{"id":19958,"date":"2017-07-19T07:05:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=19958"},"modified":"2017-07-19T07:06:45","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T15:06:45","slug":"two-decades-in-detroit-juliano-out-at-sands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/two-decades-in-detroit-juliano-out-at-sands\/","title":{"rendered":"Two decades in Detroit; Juliano out at Sands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can it really be 20 years since casinos were legalized\u00a0in Detroit<\/strong>? (It’s been 18 years since MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong> opened.) Time flies and so does casino lucre — straight into city coffers. Then-Gov. John Engler<\/strong> \"\"(R) had to dragged kicking and screaming into approving Motown casinos but they’ve been a winning bet<\/a>, backstopping city revenues during a painful civic bankruptcy. Over the first 20 years of the life of the\u00a0Michigan Gaming & Revenue Act<\/strong>, $4.5 billion of casino taxes have flowed into state and city bank budgets. The casinos employ roughly 6,800 Detroiters are do business with 1,400-odd firms.<\/p>\n

Public education has been a prime beneficiary, to the tune of $1.9 billion. Regulation also appears to be working smoothly, including the state’s self-exclusion policy, which has weeded out 4,000 gamblers. Legalizing casinos in Detroit was a rocky passage and the civic administration had to fight off heavy pressure for cronyism. Two decades later, casinos as civic policy looks pretty good.<\/p>\n

* Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> President Mark Juliano<\/strong> has paid the price for letting the cat out of the bag on the abortive MGM Resorts International<\/strong> sale. He abruptly resigned his position<\/a>, effectively \"\"immediately, accompanied by some well wishes from Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>. The latter lost no time in filling Juliano’s chair, promoting Senior Vice President of Finance & Administration Brian Carr<\/strong> to the top spot. The company said there wouldn’t be any slacking off as \u00a0work will\u00a0\u201ccontinue in the efficient and professional manner to which we are all accustomed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez<\/strong>, for one, professed himself stunned by the events. So, too, did South Side Task Force Chairman Robert Hudak<\/strong>, who said, “I thought he was doing a great job,” something the casino’s numbers bear out. “His charge was to grow the business and he did that. I’m just not sure what’s going on over there anymore.”<\/p>\n

Juliano left as abruptly as he came, having taken over from\u00a0Douglas Niethold<\/strong> on the day that CEO Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> aborted sale talks with Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>. Niethold’s predecessor, Robert DeSalvio<\/strong>, fled Sands for Wynn Resorts<\/strong>, where he’s now empowered with developing Wynn Boston Harbor<\/strong>. One thing about top execs at Sands Bethlehem: They never seem to last long.<\/p>\n

* When Attorney General Jeff Sessions<\/strong> toys with reinterpreting the Federal Wire Act<\/strong>, he’s not just messing around with states that have Internet<\/strong> gambling but also those with online lotteries. It’s a constituency that just grew by one<\/a> as New Hampshire<\/strong> Gov. Chris \"\"Sununu<\/strong> (R) affixed his signature to a bill legalizing online lottery play in the Granite State. New Hampshire thus joins Illinois<\/strong>, Michigan<\/strong>, Kentucky<\/strong> and Georgia<\/strong> as online-lottery states … and they’re not liable to go quietly. For instance, the Georgia Lottery<\/strong> funds the public education system, so the Peachtree State can be expected to dig in its heels. An online lottery is also lurking amid Pennsylvania<\/strong>‘s gaming expansion package — one that is needed to close a yawning state budget deficit. Internet-based lotteries could also be on the ballots of West Virginia<\/strong> and Massachusetts<\/strong> in 2018. If Sessions tries to stem this tide, he could be on the wrong end of history. Don’t expect Sununu and other state governors to take a restricted Wire Act lying down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can it really be 20 years since casinos were legalized\u00a0in Detroit? (It’s been 18 years since MGM Grand Detroit opened.) Time flies and so does casino lucre — straight into city coffers. Then-Gov. John Engler (R) had to dragged kicking … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44,14,140,37,189,112,11,163,95,33,12,32,31,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19958"}],"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=19958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19960,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19958\/revisions\/19960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}