Santa Claus has come early, in the guise of hardworking Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli. He’s been so busy 
profiling gaming’s top companies we wonder when he finds time for sleep. His recent visits have included one to Penn National Gaming, a bunch of unhappy campers since Pennsylvania legalized satellite casinos. Of course Penn National could go out and compete for its own clutch of satellites but management is currently undecided, preferring to sulk like Achilles in his tent. At least the company’s eponymous racino appears safe, Lancaster County having opted out of the satellite-casino running.
Despite “headwinds” at Charles Town Races, Penn is optimistic the one-year anniversary of MGM National Harbor will make its West Virginia numbers look better. “Further, management believes” — as well it should — “there is room left in the growth trajectory of several of the [Ohio] assets, as well as at Plainridge Park.” There was no additional color forthcoming on the Tropicana Las Vegas, where Penn seems to believe it has done the maximum necessary to revitalize the grand dame of the Strip.
* Finally, Santarelli had various odds and ends of news from the Far East, where — among other things — expansion of Wynn Palace in Macao is “well off.” More aggressive is Las Vegas Sands, 
which is contemplating capex reinvestment in Marina Bay Sands, as well as pursuit of a satellite casino license in Pennsylvania, to complement Sands Bethlehem. (In other words, Sheldon Adelson was against casino expansion before he was for it.) All foreign-based casino operators in Macao also have something to worry about, in terms of a mulled excise tax of 10% to 15%. We’d bet against anyone being nationalized, China being seemingly more inclined to pile tax upon tax in the enclave.
* VICI Properties — better known as Caesars Entertainment — has taken out a big-ass mortgage on Caesars Palace, to the tune of $1.6 billion. We know CEO Mark Frissora has big plans but it’s 
this kind of borrow-and-spend strategy that got predecessor Gary Loveman into such deep trouble. At least Frissora got a low interest rate on his mortgage-backed-securities gambit. And the anagram for Caesars’ REIT is a clever play on Julius Caesars‘ vent, vidi, vici (“I came, I saw, I conquered”), even if it is too soon to say whether Frissora will make any conquests. Caesars will pay VICI annual rent of $165 million, devouring most of its annual cash flow.
* Gary, Indiana could follow in Illinois‘ footsteps and ban smoking in casinos … and Majestic Star is very much against it. Obviously, the two Majestic Star riverboats wouldn’t be losing business to Illinois casinos (which were decisively poleaxed by a smoking ban) but to casinos in other Hoosier cities, especially Horseshoe Hammond and Ameristar East Chicago. Majestic Star CEO Peter Liguori predicts the loss of 400 jobs and 35% of casino revenues, not to mention (and this is the part that will sting) tax payments to the city. If anything gets Gary’s attention, that will.
* Japan casinos could find themselves between the devil of the Yakuza and the deep blue sea of problem gambling. So concludes a study conducted by the International Gaming Institute of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Read one document, “the yakuza have been active in gambling activities in 
Japan, which mandates an aggressive approach,” one that should be addressed with penetrating due diligence to screen gang-affiliated businessmen out of the casino process.
“For Japan to attract the desired and desirable kind of globally-competitive capital investment in its integrated resorts, which will in turn allow for the kinds of globally-competitive integrated resort destinations to be constructed, there can be no association with organized crime at all — the banks, the investment community, and the most respected casino operators simply will not, indeed cannot, participate,” read the report. However, judging by the puppyish eagerness with which the world’s leading gaming companies have been courting Shinzo Abe‘s government, “respected casino operators” are a lot less worried about the Yakuza than is UNLV.
* Italian food is dead, long live Italian food. So it is at The Mirage, where Osteria Costa will open early next year, prompting the closure of Portofino, even though Osteria Costa 
is nominally filling the space created by the shutdown of Samba Brazilian Steakhouse. Reports VegasEater, “The restaurant, which will be open for dinner daily, plans to feature the bright colors and rustic touches often found in the Amalfi Coast villages. Seaside blues and greens along with plants and furniture with light woods decorate the space.” Mangiare, fanciulle, mangiere!
