Okada vs. Wynn, Round Two; Nevada wins, players lose

Having spent all weekend and most of yesterday laboring over an in-depth think piece for CityLife (a future-of-Vegas thing), I’ll admit to being pretty well fried. But the news never sleeps — much as one might wish otherwise, sometimes — so I’ll do my best for you.

Kazuo Okada either won or lost his first skirmish with Wynn Resorts last week, depending on which newspaper you read. Perhaps wary of displeasing a big advertiser, the Las Vegas Review-Journal spun the outcome as a Wynn-win situation, based on the fact that Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez (right) restricted Okada’s process to “reasonable” limits, pending some “serious questions” she had about certain requests (Translation: No fishing expeditions for Mr. O). But if you read the Las Vegas Sun, it’s apparent that Okada won far more than he lost in Round Two. While Steve Wynn can still designate certain documents as “confidential” and off-limits to Okada, the court will have the final say on what’s cricket and what isn’t. At first blush, Gonzalez appears inclined to grant some Okada requests, if not the whole ball of wax, but how much do want to wager that Wynn puts her to the test by declaring everything “confidential”? It’s what Sheldon Adelson would do.

Whatever Wynn’s reason for staying out of the Philippines was, I’m certain that a fear of “siphon[ing] customers away from its Macau” wasn’t it. The Filipino market isn’t a large enough subset of Macanese business to warrant that kind of trepidation. And it certainly wouldn’t inhibit El Steve from opening a casino in Singapore, were to opportunity to arise. That would pose at least as much of a threat to his Macao operations as Manila would. Remember, Wynn has given several different rationales for why he backed out of Singapore during the bidding process, so it’s risky to take his Philippines explanation du jour at face value. Wynn also couldn’t resist going for a bit of flash in the courtroom, importing former O.J. Simpson defense attorney Robert Shapiro, presumably to dazzle us local yokels. Wynn’s usual Las Vegas lawyers have been in his victorious campaign against his own dealers, so bringing in Shapiro reeks of a publicity stunt, perhaps to highlight the new Vegas branch of Shapiro’s Los Angeles-based firm.

Okada’s tiff with Wynn has brought some extra heartburn to Wynncore. Late last week, Wynn Resorts fielded a letter from the SEC. The feds want to have a look at corporate records “pertaining to the $135 million donation made to the University of Macau, donations made by the company to any other educational charitable institutions, and the company’s casino or concession gaming licenses or renewals,” as Deutsche Bank’s Carlo Santarelli wrote. The SEC will review the documents to determine whether a formal probe is warranted or not. Santarelli predicts “this will ultimately prove to be a largely inconsequential investigation, though we do wonder whether the investigation deters potential new investors.” S&G agrees that this will probably be a minor unpleasantness. If the SEC hasn’t dug up any dirt on Adelson, with all the ill-will he’s incurred overseas, it’s difficult to see Wynn’s Big Man on Campus ploy rising to the level of a full-blown intercontinental investigation.

Bad news for customers. On the heels of its own courtroom victory, the Nevada Tax Department has wasted little time in ordering casinos to pay tax on comped meals, tout de suite. What this means for you: Fewer dining comps. What it means for casino employees: Certain renegotiation of the free-meals provision in the collective-bargaining when the CBA comes up for renewal in June. Boyd Gaming fought a valiant but vain rear-guard action. This particular tax hike is a misshapen afterbirth of the Jim Gibbons administration. Soaking casinos for giving meal comps was one of Midnight Jim’s pet projects and few successes, even if he’s no longer in office to enjoy a good gloat. If Gibbons (whom Boyd, ironically, had supported in 2006) hadn’t pushed the issue, someone else would have, but the next time your casino host says he can’t comp you to the buffet, you know who to thank.

Speaking of old, right-wing cranks, Sheldon Adelson’s funding of “Newt Gingrich‘s kamikaze presidential campaign” continues to make headlines. Although I hope Eric Alterman is right — and Adelson’s high-profile effort has been mercifully free of any anti-Semitic backlash — it’s too soon to believe that American society has outgrown religious bigotry. On Feb. 2, I received a hateful e-mail from a publicity moocher named Tricia Erickson. In it, she accuses Mitt Romney of potentially heading up “a one-world theocracy.” (An ecumenical bigot, Erickson would also disqualify Muslims from seeking public office, too. She makes a point of saying that Jews are OK, which is mighty white of her.) Last year, I got an e-mail asking about massive, covert Latter-Day Saints ownership of every casino in Vegas. A theocratic casino cabal bent upon world domination? It sounds like Ms. Erickson and a few people like her have gone off their meds.