Tatsuo Miyajima‘s Hoto has arrived at Crystals for an open-ended engagement and we have to say it does wonders for that often sterile and forbidding space. The 9/11-inspired sculpture is covered in LED number sequences that are meant to represent the life cycle. “Along with renowned masters from generations past, our vision is to present Continue reading
First, the good news. New Jersey‘s geolocation and age-verification technology is catching underage gamblers. The bad 
news is that wannabe adolescent Phil Iveys are getting onto casino Internet sites and wagering. So are self-excluded players. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement filed 117 counts of such violations, including 66 juveniles playing on the Borgata Web site. The casinos don’t have to worry about their pocketbooks: The DGE slapped their wrists with a collective $14,400 in fines ($5,000 for Borgata, $2,200 for Tropicana Atlantic City and $7,200 for Resorts Atlantic City).
“The gambling enforcement division said the violations were due to a computer programming error,” reported Continue reading
For the third time, Steve Wynn has pulled back from Atlantic City. This time he’s yanking Wynn Interactive‘s application for an online casino. The move comes an awfully long time after Wynn announced his opposition to Internet wagering, so who knows what the real rationale is? Perhaps Wynn lost patience with New Jersey‘s regulatory process, which has been set on glacier speed ever since PokerStars teed up its licensing application. Some suspect that Gov. Chris Christie (R) is putting the fix in against additional online casinos … at least until he’s won the “Sheldon Adelson primary” and filled his campaign coffers. For its part, PokerStars is swearing it will be licensed this autumn, but I could swear I heard them playing that golden oldie last autumn.
The news comes as a blow to Caesars Interactive, which would have Continue reading
“When coverage doesn’t go his way, he engages in personal attacks 
on our anchors and hosts, which has grown stale and tiresome. He doesn’t seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.” Fox News, lecturing orange-colored buffoon Donald Trump on the role of the Fourth Estate.
For want of $2 billion from Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., creditors are withholding their support for the reorganization scheme CEOC intended to present in bankruptcy court. A last-
minute solution seems unlikely, if only because junior bondholders like Appaloosa Management and Tennenbaum Capital Partners have barely been talking with Caesars for the past two months. The news comes as other creditors are withdrawing their support from CEOC on the grounds that they “may see their stakes wiped out in any bankruptcy of the parent,” according to The Associated Press. And if that happens, it could trigger forward movement of a lawsuit against Caesars Entertainment for revoking the guarantees on its debt … litigation that could topple the parent company into Chapter 11 alongside its ailing subsidiary.
One of the sticking points may be that Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management, architects of the Caesars disaster, want to Continue reading
At the moment, I’m neck-deep in Question of the Day duties but will be taking a break to check out the new, new-look Downtown Grand. That will include the opportunity for some face time with new CEO Jim Simms. So, as happens whenever S&G gets a chance to talk to a CEO, I’m throwing open the floor to your questions. So if you have queries you’d like to put to Simms about operating downtown, the Grand and its newest marketing strategy, drop me a line and I’ll ask it, God willing.
“The current financial crisis… originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.” — Pope Francis, who is arriving in the U.S. this very moment.
“Thank you, HBO, for believing in dragons.” — Game of Thrones writer/co-showrunner David Benioff, accepting the Emmy Award for “Best Drama.” (At left, GoT actress Gwendoline Christie with her Pop! Figure Brienne of Tarth, a sure sign that You Have Arrived.)
It’s a big day for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Much sooner than expected, the Interior Department took 321 acres of Massachusetts land into trust for the tribe. Most of that acreage 
(170 of it) is in Mashpee but another 151 is in Taunton, where the tribe hopes to build a casino. “While some outside the Tribe will focus only on our quest to build a destination resort casino in Taunton in accordance with the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, for us this goes far beyond economic development. This is about controlling our own destiny and preserving our ancient culture,” said tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell.
True, but casino revenues would go a long way toward enabling a number of hoped-for projects, such as preserving Continue reading
Judge David Campbell accepted the Tohono O’odham Nation‘s assertion that it could make as much money from Class II electronic-bingo machines as it could from conventional slots. And that’s bad 
news for the tribe. While it can open a Class II facility without the blessing of the state, Campbell ruled that the Arizona casino can’t compel Gaming Director Daniel Bergin to certify it for Class III. This is the first time Campell has ruled against the Tohono O’odham, causing rival Gila River Indian Community President Stephen Roe Lewis to take a victory lap: “For years, the Nation has claimed that their position is invincible in court. The judge’s ruling shows otherwise, handing the Tohono O’odham a clear loss and changing the momentum of this case.”
Even so, the news can’t have been half as bad for the Tohono O’odham as Continue reading
“These regulations, you had me at hello. They really touched a personal note to me.” — Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Tony Alamo Jr., getting all emotional over skill-based slot games.
High-speed rail to Las Vegas is “on” again, with China emerging as Sin City’s savior. The budget for the China Railway Group/XpressWest Enterprises joint venture hasn’t been disclosed but $100 million in startup capital has been committed to 
fund the 230-mile route, with September 2016 penciled in as the starting date. Now, it’s a 270-mile drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, so that raises the question of whether the train will link the two cities or drop off passengers somewhere else (like Primm).
Four years in the making, the agreement is meant to herald Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the states. Factories in China are already Continue reading
It took a while but MGM Resorts International is pushing back against Connecticut‘s attempts to build a satellite version of its tribal casinos, to interdict gamblers who might otherwise play at MGM Grand Springfield. Although he didn’t hint at litigation 
(yet), MGM spokesman Alan Feldman challenged the constitutionality of the legislative process that brought Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino together. “Last week’s announcement was a continuation of an unconstitutional process that does not allow anyone else to make proposals that could result in greater benefits for the state of Connecticut, its residents and consumers. This is the result of a flawed, closed-door deal that shuts out voters in the approval process, eliminates all competition and doesn’t provide any protections for workers,” Feldman said.
MGM’s sudden access of concern for Connecticut consumers and workers rings more than a bit hollow, considering that Continue reading
Glenn Straub has a new problem at Revel: water. Oh, he doesn’t lack for it. There’s standing water in Revel’s 47 stories of pipes. But 
what if cold temperatures come and Straub hasn’t gained control of ACR Energy Partners‘ heating plant? Not only could burst pipes damage Revel itself, where the windows are breaking and the patio is rusting, they could present a fire hazard. And draining the pipes isn’t an option because, in case of fire, it would take too long to fill them again. “You’re required to get water to that sprinkler head within 60 seconds, and there’s no way to go that many floors, 400-and-some feet in the air, within 60 seconds. It’s totally impossible,” the city’s construction czar, Wallace Shields, explained to The Press of Atlantic City.
ACR has cut off hot water to Revel, as the two sides battle Continue reading
“I strongly concur that it is most unfortunate that only after the fact 
did the board and I learn that the outside counsel handling the transaction for the university was not admitted to practice in New Jersey.” — former Stockton University President Herman Saatkamp Jr., issuing a mea culpa for a lack of due diligence by Stockton but standing by his decision to buy the former Showboat hotel-casino.
Asia “can comfortably absorb” the 30 new casinos that are slated to open between now and 2020, says a CLSA Ltd. report. The region is 
trending toward the bigger-is-better approach, as many of the new casinos are megaresorts that could easily stomp smaller operators. The growth potential could be greater still, but Cambodia, Vietnam and South Korea do not like for their own citizens to be gambling, and the Japan market seems as far from opening as ever, maybe farther, with enabling legislation unlikely to pass before 2017 at the earliest.
Unlike the U.S., “Asian countries also tend to limit gaming licences to just a few operators who are willing to build massive integrated resorts,” read the report. The $50 billion currently invested in Asian gaming growth will ramp up to Continue reading
If the glutting of our TV screens with obnoxious FanDuel and DraftKings ads has not been enough to trigger a backlash, it has 
been sufficient to inspire Wynn Las Vegas‘ resourceful sports books director, Johnny Avello, to devise his version of casino-based fantasy wagering. He’s created a prop bet in which punters are given a choice of two fantasy-team rosters and allowed to bet on one over the other. It’s one way to probe what American Gaming Association President Geoff Freeman calls “the current lack of legal clarity.”
Meanwhile, NFL owners — including Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft — aren’t hesitating to get deeply into bed with Continue reading
Two years ago, Ohio was grappling with what J.P. Morgan analysts called “a sluggish ramp” for its casino industry. He may 
have been against casinos before he was for them but Gov. John Kasich‘s supersized version of predecessor Ted Strickland‘s envisioned industry is finally pulling its weight. According to figures from the American Gaming Association by way of Oxford Economics, casinos and racinos in Ohio are creating 8,000 indirect jobs and 9,525 direct ones, for an economic impact of $3 billion, including $1.5 billion in gambling revenues. Since the AGA study predated the opening of two Penn National Gaming racinos, that impact is now greater still.
The gaming industry was also responsible for $917 million in tax revenue, a point that AGA President Geoff Freeman would like to Continue reading
Bart Blatstein has emerged as the potential savior for the Showboat, currently a millstone around Stockton University‘s 
neck. If so, it will be a bittersweet coup for the developer, as it’s the second time he’s missed out on a gaming license, first being passed over for Philadelphia‘s final casino concession and now inheriting a casino whose gambling entitlement was revoked by Caesars Entertainment. A Philadelphia Inquirer source says Stockton will make back its $18 million purchase price and then some, though perhaps not enough to recover $8 million in upkeep costs.
Stockton found itself stuck with a white elephant when Caesars finked out on a promise to Continue reading
Builders of $135 million Lucky Dragon Casino, across Sahara Avenue from the former Circus Circus RV park, are fast-tracking the project for a mid-2016 opening. Financed with EB-5 visa contributions, 
Lucky Dragon hopes to be a one-stop shop for Chinese players visiting Las Vegas. “The local and foreign clientele will go there as a destination and will not be interested in walking up and down the Strip,” says planner Greg Borgel. They’d better not be, as there’s nothing much in the area besides Bonanza Gifts, the Golden Steer restaurant and SLS Las Vegas. The latter, however, has already pinned its hopes for survival on Continue reading
