{"id":25807,"date":"2020-01-13T07:26:34","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T15:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=25807"},"modified":"2020-01-13T11:19:18","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T19:19:18","slug":"grumpy-old-dems-a-titan-ic-sports-book-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/grumpy-old-dems-a-titan-ic-sports-book-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Grumpy old Dems; A Titan-ic sports book win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prude of the Month has to go to Maine<\/strong> Gov. Janet Mills<\/strong> (D), who certainly looks like a cranky old battle-axe<\/a>. She vetoed a bill that would have legalized sports betting in her state, sniffing, “the majority of Maine \"\"people are [not] ready to legalize, support, endorse and promote betting on competitive athletic events.\u201d Says who? Mills’ snit fit is great news for neighboring New Hampshire<\/strong>, where Gov. Chris Sununu<\/strong> (R) will be only too happy to take spillover action, as will business partner DraftKings<\/strong>. Although there’s already a considerable body of economic evidence available (New Jersey<\/strong>, anyone?), Mills grumbled that\u00a0\u201cBefore Maine joins the frenzy of states hungry to attract this market, I believe we need to examine the issue more clearly; better understand the evolving experiences of other states; and thoughtfully determine the best approach for Maine,\u201d the best approach apparently being to do nothing.<\/p>\n

Sununu thought the Granite State would be getting phat off refugee bettors from Massachusetts<\/strong>. Mills just handed him a helluva bonus. In the meantime, solons in casino-allergic Vermont<\/strong>\u00a0(where Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/strong> [I] uses “casino” like most of us use the F-word) have actually begun to consider sports-betting legislation. Take it from us: That’s a seismic political event that they would even talk<\/em> about it.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, in sensible\u00a0states, sports books cleaned up<\/a> on the Tennessee Titans<\/strong>‘ storybook upset of the hugely favored (10 points)\u00a0Baltimore Ravens<\/strong>. Bettors laid action on the Ravens “as if Baltimore was the lock of the century,” \"\"with one MGM Grand<\/strong> punter laying $420,000 on the Ravens. He’s not so flush today. The superlatives rolled in from coast to coast. CG Technology<\/strong>‘s Tony DiTommaso<\/strong> said of the double-digit upset,\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s monster. Kills every parlay, teaser and moneyline parlay.\u201d Added Westgate Las Vegas<\/strong>‘ John Murray<\/strong>, this was\u00a0\u201cbiggest single game win of the NFL<\/strong> season to date.\u201d\u00a0PointsBet<\/strong> recorded a six-digit swing on its balance sheet, as Ravens bettors lost their shirts, like the one who plunked down 84 grand at South Point<\/strong>. Even with some Titans fans betting large (and winning larger), sports books still stood to profit handsomely.<\/p>\n

No word yet on the takings from the\u00a0Green Bay Packers<\/strong>‘ underwhelming victory over (survival of?) the Seattle Seahawks<\/strong>. This match, however, played to form with Green Bay covering the spread<\/a>. But\u00a0the Kansas City Chiefs<\/strong>‘ exciting comeback win over the Houston Texans<\/strong>,\u00a0blew out the ‘over,’<\/a> promising 51 points and delivering a mind-boggling 82. Food for Las Vegas Raiders<\/strong> thought: Houston scored 31 points and lost,<\/em> and two words: Patrick Mahomes<\/strong>. Time to man up, Malosos<\/em>. Oh, and the San Francisco 49ers<\/strong> had no trouble at all figuring out the Minnesota Vikings<\/strong>. What gives, New Orleans Saints<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

* Are Wall Street<\/strong> analysts looking into their crystal balls for Macao<\/strong> and seeing what they want<\/em> to see? Global Gaming Business<\/em> predicts that such \"\"factors as “slowing economic growth in China<\/strong>, which supplies the vast majority of the territory\u2019s gamblers; geopolitical tensions heightened by the U.S.-China trade war; months of political unrest in neighboring Hong Kong<\/strong>; a central government crackdown on cross-border gambling, which crimped business for the junkets that finance high rollers; and competition posed by the growing availability of high-level resort-scale gaming elsewhere in the region” are “firmly in the rearview mirror.”<\/p>\n

Except for an easing of the trade war, we haven’t seen evidence to support any of those other contentions<\/a>, especially with regard to troubled Hong Kong, where President Xi Jinping<\/strong>‘s government continues to refuse to \"\"make concessions. Overseas resorts aren’t going away (quite the contrary) and the Beijing<\/strong> government has issued no warm fuzzies toward junketeers. Macao’s casino economy should be better this year than last, on that everyone is agreed. How much<\/em> better remains to be seen. Growth will probably be modest, on an easy comparison. Still, there’s at least one positive augury for which we can hope. Wrote Nomura Instinet<\/strong> analyst Harry Curtis<\/strong>, \u201cA black swan positive would be initial indications from Macau\u2019s new government on reasonable steps license holders need take to retain their concessions.\u201d We’re looking forward to that and a little concession certainty would go a long way toward encouraging further investment.<\/p>\n

* Academy Award<\/strong> nominations are out, which means that we can turn it over to the real experts: the oddsmakers<\/a>. Much to our surprise, Holocaust drama A Hidden Life<\/em> got blanked, although a Holocaust comedy<\/em> (Jojo Rabbit<\/em>) earned several nods, including one for Scarlett Johansson<\/strong>. Parasite<\/em> made the expected strong showing but hopes for The Irishman<\/em> seem dim if onetime favorite\u00a0Robert DeNiro<\/strong> was edged out for Best Actor consideration. It’s that danged Netflix<\/strong> curse, which is keeping at least four award-caliber movies out of theaters. As my wife said, “That’s a rare case of principle trumping capitalism. A stupid principle: Being crybabies.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prude of the Month has to go to Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D), who certainly looks like a cranky old battle-axe. She vetoed a bill that would have legalized sports betting in her state, sniffing, “the majority of Maine people … 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":[148,275,277,255,62,147,112,245,122,10,163,74,243,193,38,184],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25807"}],"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=25807"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25820,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25807\/revisions\/25820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}