{"id":14954,"date":"2014-11-06T12:04:28","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T20:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14954"},"modified":"2022-12-16T08:28:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T16:28:40","slug":"election-14-the-day-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/election-14-the-day-after\/","title":{"rendered":"Election ’14: The day after"},"content":{"rendered":"

MGM Resorts International<\/strong> didn’t wait for the ballots to get cold. It had equipment on site in downtown Springfield<\/strong> yesterday, conducting “geotechnical soil assessments” on the future site of the parking garage. Laying out a timeline for the project MGM Springfield<\/strong> President Michael Mathis<\/strong> said,\u00a0“Before year’s end we will finalize critical construction permits and close on real estate transactions, including 1200 Main Street and 73 State Street. Additionally, in early 2015 we will announce our general contractor.”\u00a0Today, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> voted unanimously to grant MGM its license, a privilege for which the company will pay $85 million. It’s appropriate that the vote was across the board as this has always been the least controversial of the Massachusetts<\/strong> casino proposals. With the Springfield and Plainville<\/strong> licenses issued, and Everett<\/strong> in the offing, the MGC can turn its attention to the vexing question of the southeast region.<\/p>\n

* In a surprise post-electoral development, Georgia<\/strong> lawmakers revealed that they are contemplating putting casinos<\/a> on Hutchinson Island<\/strong>. In a Stephens vs. Stephens<\/strong> clash, Rep. Mickey Stephens<\/strong> (D) favors deciding the matter via a local referendum while Rep. Ron Stephens<\/strong> (R) would\u00a0use the the existence of the Georgia Lottery<\/strong> to establish a pro-casino precedent. It is, he said, merely a matter of extending what the Lottery is defined as allowing — say, slot machines in addition to scratch-off numbers.\u00a0\u201cI am absolutely convinced it would be an explosion of growth,\u201d said the GOP Stephens, who would dedicate the proceeds\u00a0to the state’s HOPE<\/strong> scholarship program. Savannah<\/strong> Mayor Edna Jackson<\/strong> sides with the Democratic Stephens, favoring self-determination.<\/p>\n

\"Sheldon<\/a>* Give Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> credit. Usually the bearer of the political kiss of death, he backed winners in this year’s elections and it will be redound to the benefit of his efforts to stymie Internet<\/strong> gaming. Efforts to legalize online poker are expected to be bottled up in Congress<\/strong> at the very least and the dampening effect is effected to make itself felt at the state level<\/a>, too. It does not help that Internet gambling has failed to be the golden goose for state budgets.<\/p>\n

People keep saying that this will all change when PokerStars<\/strong> — and its customer base — enters the fray, but it’s taking a heckuva long time.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s little interest amongst the states at this point given lower budget deficits and power moving back to GOP<\/strong>.\u00a0California<\/strong> is still the big domino, in our view, but it doesn\u2019t appear that they\u2019re any closer,\u201d said\u00a0Macquarie Securities<\/strong> analyst Chad Beynon<\/strong>. In the meantime, look for Sen. Lindsey Graham<\/strong>\u00a0(R) to make mischief in the Senate with his proposed reinstatement of the Federal Wire Act<\/strong>. If that gets through, the games are over — for everybody.<\/p>\n

* This probably wasn’t the right moment for Caesars Interactive<\/strong> to get fined $10,000 for marketing to 250-plus self-excluded gamblers<\/a>, handing the enemy a \"Internet<\/a>propaganda victory. To Caesars’ credit, it discovered the blunder and blew the whistle on itself. Caesars Interactive Vice President of Communications Seth Palansky<\/strong> blamed a since-fixed computer glitch, adding,\u00a0\u201cWe can assure the public that this lapse on our part was not an intentional targeting of these patrons, but simply a back-end software issue that failed to properly scrub our database before certain mailings.\u201d This isn’t Caesars Interactive’s first mishap in New Jersey<\/strong>: Billboards advertising online play didn’t legibly include the 1-800-GAMBLER self-help number. That<\/em> misstep cost the company $3,000. Given the lean New Jersey market, these fines could put a real dent in Caesars’ online earnings.<\/p>\n

* In a related story, Pala Interactive<\/strong>, the Internet arm of California<\/strong>‘s Pala Casino & Spa<\/strong> will begin offering online gambling … in Atlantic City<\/strong>. Regulators have approved<\/a> the Pala Band of Mission Indians<\/strong> to partner with Borgata<\/strong>, the top-performing platform in the state. Borgata’s other Internet partner, bwin.party<\/strong>, used to be run by Pala Interactive CEO Jim Ryan<\/strong>, which gives this development some symmetry. (Look for the site to go live within the next month.) He hopes that passing stringent New Jersey licensure will give the company street cred back home, which still remains the market of priority. It’s been biding its time in the Golden State for the past 18 months. Said Ryan, “The California market is one we are focused on.\u00a0We began building this product in the hopes that there would be [a regulated Internet gambling market]\u00a0in California.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MGM Resorts International didn’t wait for the ballots to get cold. It had equipment on site in downtown Springfield yesterday, conducting “geotechnical soil assessments” on the future site of the parking garage. Laying out a timeline for the project MGM … 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":[23,60,34,26,152,7,37,112,11,178,25,12,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954"}],"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=14954"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32062,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954\/revisions\/32062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}