{"id":18946,"date":"2016-10-03T11:14:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T19:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18946"},"modified":"2018-09-11T09:43:25","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T17:43:25","slug":"crisis-mode-in-pennsylvania-hard-rock-unifies-the-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/crisis-mode-in-pennsylvania-hard-rock-unifies-the-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Crisis mode in Pennsylvania; Hard Rock unifies the brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although Pennsylvania<\/strong> lawmakers theoretically have three months to amend an “incredibly complex” state law that directs casino revenue to host cities and counties, the grim reality is that the Lege has only eight session days in which to get it done<\/a>. It’s not just \"Pennsylvaniaa question of reconciling the casinos with their host communities, and finding a solution that both deem fair, the process also pits big casinos like Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> (which had supported the tax) against small ones like Mount Airy<\/strong>, the David who slew the tax goliath. Already the affected cities are crying foul. The mayor of Bensalem<\/strong>,\u00a0Joseph DiGirolamo<\/strong>, staring a $15 million a year shortfall in the face, has already raised the specter of police layoff and\/or tax increases if revenue-sharing from Parx Casino<\/strong> comes to a halt.\u00a0On the opposite side of the coin, state Sen. Tommy Tomlinson<\/strong> (R) has floated the prospect of a flat fee for all casinos<\/a>. This would still fall harder on small casinos like Presque Isle Downs<\/strong> but it would eliminate the “true-up” payments the high court ruled unconstitutional, along with the the disproportionate effects of making host-community payments percentage-based.<\/p>\n

* When Morgans Hotel Group<\/strong> made its ill-fated purchase of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong>, in Las Vegas<\/strong>, the deal split the rights for the Hard Rock brand between Morgans (subsequently inherited by Warner Gaming<\/strong>) west of the Mississippi River<\/strong> and the Seminole Tribe of Florida<\/strong> in the eastern United States<\/strong>. Now the brand has been unified under the Seminoles<\/a>, in a deal announced late last week. In addition to picking up \"HARDlicensing rights in the western U.S., also gains them in Australia<\/strong>, Brazil<\/strong>, Israel<\/strong>, Venezuela<\/strong>, and Vancouver<\/strong>, British Columbia<\/strong>. Warner Gaming continues to operate the Las Vegas Hard Rock but \u201cHard Rock International<\/strong> is now exclusively entitled to develop, own, license, franchise, and manage [all other] Hard Rock Casinos and Hotel-Casinos\u201d said the press release, which kept the terms of the deal under wraps, save that the Seminoles gain ownership of a staggering 81,000 items of rock memorabilia.<\/p>\n

The pact, which was overshadowed by the ouster of Seminole Chairman James Billie<\/strong>, may mean that the Vegas Hard Rock has disposed of an acrimonious piece of litigation whereby the Seminoles sought to strip the brand from the hotel-casino, alleging damaged value to the brand from a “reality” show depicting the scummy behavior associated with the Rehab<\/strong> pool parties. (An LVA<\/em> source says the real reality was far worse than anything seen on TV.) Ownership of existing Hard Rock-branded casinos will not change under the accord.<\/p>\n

The gavel falls today on the Seminoles’ lawsuit against the Florida<\/strong>, seeking to keep the blackjack games that currently hang in a compact-less limbo. According to Sunshine State News, the Seminoles “rebutted the state of Florida’s argument that sovereign immunity bars its claim that the state violated obligations to negotiate a renewal of its right to operate the banked card games, saying the state waived that protection by filing its own suit in federal court.”<\/p>\n

* Kudos to Ainsworth Game Technology<\/strong> for pledging $10,000 a year to the National Indian Gaming Association<\/strong> and to supporting gaming-education programs<\/a> at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas<\/strong> for at least three years at $20,000 a year. The munificence was announced during the grand opening<\/a> of Ainsworth’s brand-new Las Vegas<\/strong> headquarters. \u201cWhen companies like Ainsworth choose Las Vegas for their global headquarters, it sends a really big message that Las Vegas is the place to do business and Nevada is the thought leader in the gaming industry,\u201d said Gov. Brian Sandoval<\/strong> (R) of the opening of the 200-job corporate hub. \u201cWe really wanted to send a message to our customers as well as to the Las Vegas community that we are here to stay,\u201d Director of Marketing Mike Trask<\/strong> said of the sixfold increase of Ainsworth’s Las Vegas footprint. Ainsworth rolled out a staggering 135 new game titles at Global Gaming Expo<\/strong> last week.<\/p>\n

* Scarcely was Wynn Palace<\/strong> open when President Gamal Aziz<\/strong> resigned. There’s no word on what prompted this precipitate change but Wynn Macau<\/strong> President Ian Coughlan<\/strong> adds the Wynn Palace portfolio to his regular duties. Aziz will “pursue other \"Wynn-Palace\"opportunities,” customary industry-speak for “Don’t let the doorknob hit you on the way out.” The news put a dent in Wynn stock<\/a> and revived speculation that the company was having trouble pivoting to mass-market play. The official line on Aziz’s exit was,\u00a0\u2018\u2019Mr Gamal Aziz resigned his post as president of Wynn Macau Ltd<\/strong>. Mr Aziz was brought in to lead the development and successful opening of Wynn Palace Cotai. Having completed that assignment, Mr Aziz resigned with the thanks of the board of directors, which expressed its gratitude to Mr Aziz for his significant contributions to the company.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although Pennsylvania lawmakers theoretically have three months to amend an “incredibly complex” state law that directs casino revenue to host cities and counties, the grim reality is that the Lege has only eight session days in which to get it … 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":[103,24,199,36,104,172,149,165,22,62,95,33,200,12,32,31,8,17,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946"}],"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=18946"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22418,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions\/22418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}