Scramble in Massachusetts; Malaise in Mississippi

Sept. 24 is the day appointed for voters in Leominster to say “aye” or “nay” to a slot parlor proposed by Cordish Gaming. That’s nine days before the deadline for submitting voter-approved HCAs to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Which, in turn, should make for some sweaty palms at Rush Street Gaming, which doesn’t have a negotiated agreement with Millbury, so that situation is not only going down to the wire — there has to be a two-month run-up to the actual vote — but it puts Neil Bluhm in a poor bargaining position. Millbury can ask him for the moon and probably get it.

Elsewhere in the state, Mohegan Sun’s Palmer plans have hit a road block — literally. You can’t use federal dollars to build a road straight into a private enterprise (below). So Mohegan Sun’s four options for funneling cars into its porte cochere have dwindled to two. It looks like they’ll have to forget about the flyover from the freeway, and instead make punters get off the highway and drive around a little bit. At least the funding for this is all coming out of Mohegan’s pocket, not that of John Q. Taxpayer. Out east, Foxwoods Massachusetts finds itself having to allay similar traffic worries. “Even a small office building would put more traffic on Rte. 16 than our entire project would,” said casino consultant Sean Reardon, not entirely convincingly. But Foxwoods comes armed with a road-improvement plan that it says it’ll underwrite, so voters should count that a mark in the project’s favor.

Casinos in Florida are a dormant issue at the time. Even so, opponents are making sure theFlorida Lege gets their anti-gambling message. Some, like Disneyworld, appear to be on the level with their concerns. But both Universal Orlando and the Orlando World Center Marriott are using the corruption of minors as a stalking horse for the real cause of their opposition: unions. According to the Orlando Sentinel, they are terrified at the prospect of “better wages, benefits and work conditions for employees.”

Saints preserve us! According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unionized workers make 44% more, something that people like Universal and Sheldon Adelson find unconscionable. Considering that the U.S. still operates as a trickle-down economy, heavily dependent on consumption, one would think it would be A Good Thing if the proles had more discretionary income at their disposal. For instance …

… all those people who aren’t gambling a few states over, in Mississippi. It’s been down for all but one of the last 12 months. New gambling in Arkansas is partly the problem but that doesn’t fully account for the Bayou State being 25% off its pre-recession peak. With sui generis exceptions like the Las Vegas Strip and Resorts World Casino New York, the leviathan that is Big Gaming is more like a beached whale. Public desire isn’t weak, merely sated, supply having outrun demand some ways back. There’s nothing to be done except market well and try to determine what the “new normal” is.