{"id":13954,"date":"2014-06-30T14:19:09","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T22:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13954"},"modified":"2018-02-09T09:11:18","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T17:11:18","slug":"gearing-up-for-fights-in-massachusetts-california-and-arkansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/gearing-up-for-fights-in-massachusetts-california-and-arkansas\/","title":{"rendered":"Gearing up for fights in Massachusetts, California and Arkansas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expect a deluge of dollars to be spent opposing or supporting a casino-repeal ballot question in Massachusetts<\/strong>. Unlike political campaigns, ballot questions have no spending limitation attached to them<\/a>. So far, the biggest amount spent on a ballot question in the Bay State is $13 billion, but the recent, $90 million brawl over Prince George’s County<\/strong>, in Maryland<\/strong>, shows how the dollars can mount up when gaming’s at stake. At least one voter is persuaded.\u00a0\u201cWe need jobs and money for education,\u201d she told a reporter. \u201cI don\u2019t think the sky will fall if we have a few casinos.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Steve-Wynn-Chairman-of-the-Board-and-CEO-of-Wynn-Resorts-Limited-e1395978569748-1023x1023\"<\/a>* It hasn’t escaped Steve Wynn<\/strong>‘s notice that the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> chose Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s Plainville<\/strong> racino project in part because it will help prop up horse racing … to the point where one wondered if the odds were stacked against Wynn Boston<\/strong>. As a countermeasure, he’s offering hiring preference<\/a> to employees of Suffolk Downs<\/strong>, which has threatened to huff and puff and go out of business if it doesn’t get a casino — or else. This doesn’t suddenly give Wynn the edge but it’s a\u00a0canny chess move.<\/p>\n

Only Boston<\/strong> Mayor Martin J. Walsh<\/strong> could see in the repeal campaign a chance to further shake down<\/a> Wynn and Mohegan Sun<\/strong> alike.<\/p>\n

\"Haddrill\"<\/a>* Bally Technologies<\/strong> CEO Richard Haddrill<\/strong> can add the title “hatchet man” to his resume. Some 270 employees, many of them right here in Las Vegas<\/strong>, were sacrificed on the altar of the company’s takeover<\/a> of SHFL Entertainment<\/strong>. Since one of the selling points of the Bally\/SHFL transaction was a lack of redundancy among its product lines, it’s a bit dismaying to see 6% of the workforce turned out on the streets.<\/p>\n

* Internet<\/strong> sweepstakes cafes are becoming a vexing problem for the State \"Rudy<\/a>of California<\/strong>. As in so many other jurisdictions, they operate in a legal gray market. Take Silk & Stars<\/strong>,\u00a0where players bet $2 a hand on games like “Luck of the Irish” and which the Sacramento County<\/strong> sheriff’s department has raided twice this year (Sacramento<\/strong> is a particular hotbed of activity<\/a>). It’s the kind of establishment that Assemblyman Rudy Salas<\/strong> (D) is trying to outlaw. His bill has a deep coalition of supporters, although Internet cafes argue it’s a legal market device.<\/p>\n

Customers like Khue Vang<\/strong> fail to see the difference.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not coming back. I\u2019d rather go to Thunder Valley<\/strong>,\u201d she said while fleeing the sheriff’s raid<\/a>. \u201cOn the surface it looks like it\u2019s illegal,\u201d insists Philip Walker<\/strong>, who heads the\u00a0Internet Cafe Association of California<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cBut once you get down to the meat inside, it really isn\u2019t.\u201d The key distinction, he says, is that winners are predetermined, unlike a randomized slot machine.<\/p>\n

California’s courts have been no great help. The Fifth District Court of Appeal<\/strong> frowns upon them because\u00a0\u00a0\u201c(a)ll the trappings and experiences involved in playing traditional slot machines\u2026\u201d but the Third District Court of Appeal<\/strong> held, back in 2003, that the predetermination meant the devices weren’t<\/em> slot machines (i.e., permissible). Salas’ bill would codify\u00a0the Fifth District’s interpretation as law.<\/p>\n

* No keno for Arkansas<\/strong> Gov. Mike Beebe<\/strong> (R). He’s on his way out of \"Beebe\"<\/a>office and doesn’t want that to be his legacy. The state lottery plans to add keno to its offerings, but Beebe is supporting\u00a0a bill to thwart it<\/a>. “The commission has been under pressure to increase sales, which have been falling and making less money available for college scholarships.” Beebe agrees with the state senate that the move goes beyond what voters conceived when they enacted a lottery, six years ago.\u00a0\u201cWhat I thought they voted for was a traditional lottery, period, and I\u2019ve said that for three years or four years now,\u201d said Beebe, who fears there may not be the votes to get it out of committee in the House, in which case keno would probably go ‘live’ this autumn.<\/p>\n

Now for a word from our sponsor<\/strong>. The July edition of Las Vegas Advisor<\/em> is now available online<\/a>. It’s chock-a-block with bargain information and, just as good, features the leading ladies of the Tropicana<\/strong>‘s Mamma Mia!<\/em><\/a> cast on the cover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Expect a deluge of dollars to be spent opposing or supporting a casino-repeal ballot question in Massachusetts. Unlike political campaigns, ballot questions have no spending limitation attached to them. So far, the biggest amount spent on a ballot question in … 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":[179,77,34,26,4,37,72,112,167,69,111,25,107,32,9,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13954"}],"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=13954"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21139,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13954\/revisions\/21139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}