California state Rep. Adam Gray‘s online-gaming bill comes under some close scrutiny from analysts Steven Eichorn and Jeff Ifrah. As expected, there is no “bad actor” clause 
that would explicitly keep Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act scofflaws like PokerStars out of the Golden State, although there is some placeholder language where such a clause could go. However, the Gray bill prescribes two forms of suitability investigation, the more stringent of which is such a regulatory colonoscopy that only firms with the cleanest of hands could hope to transcend it. For instance, “past and present financial affairs and standing, and business activities, including whether the applicant or an affiliate of the applicant has a financial interest in any business or organization that is or was engaged in any form of gaming or transactions related to gaming prohibited by the law of the federal or state jurisdiction in which those activities took place.” Whoops, there goes PokerStars.
True, the language isn’t an automatic disqualifier but it’s pretty daunting (and that’s just a small sample). Considering the amount of money they expect to make from Internet poker in California, the anti-PokerStars tribes ought to cease cutting off their nose to spite their face and get behind the Gray bill. Eichorn and Ifrah conclude, “It’s not quite the definitive red card that some tribes have in mind, but could it stick some operators into a litigious licensing process like the one that PokerStars had to endure in New Jersey for years before being licensed?”
* Daily fantasy sports looked like it was headed for legalization in New York State. But the casino industry has thrown a monkey wrench into the works. Lobbying group the New York Gaming Association has voiced opposition to lawful DFS. That is to say, the NYGA is against DFS unless it’s the portal for all the action, said NYGA President James Featherstonhaugh. He wants DFS licenses tied to brick-and-mortar casinos. “What we’re against is a special bill that opens the Internet in New York to out-of-state companies that don’t invest in the state and that also gives them special licensing privileges … It’s really important that our industry has a high regulatory barrier,” added Rush Street Gaming CEO Greg Carlin.
In other news, would-be Meadowlands racino developer Jeff Gural bruited that MGM Resorts International would be his partner in the project. Considering that MGM owns half of Atlantic City‘s Borgata, you have to wonder: Has MGM broken the news to Boyd Gaming yet?
* It’s all over for Penn National Gaming in Iowa. The state Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of the Belle of Sioux City‘s closure. (The issue is largely moot, the riverboat having long since sailed from Sioux City.) The supremes upheld the 2013 decision by the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission to strip Penn of its license and reassign it to a Hard Rock-branded property. Penn was throwing a buzzer-beater, so it’s no surprise that it was an air ball.
* Ancient casino oligarch Stanley Ho has made a surprising comeback, in Singapore, of all places. He bought a $105 million plot of land between the city-state’s Four Seasons and St. Regis hotels. The surprise is not only Ho’s apparent emergence from seclusion but the fact that Singapore authorities haven’t moved to scotch the deal, as they did when Genting Group tried to cut Ho in on a share of Resorts World Sentosa action. Could a Ho-led ploy for a gaming concession be next?
