{"id":26941,"date":"2020-04-30T10:39:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T18:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=26941"},"modified":"2020-04-30T10:39:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T18:39:32","slug":"fauci-on-sports-churchill-downs-on-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/fauci-on-sports-churchill-downs-on-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Fauci on sports; Churchill Downs &#8220;on track&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bad news, sports bettors. Given the absence of widespread testing for <strong>Coronavirus<\/strong>, Dr. <strong>Anthony Fauci<\/strong> is backpedaling on his projections that professional sports could resume this year. (As Fauci has said elsewhere, a model is just a model; when you get new data it changes.) \u201cIf you can\u2019t guarantee safety, then <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22274\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MLB.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MLB.png 225w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MLB-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>unfortunately you\u2019re going to have to bite the bullet and say, \u2018We may have to go without this sport for this season,\u2019\u201d Fauci told the <em>Boston Globe<\/em>. National leaders are in various states of aggressiveness on this issue, ranging from <strong>New York<\/strong> Gov. <strong>Andrew Cuomo<\/strong> (yes), <strong>California<\/strong> Gov. <strong>Gavin Newsom<\/strong> (maybe) to <strong>Los Angeles<\/strong> Mayor <strong>Eric Garcetti<\/strong> (no). \u201cIf we let our desire to prematurely get back to normal, we can only get ourselves right back in the same hole we were in a few weeks ago,\u201d Fauci told the <em>Globe<\/em>, adding that major leagues would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2020\/04\/29\/sports\/some-sports-may-have-skip-this-year-fauci-says\/?et_rid=753721489&amp;s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have to be prepared to respond<\/a> were there a new spike in <strong>Covid-19<\/strong> cases.<\/p>\n<p>Fauci&#8217;s nostrums\u00a0for resumption of sports include:<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;[W]e have the capability of identifying, isolating, and contact tracing.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Improved hygiene, social distancing and facial coverings.<\/li>\n<li>Quarantine and regularly test players, particularly in contact sports.<\/li>\n<li>Have at least a 14-day runway before resuming play (given the incubation period of the virus).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;You don\u2019t want the economy to completely crumble. But sports are important also for the well-being and the mental health of the country.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Lotteries for attendance at sports events with an artificially limited number of fans.<\/li>\n<li>No banner ceremony for Fauci&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Washington Nationals<\/strong> without fans in the stands? &#8220;That&#8217;s a good choice.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cI would love to be able to have all sports back,&#8221; Fauci concluded. \u201cBut as a health official and a physician and a scientist, I have to say, right now, when you look at the country, we\u2019re not ready for that yet &#8230;\u00a0the virus decides how quickly you\u2019re going to get back to normal. You can try and influence the virus by your mitigation programs, but at the end of the day, you\u2019ve got to get the virus under some sort of control before you start resuming normal activity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>* Without sports to bet upon and no casinos in which to play, day-trade investors <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/one-wall-street-veterans-explanation-of-weird-investor-behavior-gambling-185404104.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are speculating more<\/a> on the stock market. <strong>Robinhood<\/strong> says it has seen\u00a0\u201chistoric participation and activity\u201d with exponential increases from February to March.\u00a0\u201cRetail tends to sell sudden shocks that cause incremental unemployment because, well, fear is a powerful motivator to action and many investors want liquidity in case they lose their jobs,\u201d explained <strong>DataTrek<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Jessica Rabe<\/strong>. Beneficiaries include\u00a0<strong>Aurora Cannabis<\/strong>, <strong>Ford<\/strong>, <strong>General Electric<\/strong>, <strong>Disney<\/strong> and <strong>GoPro<\/strong>. Rabe likens the jolt of\u00a0\u201cholding a hat-sized stock into an up 3% open on the <strong>S&amp;P<\/strong>\u201d to the high of having a full house in poker.\u00a0If you can eke out a lean second quarter, gaming stocks are priced to move right now. Why not take the plunge?<\/p>\n<p>* Coronavirus was good for business at live-dealer online casino <strong>Evolution Gaming<\/strong>. First-quarter profit <a href=\"https:\/\/calvinayre.com\/2020\/04\/27\/business\/evolution-gaming-doubles-profits-live-casino\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was up 90%<\/a> as business went through the roof. Experts predicted this kind of phenomenon and we&#8217;re seeing it borne out. Pandemic-driven Asian markets led the way, as revenue tripled, followed by <strong>North America<\/strong> with a 54% increase. The <strong>United Kingdom<\/strong> actually underperformed, strangely enough. Evolution&#8217;s <strong>Pennsylvania<\/strong> studio is on hold until sometime late this year.<\/p>\n<p>* <strong>Churchill Downs<\/strong>&#8216; first-quarter report &#8220;reflected fairly strong operating trends&#8221; prior to casino shutdowns, according to <strong>JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst <strong>Daniel Politzer<\/strong>. $253 million in revenue represented a 5% slippage from 1Q19, which is pretty impressive all things considered. CHDN&#8217;s $701 million cash on hand is &#8220;ample liquidity,&#8221; although Churchill Downs has drawn down all but $6 million of its line of credit. Indeed, with a $20 million monthly cash burn (enough to last it for years), Politzer estimates that the company can continue to spend on growth-directed projects.<\/p>\n<p>One of those is a $13.5 million smoking patio at <strong>Derby City<\/strong>, newly announced, with 195 &#8220;historical racing&#8221; terminals. <strong>Oak Grove<\/strong> racino is said to be &#8220;on track&#8221; on a September opening, while CHDN is putting $38 million into <strong>Turfway Park<\/strong>. Something has to give and it&#8217;s going to be maintenance. Derby City is real cash-flow engine, so one can hardly quibble with the additional investment. Online-wagering revenue was actually up, at $68 million, &#8220;various racetracks are still conducting live races, and there is limited competing sports content to bet on remotely,&#8221; making up for a 12% decline in casino winnings.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Jottings<\/strong><\/em>: Jobless claims in <strong>Massachusetts<\/strong> represent 24% of the Bay State&#8217;s entire workforce, including three casino staffs &#8230; <strong>Missouri<\/strong> has given <strong>Scientific Games<\/strong> a one-year bump in its contract to supply instant games to the Show-Me State&#8217;s lottery &#8230; <strong>Wynn Resorts<\/strong> is <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7167\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/wynn-pic.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/wynn-pic.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/wynn-pic-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>providing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktnv.com\/news\/coronavirus\/wynn-resorts-offering-free-coronavirus-testing-to-employees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">free Covid-19 testing<\/a> to its employees, in conjunction with <strong>University Medical Center<\/strong>. A new lab at UMC has the capability to perform &#8220;thousands&#8221; of tests per day. Wynn has also seconded 70 call-center employees to <strong>Clark County<\/strong> to assist with contact tracing &#8230; <strong>Lawrence Ho<\/strong> has liquidated his last 10% in <strong>Crown Resorts<\/strong>, ending what is described as a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.watoday.com.au\/business\/companies\/lawrence-ho-s-melco-makes-full-retreat-from-crown-resorts-20200429-p54o6p.html?ref=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">disastrous<\/a>&#8221; foray into <strong>Australia<\/strong>&#8216;s gaming market. <strong>Blackstone Group<\/strong> picked up the shares at a $328 million loss for <strong>Melco Resorts &amp; Entertainment<\/strong>. Cost-cutting is the rule now at Melco. Ho has foresworn his salary, sacked nine top execs and more cost cuts are on the way. Exiting, Melco collected a $20 million Crown dividend, even as the latter&#8217;s employees are hitting the breadlines &#8230; <strong>GameCo<\/strong> has received regulatory approval to deploy its skill-based slots in <strong>Nevada<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bad news, sports bettors. Given the absence of widespread testing for Coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci is backpedaling on his projections that professional sports could resume this year. (As Fauci has said elsewhere, a model is just a model; when you &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/fauci-on-sports-churchill-downs-on-track\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[103,113,176,219,14,218,283,22,37,116,94,264,224,112,222,39,207,95,25,160,74,8,38,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26941"}],"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=26941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26947,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26941\/revisions\/26947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}