{"id":18069,"date":"2016-04-12T11:44:35","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T19:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18069"},"modified":"2016-04-13T09:33:43","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T17:33:43","slug":"lobbyists-win-in-atlantic-city-fight-untimely-reprimand-for-bluhm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/lobbyists-win-in-atlantic-city-fight-untimely-reprimand-for-bluhm\/","title":{"rendered":"Lobbyists win in Atlantic City fight; Untimely reprimand for Bluhm"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Atlantic City<\/strong> fights to maintain its monopoly on casino gambling in New Jersey<\/strong>, it’s getting a lot of help from casino companies themselves — and lobbyists are making out like bandits<\/a>. The biggest spender to date has been Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>, which has flung \"New$280,000 at Trenton<\/strong> in an effort to slow casino-expansion legislation. Boyd Gaming<\/strong> and MGM Resorts International<\/strong> paid $170,000 to one lobbying firm, but MGM has been spreading its bets across the board: It was part of seven-casino consortium that paid $175,000 to politically connected Optimus Partners<\/strong> and it also paid $83,000 to former governor Jim Florio<\/strong>‘s Kaufman Zita<\/strong> firm.\u00a0\u201cI think the money we\u2019ve seen spent to influence these issues will be dwarfed by what we see this year,\u201d predicts Gordon MacInness<\/strong> of New Jersey Policy Perspective<\/strong>, which opposes casino expansion.<\/p>\n

Even some Pennsylvania<\/strong> casinos are getting into the act. Penn National Gaming<\/strong> and Parx Casino<\/strong> also have hired guns prowling the halls of the state capital, trying to stem the spread of competition. Sands Bethlehem<\/strong>, however, seems to be taking neither side for the time being. Of course, pro-expansion forces have their mercenaries, too. Steve Wynn<\/strong> not only donated $25,000 to Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong>‘s abortive presidential campaign, he even rang up Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto<\/strong> (D) to make his case one-on-one. Jeff Gural<\/strong>, owner of The Meadowlands Racetrack<\/strong>, invested\u00a0$140,00 in lobbyists, while rival casino aspirant Paul Fireman<\/strong> bundled $1 million for Christie’s presidential aspirations and hired a superstar lobbying firm. We don’t know how the casinos will fare in November but the lobbyists have fallen into clover.<\/p>\n

* Just when the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> was about to weigh in on Neil Bluhm<\/strong>‘s bid for a Bay State casino, his Rivers Casino<\/strong> in Des Plaines<\/strong> has been fined twice over<\/a>. The $1.65 million penalty is partly for “inconsistent” jackpot payments and — \"Neilperhaps more seriously for Rush Street Gaming<\/strong> — giving out cleaning and security contracts on a no-bid basis. United Maintenance<\/strong>, beneficiary of the no-bid largesse, operated at Rivers Casino for years without even having a contract in place. “Rivers Casino operators were also accused of allowing people to enter a’$250,000 Sign Up and Win New Member Giveaway’ after a deadline had passed,” adds the Boston Herald<\/em>. Throw in a bitterly divided Brockton<\/strong> community and the MGC may have all the reason it needs to award the final Massachusetts<\/strong> casino license to the Mashpee Wampanoag<\/strong> tribe<\/a> — and collect 17% of its\u00a0gross gaming revenues.<\/p>\n

* More Las Vegas<\/strong> visitors came for business than for pleasure last year, and they spent less time gambling than in 2011 but wagered far more<\/a> ($578.54). They were also promiscuous in their gambling habits, patronizing five to 10 casinos on average. They spent less on retail than in 2011 but, hey, used the Las Vegas Monorail<\/strong> more: 10%, as opposed to 6% in 2011. All in all, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority<\/strong> study provided cause for boundless optimism. By the way, the Fremont Street Experience<\/strong> is still a tourist draw, being the primary motivator for 59% of Downtown<\/strong> patrons to check out Glitter Gulch.<\/p>\n

* Western Australia<\/strong> forbids gambling on credit. So when Aussie resident Lim Soo Kok<\/strong> got himself $460,000 into debt at Resorts World Sentosa<\/strong>, he tried to use the Australian law as a “get out of jail free” card<\/a> to evade his debts. Nothing doing, said the state’s supreme court, meaning Kok will have to pony up a Singapore<\/strong> court’s judgment against him … if he can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Atlantic City fights to maintain its monopoly on casino gambling in New Jersey, it’s getting a lot of help from casino companies themselves — and lobbyists are making out like bandits. The biggest spender to date has been Caesars … 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":[23,103,60,51,26,4,120,172,7,58,75,112,11,91,69,95,25,12,108,19,100,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069"}],"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=18069"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18085,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069\/revisions\/18085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}