{"id":24747,"date":"2019-08-22T07:43:49","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T15:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=24747"},"modified":"2019-08-22T07:43:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T15:43:49","slug":"sheldons-sphere-inflating-nevada-not-keeping-up-with-the-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/sheldons-sphere-inflating-nevada-not-keeping-up-with-the-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheldon&#8217;s Sphere inflating; Nevada not keeping up with the times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Madison Square Garden<\/strong> is confronting a major cost overrun on its spherical event center near <strong>Venelazzo<\/strong>, meant to\u2014among other things\u2014aggrandize the ego of <strong>Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>. Shares of MSG were sent <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-22127\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sheldons-Sphere-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sheldons-Sphere-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sheldons-Sphere-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sheldons-Sphere.jpg 653w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>staggering by the revelation that the $1.2 billion cost had ballooned to $1.7 billion. To put that in perspective, <strong>MGM Resorts International<\/strong> spent only $375 million to construct <strong>T-Mobile Arena<\/strong>. Or, put another way, you could build four T-Mobiles for the cost of Sheldon&#8217;s Sphere and still have hundreds of millions left over. &#8220;MSG plans to open the high-tech <strong>Las Vegas<\/strong> venue in 2021. It will host concerts, product launches, award shows and sporting events and feature an interior display the size of three football fields,&#8221; reported <em>Bloomberg<\/em>. Still, think of the possibilities: Sheldon Adelson&#8217;s noggin projected on a screen hundreds of feet high. The horror.<\/p>\n<p>* In the latest strange twist of the <strong>Philippines<\/strong>&#8216; online-gambling saga, the government has requested that terrestrial hubs of Internet gaming be moved further away from <!--more-->military bases, for fear that Chinese workers could be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-08-18\/philippines-defense-secretary-calls-for-shift-of-gaming-centers?srnd=markets-vp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">doubling as spies<\/a> for <strong>Beijing<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cKnowing that Chinese companies are mandated by the Chinese government to assist in intel collection for their government, it is not far-fetched that individuals, likewise, could be compelled to do so,\u201d warned\u00a0Defense Secretary <strong>Delfin Lorenzana<\/strong>. In a bit of tit for tat, Chinese officials said the same could apply to Filipino workers in <strong>China<\/strong>.\u00a0You can&#8217;t make up this stuff.<\/p>\n<p>* <strong>Nevada<\/strong> may be the sports betting capital of <strong>America<\/strong>, but that standing could be threatened, all due to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/business\/casinos-gaming\/nevada-regulators-may-need-to-revisit-sportsbook-registration-rules-1829049\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a failure by the industry<\/a> to catch up to the latest developments in mobile wagering. If you don&#8217;t schlep down to your local sports book and create an account, game over. (A similar problem is faced in <strong>Illinois<\/strong> and 10 other states.) \u201cNevada was the leader in being able to allow mobile wagering [first], dating clear back to the wager pager. But it has not taken the full leap with mobile registration,\u201d says <strong>Global Market Advisors<\/strong>&#8216; <strong>Brendan Bussmann<\/strong>. It also incentivizes punters to stick with illegal bookies rather than get off their couch and register.<\/p>\n<p>Places like <strong>New Jersey<\/strong>, which allow remote registration, could eat Nevada&#8217;s lunch if the Silver State doesn&#8217;t evolve. Whatever you do, if you&#8217;re in Nevada and don&#8217;t have an account, DON&#8217;T wait until game time to go to the sports book and open one, lest you be caught in a long line before kickoff and can&#8217;t place that <strong>Cincinnati Bengals<\/strong> wager you cherished. In an attempt to prop up casino attendance, Nevada regulators have avoided making registration easier. \u201cThe basic argument is, there are casinos everywhere. It\u2019s not that big of a deal to go to a casino,\u201d says gaming attorney <strong>Tony Cabot<\/strong>. Yeah, let&#8217;s not do anything. That&#8217;s the spirit.<\/p>\n<p>* Taking the role of counsel for the defense, the <em>Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>&#8216;s <strong>Richard Velotta<\/strong> goes above and beyond the call of duty in denouncing the <strong>Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong>&#8216;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/business\/business-columns\/inside-gaming\/expensive-wynn-monitor-oversees-problems-already-solved-1829038\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">use of a monitor<\/a> of <strong>Wynn Resorts&#8217; compliance<\/strong>. Oblivious to the irony that a culture of sexual predation ran rampant on Nevada regulators&#8217; watch, Velotta writes that &#8220;regulators tend to trust casino companies\u2014trust built from an over 50-year relationship.&#8221; That&#8217;s precisely the problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Madison Square Garden is confronting a major cost overrun on its spherical event center near Venelazzo, meant to\u2014among other things\u2014aggrandize the ego of Sheldon Adelson. Shares of MSG were sent staggering by the revelation that the $1.2 billion cost had &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/sheldons-sphere-inflating-nevada-not-keeping-up-with-the-times\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,37,112,245,207,248,192,25,232,12,243,9,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24747"}],"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=24747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24748,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24747\/revisions\/24748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}