Motown casinos grossed $106 million last month, off 8.5% from July 2021 (and way down from 2019, excepting stellar MGM Grand Detroit). MGM led with $51 million, MotorCity followed with $35 million and, as always, Hollywood Detroit brought up the rear with $20 million. Year/year comparisons were not available by property. Analysts seem much more excited by Internet gambling ($126.5 million) and sports betting ($23 million, minus $7.5 million in promotions). BetMGM was the pace car of i-gaming with $48 million, pursued by DraftKings ($25 million) and FanDuel ($18.5 million). Others who got a decent share were BetRivers ($9 million), Caesars Entertainment ($6 million), Barstool Sports ($4.5 million), WynnBet ($4 million), FoxBet ($2 million) and dark horse BetGLC ($1.5 million). As for everybody else, you wonder why they even bother.
You could say the same thing about sports betting, dominated by FanDuel ($8 million) and BetMGM ($5.5), with DraftKings close behind at $5 million. Barstool Sports and Caesars Sportsbook each collected $1 million, and it was chicken feed for everyone else, a hundred grand here, two hundred grand somewhere else.
Playing a weak hand, the Biden administration continues to back the Seminole Tribe‘s busted compact with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). We don’t have a clue as to the federal government’s motives but it continues to stand by a ludicrous construal of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act that would extend “tribal lands” throughout cyberspace. So we could be betting on our cellphone at a Jacksonville rest stop and somehow be ‘on the rez.’ Preposterous.
So absurd was this contention that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland didn’t actually approve the compact but supinely allowed it to go onto the books via inaction. And indeed, the Department of Justice, in its defense of the compact, is reshaping its arguments to say that “The legality of any non-Indian land activities discussed in a compact is instead a matter of state law: If the courts ultimately decide that those activities are not authorized by state law, then those activities will not be permitted, regardless of what the compact contemplates.”
“The secretary has no duty—nor even any authority—to disapprove a compact that validly authorizes gaming on Indian lands simply because the compact also contemplates that the state will enact legislation permitting persons outside Indian lands to participate in that gaming,” the DOJ harrumphed.
Gaming attorney Daniel Wallach made short work of the new-look defense, calling it “specious … factual assertions about the compact that are belied by the plain language of the compact. It’s crystal clear that the compact authorizes online sports betting, and that activity is what constitutes a violation of IGRA.” The Seminoles, for their part, are claiming sovereign immunity in order to do what they damn well please. As for DeSantis, he negotiated one of the most sweeping tribal compacts ever and all he got was this lousy $187.5 million in taxes.
Entering the New York City market with a casino megaresort will neither be easy nor swift. That was the rough consensus of a panel discussion on the issue at a conference in Saratoga Springs. Bids aren’t due until early next year, there’s a suitability review to undergo (which should be a breeze for current operators MGM Resorts International and Genting Group) and then a two-thirds approval vote by an as-yet-unformed set of community-advisory committees. Not a light lift. Assemblyman Gary Pretlow (D), the godfather of gambling in New York State, opined that three bids on Manhattan would be made, causing Meadowlands operator Jeff Gural to counter that none would be accepted, with Las Vegas Sands advisor David Paterson calling a Manhattan casino “preposterous.” That shifts the focus to Brooklyn and Queens (we think Coney Island would be just right). As Paterson said, “You could learn all there is to know about nuclear physics before you learn how to get through this process.”
Gural, though he has been long pining for a Meadowlands casino, in tandem with Hard Rock International, now says he’ll wait for the dust to settle in Gotham. After all, Hard Rock openly covets a casino in Times Square. Gural is sanguine about his waiting game, saying that the legalization of sports betting in New York and New Jersey threw a lifeline to his properties, making them profitable. He added that a downtown casino would be anathema to the entertainment and hotel industries, saying, “I make Citi Field the favorite, unless they screw it up totally.” Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams (D) having finally outrun the Timothy Pearson scandal, the focus shifts to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D) and hefty campaign contributions he received from Related Cos., which covets a casino on the West Side of Manhattan.
“The sheer amount of money Congressman Nadler has taken from this special interest — particularly as it seeks to open a casino on the West Side—is staggering. When our community needed him to be an independent voice, Nadler has instead chosen to cash in at our expense,” said Democratic rival Suraj Patel. Nadler’s other opponent, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D), has to choose her words carefully, being both a casino opponent and a Related Cos. beneficiary ($10K in contributions to Nadler’s $60K). Among other Nadler ties to Related is his presence on its West Side Community Fund’s advisory board. The congressman protested, “I have never—not once in my career—made a decision predicated on anything but the best interests of my constituents,” a non-denial denial, given that he has said a casino on the West Side would “generate huge revenue.” No argument about that.
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