{"id":22004,"date":"2018-07-05T08:51:54","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T16:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=22004"},"modified":"2018-07-05T08:52:43","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T16:52:43","slug":"caesars-gets-swatted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/caesars-gets-swatted\/","title":{"rendered":"Caesars gets swatted; Remembering Rappaport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While the <strong>Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> takeover of <strong>Centaur Gaming<\/strong> is still expected to go through, it won&#8217;t be without some pain for Caesars. The Roman Empire has agreed to pay a $1 <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6046\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Horseshoe-Southern-Indiana-288x172.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"287\" height=\"172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Horseshoe-Southern-Indiana-288x172.jpg 287w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Horseshoe-Southern-Indiana-288x172-150x89.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\" \/>million for improperly attempting to influence Hoosier State regulators or having &#8220;violated public trust and confidence in the integrity of <strong>Indiana<\/strong>\u2019s casino industry.&#8221; Caesars essentially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indystar.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2018\/06\/28\/caesars-hit-1-m-penalty-ahead-racino-acquisition\/740310002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">tried to shake down regulators<\/a> by threatening to cancel a $90 million expansion project at <strong>Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/strong> unless a $50 million property transfer fee was waived. Why? Because they&#8217;re Caesars, they&#8217;re big and they don&#8217;t have to play by the same rules as everyone else. It&#8217;s as though <strong>Gary Loveman<\/strong> never left.<\/p>\n<p>Caesars&#8217; improprieties also extended to strong-arming members of the Legislature over the issue. The denouement was <!--more-->CEO <strong>Mark Frissora<\/strong> putting his signature on a document conceding that his company&#8217;s actions \u201ccould serve to undermine <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-15500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Frissora-276x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Frissora-276x300.jpg 276w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Frissora-138x150.jpg 138w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Frissora.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px\" \/>the public\u2019s confidence and trust in the integrity of the gaming industry in Indiana.\u201d The company also admitted &#8220;full responsibility for the matters that led to the settlement agreement.\u201d Caesars employees will have to receive compliance training and the company has to put better protocols for vetting employee communications in place. Indiana is enjoying a $55 million windfall since, in addition to the Caesars payments, it will be receiving $2 million in transfer fees apiece from <strong>Penn National Gaming<\/strong> (for <strong>Ameristar East Chicago<\/strong>) and <strong>Boyd Gaming<\/strong> (for <strong>Belterra<\/strong>). It&#8217;s a happy day for the Hoosier treasury.<\/p>\n<p>*\u00a0 While the <strong>American Gaming Association<\/strong>&#8216;s search committee for a new CEO is a boys&#8217; club it has <a href=\"https:\/\/ggbnews.com\/article\/aga-names-interim-ceo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">done something right<\/a> by appointing General Counsel\u00a0<strong>Stacy Papadopoulos<\/strong> as interim CEO. Her ascension dovetails with <strong>Geoff Freeman<\/strong>&#8216;s departure. We don&#8217;t expect any major policy initiatives from her, given her interim status but the AGA could make a significant move toward smashing gaming&#8217;s glass ceiling by making Papadopoulos&#8217; elevation permanent.<\/p>\n<p>* <strong>Felix Rappaport<\/strong> may be gone but he&#8217;s not forgotten. <em>Global Gaming Business<\/em> has reposted an August 2016 <a href=\"https:\/\/ggbnews.com\/article\/global-gaming-business-podcast-felix-rappaport-president-ceo-foxwoods-resort-casino-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">audio interview<\/a> with the <strong>Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong> CEO, enabling you to spend a half-hour in company with a remarkable man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the Caesars Entertainment takeover of Centaur Gaming is still expected to go through, it won&#8217;t be without some pain for Caesars. The Roman Empire has agreed to pay a $1 million for improperly attempting to influence Hoosier State regulators &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/caesars-gets-swatted\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,60,229,166,174,7,68,69,30,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22004"}],"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=22004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22009,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22004\/revisions\/22009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}