If there’s one thing I’ve learned at Las Vegas Advisor it’s that our readers love Trailer Stations — or at least reading about them. So, had 
been inclined to spend your Fourth of July playing slot machines, you could have done it at the Las Vegas Club or Mermaids, each of which offered eight hours of gambling, starting at the crack of dawn (6 a.m.). By dint of hosting United Coin‘s machines, co-owner Derek Stevens keeps his gaming entitlement intact for another two years (and the Las Vegas Review-Journal opines that, based on the scale of his ambitions for the site, he’ll need to hold another Trailer Station before he’s done). Those who picked their way past a fence and through construction found 16 slots in front of a curtain that shielded the rest of the Vegas Club from view. The day’s big winner took home $5.
Player interest in the two casinos was described as
“above average,” on par with that for the Moulin Rouge — ever-elusive chimera of Las Vegas casino projects.
* In a blunder that ought to make Sheldon Adelson flip his toupee, he has accidentally taken anti-Internet gaming ally Jeff Sessions out of the picture. Adelson’s Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling signed Sessions pal Charles Cooper to represent it before the Justice Department. Trouble is, Cooper had gone to bat for Sessions as counsel during Russiagate (assuming we’ve seen the last of that scandal). Exit Sessions, forced to recuse himself. Whoops! Adelson just shot himself in the foot.
“I would revisit it and I would make a decision about it based on careful study, and I haven’t gone that far to give you an opinion today,” 
Sessions said of the Federal Wire Act during his confirmation hearings. Unfortunately for him, “careful study” and a resultant opinion are now out of the question. If Donald Trump — once a presumptive Internet-gambling mogul himself — were to go after Eric Holder‘s reinterpretation of the Wire Act, it could be very bad news. “In theory the DOJ could bring criminal actions against the licensees in those states for violating the Wire Act,” former Nevada regulator Dennis Neilander said of the Silver State, Delaware and New Jersey.
Adelson — whose efforts to forestall online gambling in Pennsylvania have shifted to opposing slot routes — is guilty of not a little hypocrisy himself. He blames Papa Adelson for squandering the family’s money playing the ponies, yet he does not do anything to curb the Sport of Kings (which is tottering on some very weak underpinnings these days). As far as reaching a coalition among Pennsylvania casino owners about gaming expansion, state Rep. Scott Petri (R) wearily sighs, “It’s like trying to herd billionaires.” Not an easy lot, that bunch.
* Resorts World Manila is back in business, Philippine regulator Pagor having lifted the suspension of its license — the result of a gun-wielding gambling addict having gone on a June 2 rampage. Owner Genting Group installed a series of security enhancements and alterations, all of which met Pagcor’s white-glove test. Among the new features you’d see at Resorts World are armed guards, (more) metal detectors and assessment of the building’s structural integrity. Ongoing measures will include further assessment of the casino’s security precautions and development of new emergency protocols. The second floor of the casino, where most of the fatalities occurred, will be closed to gambling.
It remains to be seen if Genting considers its Manila situation a one-off or this is part of a wider security consciousness within the company. Las Vegas, where Genting is (very slowly) building, has seen some highly audacious casino robberies, ones which proactive security measures could have prevented. Genting should take note. Pagcor’s motives for reopening Resorts World Manila were partly benevolent — to put Genting employees back to work — and partly mercenary, since the government was losing $276,000 every day the casino was closed. Fourteen million pesos a day here, 14 million there and we’re talking real money.
* Delaware remains hostile territory for DFS. The state’s attorney general decreed last year that “fantasy sports activities are not permitted under Delaware law.” And now a bill to legalize the ‘Net betting activity has failed in the state Senate 10-11. As they used to say in Brooklyn, in quite another context, wait ’til next year.
* A recent study is very bad news for casino CEOs. It certainly helps explain the career of Gary Loveman. Nor does it let boards of directors off the hook: “Subordinates provide few reliable cues to the powerful.”
