Could it be? Dare we hope? Gamey gaming mogul Kazuo Okada is in danger of losing his Nevada license. (Steve Wynn is quietly celebrating somewhere.) Already he’s been suspended by his own 
company, Universal Entertainment Corp., and his dreams of owning a casino in his native Japan may have just gone up in smoke. The Okada suspension automatically triggered a Nevada Gaming Control Board investigation. And if Okada loses his Nevada license, it more than likely would set off a domino effect in other jurisdictions. As the online Nevada Independent newspaper put it, the news is bad for Universal but far worse for Okada personally. It could also put a swift kibosh on litigation whereby Okada hopes to regain his forcibly sold Wynn Resorts stock and regain his seat on the Wynn board. Without a license, the issue is moot. The news also puts the Okada suspension in a new light: It may have been a prophylactic measure to insulate Universal from a scandal it knew was coming.
* A bill to ban for-profit card rooms in Oregon has been headed off at the pass, as it were. Instead, poker rooms will have to dispense with professional dealers, with the button passing strictly from player to 
player. One poker columnist groaned with dismay: “Anyone who plays poker for money will know that having the deck rotate around the table can not only slow the game down but also potentially compromise the integrity of the game.”
Oregon card rooms aren’t allowed to charge a rake and cover charges (Portland Meadows duns players $15 a day to play) would also be outlawed in the new bill. That puts the burden of profitability on food and beverage sales. PAC Save Oregon Poker puts the blame on Washington State casinos, which it says are pulling the strings at the state capital. If this bill doesn’t kill poker rooms outright it will probably put them on life support.
* Philadelphia is getting along just fine with three casinos, which is good because the Philadelphia Live project on the city’s south side won’t be going anywhere soon. A court has asked state regulators to 
revisit the ownership structure, which may violate Pennsylvania‘s ‘one and one-third’ rule. To cut to the chase, co-owner Greenwood Racing owner Watche Manoukian may have gotten rather cutesy with the financing. He owns a third of the Live project outright and another 17% is held by a trust for the Manoukian kids, to which Papa Watche has contributed $34 million, potentially putting him over 33%. (Cordish Gaming owns the rest.) This appears to run a cart and horses through Pennsylvania ownership rules, which have been enforced — shall we say? — selectively, depending on how much political ‘juice’ an owner has.
* “Kicking off their regular season Friday, October 6, 2017 versus the Dallas Stars in Dallas, the Vegas Golden Knights have an opening line of +220. For the team’s first regular season home game in Las Vegas on Friday, October 10, 2017 versus the Arizona Coyotes, the Vegas Golden Knights have an opening line of -105. Odds are subject to change.” With that proclamation from the Westgate Las Vegas sports book, Sin City officially became a major-league town. True, the Golden Knights have been an NHL reality for months now but there’s just something about the phrase ‘Vegas odds’ that makes it all seem to be a dream come true.
* In a blow for the working man, the nation’s second employee-owned casino opened in Marquette, Iowa. Formerly a Lady Luck-branded vessel, the riverboat is now Casino Queen Marquette (sister ship of Casino Queen in East St. Louis), but retains its pink elephant mascot.
