{"id":19982,"date":"2017-07-25T08:10:47","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T16:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=19982"},"modified":"2017-07-25T08:11:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T16:11:10","slug":"mohegan-sun-rules-conflict-over-e-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mohegan-sun-rules-conflict-over-e-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Mohegan Sun rules; Conflict over e-sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Executives at Mohegan Gaming Entertainment<\/strong> can take a victory lap this morning. Readers of USA Today<\/em> voted Mohegan Sun<\/strong> the finest casino in America<\/a>, edging out Caesars Palace<\/strong> for the top spot. \"\"Bracketing Caesars was another tribal casino, Pechanga Resort & Casino<\/strong>, in California<\/strong>. Another Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> property that is up and coming rapidly, The Cromwell<\/strong>, took the #8 spot. The dark horse on the list, given its small market, was Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong>, in Sioux City<\/strong>, Iowa<\/strong>. Hard Rock urged its patrons to stuff the ballot box and the lobbying campaign paid off<\/a>. Just below Hard Rock, in the #10 spot, was Station Casinos<\/strong>‘ flagship property, Red Rock Resort<\/strong>. Other casinos on the list were L’Auberge du Lac<\/strong> (#4), Borgata<\/strong> (a surprisingly low #5), Peppermill Resort Spa Casino<\/strong>, in Reno<\/strong> (a surprisingly high #6) and Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong> (lucky #7).<\/p>\n

The big takeaway from the survey is that, except for Caesars Entertainment, Las Vegas<\/strong> got skunked. Where is the love for Wynncore<\/strong>, Venelazzo<\/strong> or the plethora of MGM Resorts International<\/strong> properties? Steve Wynn<\/strong>, Sheldon Adelson<\/a> and Jim Murren<\/strong> all have some soul-searching to do.<\/p>\n

* It’s full speed ahead for Desert Diamond Casino<\/strong>, the Trump administration having approved the Tohono O’odham<\/strong> nation’s compact with Arizona<\/strong> Gov. Doug Ducey<\/strong> (R). The federal benediction means that Class III gaming can start (the temporary Desert Diamond facility had been offering 1,089 units of electronic bingo), although one news report says that Vegas-style slots could be months away. Table games probably won’t arrive until the permanent, $400 million Desert Diamond casino is finished in 2019.<\/p>\n

At present, gambling is conducted out of a “big box” facility that will eventually be used for back-of-house functions. An imminent change at Desert Diamond will be that alcohol sales can commence. The T-Os, as they’re known locally, will have to build Desert Diamond to last: They’ve agreed not to open any other casinos in the Phoenix area until 2041.<\/p>\n

* “Gaming CEO says e-sports a good bet for the future,” quoth the Las Vegas Sun<\/em>. “Fighting game tournament Evo in Las Vegas questionable on betting,” replies the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>. The contradictory bulletins reflect the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference<\/strong>, held at Bally’s Las Vegas<\/strong> this week. Downtown Grand<\/strong> CEO Seth Schorr<\/strong>, who’s been the pacesetter on the industry’s tentative embrace of e-sports was the one taking the upbeat view<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be the guy pouring the Kool-Aid<\/strong> and not drinking it,” he told attendees. “But I want to be the long-term guy. If you\u2019re just worrying about the next three years, I wouldn\u2019t even entertain it. But if you\u2019re making games or looking at a longer period, then yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing the previously unthinkable, nay, heretical concept of charging for casino parking, Schorr said the rise of e-sports was part of a tectonic shift in all phases of the industry. \u201cIf, 10 years ago, we had talked about the nightclub business and someone said we\u2019re going to generate a huge percentage of our revenues \u2014 not just revenues but profits \u2014 from booze in an industry that traditionally gave away booze to get people to gamble,” Schorr said, “they\u2019d have call that person crazy.”<\/p>\n

On the flip side, the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> was shocked — shocked! — the minors attending the Evolution Championship Series<\/strong> (Evo) were betting on the outcome. Wagers at EVO have been known to go as high as $3,000.\u00a0\u201cGenerally speaking, it is not illegal to wager socially, unless somebody is taking a cut. If anything inappropriate is going on, then we will certainly delve into that very deeply,\u201d said NGCB Chairman A.G. Burnett<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Iowa<\/strong> tourist\u00a0Renae Bonestroo<\/strong> was indignant to learn that 17-year-old Junior’s hobby was permeated with gambling. Yet she opposed the idea of regulating gambling at e-sports tourneys, unlike referee Nick Nevas<\/strong>, who felt that regulation would bring not only legitimacy but growth to e-sports. While the NGCB is just beginning to examine e-sports proper, it’s wrist-slapped some Internet<\/strong> gaming sites which offered social wagering in return for a rake of the money wagered.<\/p>\n

FiveGen CEO Sam McMullen<\/strong> said the horse has already fled the barn<\/a>, adding, “money matching and internationally formal bookmaking is happening.\u00a0This wagering presents a huge opportunity for Nevada if we can get our arms around how to make it technologically viable and standardized to be available to a public that clearly wants us to create a way for it to be legal and possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former EVO hosts such as Station Casinos and Caesars Entertainment ran for the hills when the R-J<\/em> tried to get them to comment on e-sports wagering, obviously a touchy subject. MGM was slightly flippant, its spokeswoman saying,\u00a0\u201cWe typically don\u2019t monitor the social interactions of our guests.\u201d Since EVO is currently taking place at Mandalay Bay<\/strong>, it may be in MGM’s interest not to know too well what’s happening under the lion’s snout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Executives at Mohegan Gaming Entertainment can take a victory lap this morning. Readers of USA Today voted Mohegan Sun the finest casino in America, edging out Caesars Palace for the top spot. Bracketing Caesars was another tribal casino, Pechanga Resort … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[109,23,34,51,220,166,7,86,84,11,167,30,25,79,12,57,32,9,19,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19982"}],"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=19982"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19984,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19982\/revisions\/19984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}