{"id":19407,"date":"2017-03-01T08:58:53","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T16:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=19407"},"modified":"2017-03-01T08:58:53","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T16:58:53","slug":"huge-january-in-nevada-georgia-nixes-casinos-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/huge-january-in-nevada-georgia-nixes-casinos-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge January in Nevada; Georgia nixes casinos (again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sinusitis had us down for the count for a few days but we’re back with a fresh serving of S&G<\/em>. First off, New Year’s was boffo for \"\"Nevada<\/strong> (up 12%) with the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> pulling in 14% more than last year, $609 million. It didn’t hurt either that Chinese New Year fell into January. The would tend to explain why baccarat play was huge — up 44% — and the house won big, too, 52% more than last year. Non-baccarat wagers were down 3% but the house managed to win 5% more. Even flat coin-in at the slots couldn’t stand in the way of a 6% gain in Strip slot win. Even locals did their part. Locals asinos were up 6% in January 2016\u00a0and 13% more this\u00a0year.<\/p>\n

Downtown<\/strong> saw an amazing, 32% gain (to $55.5 million), while the Boulder Strip<\/strong> was up 24.5% to $85 million. North Las Vegas<\/strong> gained 26% for $29 million and Laughlin<\/strong> was up a relatively modest 5% to $44 million. Unclassified Clark County<\/strong> jurisdictions — that includes you, Mesquite<\/strong>\u00a0and Primm<\/strong> — were pretty flat, up 1% for a still-robust $93.5 million haul. Reno<\/strong> had an uncharacteristic stumble, down 8% to $39 million, while Lake Tahoe<\/strong> forged blithely ahead by 11%, grossing $17 million.<\/p>\n

* It’s “Wait ’til next year” time in Georgia<\/strong>, where a casino bill failed to get out of committee<\/a> (again). Lawmakers in neighboring South Carolina<\/strong> may see opportunity in Georgia’s hesitation. However, the GOP is blocking efforts in the Palmetto State, even in the light of a \"\"new poll showing 68% of South Carolinians favoring land-based gambling. (Myrtle Beach<\/strong> hosts “cruises to nowhere.”) To put the numbers into proper context, seven out of 10 voters favor casinos if<\/em> the money goes to infrastructure improvements.<\/p>\n

Republicans simply refused to put credence<\/a> in the numbers. “I don\u2019t think gambling is a solution to our problems.\u00a0It likely creates even more problems. I can\u2019t imagine that 68% of my constituents would support that,” huffed state Sen. Shane Massey<\/strong> (R, above<\/em>). Joining him in high dudgeon was House Judiciary Committee<\/strong> Chairman Greg Delleney<\/strong> (R, below<\/em>), who proclaimed,\u00a0\u201cThe state ought to be enhancing responsibility among its citizens, good conduct and moral conduct. That\u2019s not gambling.\u201d<\/p>\n

There’s also the small problem of reaching a two-third majority in the statehouse to amend the constitution, then persuade the electorate (if the poll results are as bogus as Republicans claim). Said Massey,\u00a0\u201cWe were just barely able to get enough support to allow nonprofits to \"\"have raffles.\u00a0I just don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to have anywhere near the support needed to open casinos or turn the Grand Strand<\/strong> into Las Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the 2016 election, GOPers also refuse to believe in poll results, whether they show a shift from 2014 of 47% for vs. 47% against, to 54% now in favor and going up above two-thirds when road repairs are thrown in as an incentive. Statehouse Republicans would prefer to accomplish the latter via gas taxes, a bitter bill for their constituents to swallow.<\/p>\n

As for Georgia, legislative defeat there is noxious medicine for casino owners. The first hint of trouble came when a state Senate committee scheduled, then deferred<\/a> a vote on the measure. The proposed constitutional amendment had already been downsized to permit just two casinos, at a tax rate of 20%. The question seems to be not how much gambling will the legislature tolerate but how little. Alas, Gov. Nathan Deal<\/strong>‘s conversion into a cautious casino supporter has been for naught.<\/p>\n

* With scarcely more than 100 tables, live poker isn’t much of a draw in New York State<\/strong> (pardon the pun) but Assemblyman Gary Pretlow<\/strong> (D) is betting that Internet<\/strong> poker will be a different game. \u201cWhen I do \"\"sign off on something, my colleagues feel that it is a good deal and they don\u2019t question why I made a certain decision,” he said of his Hamlet-like posturing on the issue. \u201cThey know that if that decision was made, it\u2019s for good reason. So, I don\u2019t really see that there\u2019s going to be much opposition to moving this along.\u201d Well, that may be so but there are rumblings that Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/strong>‘s cabinet isn’t on board.<\/p>\n

Pretlow says he’s been studying the issue of geofencing New York from surrounding states and getting a consensus of support from casinos. He reports success on both fronts. He’s also confident that online poker could jump-start live play in New York, adding, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to see [it] in every hotel lobby. Controlling that would be an onerous task … We take baby steps.\u201d Instead, existing casinos and racinos would be the beneficiaries. Pretlow’s bobbed and weaved in the past but he sounds in earnest this time,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sinusitis had us down for the count for a few days but we’re back with a fresh serving of S&G. First off, New Year’s was boffo for Nevada (up 12%) with the Las Vegas Strip pulling in 14% more than … 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":[88,51,152,37,76,49,126,101,78,33,79,130,31,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19407"}],"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=19407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19410,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19407\/revisions\/19410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}