Covid-19 has claimed another casino casualty in the form of Resorts Casino Tunica. Ironically, the Penn National Gaming closure comes after 
an abortive March which promised to exceed the 2019 in Mississippi. Overall gaming revenues were at $110 million when play was aborted on March 16, a 48% stumble from last year ($212 million). Gaming-tax collections will be 36% down in March and squat this month. Mississippi Gaming & Hospitality Association Executive Director Larry Gregory remained stoic, saying, “We’ve dealt with the BP oil spill, Mississippi River flooding, and the most memorable, Hurricane Katrina. We are coping, as most businesses are doing now, optimistic that one day this crisis will come to an end.
As for Penn, it’s drawn out its revolving credit, giving it $730 million cash on hand. In its current, reduced state, Penn burns through Continue reading
redirect two-thirds of the tax collections from the general fund to school construction. A gubernatorial adviser explained, “The language is going to be relatively broad given the revenue from the casinos won’t start coming in for at least a couple years, probably more.” The Lege can only vote the amended bill up or down and if the latter, it’s back to Square One for yet another session. Northam also tinkered heavily with a sports betting bill, levying $50,000 background checks on principals (i.e., owners of 5% or more in equity) and—here’s the wallop—on managers of sports books, most of whom probably can’t afford it. As Global Gaming Business reports, when piled atop 
Rudy Gobert tested positive for Coronavirus. That same day, the National Association of Broadcasters pulled the plug on its Las Vegas convention and the dominos started to topple. The next day the National Hockey League suspended its season as well. College basketball games played to empty auditoriums, then March Madness was canceled entirely. Major League Soccer first banned spectators, then games. Major League Baseball pushed back the start of its season by at least two weeks. The Masters golf tournament was postponed indefinitely, and the Boston Marathon and Kentucky Derby were pushed back to September. NASCAR canceled its season, the PGA canceled golf tourneys left and right, and even the Monte Carlo Grand Prix was scrapped.
he said, refraining from giving a firm, back-to-business date. The state’s infection rate continues to ramp upward, with 3,088 cases and 137 deaths. Sisolak’s caution 
crisis reveals a deep illness that has been festering within American society and our body politic. We have sacrificed our sense of common destiny to a hyper-individualism that rejects the concept of solidarity among human beings. Governments are supposed to assure that everyone enjoys at least a basic level of security. Ours has all but abandoned that responsibility.”—Stephen Kinzer, senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs at Brown University, 
order to collect taxes off them. He rationalizes the move by arguing that they’re keeping small businesses afloat. No coincidence, the makers and distributors of these slots 
shutdown.) Atlantic City grossed $85.5 million, with slots falling 65% and tables plunging 54%. Borgata toppled 67.5% (to $19 million), on 62% less table win and slot win plummeting 69% on 67% less coin-in. The Caesars Entertainment trio was down 61% with 56% less table win and 64% less slot lucre. Tropicana Atlantic City had, in context, a pretty good month at the tables, down only 37% (a triumph, given all the surrounding numbers) but a 62% slide at the slots. The Trop and Hard Rock Atlantic City tied for second place with $10 million each, with the Trop off 62.5% and Hard Rock -58.5%.
during the Coronavirus pandemic, with nearly 300,000 indigenous people unemployed. The $4 billion-plus includes $631 million in vanished taxes and $969 million in unpaid salaries. And the worst part? That’s from two weeks of inactivity. Just imagine the damage after four weeks, maybe six. If things are that bad for gaming-enabled tribes, just imagine how they are for reservations that don’t have casinos as economic engines. There’s also a severe trickle-down in the form of tribal-government services and infrastructure that are going unfunded during the crisis.
be Solomonic, persuaded the Small Business Administration to effect a compromise. It has replaced a mossbacked constraint on emergency assistance with a slightly less archaic one. Heretofore, companies that derived over 33% of their revenue from gambling were excluded from the Paycheck Protection Program and other funds. Now, if you have less than $1 million in total revenue and get less than half of that from gaming, you’re eligible for relief. That might help a lot of taverns and slot routes but small casinos continue to get the shaft.
with reasonable certainty that it tracks with the Land of Lincoln. After a March 17 closure order, Missouri casino revenues fell 54%. The statewide gross was $77 million. At present, casinos are scheduled to reopen April 24, so part of this month might yet be salvaged. Such revenue as there was was dominated by slots ($65 million). The one anomaly in the results is St. Jo Frontier, which was only off 6.5%, at $2 million-plus. Everybody else got 
that’s 10 times worse than Katrina. They chose to keep their stockpile of cash for the investors. That came off the backs of these workers.” Added bartender Jaron Ashley, “The money is not the problem. It’s the want-to.” Like their Vegas counterparts, Mississippi casino employees want to be kept on the payroll throughout the duration of the Covid-19 crisis. Bartender Jason McKnight, dialing in from Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, called for casino accountability, “You’re going to go to the government and say, ‘We need a bailout,’” he said. “Well, where’s our bailout?” Indeed, low-interest loans from the guvmint are intended, in large part, to keep workers 
their behavior.” As many as 158,000 casino-industry workers in Southern Nevada could be out of jobs in a 30-to-90-day shutdown. The casinos will be hurting, too. The Wall Street Journal estimates a $39 billion loss for Las Vegas casinos, should they be forced to stay closed for three months. Taylor was unmoved, saying, “We don’t understand why they’re not stepping up now, particularly when they have the benefit of having some government loans that would help them retain the workers and retain the benefits.” Ironically, the workers who have been faring best during the shutdown are the nonunion staffers at Venelazzo. Meanwhile, MGM Resorts International is trying place unemployed workers at Amazon and Wal-Mart, where there is apparently a demand for employees, although the pay will not be remotely as good.