{"id":25827,"date":"2020-01-14T10:40:43","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T18:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=25827"},"modified":"2020-10-16T07:08:57","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T15:08:57","slug":"big-mgm-payday-halting-casino-extortion-wynn-scammed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/big-mgm-payday-halting-casino-extortion-wynn-scammed\/","title":{"rendered":"Big MGM payday; Halting casino extortion; Wynn scammed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Betting the farm on Japan<\/strong>, CEO of MGM Resorts International Jim Murren<\/strong>\u00a0has realized his goal of selling MGM Grand<\/strong> and Mandalay Bay<\/strong>. The price was a sweet $4.6 billion<\/a> it will only cost MGM $292 million a year to lease them back and operate them. The buyers are a consortium<\/a> that includes Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust<\/strong>. MGM expects a speedy close<\/a>, in 1Q20. We’ll have more details, including Wall Street<\/strong>‘s reaction, as we get them.<\/p>\n

* Spectacle Entertainment<\/strong> could save as much as $3 million in the next two years, depending on action by the Indiana<\/strong> Lege. Casinos like Spectacle’s Terre Haute<\/strong> project have to pay “hold harmless” fees to nearby competitors’ jurisdictions. In this case, Evansville<\/strong> could collect \"\"the money from Spectacle because the latter could\u2014by a great stretch of the imagination\u2014impinge on Tropicana Evansville<\/strong>. These sorts of penalties are an affront to free enterprise and we hope they are banned. Legislation to that effect<\/a> has been introduced by Reps. Alan Morrison<\/strong> (R) and Tonya Pfaff<\/strong> (D). It would also unwind subsidies paid by Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>‘s two racinos to French Lick Resort<\/strong>. (Subsidizing a casino? Ridiculous!)<\/p>\n

As Morrison puts it, “Terre Haute was successful in getting a casino last year because we fought for it, sure, but it\u2019s also because the legislature recognized that west-central Indiana needed a spark.\u00a0With that in mind, I find hold harmless provisions counterproductive. Why would you send money from the communities that need it most?\u201d Adds Pfaff,\u00a0\u201cEvansville has been in business for almost 25 years. Why should a business just starting out have to pay a company that been successful for years?\u201d Spectacle would also be released from hold-harmless payments to\u00a0Hammond<\/strong>, East Chicago<\/strong> and Michigan City<\/strong>. Spectacle’s Terre Haute project goes before Indiana regulators on Feb. 7.<\/p>\n

* Chinese scammers looking to, so they said, raise capital for an online-casino venture falsely represented Wynn Macau<\/strong> as a backer of the ‘project.’ Wynn Resorts<\/strong> is understandably chagrined<\/a> at this besmirching of its brand. (The scam netted nearly $8 million.)\u00a0\u201cWe are highly \"\"concerned by this recently reported incident and we have been liaising with the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau<\/strong> accordingly,\u201d stated Wynn.\u00a0\u201cWynn Macau does not engage in any online investment or gaming sites. We encourage the public to be extremely wary of any sites claiming to have a connection with Wynn.\u201d It should hardly be said that one should be extremely wary of anything promising “fast [and] high” financial return but that didn’t prevent 200 marks from being gulled. Beware: The scammeisters remain at large.<\/p>\n

* Barstool Sports<\/strong> is worth $100 million but Penn National Gaming<\/strong> might pay a lot more than that<\/a> to obtain a sports-betting publisher to \"\"complement its wagering operations. Penn could easily find itself in a bidding war. Said brash Barstool founder Dave Portnoy<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cWe continue to speak or have spoken with everybody from DraftKings<\/strong> to FanDuel<\/strong> to Stars<\/strong> to PointsBet<\/strong> to Penn to Willam Hill<\/strong> to MGM to Rush Street<\/strong>, etc.” The irreverent Barstool<\/a> would provide an Internet-media platform from which Penn could promote its gaming offerings. Sports leagues loathe Barstool, which could strain relations between a potential buyer and sports providers, but Penn evidently has made that calculation and decided to risk it.<\/p>\n

Jottings<\/strong><\/em>: Wasting no time, Spectacle Entertainment and Hard Rock International<\/strong> have broken ground on their Gary<\/strong> casino. It’s \"\"expected to cost $300 million … A volcanic eruption closed the airport in Manila<\/strong> but Philippines<\/strong> casinos remained open, health hazards be damned … Maverick Gaming<\/strong> continues to grow. Its latest pickup: Eldorado Resorts<\/strong>‘ eponymous casino in Shreveport<\/strong> for $230 million. Since Eldorado will shortly inherit top-grossing Horseshoe Bossier City<\/strong>, the Maverick-bought casino was expendable … Tennessee<\/strong>‘s state lottery continues to ponder rules for sports betting. So far 580 public comments on the draft rules have been received … Ohio<\/strong> casinos and racinos booked $1.9 billion last year, up 4% from 2018<\/a>. Kudos to then-Gov. John Kasich<\/strong> (R) for having overcome his scruples and signing this lucrative industry into being … Encore Boston Harbor<\/strong> is talking out of both sides of its mouth<\/a>. While \"\"denying that anybody has been laid off, it told Massachusetts<\/strong> regulators “it will be working to place as many impacted workers as possible into other positions.” Sounds like layoffs to us … Japan<\/strong>‘s casino-bribery scandal continues to have legs. A Kyodo News<\/em> survey found 70.5% of respondents wanting the government to review its megaresort scheme. Opposition legislators are planning to introduce a bill to undo\u00a0the Integrated Resorts Promotion Act<\/strong>. Meanwhile, add Chiba<\/strong> to the list of Japanese cities opting out of casino competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Betting the farm on Japan, CEO of MGM Resorts International Jim Murren\u00a0has realized his goal of selling MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay. The price was a sweet $4.6 billion it will only cost MGM $292 million a year to lease … 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":[244,199,117,165,68,171,189,84,62,112,282,245,71,69,192,265,243,31,9,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25827"}],"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=25827"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28280,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25827\/revisions\/28280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}