{"id":206,"date":"2009-10-12T16:55:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T20:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/10\/12\/East-Coast-antics"},"modified":"2023-01-20T06:56:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T14:56:18","slug":"east-coast-antics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/east-coast-antics\/","title":{"rendered":"East Coast antics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wrong again<\/strong>. There I was, thinking the proposed $10 million upfront fee for table games in <\/a>Pennsylvania<\/strong> was a done deal \"\"when the GOP-controlled state Senate upped it to $15 million (and if you don’t pay by June 1, it goes to $20 million). Chalk that up as a “loss” for casino owners.<\/p>\n

The latter did, more or less, get what they wanted on taxes, where they’ll pay an aggregate state\/local rate of 14%. Despite publicly requesting a 34% tax rate, Dems in the lower house are muttering that one in the “high teens” might be acceptable. The question is: In return for what?<\/p>\n

Casinos also banked a “win” when the state Senate ashcanned an amendment<\/a> that would have tripled the slot base at “resort” casinos. Since this amounted to preferential treatment for a tiny percentage of the Keystone State casino industry, it’s good to see it get the back of Lege’s hand.<\/p>\n

\"\" Power play in New York<\/strong>. In the competition for the racino contract at Aqueduct Race Track<\/strong>, those in the hunt include MGM Mirage<\/strong>, Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> and Seminole Tribe<\/strong>-owned Hard Rock Entertainment<\/strong>, along with numerous and sundry joint-venture partners.<\/p>\n

But none of them seems to have the juice of Larry J. Woolf<\/strong>‘s Navegante Group<\/strong>. After the New York Lottery Division<\/strong> had deemed Aqueduct Entertainment Group<\/strong> (in which Navegante is a partner) unqualified, Gov. David Patterson<\/strong>‘s underlings put the word out that the five-member consortium is indeed qualified. Somebody in Aqueduct Entertainment’s got pull, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n

A win for Adelson<\/strong>. While no casino company was remotely near the top of Newsweek<\/em>‘s ranking of the 500 greenest companies, Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> can claim a victory of sorts. Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>‘s firm clocks in at #128, well ahead of MGM Mirage<\/strong> (#164) and Wynn Resorts<\/strong> (#176). Given the extent to which MGM has publicized its green-friendly initiatives, particularly with regard to CityCenter<\/strong>, finishing so far behind LV Sands is tantamount to a smackdown by proxy.<\/p>\n

Several years after<\/strong> the publication of Beneath the Neon<\/em> (now available in e-book format) publications are still shocked — shocked! — to learn of Las Vegas<\/strong>‘ large (and growing) subterranean community<\/a>. Alas, we no longer have the Hooverville<\/strong> that had sprouted about a half-block north of LVA<\/em> HQ. Those hobos were a tidy bunch and made our street seem halfway populated.<\/p>\n

Marie Osmond pix<\/strong>. I’m just sayin’<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wrong again. There I was, thinking the proposed $10 million upfront fee for table games in Pennsylvania was a done deal when the GOP-controlled state Senate upped it to $15 million (and if you don’t pay by June 1, 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":[56,14,4,117,7,67,11,69,95,33,111,32,31,9,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206"}],"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=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32226,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/32226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}