{"id":21874,"date":"2018-06-13T07:12:48","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T15:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=21874"},"modified":"2018-06-13T07:12:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T15:12:48","slug":"new-jersey-ready-for-action-strip-club-upstages-hard-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/new-jersey-ready-for-action-strip-club-upstages-hard-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey ready for action; Strip club upstages Hard Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jersey<\/strong> Gov. Phil Murphy<\/strong> (D) still plans to place his first sports wager at Monmouth Park<\/strong> tomorrow but Borgata<\/strong> is trying to crash the \"\"party<\/a>. The megaresort issued a statement saying “we are moving ahead with all possible speed to begin accepting legal sports bets as soon as required regulatory approvals are in place.\u201d To rub it in, MGM Resorts International<\/strong> added,\u00a0\u201cHaving spent decades successfully operating sportsbooks in Nevada<\/strong>, building trust with regulators, MGM Resorts is positioned to be a leader in sports wagering.\u201d Translation: Who do you trust with your money?<\/p>\n

In view of the lead time Atlantic City<\/strong> casinos and Freehold Raceway<\/strong> have had to prepare for this contingency, they are surprisingly unready. Some, like the Golden Nugget<\/strong>, promise to limp into action by the start of NFL<\/strong> season. Now that Delaware<\/strong> and New Jersey have paved the way, analysts expect Mississippi<\/strong>\u00a0to be next, followed by West Virginia<\/strong> (where the Legislature and governor are at odds over ‘integrity fees’), Pennsylvania<\/strong> (which might smother the baby in the crib with taxes) and Illinois<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Back in Atlantic City, Hard Rock International<\/strong> finds itself the unwilling host to Scores<\/strong> strip club, which it had unsuccessfully tried to evict<\/a>. Scores is promising a seven-chamber\u00a0“revolutionary social and sensory adult entertainment complex,” sprawling across 36,000 square feet.\u00a0“We are truly excited to relaunch the revolutionary Scores experience, preserving Atlantic City’s status as a 24-hour city with world-class nightlife,” gloated Managing Partner Bob Gans<\/strong>. Hard Rock, which had argued in court that Scores represented “impediment or potential denigration of its brand,” had no comment.<\/p>\n

* \u201cWe can\u2019t help but think that the proposed board structure is a bit messy, with too many interested parties. This complicated structure \"\"leaves room for a potential power tussle within the board, given the lack of clear control.\u201d So wrote JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst DS Kim<\/strong> of the post-Stanley Ho<\/strong> era at Sociedade de Jogos de Macau<\/strong>. As executive director, Angela Leong<\/strong> (right<\/em>) seemingly comes out on top but past adversary Pansy Ho<\/strong>, who also owns a sizeable chunk of MGM Grand Paradise<\/strong>, is riding sidecar<\/a> as co-chair of SJM. Timothy Fok<\/strong>, son of a former Stanley Ho business partner, rounds out the corporate Cerberus now steering SJM … and potentially fighting for control.<\/p>\n

As for the patriarch, he is 97 and wheelchair-bound. However, I wouldn’t bet against him putting in an appearance at the opening of $4.6 billion Grand Lisboa Palace<\/strong>, sometime late next year.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Richard Velotta<\/strong> sorts out lies, damned lies and visitation statistics when it comes to Las Vegas<\/strong>‘ 2018 tourism slump. What he finds<\/a> is enlightening.<\/p>\n

* Wynn Resorts<\/strong>, while on tenterhooks with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong>, made an announcement<\/a> to tell us what we already know: That they’ve spent $1 billion on Encore Boston<\/strong> and it \"\"will open next June. Expect some traffic disruption in the immediate area *this* summer, as Wynn embarks upon roadwork to achieve promised fixes to the Sullivan Square<\/strong> area.<\/p>\n

* The international press has been making heavy weather of a new law in Switzerland<\/strong>\u00a0that limits Internet gambling<\/a> only to firms and casinos located within the company. “The vote spells a crushing defeat for opponents, who warned that the restrictions are \u2018worthy of an authoritarian state\u2019, and amount to \u2018censorship of the internet\u2019,” wailed one newspaper. Weird, but Switzerland is just doing what Nevada<\/strong>, Delaware and New Jersey already do, and I don’t recall any of them being called authoritarian states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) still plans to place his first sports wager at Monmouth Park tomorrow but Borgata is trying to crash the party. The megaresort issued a statement saying “we are moving ahead with all possible speed … 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":[23,164,165,58,22,37,62,112,11,35,207,95,111,213,74,61,31,9,129,19,139,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874"}],"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=21874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21875,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874\/revisions\/21875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}