{"id":12107,"date":"2013-11-20T11:54:33","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T19:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12107"},"modified":"2013-11-20T12:59:59","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T20:59:59","slug":"japan-factor-overrated-gurals-head-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/japan-factor-overrated-gurals-head-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan factor overrated?; Gural’s head start"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"japan_flag_01-300x300\"<\/a>Skepticism is starting to emerge<\/a> regarding Union Gaming Group<\/strong>‘s projection of $10 billion a year from Japanese casinos, should they be legalized. Among the reasons given are that “whales” from Japan aren’t a major factor in Pacific Rim<\/strong> casinos. Also, mass-market pachinko is a very low-hold game, unlike slot machines. Lastly, according to some, “Japan<\/strong> \u2013 with its distinct culture and low penetration of English language skills \u2013 is likely to focus its casino offer mainly on domestic players.”\u00a0The Japan Restoration Party<\/strong>, a nationalist brainchild of Shintaro Ishihara<\/strong>, the patron saint of gambling in Japan, is proposing its own casino-approval bill. It’s not waiting for the ruling coalition to get its act together. Action in the Diet is expected by Dec. 6.<\/p>\n

Irony Alert<\/strong>.: Smiles were supposedly abounding with the closure of the Scientific Games<\/strong> takeover of WMS Industries<\/strong>, to the extent that Scientific COB Lorne Weil<\/strong> was quoted as saying, \u201cClosing the WMS acquisition marks a new chapter for all of us<\/em>.” That’s especially true for Weil, whose carcass figuratively hit the floor the next morning<\/a>. Is this what they mean by newfound “synergies”?<\/p>\n

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Hare vs. tortoise<\/strong>. Hoping that the race in New York State<\/strong> is to the swift — and to force the issue — Tioga Downs<\/strong> owner Jeff Gural<\/strong> is already expanding his racino<\/a>. Additional parking is Step One. Gural said he could fully convert to slots and table games in three months’ time, giving him a huge head start on most of his rivals. He couldn’t resist a poke at Traditions at the Glen<\/strong> lodge, a newcomer to the fray, saying, “All of a sudden, people are coming out of the woodwork with these great ideas … someone may be stupid enough to invest $150 million and go broke<\/em>.” ($150 million is Traditions’ budget.) Gural’s not keen to share the Southern Tier with anyone, insisting that two casinos is a recipe for failure.<\/p>\n

In Massachusetts<\/strong>, the Mashpee Wampanoags<\/strong> believe they’ve got federal recognition<\/a>\u00a0and casino compact approval in hand. Then again,they’ve been playing that golden oldie an awful long time.<\/p>\n

Chintz at Penn?<\/strong> A player of my acquaintance tells me they get weekly mailings from Hollywood Casino<\/strong> offering all of $5 in free play. As my correspondent puts it, Penn National Gaming<\/strong> shouldn’t bother with offers that are worth less than a McDonalds<\/strong> combo meal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skepticism is starting to emerge regarding Union Gaming Group‘s projection of $10 billion a year from Japanese casinos, should they be legalized. Among the reasons given are that “whales” from Japan aren’t a major factor in Pacific Rim casinos. Also, … 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":[171,53,101,69,111,160,20,38,89],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12107"}],"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=12107"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12112,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12107\/revisions\/12112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}