{"id":12163,"date":"2013-12-03T15:46:47","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T23:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12163"},"modified":"2020-05-20T06:03:26","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T14:03:26","slug":"dancing-at-the-downs-sheldon-adelson-luddite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/dancing-at-the-downs-sheldon-adelson-luddite\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing at the Downs; Sheldon Adelson, Luddite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"suffolk<\/a>Suffolk Downs<\/strong> isn’t going to have to perform the limbo to bring its casino project into zoning conformity but some fancy footwork will<\/em> be required. Instead of one structure, there will have to be two<\/a>. Non-gaming amenities will be clustered in one on the East Boston<\/strong> side of the city line. Another, holding all the casino goodies, will be on the Revere side, hugging one end of the racing oval<\/a>. Suffolk Downs and Mohegan Sun<\/strong> will operate the respective halves. This new arrangement still needs the blessing<\/a> of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> but that seems like a fairly safe bet at this juncture.<\/p>\n

\"Virginia<\/a>If the marriage of casinos and Massachusetts<\/strong> has sometimes seemed like a shotgun wedding, we are<\/em> dealing with a fairly conservative culture<\/a> in that respect. The difficulties experienced in Massachusetts give you some idea why similar efforts have failed in Virginia<\/strong>, a state steeped in anti-gambling ethos. Voters across the Potomac River in Maryland have few qualms about casinos but Virginia, under the thumb of the Religious Right, isn’t having any of that godless gambling, by golly. Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> and International Game Technology<\/strong> have stopped trying to penetrate Virginia and if they’ve given up, you know it’s a lost cause.<\/p>\n

\"Las<\/a>Speaking of lost causes, Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> remounted his anti-Internet steed this week<\/a>. We learned a number of things, including that he does not know the correct use of “cache.” He contends that he could be competitive in Internet<\/strong> gambling because, among other reasons, “our balance sheet is the envy of the industry …\u00a0our properties in Las Vegas receive twice as much profit from nongaming sources as we do from our casinos<\/em>.” I’m not sure what that’s meant to prove but Adelson has a burr under his saddle where ‘Net betting is concerned. And he’s finally come clean, asking, “Is it bad or even dangerous for the gaming industry<\/em>?”<\/p>\n

\"Don_Quixote\"<\/a>If you operate mastodonic, zillion-dollar casinos like Adelson, the lower-cost, more-ubiquitous Internet-gambling industry must seem frightening indeed. There’s also more than a smidgen of snobbery in his portrayal of Internet bettors who “can get dressed or stay in your pajamas, lying in your bed or sitting at your kitchen while table tapping away on your computer, tablet or smart phone<\/em>.” How low-class of them!<\/p>\n

“Anybody who doesn\u2019t think land-based casinos are not going to be hurt is playing wishful thinking,” concludes Adelson, adding with godlike pomposity, “I have had nearly 25 years in this industry and more than six decades in business in general. So I have the experience and the knowledge to assess a potential opportunity and to determine whether it\u2019s good or bad for my company or the industry overall.” So stop thinking, you damned heretics, and leave the decisions to Pope Sheldon, OK?<\/p>\n

Congratulations<\/strong> to Bally Technologies<\/strong>, which just sold a Santa’s bagful of tech to SLS Hotel & Casino<\/strong>, including the iGaming Platform<\/strong> and more tracking software than you can shake a USB cord at. Well done, people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suffolk Downs isn’t going to have to perform the limbo to bring its casino project into zoning conformity but some fancy footwork will be required. Instead of one structure, there will have to be two. Non-gaming amenities will be clustered … 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":[77,28,7,29,37,112,167,25,162,12,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12163"}],"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=12163"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27114,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12163\/revisions\/27114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}