{"id":12920,"date":"2014-03-05T14:07:45","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T22:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12920"},"modified":"2014-03-05T14:19:39","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T22:19:39","slug":"empire-state-scramble-stalemate-in-kentucky-too-cozy-in-ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/empire-state-scramble-stalemate-in-kentucky-too-cozy-in-ohio\/","title":{"rendered":"Empire State scramble; Stalemate in Kentucky; Too cozy in Ohio?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gearan\"<\/a>Casino expansion continues to speed along in New York State<\/strong>, where college president Mark Gearan<\/strong>\u00a0(right) has been formally installed as New York State Gaming Commission<\/strong> chairman, filling out the five-member body. Prior to taking office, he was presented with some bedtime reading<\/a> by legislator Liz Krueger<\/strong> (D): the 317-page Inspector General’s report on the scandal-plagued initial award of the Aqueduct Race Track<\/strong> casino license (which was subsequently rebid and became Resorts World New York<\/strong>). Cautioned to focus upon the potential economic impact of his decisions, Gearan agreed that “is a key driver. I respect that<\/em>.”\u00a0Those words don’t resonate favorably for Cordish Gaming<\/strong>\u00a0and Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, whose attempts at obtaining a Woodbury<\/strong> casino have drawn loud cries of protest from Sullivan<\/strong> and Ulster<\/strong> counties. Ulster County Executive Mike Hein<\/strong> has thrown his support<\/a> to the Nevele Resort<\/strong> project, “arguing that the legislative intent of allowing casino gambling in the state was to help economically endangered communities such as Ellenville<\/strong>, which has Ulster County’s highest unemployment rate<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Nevele CEO Michael Treanor<\/strong> (who could use an operator like Cordish or Penn) returned Hein’s favor, saying, “The prospect of an Orange County<\/strong> casino in the I-87-84<\/strong> area is not just an economic threat to Ulster County but to other parts of the region, including the Capital region<\/em>.” Treanor has successfully drawn most media attention to Nevele, throwing a cloud over The Granit<\/strong>, managed by Eliot Spitzer<\/strong> (not that<\/em> Eliot Spitzer). Now called Hudson Valley Resort<\/strong>, The Granit has a casino operator on board but is keeping it under wraps for now.<\/p>\n

\"Stumbo\"<\/a>Legislators of both houses<\/strong> continue to say “After you,” when it comes to amending the Kentucky<\/strong> constitution to permit casino gambling. Three amendments are in various forms of gestation, the newest and broadest being the handiwork of Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo<\/strong> (“nothing in this section shall preclude the General Assembly<\/strong> from authorizing other forms of gaming by general law<\/em>“). The horseracing industry wants a guaranteed cut of the action, which only\u00a0Senate Majority Caucus Chairman Dan Seum<\/strong>‘s SB 33 would give them. Stumbo (left) is unperturbed: \u201cNow some won\u2019t like that, but they haven\u2019t been very successful\u00a0in their quest, and so I\u2019m going to try it my way<\/em>.\u201d Good luck with that, considering that the GOP caucus is at odds with itself over the Seum bill.<\/p>\n

Inside job?\u00a0<\/strong> From the pages<\/a> of the Columbus Dispatch<\/em>: “The state would buy the new machines over a two-year period, with $9 million in the current fiscal year and $12.9 million in the upcoming year. The machines are to be manufactured in Mason<\/strong>, Ohio<\/strong>, by Intralot<\/strong>. The company has six registered Ohio lobbyists, including Robert Klaffky<\/strong> and Doug Preisse<\/strong>, both political confidantes of Gov. John Kasich<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Now that pool season<\/strong> is (already?!?) upon Las Vegas<\/strong>, it’s time somebody identified the saddest pools in town<\/a>. Thankfully, Vegas Tripping<\/em> is up to the task. The winner may surprise you.<\/p>\n

Just a gigolo<\/strong>. Let it not be said that we don’t have grand aspirations<\/a> around here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casino expansion continues to speed along in New York State, where college president Mark Gearan\u00a0(right) has been formally installed as New York State Gaming Commission chairman, filling out the five-member body. Prior to taking office, he was presented with some … 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":[70,51,4,67,116,101,71,69,33,111,25,8,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12920"}],"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=12920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12924,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12920\/revisions\/12924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}