{"id":27371,"date":"2020-06-22T10:08:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T18:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27371"},"modified":"2020-06-23T08:28:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T16:28:10","slug":"dodds-dud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/dodds-dud\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodd’s dud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An attempt to please all major players in the California<\/strong> gambling industry is dead in the Golden State Lege. Sponsor state Sen. Bill Dodd<\/strong> (D) tried to appease card rooms by offering them table games and positioning mobile sports betting. That was a no-go with the state’s tribes, for whom concessions to card rooms are anathema. According to Global Gaming Business<\/em>, “The amendments to Dodd\u2019s bill would mandate rotation of the dealing at card clubs, mandate fees for players, create a moratorium on new cardroom licenses and table games, and limit the growth of cardrooms while making it harder for them to relocate. It would also restrict advertising.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pechanga Band of Luise\u00f1o<\/strong> Indians Chairman Mark Macarro<\/strong> didn’t hold back. He wrote to Dodd, \u201cYou\u2019ve heard the expression lipstick on a pig? This adds the mascara on the same pig. It just got worse, is what happened. It talks about enforcement language, which is really enforcing the games the cardrooms will play, but after they get to legalize the illegal things they\u2019re doing now.\u201d Added tribal lobbyist David Quintana<\/strong>, \u201cUnfortunately, these amendments were worked out without the opposition at the table. They still fall exceedingly short of anything close to being acceptable and so the tribes who were opposed are still opposed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

For their part, the card rooms said Dodd was merely ratifying the status quo and, while they weren’t happy with some of the restrictions in the bill, they could live with it. Hearings on the bill were postponed at least until tomorrow, more likely the autumn. As presently structured, Dodd’s bill would allow walk-up sports betting at tribal casinos and horse tracks starting in September 21, in time for NFL<\/strong> play. Dodd even tried to sweeten the deal for tracks and tribes by halving the licensing fee. No dice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another tribal\/track alliance came justthisclose to qualifying for the November ballot with a rival sports-betting constitutional amendment. “Meaningless window dressing” was what spokesman Jacob Mejia<\/strong> said of the Dodd amendments. \u201cThe bill would still repeal tribal gaming rights and hand them to cardrooms that have been raided by the FBI <\/strong>for money laundering and have been involved with loan sharking and other criminal activities.\u201d Mejia’s coalition has given up on the 2020 election and is now looking toward 2022. If voted in, it would be a very sweet deal for the tribes, giving them craps and roulette, in addition to sports wagering. If it were on the ballot this year, S&G<\/em> would endorse it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Schuetz<\/strong> argues that it’s time to retire the phrase “back of the house” and his reasoning will make you think<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a classic case of a solution in search of a problem. Although Internet gambling is illegal in Australia<\/strong>, one do-gooder wants social gaming banned as well. The bluenose in question is Andrew Wilkie<\/strong>, the Independent Australian Member of Parliament for Clark<\/strong>, Tasmania<\/strong>. A bill he has introduced would reclassify social gaming as gambling, levying financial penalties on violators. Wilkie sees social gaming as a ‘gateway drug<\/a>‘ to real gambling, sniffing that “they normalize gambling behaviours, increase the player’s confidence in winning and make gambling seem more socially acceptable and risk-free.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also claims that Australians are the biggest gambling losers in the world, out $1,200 a year per capita. Those gosh-darned “social media effectively prepare children for gambling with real money later in life, because they familiarize underage users with how to play casino games.\u201d He also wants terrestrial casinos to put bet limits on ‘fruit machines’ and give them slower spins. We don’t know if all this moralism will make it through Parliament but rather doubt it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s costing MGM China<\/strong> twice as much to stay in business as it is making at the tables and slots. Revenues in April were a measly $16 million. Even so, the company is going forward with its VIP-oriented South Tower Suites<\/strong> at MGM Cotai<\/strong>. MGM is also “limiting staff on site, implementing a hiring freeze and introducing voluntary unpaid leave.” MGM China will probably be losing money hand over fist for several months yet … but it’s Pansy Ho<\/strong>‘s problem now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An attempt to please all major players in the California gambling industry is dead in the Golden State Lege. Sponsor state Sen. Bill Dodd (D) tried to appease card rooms by offering them table games and positioning mobile sports betting. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[103,34,37,62,245,33,243,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27371"}],"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=27371"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27391,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27371\/revisions\/27391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}