{"id":10890,"date":"2013-05-23T15:12:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T23:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10890"},"modified":"2013-05-23T15:13:45","modified_gmt":"2013-05-23T23:13:45","slug":"christies-big-bet-new-hampshires-big-blunder-nevadas-big-bully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/christies-big-bet-new-hampshires-big-blunder-nevadas-big-bully\/","title":{"rendered":"Christie’s big bet; New Hampshire’s big blunder; Nevada’s big bully"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"New Jersey<\/strong> Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong> (R) is banking on $180 million in Internet<\/strong> casino revenue<\/a> to make his budget work. That might be a little off — if by “little” you mean 80%. Online wagering could bring in a comparatively scant $30 million<\/a> … not surprising given the difficulty that some of the major players are having getting onto the field. Christie’s wagering $650 million in budget discrepancies with the Office of Legislative Services<\/strong>, betting his reelection on whoever’s numbers are closer to the mark. Standard & Poor’s<\/strong> is betting against Christie’s “structurally imbalanced” budget, citing his inability to meet revenue projections in the previous fiscal year. (S&P, Deutsche Bank<\/strong> and Bloomberg Industries<\/strong> are all skeptical of Christie’s bullish figures.) His administration certainly isn’t backing off its $180 million benchmark for Internet wagering, though. (It needs some<\/em> good news after Revel<\/strong> turned turtle.) It’s even doubling down by calling for a 10% tax cut.<\/p>\n

He’d better not look for help from Atlantic City<\/strong>, where operating profits have fallen<\/a> 64% in the first quarter. At least some of the smaller analyst firms are in Christie’s corner, waxing optimistic during the East Coast Gaming Congress<\/strong>, even calling e-wagering “the big savior.”<\/a> In the Garden State’s favor is a wider repertory of games than Nevada<\/strong>‘s. On the downside, many of its players are expected to be existing casino customers. Still, for his sake, Christie better hope that prognostications of Robert Heller<\/strong> and his ilk hold true.<\/p>\n

\"\"Suicide in New Hampshire<\/strong>. Holding true to form, New Hampshire<\/strong> legislators pulled the pin from an economic grenade and fell on it. Despite the reality of competition in Maine<\/strong> and imminence of it in Massachusetts<\/strong>, the Granite State’s House of Representatives voted against casino legalization on a bipartisan basis. Hell, even a GOP-dominated state Senate supported it, as did Gov. Maggie Hassan<\/strong> (D, left<\/em>). But some people just don’t know a good thing when they see it. So now lawmakers get to bitch and moan about where are they going to find the $80 million they could have raised from casino-licensing fees. They’ll be yelping a lot louder once Massachusetts casinos start sucking discretionary dollars out of New Hampshire’s back pocket.<\/p>\n

\"\"It’s all his<\/strong>. Now that he controls 97% of the stock in Greektown Casino-Hotel<\/strong>, new owner Dan Gilbert<\/strong> can move swiftly to mop up those last few, small-scale shareholders, who are now obligated to sell. Gilbert and #2 man Matt Cullen<\/strong> say they are performing “due diligence,” which probably translates as ‘desperately looking for a way to turn over management to Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>,’ even though the latter owns a rival property within direct eyeshot, across the border in Windsor<\/strong>. Gilbert will think of something, I’m confident.<\/p>\n

Looking out for Number One<\/strong>. The Nevada Legislature is expected to \"\"close the loophole which has enabled the fast-growing Dotty’s<\/strong> chain to split the difference between slot routes and casinos, encumbering it with financially onerous rules<\/a>, in an effort to curb the spread of these gray-market, hole-in-the-wall casinos<\/a>, which have been skirting tax laws (among others) with impunity. Now it’s about to drop the hammer, on Big Gaming’s behalf, on another minor irritation. (The Las Vegas Sun<\/em>‘s J. Patrick Coolican<\/strong> nicely sorts out the various and sundy hypocrisies<\/a> involved.)<\/p>\n

Stand-alone kiosks in bars are bad<\/em> for the public but sports-betting kiosks in<\/em> casinos are perfectly good, say members of the casino industry. (Sports betting has been heavily outsourced since the \"\"Great Recession.) Nevada Resort Association<\/strong> flacks — acting as sock puppets for Station Casinos<\/strong>, some contend — argue that 1 kiosk = a sportsbook. Some of us would deem that a crock of crap but the state Senate found the argument highly persuasive and voted overwhelmingly in the NRA’s favor. With kiosks representing $600K out of $170 million won on sports in Nevada last year<\/a>, it’s as though the casino industry is using a forklift to pick up a penny … but it has always regarded the $1 still in your wallet as more real and desirable than the $99 you just put in its till.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is banking on $180 million in Internet casino revenue to make his budget work. That might be a little off — if by “little” you mean 80%. Online wagering could bring in a comparatively … 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":[28,154,44,14,26,7,22,37,147,112,163,33,92,74,57,31,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10890"}],"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=10890"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10895,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10890\/revisions\/10895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}