Caving to opposition forces, the government of Sri Lanka has reversed course and nixed casinos from three planned resorts. The most prominent was a $550 million Crown Resorts project. Now James Packer has to decide whether it’s worth the investment to proceed sans gambling. “We will not allow casinos. That we say very clearly,” Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse said in his weekend bombshell. Parliamentary opponents like Buddhist monk Athuraliya Rathane were able to play upon fears of increased prostitution to get the casinos scrubbed not just from Packer’s project but from ones by John Keells Holdings ($650 million worth of development) and Dhammika Perera ($300 million). Now it’s back to the drawing board for them and Packer, or at least time for an agonizing reassessment. Packer had already said that specific approvals would govern whether he proceeded or not. (A 10-year tax holiday was passed, preserving one incentive.)
Packer’s got a lot on his plate right now, so it’s a good guess what he’ll do. It must be frustrating, however, to be forbidden from building a casino in a country where they’ve been nominally legal since 2010.
If you’re playing at a Massachusetts casino and win $600, the state will impose a 5% sales 
tax. At least that’s the scenarios if casinos were operating today. “It’s functionally impossible to interrupt play after each hand to administer reporting or withholding,” Wynn Resorts wrote the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Both it and MGM Resorts International have asked the MGC to rethink this rule and impose the $1,200 “IRS lockdown” that Nevada and other states employ before deducting taxes. Horse players and greyhound bettors are already subject to the $600 threshold, and are said to support the proposal. Explains the Boston Herald, “federal tax law requires gamblers fill out tax forms and remit roughly 25 percent of slot machine winnings of $1,200 or more, poker tournament winnings of $5,000 or more and winnings of $600 or more where the payout is at least 300 times the amount of the wager.”
The MGC has been receptive, saying that there’s “considerable merit” to the Wynn/MGM position. (Mohegan Sun is standing pat. “Steve Wynn apparently wants his own set of rules,” sniped CEO Mitchell Etess.) “It seems pretty clear that the best practice would be to adopt the federal standard,” elaborated MGC Chairman Stephen Crosby.
Gomes remembered. One of the most well-traveled and best-loved executives in gambling, the late Dennis Gomes, will be memorialized at Drexel University. A Dennis Gomes Memorial Training Lab will be part of the new Center for Hospitality & Sport Management. The latter will be augmented with slot machines generously donated by Bally Technologies. Fittingly, the faculty of the center includes a Gomes protege, Robert Ambrose. The Gomes lab is due, if not overdue, for a school that offers a degree program in hospitality management with a concentration in gaming and casino operations, among other related certifications.
Pawn Shop Live! has officially relocated to the Riviera from the Golden Nugget, whose showroom was an inhospitable venue for the intimate show. Hopefully the antic spirit of the piece (including standout performances by Gus Langley and Anita Bean) can be better appreciated in the Starlite Theatre at the Riv.
