{"id":25711,"date":"2019-12-27T10:10:40","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T18:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=25711"},"modified":"2023-01-26T04:58:16","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T12:58:16","slug":"land-of-the-rising-frustration-gaming-hangup-in-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/land-of-the-rising-frustration-gaming-hangup-in-connecticut\/","title":{"rendered":"Land of the Rising Frustration; Gaming hangup in Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve been saying all along that the risk\/reward ratio in Japan<\/strong> isn’t that great, especially when you’re expected to build the world’s most expensive casinos, starting at $10 billion. Nothing remotely that costly has been tried in gaming, much less in an untested market. Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> \"\"has already thrown in the towel and other would-be operators may be getting cold feet. The tortoise-propelled pace of the casino-development process is just one of several frustrations<\/a> that are starting to emerge in the Nipponese market. As Bloomberg Intelligence<\/em> analyst David Bonnet<\/strong> put it,\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s so many different hurdles, it\u2019s really called into question the feasibility of these projects.\u201d Applications aren’t even being taken<\/em> until the first or second quarter of 2021. Also, Japanese joint-venture partners\u2014once considered a sine qua non<\/em> of success\u2014have been thin on the ground.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t help that one’s license has to be renewed every five years, VIP-player junkets are banned or that taxes will be a steep 30%, further depressing ROI, or that government policy frequently vacillates. As Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> President Rob \"\"Goldstein<\/strong> put it, in a conference call that captured industry attention,\u00a0\u201cNo matter how good you are at this business, that must give you pause and stop and think, \u2018is that prudent?\u2019\u201d Added Wynn Resorts<\/strong>\u00a0CEO Matt Maddox<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cWe are going to pursue Japan with vigor.\u00a0But we will not pursue it if it does not make financial sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already there are accusations of corruption, with a member of Shinzo Abe<\/strong>‘s Liberal Democratic Party<\/strong> charged with being in cahoots with an unnamed Chinese casino company, which smuggled large amount of cash into Japan. (Bribe fodder?) Goldman Sachs<\/strong> analyst\u00a0Masaru Sugiyama<\/strong> bottom-lines the Japanese conundrum\u00a0thusly, “Japan is a fairly costly market in terms of taxes and government requirements.\u00a0It\u2019s essentially a balancing act between that costly government and tax structure versus the potentially attractive market.\u201d We couldn’t say it better ourselves.<\/p>\n

* Negotiations for a gaming expansion in Connecticut<\/strong> have “hit a snag” named Gov. Ned Lamont<\/strong> (D). \u201cI\u2019m very disappointed at where we are \u2014 we put a good deal on the table (in my opinion) and we worked to make it \"\"work for your end \u2014 investing a lot of time and understanding there would be give and take for both sides. Let\u2019s discuss,\u201d Lamont wrote to Mashantucket Pequot<\/strong>\u00a0Chairman Rodney Butler<\/strong>. Lamont’s stated goal is an all-embracing solution<\/a>, possibly including sports betting, that “will avoid years and years of complex litigation.\u201d They’re looking at you, MGM Resorts International<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Lamont’s new mantra is “keep it simple” but hewing to legalization of sports betting and the expansion of the state lottery to the Internet. As the governor put it, \u201cI\u2019d like a global agreement. I\u2019d like to solve everything for world peace. But in the meantime, I\u2019m going to take what I can get.\u201d He apparently intends to cut the tribes in on sports betting, although he’s being chary with details right now. Mohegan Sun<\/strong> General Manager Jeff Hamilton<\/strong> is among those who would trade off a future casino in Bridgeport<\/strong> for some sports betting in the here and now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s gotten mucked up in this comprehensive gaming bill. And while we understand that, we understand that the state\u2019s trying to look at gaming in totality, I think to keep on kicking the can down the road and every month that sports betting does not exist is another month where the state is not generating as much revenue as they possibly can,” Hamilton told The Associated Press<\/strong>. “It seems counterintuitive, with the current economic states of the state budget.\u201d As Lamont put it to Butler, \u201cNothing will ever be perfect, but we can\u2019t let the pursuit of perfection get in the way of progress.\u201d No indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve been saying all along that the risk\/reward ratio in Japan isn’t that great, especially when you’re expected to build the world’s most expensive casinos, starting at $10 billion. Nothing remotely that costly has been tried in gaming, much less … 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":[244,251,37,171,241,264,167,33,243,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25711"}],"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=25711"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32252,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25711\/revisions\/32252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}