{"id":11518,"date":"2013-09-12T13:48:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T21:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11518"},"modified":"2018-12-20T08:55:56","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T16:55:56","slug":"next-stop-sri-lanka-terra-incognita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/next-stop-sri-lanka-terra-incognita\/","title":{"rendered":"Next Stop: Sri Lanka; Terra incognita"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Launching a pre-emptive strike on the Indian subcontinent, the government of Sri Lanka<\/strong> has gone into casino gambling in a big way. It’s approved a $350 million “mixed development” (that’s what casino-hotels are called over there) by James Packer<\/strong>‘s Crown Ltd<\/strong>. The 400-room resort contemplated by Packer could get pricier still<\/a>. However, it enjoys lakefront siting and an astoundingly “george” deal whereby all hotel taxes are waived for 10 years. And, once the tax holiday expires, the rate will still be 50% of that to which other Sri Lanka hotels are subject, for another 15 years.<\/p>\n

Despite a much larger budget ($650 million and rising), John Keells Holdings<\/strong> had to settle for the second-choice site. The governmental burden of expectation on Crown and Keells is hardly fair. They’re expected to effect a 150% increase in tourists in less than three years. Somebody must have gone on a ‘fact finding’ expedition to Macao<\/strong> and spent it in an opium den. The government’s target player base is VIPs from China<\/strong>, so this new venture — however exciting — is not without its quixotic aspects.<\/p>\n

Regulators in Nevada<\/strong> are venturing into uncharted waters as they contemplate \"\"turning intrastate Internet gaming into a de facto form of interstate wagering. Bally Technologies<\/strong> and International Game Technology<\/strong> want to offer progressive jackpots that are shared between multiple states<\/a>. It’s a bit out there, as Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> Chairman A.G. Burnett<\/strong> acknowledged, a first step towards interstate Internet<\/strong> poker. If one were trying to jolt the federal government into activity, this would be the way to do it.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, regulators solemnized a mismatched wedding<\/a>. Treasure Island<\/strong> is pairing with Golden Gaming<\/strong>, titan of the Pahrump<\/strong> market, to offer cyber-gambling via 888 Holdings<\/strong>. Since Golden owns 40 taverns and a number of slot routes, this is the next best thing to sweeping new players into your database off the barroom floor. It’s described as “unique” and “welcome,” and I kinda wish I’d thought of it myself.<\/p>\n

Cosmetics mogul Ron Perelman<\/strong> is one step closer to owning<\/a> WMS Industries<\/strong>. Perelman, who owns 38% of Scientific Games<\/strong>, is undoubtedly wiser for having put his \"\"money into manufacturing rather than staking it on a destination resort. As we’ve seen often in the past, the latter can so easily go wrong. Perelman’s surrogates are talking out of both sides of their mouths, touting the cost-saving “synergies” of which Wall Street<\/strong> is so skeptical and simultaneously pointing out that each company’s product line is complementary. They don’t make it sound like there’s much overlap to eliminate. In any event, I don’t think the NGCB really cares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Launching a pre-emptive strike on the Indian subcontinent, the government of Sri Lanka has gone into casino gambling in a big way. It’s approved a $350 million “mixed development” (that’s what casino-hotels are called over there) by James Packer‘s Crown … 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":[77,29,22,37,96,119,25,160,31,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11518"}],"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=11518"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23148,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11518\/revisions\/23148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}