{"id":24881,"date":"2019-09-10T07:28:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T15:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=24881"},"modified":"2019-09-10T07:28:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T15:28:00","slug":"squeezed-in-schenectady-seminoles-step-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/squeezed-in-schenectady-seminoles-step-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Squeezed in Schenectady; Seminoles step up"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the goofs New York State<\/strong> made when authorizing upstate casinos was not to establish a level playing field of taxation. Rivers Casino Schenectady<\/strong> is hardest hit, paying 45% on its slot revenues and it’s finally decided to ask for tax relief<\/a>. “If you \"\"reduced the tax rate, you may actually still provide the same, if not more, gaming revenue to the state because you’ll have more business,” says general counsel Stacey Rowland<\/strong>. What’s particularly irksome is that Greyhound<\/strong> and other bus lines are running $25 fares to MGM Springfield, which are offset by $25 in free play and\u00a0$20\u00a0in food credit. Hell, for those benefits I’d hop on a bus to Springfield<\/strong>. “It’s very hard to compete with a Springfield when their tax percentage is so much lower,” Rowland complains. “They can then give away the bigger rooms, give away the better tickets, do all that.”<\/p>\n

Her argument is that whatever a casino can offer is predicated upon what it makes from the gaming floor, whether it’s high-quality food or good entertainment. Also, with lower taxes, Rivers \"\"could provide the marketing enticements that MGM Springfield is dangling before prospective customers. Bringing Rivers’ slot levy down to 39% or even 37%, as Rowland is asking, only seems reasonable. It’s not like Rush Street Gaming<\/strong> hasn’t been patient: It waited over two years before asking for tax relief. As Rowland puts it,\u00a0“The reality is, we are a great provider of jobs. We have almost 1,100 jobs here.\u00a0The taxes we pay are very helpful. We would just love to retain and obtain patrons and provide better amenities.”<\/p>\n

* VitalVegas<\/em> reports that “MGM 2020<\/strong> cost-cutting measures are hitting housekeeping” with rooms no longer cleaned daily unless by customer request. CEO Jim Murren<\/strong> had better be careful lest MGM Resorts International<\/strong>‘s brand equity is damaged by excessive thrift. We’re still mystified as to what economic indicators Murren saw that led him to tighten the corporate belt at a time of great profitability.<\/p>\n

* Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> has a big-ass line of credit. Las Vegas \"\"Sands<\/strong> just took out a $2.8 billion loan<\/a> to expand Marina Bay Sands<\/strong>. If you’re Adelson, a $3.3 billion expansion is a small price to pay for keeping your casino duopoly through 2030. Sands is in no hurry \u00a0to roll out its new amenities: They are scheduled for a Jan. 1, 2024 debut.<\/p>\n

* Congratulations to Martin Winkler<\/strong>, new president of Melco Resorts & Entertainment<\/strong>. He will oversee day-to-day operations<\/a> while CEO Lawrence Ho<\/strong> concentrates on “the vision thing.”<\/p>\n

* A big thank-you to the Seminole Tribe<\/strong>, which has delivered 35,000 bottles of water and counting to Dorian<\/strong>-devastated Grand Bahama \"\"Island<\/strong>. The tribe has pressed its two helicopters and Pilatus PC-12\/45<\/strong> airplane (no relation to Rob Pilatus<\/strong>) into service, running them with full fuel loads so as not to impose on Grand Bahama by trying to refuel there. Certain liberals I know think the casino industry never gives back. Here’s evidence that it does and that it’s outperforming the national\u00a0government at the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the goofs New York State made when authorizing upstate casinos was not to establish a level playing field of taxation. Rivers Casino Schenectady is hardest hit, paying 45% on its slot revenues and it’s finally decided to ask … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,14,241,94,53,222,245,101,242,200,12,108,31,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24881"}],"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=24881"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24884,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24881\/revisions\/24884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}