfer the title to Jon Yarborough of VGT Slots.

Should the legislation makes its way to Gov. Ralph Northam‘s desk it might not get inked, seeing as Northam thinks things are moving too swiftly. (A sports-betting bill got left behind in committee while the casino bill flew out.) Others in the Lege agree.  State Sen. Scott Surovell (D) balks at the proposed 10% tax rate, which would be the second-lowest on the East Coast. His Republican colleague, Sen. David Suetterlein (pictured) thinks the gaming-study provision is too little, too soon: “It looks like it’s just a first step in a few-year process to making it happen. This is a gambling bill that has a small provision for a study in it,” he told a Richmond newspaper. Another concern that has been voiced is that all the casinos would be along Virginia’s southern tier, targeting North Carolina and Tennessee, rather than trying to claw back all that northern-Virginia money that is flowing into the coffers of MGM National Harbor. In its present form, the casino bill looks neither especially lucrative nor well-considered. As Surovell puts it, “And this bill’s probably going to be amended by three or four committees and the governor by the time we get it.” We hope so.

* Speaking of MGM Resorts International, it undoubtedly was banking on the headline value of Lady Gaga when it signed her for a two-year residency at Park MGM and they’re getting that for which they bargained. Her Ladyship was tickling the ivories during a performance of Enigma when she stopped to lay a verbal smackdown on Donald Trump and Mike Pence (whose wife teaches at private school which bans LGBT faculty and students).

* In a win for the home team, Melco Resorts & Entertainment was granted 40 new-to-market tables (in addition to the 40 it was already moving) at Morpheus. The new tables will be dedicated to mass-market play. By contrast, MGM Cotai was only skedded for 25 new tables, valid for redemption on New Year’s Day. You might say that Morpheus isn’t sleeping on the job.

* Can imagine a casino limping along for three years whilst operating at a loss? It happened at Vietnam‘s Royal Casino (a “royal” casino in a Communist country?), which posted a revenue geyser of 48% last year. What accounts for the dramatic improvement? The completion of a highway to Haiphong, which evidently brought many more gamblers with it. (Some layoffs occurred, too.) Congratulations to Royal International Corp. for hanging in there and waiting for its investment to yield dividends. Incidentally, Vietnam’s first locals casino, Corona on Phu Quoc Island, opened last weekend and we’ll be reading the tea leaves intently. So will Las Vegas Sands, which mulled a Vietnamese casino but drew back at the thought of having to make a 100% ROI in three years or less. Few jump in where Sheldon Adelson fears to tread.