{"id":13683,"date":"2014-05-30T10:44:34","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T18:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13683"},"modified":"2021-02-07T10:03:04","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T18:03:04","slug":"massachusetts-pay-the-man-robbing-peter-to-wager-on-paul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/massachusetts-pay-the-man-robbing-peter-to-wager-on-paul\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts: Pay the man; Robbing Peter to wager on Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"

If casino gambling is outlawed in a November referendum, MGM Resorts International<\/strong> and Wynn Resorts<\/strong> want their money back. After all, they’ll be out the $85 million application fee and that’s just for starters. They’d also like to be reimbursed for slot machine fees ($600 per slot), a “gaming assessment fee,” a minimum\u00a0Public Health Trust Fund fee, design and construction costs and sundry other levies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"massachusetts_flag\"<\/a>Them’s a lot of nickels. Unfortunately, there is no legislative mechanism at present whereby they could get that money back. To that end, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> is urging the Legislature to put into law a refund of the $85 million<\/a>, should casino gambling come to grief on the November ballot. MGM, for one, finds itself in limbo. The MGC is expected to vote on its application on June 13 but a Supreme Judicial Court<\/strong> ruling on the validity of the repeal provision (which the state holds to be an unconstitutional taking of property) won’t come until July 9, leaving MGM with a month to swing in the wind. Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, meanwhile, forges stoically ahead<\/a> with Plainridge Park Casino<\/strong> as though nothing were amiss, hoping to open in little over a year.<\/p>\n

Almost full or slightly empty?<\/strong>\u00a0Gaming revenues rose 2% from 2012 to 2013, the fourth consecutive year of growth. “Revenue growth has largely been attributed to market expansion; as states continue to legalize gaming and more tribes enter the gaming industry,” reports Casino Journal<\/em>. However, it’s not straightforward growth. In an ever-larger tribal market, “existing operators have seen declining revenues from the increased competition.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In the commercial-casino sphere, new gambling in Ohio<\/strong> (+149%) and expansion in Maryland<\/strong> (+98%) took their toll on Pennsylvania<\/strong> (-1.5%) and Delaware<\/strong> (-17%).\u00a0National Gaming Services<\/strong> number-cruncher Daniel Holmes<\/strong> says the industry is at a nodal point: \u201cThe target market for the traditional brick-and-mortar casino floors is aging, so now is a critical time for casino operators to identify ways to make their facilities more attractive as local entertainment destinations for the younger generations.\u201d Growth in Massachusetts<\/strong> and New York<\/strong>, it was warned, would come at the expense of other markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

* –Japan<\/strong>‘s prime minister, Shinzo Abe<\/strong>, was in Singapore<\/strong> yesterday, partly\u00a0to kick the tires on the city-state’s megaresorts<\/a>, Marina Bay Sands<\/strong> and Resorts World Sentosa<\/strong>. The experience certainly ought to raise his expectations for the quality of product his government will demand if it legalizes casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If casino gambling is outlawed in a November referendum, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts want their money back. After all, they’ll be out the $85 million application fee and that’s just for starters. They’d also like to be reimbursed … 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":[164,14,171,72,112,11,101,71,69,95,25,108,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683"}],"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=13683"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29228,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683\/revisions\/29228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}