Gambling revenues on the Las Vegas Strip rose 4.5% last month, even as locals casinos vaulted 13.5% and the state as a whole was up 6%. Strip casinos grossed $592 million, despite a 27% tumble in baccarat winnings 
on 29.5% less wagering. (Really bad when you consider that the comparison was a 19% slide in December 2018.) Baccarat has been pretty much a non-event for the Strip lately, down 25.5% for the fourth quarter. Non-baccarat table win surged 13.5% and slot win was up 10% on 6.5% higher coin-in. Man, those slots must have been tight (92%). A day’s worth of November slot win was rolled into the December numbers, which didn’t hurt either. Locals slot win consequently shot up 17%, coming off a strong prior-year comparison, even though coin-in was microscopically down.
Except for Reno ($52.5 million, -3%) and Carson City ($9 million, -2%), all jurisdictions were revenue-positive for the month. Downtown grossed $63 million, a 7% gain, while North Las Vegas rocketed 23% upward to $29 million. Nearly as impressive was the Boulder Strip, leaping 20.5% to $82 million. Laughlin grossed $33 million, up 1%, while miscellaneous Clark County gained 7% to $107.5 million. Snowbirds left money behind in Lake Tahoe, up 8% to $18 million.
* That dubious Rhode Island lottery contract into which Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) juiced International Game Technology is being questioned by an outside consultant. The bottom line is that the no-bid, two-decade 
contract is at least 10 years too long and too expensive to the state. Christiansen Capital Advisors said in its report that “A ten-year initial contract term, with optional extensions, has been a standard recommendation” for states considering lotteries. It added, “Based upon our analysis of pricing for traditional lottery services in other states … the pricing of this contract extension is toward the higher end of what we would expect from a competitive bid, but less than 1% higher.” The IGT contract is a sticking point between Raimondo and GOP legislators, who want it put out for bidding (as does Twin River Worldwide Holdings, which covets the lottery). With gambling representing Rhode Island’s third-largest source of revenue there’s going to be quite a scrumdown for the money, if there isn’t one already.
* Could Las Vegas become a teenybopper destination? It could be, as the next hotel developer that wants in is … Atari?!? You read that right. The video-game manufacturer wants to develop Atari-branded hotels that reflect the themes of its games. “The hotels will feature spaces for virtual reality and augmented reality, studios for streaming games and venues for throwing esports events,” says the company. Las Vegas is one of eight cities pegged for hotel development, although Atari might find it considerably more affordable to throw in its lot with a preexisting, freestanding hotel operator than build from scratch (real estate in the resort corridor not exactly being plentiful). What with this and an Asteroids slot machine hitting casinos, the line between video gaming and gambling is getting increasingly blurry.
* Those controversial tribal-gaming compacts may hinge on a lengthy sentence on page 27 of the original compact. While it states that “this compact shall have a term which will expire on January 1, 2020” 
(score one for Gov. Kevin Stitt), it also says—in the same sentence—that “the compact shall automatically renew for successive additional fifteen-year terms.” Score one for the tribes. It is this hair that a federal court will be asked to split, as Stitt seeks to close Oklahoma’s scores of tribal casinos, to coerce them into paying higher taxes. The language is applicable to tribes that “are authorized to conduct electronic gaming in any form other than pari-mutuel wagering on live horse racing …” But casino gambling at Oklahoma’s racinos has already been renewed for 2020, so that’s where the high-priced attorneys make their money.
And … “either the tribe or the state, acting through its Governor, may request to renegotiate the terms of subsections A and E of Part 11 of this Compact.” The Oklahoman researched this verbal bramble bush and found that the original intent of the framers of the compact had nothing to do with Class III gambling and everything to do with finding a means to prop up the Sooner State’s failing horse-race industry. Horsemen were 
making an exodus to states where they could find more-favorable economic conditions and conversion to racinos was thought to be a way of keeping them at home. Explains former Secretary of Finance Scott Meacham, “We felt the only way to get something passed was to simultaneously work out this agreement with the horsemen to have gaming at the tracks at a level that would produce the purses they needed … and at the same time get these compacts with the tribes so we could start getting money from what they were doing and have some regulation over what they were doing.”
The automatic-renewal language was put in to appease tribes that were concerned that racinos would keep on going, while their Class III gambling came to a screeching halt. Says attorney and original compact negotiator William Norman Jr., “The easiest way to make sure that was protected was to require automatic renewal.” Both Meacham and Norman agree with the tribes’ entrenched position that the compacts roll over, rather than being up for negotiation. Sputters Stitt, “If these contracts automatically renew, like a lot of people constantly say, then why is this in here? Oklahomans need to ask that question … The state has not authorized electronic gaming since the effective date of this contract. All this mumbo jumbo talks about if the state authorizes new gaming. Basically what it’s trying to protect is if we go out and authorize gaming commercially, it would allow the tribes to operate these casinos without an exclusivity fee.” Yes, Stitt is playing the bring-in-commercial-casinos card again. We don’t see this head-banging impasse being resolved anytime soon.
