{"id":11256,"date":"2013-08-06T10:32:07","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T18:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11256"},"modified":"2013-08-06T12:50:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T20:50:00","slug":"massachusetts-first-one-bites-the-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/massachusetts-first-one-bites-the-dust\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts: First one bites the dust"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turns out the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> was damn serious about financial probity being grounds for disqualification<\/a>. In a ruling \"\"on\u00a0Plainridge Racecourse<\/strong>, it deemed that owner Ourway Realty<\/strong> displayed “a culture of fear and concealment pervasive in the operations,” including former CEO Gary Piontkowski<\/strong>‘s habit of siphoning money from the count room. (Can’t we just call it a “skim”?) The Commission went on to say that Plainridge could not provide “clear and convincing evidence as to business practices that will likely lead to a successful gaming operation.” Plainridge was also faulted for its tardiness in ousting Piontkowski, then replacing him with someone inexperienced in gaming.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, Raynham Park<\/strong> got a passing grade from commissioners. That leaves only Penn National Gaming<\/strong> to have its background check completed, but no sane person expects Penn to get tossed. As for Raynham, Rush Street Gaming<\/strong> and Cordish Gaming<\/strong> — slot parlor applicants, every one — they’re probably quietly supping on schadenfreude<\/em> today.<\/p>\n

Penn’s Las Vegas outpost<\/strong>, better known as M Resort<\/strong>, is backpedaling away from poker. It’s scrapping its poker room<\/a> in favor of slot-tournament space<\/a>. I can’t speak for the disenfranchised poker players but, for the serious slot player, it’s got to be hella better than being stuck in a distant ballroom.<\/p>\n

From the No Shit, Sherlock file<\/strong>: So, 911 calls from\u00a0Colorado<\/strong> casinos fell after a smoking ban went into place. You could knock me over with a feather<\/a>. The obvious conclusion is … don’t smoke! It’s a disgusting habit, as I’ve often said, but trying to uncouple it from gambling is not unlike attempting to sever conjoined twins.<\/p>\n

\"\"In one of the most eccentric<\/strong> design decisions I’ve ever seen in Vegas, Phil Ruffin<\/strong> is going to cannibalize part of the Treasure Island<\/strong> lagoon and boardwalk to make room for a three-story retail mall. Fans of the skanky Sirens of TI<\/em> needn’t worry: Some form of the tats-and-trollops show will go on. Shoehorning a retail tower into Treasure Island’s frontage is going to look weird as all get-out. Then again, Ruffin has so thoroughly crapped up the facade of the resort that what’s one more eyesore at this point?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turns out the Massachusetts Gaming Commission was damn serious about financial probity being grounds for disqualification. In a ruling on\u00a0Plainridge Racecourse, it deemed that owner Ourway Realty displayed “a culture of fear and concealment pervasive in the operations,” including former … 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":[65,27,70,28,117,63,112,91,69,119,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11256"}],"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=11256"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11265,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11256\/revisions\/11265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}