Stupid political antics; Baseball boondoggle; Mega-Jottings

American Gaming Association President Bill Miller likes to say—and quite rightly—that communities should welcome casinos because Big Gaming is willing to pay big taxes. Until now, that is. Las Vegas Sands has barely planted its flag in Nassau, New York, and is asking for (get this) tax breaks. For crying out loud, Rob Goldstein! Way to hobble your campaign to be downstate’s third resort-casino. According to an unnamed Sands source, the megabuck company ($45 billion in market capitalization) wants “a reduction in the mortgage recording tax” in return for higher education levies, among other things. Oh, and a lower sales tax on construction-related items. Such freeloading ill-behooves a company as esteemed as LVS and has us rethinking our endorsement of its Five Boroughs pitch.

Explains Casino.org, “The sales tax abatement the Las Vegas-based company is seeking pertains to construction equipment, raw materials, and furnishings for the casino resort.” It’s a tried-and-true ploy of stadiums and hotels, as Las Vegans are soon to learn the hard way, but it’s new coming from Sands. The latter is only too willing to build in high-tax jurisdictions like Pennsylvania, Macao and Singapore but closer to home it’s suddenly poverty-stricken. It’s also got Nassau County by the balls, as the Nassau Coliseum could badly use an anchor tenant … enter Sands. To provide further enticement, Goldstein is talking up as much as a $6 billion megaresort, even more lavish than the company’s former Las Vegas Strip pleasure palaces.

Needless to say, Sands’ Nassau County opponents pounced on the news like a starving pack of wolves. They stuck verbal voodoo pins in Dr. Miriam Adelson (above) and her $34 billion personal fortune. She does make an unlikely pauper, ’tis true. Las Vegas’ companies are proposing casinos to New York City on the strength of the revenue infusion they will represent. To suddenly try to nickel and dime the market seems like an unforced own-goal.

Just when it looked like Wynn Resorts had wrapped up home-field advantage for a Manhattan casino—and when it appeared that New York Mets owner Steve Cohen‘s own casino bid was on the ropes—Cohen got his picture snapped with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) at a Mets game. Good for Cohen, who now has blackmail material on the guv, who never saw a conflict of interest she didn’t like. Hochul holds one of six votes on eventual casino siting and, while that may not seem like enough to sway the decision, she’s a valuable ally to have if (as Cohen does) you need the Lege to rezone your property for gambling.

As one ‘Albany insider’ wailed, “Anything with casinos involves plenty of scrutiny, so why would anyone put themselves in such a position?” Hochul has walked into casino-related conflicts before like a lemming to the sea, particularly concerning her hubby’s work for Delaware North. Given the appearance of impropriety, she ought to recuse herself from casino selection. Like that’s going to happen.

A useful idiot a little further to the north is Rhode Island state Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio (D). Going to bat for Bally’s Twin River and Bally’s Tiverton, Ruggerio blew hot air in the direction of smoke-afflicted casino workers. He bloviated, “those people took those jobs knowing that there was smoking up there. Now, all of a sudden, there’s a small group that feels that it’s not good for their health. I mean, they could wear a mask. They can work in an area where they don’t permit smoking. So I think the adjustment has to be made, not legislatively, but between the workers and Bally’s.”

We haven’t got enough space to unpack all the imbecilities uttered by the 74-year-old legislative fossil, who seems to think there are enough jobs in non-smoking areas to accommodate all carcinogenic objectors. Ruggerio saved the best for last: “We will lose, without a doubt, one third of our revenue if we initiate nonsmoking.” Think about that, for a minute. Fewer than 13% of Americans smoke (and we doubt they all live in Rhode Island). So Bally’s Corp. is making 33% of it Lincoln and Tiverton revenue off 12.5% of its players? That doesn’t wash—unless smokers were gambling almost three times as much as non-smokers, in which, Ruggerio, we have a problem. And we don’t think Bally’s business model is predicated on exploiting disordered gamblers. (Stupid politicians, maybe.)

Needless to say, health advocates didn’t take Ruggerio’s stale rhetoric lying down. “For the Senate president to blame casino workers for ‘agreeing’ to this job is a slap in the face to the hundreds of workers who are the backbone of the casino industry,” said CEASE co-founder Vanessa Baker in the Boston Globe. She added, “We have a bipartisan majority of the State House in support of our legislation to end indoor smoking to protect workers, and we urge leadership to bring the bills for a vote.” As with New Jersey and every other state where smoking is on the line, it becomes a question of whether leadership [sic] has the spine to stand up to Big Tobacco. And they usually prove spinally deficient. As for those casino workers, the nerve of them! Daring to want to live a normal lifespan. Aren’t they willing to be part of yet another ‘sacrifice zone’?

Negotiating with the Oakland Athletics from a position of self-imposed weakness, the Nevada Lege seems poised to financially fellate the worst team in baseball. Don’t just take it from us: Multiple economists poured scorn on the deal-to-be in the Nevada Independent. “The fact that anyone in [Nevada] gave them a dime when the team has literally nowhere else to go is the worst bargaining in the world,” scoffed College of the Holy Cross boffin Victor Matheson, who branded the proposed handout (on top of free land) “embarrassing.” “Anyone who is telling you that there is an economic benefit to a stadium deal is [lying],” added Kennesaw State University‘s J.C. Bradbury. “I’ve studied this to death. There’s universal agreement.”

The most anyone could muster by way of a defense was UNLV‘s Stephen Miller, saying weakly, “it’s pretty close to agreement that public funding of stadiums is not a good idea. However, Las Vegas may be the exception.” And it very well might not, especially with an abysmal, poorly attended team playing to what are likely to be few incremental visitors. (Proponents’ figures are simply preposterous.) The A’s are not the drawing card they used to be and their last World Series appearance was so long ago it took place in a previous century, when dinosaurs and José Canseco roamed the earth. Their Las Vegas pitch could be summarized as pretty pictures and bullshit. We’re not against striking a deal to get a baseball team to Sin City. But striking a bad deal with a desperate and unattractive suitor? Having Major League Baseball isn’t an at-any-cost proposition.

Jottings: If you’re not accustomed to Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings yet, get with the program. He’s been signed to a contract extension through 2027. He’s kept the company out of trouble, continued its prosperity and generally been an improvement on predecessor Matt Maddox. We think he’s earned that $200K raise … DoubleDown Interactive and International Game Technology will be $415 million poorer after settling a class-action suit in Washington State. The two companies may have breached state laws with social-casino games that “constitute unlawful gambling under Washington’s gambling laws.” IGT and DoubleDown rejoined that the case rested upon “novel and untested interpretations of Washington’s gambling laws.” The heftiness of the settlement argues otherwise …

So long, Water Club. The second hotel tower at Borgata is now the MGM Tower. The $55 million revamp received a rave review from Forbes … Crown Resorts knowingly operated in violation of anti-money-laundering laws and didn’t give a damn. That’s the company’s bombshell admission. Crown execs should get on their knees and give thanks they’re merely being fined $294 million instead of being shut down permanently … When in doubt, invoke education funding. That’s the lesson from North Carolina, where funding for school athletics may be contingent upon legalization of slot routes. Sports betting is also gaining traction, although a special session may be required … Londoner Macao has been operating awhile but Sands China finally gave it a grand opening. Like the various and sundry Venetian incarnations, it’s a slavish recreation of a famous city. There’ll always be an England but a 20-dancer changing of the guard? That’s a bit fey … Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California, has finished a renovation that was unveiled by C-List celebrities. General Manager Michael Olujic promised “a sense of Vegas here in the Central Valley.”