{"id":27622,"date":"2020-07-28T04:32:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T12:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27622"},"modified":"2023-03-09T07:39:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T15:39:16","slug":"its-coronavirus-world-we-just-live-in-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/its-coronavirus-world-we-just-live-in-it\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Coronavirus’ world, we just live in it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some days it just doesn’t pay to be Oklahoma<\/strong> Gov. Kevin Stitt<\/strong> (R). He’s lost authority over the eastern half of the Sooner State. How? The U.S. Supreme Court<\/strong>\u2014hardly a hotbed of bleeding-heart liberals\u2014ruled that historical claims by the Muscogee Creek Nation<\/strong> take precedence over state rule, turning eastern Oklahoma into one giant reservation, including Stitt’s home base of Tulsa<\/strong>. We’re still waiting to see how this shakes out for tribal gaming but it looks like a win-win. Then the Oklahoma Supreme Court<\/strong> voided Stitt’s new gaming compacts<\/a>, siding with Attorney General Mike Hunter<\/strong> and lawmakers who said that Stitt overstepped his authority by unilaterally authorizing sports betting, among other (expensive) sins<\/a>. If that weren’t enough to put Stitt in a sickbed he contracted Coronavirus<\/strong>, mainly through his own careless behavior<\/a>, having made a point of mingling, maskless, in public as much as possible. Oklahoma, in fact, has some of the laxest social-distancing rules<\/a> in the nation. And it’s paying the price. Stitt might just want to pull the blanket over his head and wait until his term is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even worse than Oklahoma in the spread of Covid-19 is our beloved Nevada<\/strong>, ranked fifth by the Centers for Disease Control<\/strong> in rising death rates. (Alabama<\/strong> is #1, followed by Florida<\/strong>.) Last Wednesday, 1,100 new cases were reported, along with 28 deaths. In the meantime, the Babylon Bee<\/em> directly skewered Gov. Steve Sisolak<\/strong>‘s hypocrisy about Big Gaming (which holds the purse strings) and Coronavirus. It reported that the (fictive) Calvary Chapel of the Desert<\/strong> had gotten around restrictions on social gathers by installing slot machines<\/a>. Throw open the doors! “Plus, it’s making up for all the lost tithing over the last few months,” said Pastor Chuck Carver, quoth the Bee<\/em> (the conservative version of The Onion<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We hate to say this but tribal casinos are being renegades<\/a> in Arizona<\/strong>, continuing to operate while gyms and movie theaters are dark, and much restaurant inventory is cordoned off. “As long as our percent positive cases are as high as they are, I don\u2019t think any of these places should be open, from a public health safety view, until we get those numbers down,\u201d said Dr. Shad Marvasti<\/strong>, director of public health at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix<\/strong>. The casinos say they’re acting responsibly and some customers concur, and what Gov. Doug Ducey<\/strong> (R) thinks is a moot point, given that the casinos are on sovereign land. Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino<\/strong>, Gila Rivers Hotels & Casinos<\/strong> and Fort McDowell Casino<\/strong> were among those who cashed in on Ducey’s May 15 reopening order, a decision made by the guv in haste, to be repented at leisure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lacking online gambling and with few other sources of income, the tribes are stuck between a variety of rocks and hard places. “The two months that we closed the casino were economically devastating to the community, our employees and vendors just as it was to so many Arizona businesses closed during that time,” said President Bernadine Burnette<\/strong> of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation<\/strong>. “Unfortunately, we are going to be dealing with this disease for a long time. There is no magic bullet that will end this short [of a] cure or vaccine, and nobody knows when either will be available. Meanwhile, we have all had to adjust our lives to this new reality. “It’s up to each tribe to set its own health standards, although Desert Diamond Casino<\/strong> (pictured<\/em>) in Glendale<\/strong> says its protocols “meet or exceed” those of the state. But some have abandoned nightly deep cleanings and tribes with multiple casinos are shuttling employees from one to the other, potentially abetting the spread of Coronavirus. One thing many tribal casinos are doing right is ending or severely restricting smoking on the premises. Still, the tribes need to put their differences aside, we submit, and form a unified approach against a common enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nebraska<\/strong>, a consortium of tribes and horsemen has qualified three gaming initiatives for the November ballot. All three need to pass as a package, as one governs taxation, another regulation and the primary one authorizes casino gambling (but not sports betting) at the state’s horse tracks. Why not sports betting? Keep The Money In Nebraska<\/strong> thinks that would be too heavy a lift, especially with having to get two-thirds majority support from the electorate. Casinos in Iowa<\/strong>\u2014particularly in Council Bluffs<\/strong>\u2014are opposed, but aren’t above playing both sides of the fence<\/a>. If passed, the racinos would be taxed at a reasonable 20%. Three-fourths would go to the state and the rest to localities. \u201cHorseracing is struggling as an industry. A lot of people remember the tracks as a big deal. We can revive an agricultural rural industry,\u201d said Ho-Chunk Inc<\/strong>. CEO Lance Morgan<\/strong>. He added, “We\u2019ve done polling that show that sixty-four percent of the people support expanded gaming. Every state that touches Nebraska has gaming. The only thing that will change is that players will save on gas money.\u201d Let’s hope he can add a couple of percentage points to that 64%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Dina Titus<\/strong> (D) like to know where $9 million in federal excise taxes from Nevada sports books went. So would we. Titus says the trail ends at “a black hole<\/a>” in the guvmint’s general fund, adding of the tax, “Sports are back. Unfortunately, the penalty on making legal sports bets never left. The handle tax makes it more difficult for legal gaming establishments to compete with illegal operators. Repealing it will push more consumers out of the black market and into a well-regulated market.\u201d We heartily agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jottings<\/em><\/strong>: Why, oh why, did Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> reopen Bally’s Las Vegas<\/strong>? Video taken yesterday and posted to Twitter<\/strong> shows a near-deserted slot floor … William Hill<\/strong> favors our old home team, the Minnesota Twins<\/strong>, to win the AL Central<\/a>. Nobody, it seems, is betting against the New York Yankees<\/strong> in the East … Free play is coming to Internet slots in New Jersey<\/strong>. Think of it as a ‘signing bonus’<\/a> … North Carolina<\/strong>‘s Catawba Nation<\/strong> has begun site work on a $300 million casino near Kings Mountain<\/strong>. They can thank South<\/em> Carolina<\/strong> Sen. Lindsey Graham<\/strong> (R), who backed their land-into-trust application, possibly as a means of keeping casinos safely across the border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some days it just doesn’t pay to be Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R). He’s lost authority over the eastern half of the Sooner State. How? The U.S. Supreme Court\u2014hardly a hotbed of bleeding-heart liberals\u2014ruled that historical claims by the Muscogee … 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":[109,113,244,14,26,283,37,86,53,156,207,261,115,33,111,130,243,31,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27622"}],"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=27622"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32444,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27622\/revisions\/32444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}