{"id":27601,"date":"2020-07-24T10:54:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T18:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27601"},"modified":"2020-07-24T10:54:49","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T18:54:49","slug":"case-bets-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-36\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Something good came out of Washington, D.C.<\/strong> today. (How often can one type that sentence?) Reps. Dina Titus<\/strong> (D) and Guy Reschenthaler<\/strong> (R) introduced bipartisan legislation to repeal the excise taxes and head taxes (a $50 annual levy on every employee receiving bets) imposed by the guvmint on legal sports books. We don’t know how an avaricious Congress will react, but go for it. Or, as American Gaming Association<\/strong> President Bill Miller<\/strong> said, “To absorb the unnecessary burden of these taxes, legal sportsbooks are forced to offer worse odds and payouts or reduce investment in promoting legal betting channels to the public. Furthermore, the head tax serves as an impediment to hiring at a time when providing jobs is critical.” Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, we’re still admiring Miller’s verbal jujitsu before the Senate Judiciary Committee<\/strong>. Intransigence would have gotten him nowhere but, if you read between the lines of Miller’s statement to the committee, he outlines what sort of federal regulation (emphasizing a crackdown on illegal betting sites) the gaming industry will and won’t accept. We hope Sens. Mitt Romney<\/strong> (R) and Chuck Schumer<\/strong> (D) were listening. As for committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham<\/strong> (R), he’s so far off on the fringe regarding gambling that his views are probably irrelevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the course of highlighting new safe-gaming products<\/a>, the narrative was derailed by a stemwinder from manufacturer<\/a> Darryl Rosenblatt<\/strong>, who sounded for all the world like an environmental activist than a corporate exec, accusing Big Gaming of being in denial about Covid-19<\/strong>. \u201cThe tribal nations have a different perspective from commercial casinos, which uses shibboleth posing as function. Tribal casinos want a permanent solution … We thought commercial casinos would be super concerned about the welfare of their guests, but we were na\u00efve. The attitude at commercial casinos is that Covid doesn\u2019t exist, and go and enjoy your day. \u2026 But for the tribes, we\u2019re seen as a saving grace. They were on the forefront of making people wear masks.\u201d Continued Rosenblatt, \u201cYou can\u2019t social distance in a casino, that\u2019s the reality. This disease doesn\u2019t care, it doesn\u2019t take prisoners … Until this elephant in the room is addressed, you won\u2019t have large numbers of people return. Baby Boomers are susceptible, and they know it. You have a different consumer, who doesn\u2019t take Covid seriously. They travel in packs and mix it up with poor Baby Boomers who can\u2019t sit for four hours with a mask. The state needs to take the gaming industry and throttle it a little bit. The regulators understand the science, but stop short of what is needed to keep people safe.\u201d By the way, guess what Rosenblatt’s company specializes in? Social distancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online gambling is something that the government of the Philippines<\/strong> barely tolerates and China<\/strong> outright despises. However, the problem may be solving itself. Unlike many other Internet-gaming jurisdictions, the Philippines has seen its “POGO” industry strangling on Coronavirus<\/strong>. That’s partly because they were shut down<\/a> during the worst of the pandemic and are up and running now under tight restrictions. After all, they’re deemed an “unessential” business. (Tough to argue with that.) Bloomberg<\/em> reports, “This could be the tipping point for the country\u2019s gaming industry, which has faced waves of pressure including the threat of higher taxes, lawmakers\u2019 calls for an outright gaming ban and divisions over ugly accusations its largely migrant workforce brought crime to the country, and also worsened the virus outbreak.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Pagcor<\/strong> Assistant Vice President Jos\u00e9 Tria<\/strong> says “We\u2019re just convincing them to stay,\u201d two of the 60 licensed POGOs have closed and that’s expected to be just the beginning. Pagcor’s worries include a sudden access of empty office space, if POGOs continue to flee. That wouldn’t bother lawmakers who are trying to have the demimonde outlawed, saying it is \u201cmaking a mockery of our laws, peace and order.\u201d The online operators have been plagued, in part, by accusations that they’re luring Chinese citizens to work for them, then confiscating their passports and holding them in virtual indentured servitude. That’s caused much umbrage in Beijing<\/strong>, even though its own human-rights record is beyond appalling<\/a>, especially its mistreatment of the Uighur Muslims<\/strong>. We see no winners in this POGO scenario, only losers and victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jottings<\/em><\/strong>: DraftKings<\/strong> got around the moratorium<\/a> on daily fantasy sports in Illinois<\/strong> by cutting a deal with Casino Queen<\/strong>. The latter will become “DraftKings at Casino Queen.” Howard Stutz<\/strong> reports that the Queen “will take on DraftKings’ persona.” Does this mean it will employ only douchebags who wear their hats backward and high-five each other in public? … The statue of Benny Binion<\/strong> on horseback at South Point<\/strong> is the latest Las Vegas<\/strong> icon to don a PPE mask, to get the message across. (Ditto his horse.) If Benny’s man enough to do it, what’s stopping you? … Love Island<\/em> is a TV series whose premise gives us the creeps. Nevertheless, the fornication-friendly show is coming to The Cromwell<\/strong>, albeit under Covid-19<\/strong> constraints. (STDs are presumably free to run wild.) Nice to see that Tom Reeg<\/strong> is already driving the Caesars brand straight into the gutter … VitalVegas<\/em> author Scott Roeben<\/strong> visited Binion’s Gambling Hall<\/strong> and found precisely zero players on the casino floor\u2014and has the pictures to prove it … Speaking of emptiness on Fremont Street<\/strong>, CEO Patrick Hughes<\/strong> of the Fremont Street Experience<\/strong> is resigning. It’s getting pretty lonely under the canopy … Not everything on Fremont Street is gloom and doom. The Golden Nugget<\/strong> is reopening its sports book next Thursday at 11 a.m. Get your bets ready … Finally, two more reasons to look forward to Virgin Hotel Las Vegas<\/strong>‘ autumn debut. Hakkasan<\/strong>‘s Casa Calavera<\/strong> restaurant is branching out to Virgin and Kassi Club<\/strong> from Los Angeles<\/strong> is launching a Sin City offshoot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something good came out of Washington, D.C. today. (How often can one type that sentence?) Reps. Dina Titus (D) and Guy Reschenthaler (R) introduced bipartisan legislation to repeal the excise taxes and head taxes (a $50 annual levy on every … 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":[249,244,275,18,277,4,190,287,283,58,37,122,192,33,25,243,31,161,17,263],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27601"}],"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=27601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27602,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27601\/revisions\/27602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}