WalletHub is out with a New Year’s Eve survey that ranks Las Vegas as the fifth-best city in which to celebrate the holiday, New York City 
(of course) led the list, followed by Los Angeles, Atlanta (see, we need casinos here) and San Diego. Factors propelling Las Vegas into the #5 spot included “nightlife options per capita” (#1), “music venues per capita” (#1) and, not to be gainsaid, “legality of fireworks” (#1). Vegas was #4 in restaurants and #6 when it came to “Luxury Shopping & Gourmet-Food Stores per Capita.” It scored badly (#41) on ticket affordability and an abysmal #55 for walkability. Look on the bright side, Las Vegas: Reno was #52 overall and Atlantic City didn’t even make the list.
* Faced with disappointing early numbers at MGM Springfield, the casino is reaching out to Connecticut with economy-priced bus service. The ride will cost you $20 but you get $20 in free play and $10 in comped food once you arrive. Frankly, this sounds remarkably like the kind of marketing ploy Atlantic City casinos use to lure day trippers. MGM is saturating the Hartford area — right where Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino casino plan to build a satellite casino of their own. (MGM is also busing in customers from New Hampshire and elsewhere in Massachusetts.) The two big tribal casinos also offer discounted bus service but, faced with declining profitability, it remains to be seen whether they up the marketing ante.
* We don’t know the magic formula for winning a casino license in Japan but preparing to flood the job market with 20,000 migrant workers may be one way to do it. Melco Resorts & Entertainment 
CEO Lawrence Ho says he did the same thing in the Philippines and it’s a necessary way of getting expertise on the ground. Furthermore, “As part of Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe’s reform packages, labor immigration is a key one,” Ho told a Japanese newspaper. “The bulk of employees will be Japanese,” somewhere down the road, “But at the same time it is unrealistic to say so from the beginning, as the industry does not still exist in Japan.”
A declining birth rate in Japan has left the country with a superannuated work force. However, opposition-party politicians are sure to react badly to Ho’s planned wave of immigration. Abe seeks to 
bring in 345,150 foreigners over the next five years. Those classified as trainees would be indentured to their employer for three years. So, Japanese hoping to work for Melco had better take a number. At the moment, Nipponese companies other than Sega Sammy are keeping their powder dry about casino bids. Opined Takashi Kiso, CEO of the International Casino Institute, “Casino has [the] reputational risks of gambling addiction.”
* Like the Dallas Cowboys, the Seattle Seahawks are partnering with a tribal casino as a sponsor. The Snoqualmie Casino has been tapped as the Seahawks’ go-to casino. Said casino CEO Brian Decorah, “We can’t imagine a better way to cap our 10th anniversary … We have been a Seahawks sponsor and suite holder since we opened in 2008, so we are looking forward to the enhanced opportunities our newly expanded partnership will create.”
