{"id":17145,"date":"2015-11-03T14:04:57","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T22:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=17145"},"modified":"2015-11-04T09:12:06","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T17:12:06","slug":"the-nathan-deal-they-cant-refuse-decision-time-in-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-nathan-deal-they-cant-refuse-decision-time-in-connecticut\/","title":{"rendered":"The (Nathan) Deal they can’t refuse; Decision time in Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Casino companies like to complain about high taxation … unless they’re trying to get into a jurisdiction, in which case they’ll agree to \"nathan_deal\"<\/a>anything. In Georgia<\/strong>, they’ve upped the ante from a proposed 12% tax rate to 20%<\/a>. It’s not quite the giveaway it appears: It would still be the second-lowest rate on the East Coast, lower than Massachusetts<\/strong>‘ 25%. Among those jostling for position is the Poarch Band of Creek Indians<\/strong>, whose Wind Creek Hospitality<\/strong> already operates Class II gaming in Alabama<\/strong> and Florida<\/strong>. They’re elbowing MGM Resorts International<\/strong> and Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> to get in on the prospective action.<\/p>\n

Tax projections — which have to be taken with a grain of salt — are $280 million a year and the casinos would be parceled out regionally. Atlanta<\/strong> would get two, Macon<\/strong>, Columbus<\/strong>, Savannah<\/strong> and “South Georgia” one each. While Gov. Nathan Deal<\/strong> (R) remains nominally opposed to gaming, he’s not foreclosing his options but rather laying down the terms of what he’d find acceptable: namely a higher tax rate. He’d like to see casinos pay at least 24% of gross gaming revenues and as much as 35%. Compared to what they’re levied in many other states, particularly on the East Coast, that could be a bargain.<\/p>\n

* Rep. Rob Bishop<\/strong> (R) has proposed a radical change in the tribal-\"Bishop\"<\/a>recognition process, putting it solely in the hands of Congress<\/a> … not the most functional of government bodies lately.\u00a0“My goal is to empower Native American tribes. We don’t have a great record. We do a lot of lip service to it,” said Bishop. But does anyone think this will really improve on what’s already a glacial and tortuous process?<\/p>\n

* Choosing a host community for its joint-venture casino got a lot easier for Mohegan Sun<\/strong> and Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong>. Only two cities will respond to the request for proposals<\/a>: East Hartford<\/strong> and East Windsor<\/strong>. Potential competitors Hartford<\/strong>, Windsor Locks<\/strong> and Enfield<\/strong> have all declined to submit bids. With requests for proposals due Friday, we might still be in for a surprise candidacy but it appears unlikely.<\/p>\n

East Windsor<\/strong> is juggling two potential sites, including one occupied by a Walmart<\/strong>, the other undisclosed. East Hartford<\/strong> hopes to resurrect a defunct cineplex as its casino site. The $138 \"Leclerc\"<\/a>million project has been upsized from 2,000 gaming positions, tops, to 2,000-plus, while parking has exploded from 1,200 spots to 3,000-plus. The RFP process comes, somewhat awkwardly, right atop local elections. As Mayor Marcia Leclerc<\/strong> put it,\u00a0“Today I’m doing the casino, tomorrow I might not be here.” Once the Mohegans and Pequots make their choice, it’s back to the Lege, which still hasn’t actually approved the casino yet, just the site-selection process. Ah, politics.<\/p>\n

* Mesquite’s most admired casino, the Eureka<\/strong>, has always been a mom-and-pop operation. Now it’s taking that a step farther<\/a>, converting the Eureka into an employee-owned casino. There’s a lot of risk in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan<\/strong>. Either the casino succeeds or employee retirement funds are wiped out. However, if any casino’s track record gives one confidence in the ESOP experiment it’s this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casino companies like to complain about high taxation … unless they’re trying to get into a jurisdiction, in which case they’ll agree to anything. In Georgia, they’ve upped the ante from a proposed 12% tax rate to 20%. It’s not … 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":[166,152,112,126,11,167,33,12,31,20,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17145"}],"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=17145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17149,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17145\/revisions\/17149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}