{"id":14476,"date":"2014-09-03T12:55:06","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T20:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14476"},"modified":"2021-06-17T06:03:41","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T14:03:41","slug":"sheldon-goes-korean-more-casinos-for-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/sheldon-goes-korean-more-casinos-for-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheldon goes Korean; More casinos for Maine?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sheldon<\/a>Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> wants in on any expansion of South Korea<\/strong>‘s casino and he’s not above using a little muscle to do it. According to Managing Director of Global Development George\u00a0<\/strong>Tanasijevich<\/strong>, his company, Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> would create “a truly iconic building,” in Jamsil<\/strong>, near some of the infrastructure from the 1988 Olympics<\/strong>. \u00a0As part of the project, Sands would dismantle and relocate a baseball stadium that stands in its way.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, would it be\u00a0an Adelson project if it didn’t come with conditions imposed on the Korean government<\/a> — namely that it allow Korean citizens, currently banned from all but one, remote casino, to play?\u00a0\u201cA casino that allows local residents would be a necessary element for our business model, in the scale of the investment that we are proposing to make and the magnitude of the property that we would look to develop in the market,\u201d which is a nice Tanasijevich way of saying the project won’t pencil out unless Koreans are allowed to gamble there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Tanasijevich\"<\/a>This contention took a turn for the silly when Tanasijevich posited that tourists would look be afraid to play at casinos from which locals are barred. (Considering that South Korean casinos grossed $2.7 billion last year, the argument doesn’t hold water.)\u00a0\u201cThey will be suspicious and the positive environment will not be created if Korean citizens are not permitted to enter the facilities,” Tansajievich said, absurdly.<\/span><\/p>\n

However the Adelson emissary said Las Vegas Sands wasn’t pursuing a wide-open casino but one like Marina Bay Sands<\/strong>, in Singapore, which has some barriers to entry by those who would be vulnerable to gambling addiction.\u201cThus, we believe that any law permitting Korean citizens to enter casinos in Korea should include provisions that prevent entry to those who should not be entering the casino,\u201d he concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

Methinks Korean lawmakers will be persuaded once they see the color of Adelson’s investment money.<\/p>\n

* Casino-feasibility studies commissioned by casino companies are usually a bit dicey (pardon the pun), as they tend to say what the casino \"Mason\"<\/a>developer wants them to say. As state Sen. Garrett Mason<\/strong> (R) puts it,\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s been a question about every study that\u2019s come along in the past because it\u2019s been connected to a group of people or a group that is looking to get a casino.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Maine<\/strong>‘s Legislature<\/strong> took on the subject of studying casino expansion itself. Its conclusion? The state can support one, perhaps two more casinos, preferably in the southern wedge of Maine. A pocket\u00a0casino up in Washington<\/strong> or Arostook<\/strong> counties (where it could snag Canadian customers from across the border) was also suggested.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouthern Maine includes not only substantial Maine population but is positioned to draw upon important demographics in New Hampshire<\/strong> and Massachusetts<\/strong>,\u201d WhiteSand Gaming<\/strong> wrote in the study, which noted the southern area’s proximity to major tourist attractions. WhiteSands’ other recommendations included:<\/span><\/p>\n

* Initial capital investment of $250 million.<\/p>\n

* Annual capex maintenance of 3%-4% of profits.<\/p>\n

* Licensing fees of $5 million plus $100 per slot machine (annually).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, numbers from Maine’s extant casino show that Penn National Gaming<\/strong> had good cause to fear Oxford Casino<\/strong> in the 2008 election. Oxford grossed $72 million last year, against Hollywood Casino’s $55 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheldon Adelson wants in on any expansion of South Korea‘s casino and he’s not above using a little muscle to do it. According to Managing Director of Global Development George\u00a0Tanasijevich, his company, Las Vegas Sands would create “a truly iconic … 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":[147,112,163,69,25,12,108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14476"}],"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=14476"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29723,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14476\/revisions\/29723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}