{"id":10459,"date":"2013-02-07T13:16:06","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T21:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10459"},"modified":"2024-02-06T06:22:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T14:22:58","slug":"christie-oops-he-did-it-again-maryland-take-my-casino-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/christie-oops-he-did-it-again-maryland-take-my-casino-please\/","title":{"rendered":"Christie: Oops, he did it again; Maryland: Take my casino, please"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"New Jersey<\/strong> Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong> (R) loves to veto Internet<\/strong> gambling bills so much that he’s just done it for a second time<\/a>. There was incremental progress: In punting the ball to the Legislature’s one-yard line, Christie endorsed the idea<\/em> of Internet gambling, just not in the form that reached his desk. He wants a 10-year “trial period” and a 50% increase in the proposed tax rate: 15% of revenues, not 10%. This is why it sucks to own a casino — even Republicans<\/em> think you don’t pay enough taxes. The “sunset” provision does give the state a (distant) escape hatch if online gambling backfires — as it has been wont to do. It’s also timed in a such a way that it will occur long after Christie has left Trenton<\/strong>. By 2023 or 2024, Jersey residents will probably be so habituated to online play that renewal will be a matter of routine. At any rate, 10 years makes more sense than former Hawaii<\/strong> Gov. Linda Lingle<\/strong>‘s rejected proposal for a one-year “trial” casino. What’s the point of that? Just imagine the sort of pile-of-crap gambling facility you’d build if it had to make a 100% return on investment inside of a year.<\/p>\n

To his credit<\/strong>, Christie seems to have genuinely agonized over the pros and cons of his decision, which was made at the last possible moment<\/a>. Legislators also realize that working with Christie is far less risky than putting the matter before the electorate<\/a>. To their credit, they’d already stripped the bill of a “juice job” that would have given Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> preferential status. (However, exactly as predicted here, state Democrats have started thumping the tub for a Meadowlands<\/strong> casino again.) Meanwhile, no doubt sensing hesitancy from the East Coast, Nevada<\/strong> Gov. Brian Sandoval<\/strong> (R) is prodding the Lege to approve online poker<\/a> by early March.<\/p>\n

\"\"What if you gave a casino license and no one came?<\/strong> That’s what’s happened in Maryland<\/strong>, where some of the state’s GOP want to put the unwanted license #6 up for auction. That’s fine, if you have low expectations but anybody who thinks that someone is going to bid at least $100 million to get into a astronomically taxed, underperforming market<\/a> might need to be fitted for a straitjacket. Similarly, people who trot out the factually ludicrous assertion that owning a casino is “a license to print money” shouldn’t be presidents of things called “public policy institutes.” Christopher Summers<\/strong>, whoever you are, your credibility with S&G<\/em> just went to zero.<\/p>\n

While it seems like the height of folly<\/strong> to be running casinos in both Philadelphia<\/strong> and Atlantic City<\/strong>, thereby competing with oneself, that’s what Mohegan Sun<\/strong> CEO Mitchell Etess<\/strong> proposes to do<\/a>. The presence of Mohegan Gaming Advisors<\/strong> does bring some “brand name” heft to Market East Associates<\/strong>, including the ubiquitous Ira Lubert<\/strong>, who seems to have a finger in every other Pennsylvania casino pie. One gaming analyst tells Connecticut<\/strong>‘s The Day<\/em> that Mohegan Sun can land both a Massachusetts<\/strong> and Pennsylvania casino license … but I dunno. Between favorite-son candidates Bart Blatstein<\/strong> (who’d better make sure he stays up to date on his property taxes<\/a>) and Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, to say nothing of Steve Wynn<\/strong>, I don’t rate the project’s chances as better than distant.<\/p>\n

\"\"Closer to home<\/strong>, there are stirrings of life at the much-abused Las Vegas Hotel & Casino<\/strong>, which has upped its advertising profile of late and now inked a cross-marketing deal with Red Lion Hotels<\/strong>. (Who?<\/a>) Well, at least the LVH is now tied into 48 other hotels. It would really<\/em> help if Navegante Group<\/strong> could persuade Red Lion to slap its Leo Hotels<\/strong> moniker on the former Las Vegas Hilton<\/strong>, which now labors under the most ultra-generic, laughable “brand” possible: Even the letters on the marquee don’t match.<\/p>\n

If a tree doesn’t fall in the forest<\/strong>, does it generate a news report? If you’re the Mashpee Wampanoags<\/strong>, it does, having managed to generate a two-page story out of absolutely nothing having changed<\/a> with regard to their standing with the Bureau of Indian Affairs<\/strong> and, hence, their eligibility to own a Massachusetts casino.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) loves to veto Internet gambling bills so much that he’s just done it for a second time. There was incremental progress: In punting the ball to the Legislature’s one-yard line, Christie endorsed the idea … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,28,14,81,7,37,53,72,112,69,33,25,32,31,9,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33030,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459\/revisions\/33030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}