{"id":17735,"date":"2016-02-18T14:16:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T22:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=17735"},"modified":"2019-02-19T09:47:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T17:47:15","slug":"new-jersey-resumes-sports-betting-push-sheldon-adelson-gets-his-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/new-jersey-resumes-sports-betting-push-sheldon-adelson-gets-his-man\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey resumes sports-betting push; Sheldon Adelson gets his man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>New Jersey<\/strong> is hoping the third time is the charm in its attempt to get sports betting OK&#8217;d by the <strong>Third Circuit Court of Appeals<\/strong>. With four major sporting leagues and the <strong>NCAA<\/strong> aligned against it, New <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-17741\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/New-Jersey-State-Flag.png\" alt=\"New Jersey State Flag\" width=\"210\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/New-Jersey-State-Flag.png 210w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/New-Jersey-State-Flag-131x150.png 131w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/>Jersey&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/new-jersey-to-resume-fight-to-legalize-sports-betting-1455729544\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">is a Hail Mary pass<\/a>, especially with its opponents citing that old bogeyman, game fixing. Frankly, I wonder if the leagues don&#8217;t wink at point-shaving already, especially after seeing an <strong>NFL<\/strong> playoff game in which the <strong>Carolina Panthers<\/strong> frittered away a massive lead until it was within the point spread. Besides, the professional leagues are already in deep connivance with daily fantasy sports to offer <strong>Internet<\/strong> wagering. Their attitude stinks to high heaven of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p>The Garden State&#8217;s own argument is not without its problems, especially as the law currently on the books would permit <!--more-->unregulated sports wagering, just the sort of thing to strike fear into those who equate sports betting with putting the fix in.\u00a0<strong>New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen&#8217;s Association<\/strong> attorney <strong>Ronald Riccio<\/strong> tried to salve the court&#8217;s worries by pointing out that the oil industry, legal profession and real estate business are self-policing industries. (I&#8217;m not sure how reassuring those examples are.) The Third Circuit will now mull the issue for several months before issuing its opinion. And if <em>that<\/em> goes against New Jersey, there&#8217;s still the <strong>Supreme Court<\/strong>, so the fun could be just starting.<\/p>\n<p>* Early results are in for <strong>MGM Resorts International<\/strong>&#8216;s 4Q15 and business is solid on the <strong>Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>, up 2%. Only <strong>MGM Grand<\/strong> (down 3%) and <strong>The Mirage<\/strong> (off 9.5%) were laggards. The firmness of <strong>Las Vegas<\/strong> business helped soften the blow dealt by <strong>Macao<\/strong>, where business fell 31%. <strong>MGM Macau<\/strong> slid to $499 million from $719 million in 4Q14. To put that in context, <strong>Bellagio<\/strong>&#8216;s net revenue last quarter was $312 million.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update<\/strong>: MGM <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/mgm-resorts-loss-widens-on-china-writedown-2016-02-18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">took a $1.5 billion writedown<\/a> related to its partial buyout of <strong>Pansy Ho<\/strong> from <strong>MGM Grand Paradise<\/strong>. It also announced the postponement of the opening of megaresort <strong>MGM Cotai<\/strong> until 1Q17, to get some breathing room from the debuts of <strong>The Parisian<\/strong> and <strong>Wynn Palace<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>* To what Strip headliner&#8217;s tunes does your favorite presidential candidate groove? Local entertainment columnist <strong>Doug Elfman<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/opinion\/columns-blogs\/doug-elfman\/guess-the-soundtracks-these-presidential-hopefuls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has the answer<\/a>. <strong>Bernie Sanders<\/strong> loses points for favoring <strong>Celine Dion<\/strong>&#8216;s sappy power ballads (but picks up the <strong>ABBA<\/strong> constituency) and <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> gets props for rocking out to the strains of <strong>Elton John<\/strong>. Elfman&#8217;s employer, the <em>Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> did owner <strong>Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>&#8216;s bidding, incidentally, issuing a <strong>Marco Rubio<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/opinion\/editorials\/editorial-rj-editorial-board-endorses-marco-rubio-nevada-republican-caucus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">endorsement<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/opinion\/editorials\/editorial-campaign-heads-west-rubio-best\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Two<\/a>, in fact.<\/p>\n<p>* If <strong>Germany<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/pokerfuse.com\/news\/law-and-regulation\/27911-european-union-effectively-removes-online-poker-hurdles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">can have online poker<\/a>, why can&#8217;t we?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Jersey is hoping the third time is the charm in its attempt to get sports betting OK&#8217;d by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. With four major sporting leagues and the NCAA aligned against it, New Jersey&#8217;s is a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/new-jersey-resumes-sports-betting-push-sheldon-adelson-gets-his-man\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,23,42,26,4,22,37,62,11,110,33,25,12,74,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17735"}],"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=17735"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23564,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17735\/revisions\/23564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}