{"id":17604,"date":"2016-01-19T10:55:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T18:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=17604"},"modified":"2020-10-15T05:48:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T13:48:30","slug":"big-win-for-icahn-boffo-year-for-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/big-win-for-icahn-boffo-year-for-pennsylvania\/","title":{"rendered":"Big win for Icahn; Boffo year for Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

No further obstacles should remain to a Carl Icahn<\/strong> takeover of ailing Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong> after an appeals court found in favor of wage- and health-care rollbacks<\/a> at the Atlantic City<\/strong> casino. Unite-Here Local 54<\/strong> and the workers it represents were dealt a stinging setback, and have \"icahn\"<\/a>to be wondering what other economy measures Icahn may implement. The latter has, however, promised a substantial infusion of capital into the Taj which\u00a0\u201cperforms at the bottom of the Atlantic City market.\u201d Icahn lost in one respect, namely the time it took to get a court ruling. His representatives contended the resort couldn’t withstand “another lost summer.” However, that may be just what it’s looking at after the long legal battle.<\/p>\n

While Local 54 ponders its next move — possibly including a strike — it faces a lose-lose situation, its now workers now having to live on limited means but faced with an Icahn closure of the Taj had the appeals court gone against him. (Unite-Here wanted the dispute heard by the National Labor Relations Board<\/strong>.) In the meantime, it has to grit its teeth and prepare itself for life under Icahn, who could scarcely be worse than his inept Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong> predecessors.<\/p>\n

The Taj and all of its Boardwalk brethren could take little comfort in the revised version of the PILOT\u00a0Program<\/strong> that emerged from the New Jersey<\/strong> Legislature. They’ll have to pay $50 million more in taxes<\/a> and the “floor” of their annual payments to the state can never fall below $120 million. Atlantic City gets a few crumbs, such as $10 million a year for the\u00a0Casino Reinvestment Development Authority<\/strong> and $8 million for marketing. A delay in implementing the program from last year to this one will also bring some relief to the gaming industry, if not to Atlantic City’s beleaguered city government.<\/p>\n

* Reports of casino saturation in Pennsylvania<\/strong> have been exaggerated. Last year’s gross revenue eked out a very slight margin<\/a> over 2012’s previous record, on the strength of a 3% revenue increase. Lacking a casino-by-casino breakdown, we’d attribute the record result to outlying casinos like Sands Bethlehem<\/strong>, because the Philadelphia<\/strong> market really is swamped and will be further challenged when Cordish Gaming<\/strong> opens its stadium-area casino.<\/p>\n

* Once again, a gaming executive has resigned “to pursue other opportunities,” namely that of updating his resume. Parq Vancouver<\/strong> President Michael Graydon<\/strong> was found to be in a conflict of interest \"Parq<\/a>when details of his hiring emerged. Seems that Graydon was still CEO of the British Columbia Lottery Corp<\/strong>. — on whose services Parq Vancouver will rely — when negotiating the details of his new job<\/a> with Paragon Gaming<\/strong>, Parq Vancouver’s developer. In a butt-covering statement, Paragon CEO Scott Menke<\/strong> said Graydon “concluded that the president position needs to be more hotel and casino operations-focused and that his background and experience are not aligned with the evolving needs of Parq Vancouver.\u201d Don’t weep for Graydon: He’ll have to refund $55,171.20 of his salary but gets to retain $30,960 in vacation. See you at the beach, Mr. G.<\/p>\n

* The Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> — along with the indifference of casinos — effectively killed daily fantasy sports when it said that DFS sites would need Nevada<\/strong> gaming licenses. Gov. Brian Sandoval<\/strong> (R) is trying to breathe some life back<\/a> into DFS, reconvening the dormant Gaming Policy Committee<\/strong> to craft rules for this particular form of Internet<\/strong> gambling. What nobody really seems able to address is that Nevada’s population is so small that it’s not worth pursuing for DFS revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No further obstacles should remain to a Carl Icahn takeover of ailing Trump Taj Mahal after an appeals court found in favor of wage- and health-care rollbacks at the Atlantic City casino. Unite-Here Local 54 and the workers it represents … 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":[23,82,70,22,37,207,95,25,12,31,169,196],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17604"}],"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=17604"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28167,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17604\/revisions\/28167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}