{"id":19053,"date":"2016-10-28T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=19053"},"modified":"2016-10-28T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T16:30:00","slug":"pennsylvania-lawmakers-screw-the-pooch-adelsons-way-or-the-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/pennsylvania-lawmakers-screw-the-pooch-adelsons-way-or-the-highway\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania lawmakers screw the pooch; Adelson’s way or the highway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania<\/b> communities are scrambling to reach voluntary revenue-sharing accords with the casinos they host after the Legislature left the issue in limbo. Rather than address the host-community fee on its own, the House of Representatives tacked on approval of Internet<\/b> gambling and regulation of daily fantasy sports — a Christmas tree crammed \"harrahs-chester\"through the door at the last minute and irreconcilable with the Senate’s flat-fee solution. Said senatorial lawyer Drew Compton<\/b>, “We did what we did on gaming — and I think that’s all we plan on doing for the rest of the year.” Efforts were being made in Delaware County<\/b> (home of Harrah’s Philadelphia<\/b>) and Pittsburgh<\/b> (host to Rivers Casino<\/b>) to sidestep the Lege and reach independent fee arrangements. State Rep. Tommy Tomlinson<\/b> (R) signaled that an accord was near between Parx Casino<\/b> and Bucks County<\/b>, along with the city of Bensalem<\/b>. Delaware County City Council Chairman Mario Civera<\/b> cut to crux of the matter, telling the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/i>, “The city can’t afford to lose even a penny there.”<\/p>\n

The House’s impulse to try and force the Internet-gambling issue (as well as add slot routes at six airports) is understandable given Gov. Tom Wolf<\/b>‘s promise to deliver an extra $100 million via increased gaming revenue. But by garlanding a straightforward bill with extraneous features lawmakers had no more time to address, it ensured doom for the host-community provision, barring some kind of resumption of business between now and Nov. 30. “The House should have voted it clean,” said state Sen. Sean Wiley<\/b> (D). “I don’t know what the support in the Senate is like for [online] gaming, but to jeopardize the tens of millions of dollars flowing into host communities I feel is irresponsible.” State Rep. Pat Harkins<\/b> (D) said, “There were some things I wasn’t thrilled with. But you have to take what you can get sometimes.” Or, in this case, more than you can get.<\/p>\n

* Although the ink is barely dry on the accord to build Sheldon Adelson<\/b> a football stadium, already the mogul may be trying to wiggle out of some of his financial commitment. While traveling in Israel<\/b>, He Who Must Be Obeyed was quoted as saying he \"Adelson2_2_12\"wanted the [your city here] Raiders<\/b> to up their financial contribution toward the stadium. Team owner Mark Davis<\/b> tried to paper the matter over, calling it a “non-story” while Las Vegas Sands<\/b> lobbyist Andy Abboud<\/b> told Adelson’s Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/i> his boss had been quoted out of context.<\/p>\n

Judge for yourself. According to Reuters<\/b>, Adelson said he instructed his minions, “Tell them I could live with the deal. Tell them I could live without the deal. Here’s the way it’s going to go down. If they don’t want it, bye-bye.” With the stadium a fair accompli<\/i>, Democratic lawmakers are now spearheading a pushing to have 75% of stadium-related jobs go to veterans, minorities and other underprivileged groups. Adelson’s people aren’t committing to any specific numbers but promise the jobs will pay well.<\/p>\n

* Wynn Boston Harbor<\/b>‘s final design has been green-lit by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/b>. It can’t have been difficult: This is the fifth time Steve Wynn<\/b> has used the curved-skyscraper model. Then again, it’s an improvement on the butt-ugly design he originally submitted. Is DeRuyter Butler<\/b> losing his touch? Wynn Resorts<\/b> has fallen behind the curve in resort design.<\/p>\n

* One company that’s staying on the curve is Golden Entertainment<\/b>. It’s introducing electronic table games to eight of its P.T.<\/b>‘s-branded taverns in the Las Vegas<\/b> area. The Starbar<\/b> ETGs are the progeny of game developer Interblock<\/b> and will eventually be broadened to other Golden properties, according to the R-J<\/i>.<\/p>\n

* Any new idea can’t hurt at struggling Hollywood Casino Perryville<\/b>. To that end, operator Penn National Gaming<\/b> is asking Maryland<\/b> regulators for permission to build a patio for smokers with 14 outdoor slot machines. (This is definitely a coming trend in the casino biz.) The concept has been given preliminary approval and is expected to be given the final go-ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania communities are scrambling to reach voluntary revenue-sharing accords with the casinos they host after the Legislature left the issue in limbo. Rather than address the host-community fee on its own, the House of Representatives tacked on approval of Internet … 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":[65,117,190,97,172,7,37,72,112,69,95,33,25,12,92,32,31,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053"}],"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=19053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19055,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053\/revisions\/19055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}