{"id":28814,"date":"2020-11-19T08:59:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T16:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=28814"},"modified":"2020-11-30T07:34:32","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T15:34:32","slug":"uneasy-lies-the-head-that-wears-crown-igts-cautious-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/uneasy-lies-the-head-that-wears-crown-igts-cautious-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Uneasy lies the head that wears Crown; IGT’s cautious future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Executives at Crown Resorts<\/strong> had better rethink that scheme to buy Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>‘s Las Vegas<\/strong> assets. The company, which has played fast and loose with money-laundering rules, has been provisionally denied permission to open its multibillion-dollar casino in Sydney<\/strong>. Regulators said they were “not comfortable<\/a>” with giving Crown the go-ahead. It’s an anti-money-laundering lesson that should resound through the casino industry loud and clear. The New South Wales Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority<\/strong> had not much choice but to clamp down on Crown after the latter admitted to AML miscreance, with money improperly channeled through VIP accounts. Imagine having to go before the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> (and possibly FinCEN<\/strong>) and spin that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s still a ray of hope for Crown. Commissioner Patricia Bergin<\/strong> is preparing a final report, due in February, one that could either let Crown off the hook or slam the door. ILGA Chairman Philip Crawford<\/strong> was shocked\u2014shocked!\u2014that there was money laundering going on at Crown, despite an accumulating pile of evidence. \u201cWe had no notice that was being done, I don\u2019t think the Bergin inquiry or counsel assisting were aware of it and it\u2019s come at the eleventh hour, literally\u2014apparently 11 o\u2019clock last night,\u201d he explained somewhat lamely. That’s awfully late for an 11-month probe of Crown. The latter’s subsidiaries, Riverbank<\/strong> and Southbank<\/strong>, accepted less-than-kosher deposits for play at Crown casinos in Perth<\/strong> and Melbourne<\/strong>. The method employed was “cuckoo smurfing”\u2014what we call “structuring”\u2014dismantling large deposits into smaller increments to avoid setting off AML alarms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Allowed Crown attorney Robert Craig<\/strong>, \u201cCrown accepts that an inference can be drawn that in some point in time, deposits into the Riverbank and Southbank accounts were more probably than not part of cuckoo smurfing activity.\u201d (Stock trading in the company was halted.) Bergin wasn’t impressed, asking, \u201cWhat are you saying Mr. Craig, really, it\u2019s either indicative of money laundering or it isn\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m saying is, an inference can be drawn from this report that in some point in time deposits into those accounts were more probably than not cuckoo smurfing activity, a form of money laundering,\u201d was Craig’s defense. \u201cWhat can\u2019t be done, based on this analysis, is an identification on whether any particular instance of a transaction is or is not money-laundering. One needs to be careful of the standard of proof one is applying as well.\u201d Obviously, Crown would be more comfortable with a lenient interpretation of the facts. However, if Bergin is ultimately merciful, Crown will be moving forward in New South Wales<\/strong> under an electron regulatory microscope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"New Jersey<\/strong> Gov. Phil Murphy<\/strong> (D) says there is no connection<\/a> between the Garden State’s Covid-19<\/strong> positivity rate and Atlantic City<\/strong>‘s casinos. We’re inclined to believe him. The positivity rate among Boardwalk casino employees is 1%, compared to a statewide 11%, much of that concentrated in the northern counties. Contrast this to South Dakota<\/strong>, where Gov. Kristi Noem<\/strong> (R) presides over a 60% positivity rate<\/a>, mocks science, does nothing and wiles her time away commissioning models for adding Donald Trump<\/strong>‘s noggin to Mount<\/strong> Rushmore<\/strong>. (We wish we were making that up.) Deadwood<\/strong> was never so aptly named. Back on Planet Earth, Ohio<\/strong> Gov. Mike DeWine <\/strong>(R) is imposing casino curfews<\/a> for a three-week cooling off period. Since Ohio casinos are outperforming the rest of the nation the pain should be relatively slight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\" International Game Technology<\/strong> got a modified vote of confidence from Credit Suisse<\/strong> analyst Ben Chaiken<\/strong>, who elevated the stock to “neutral” from “underperform.” He said he was “increasingly positive” about IGT although Wall Street<\/strong> had cooled to it even before Coronavirus<\/strong>. Chaiken’s prior caution was attributable to a slowing pace of casino openings (i.e., fewer product sales), loss of slot-floor space to sports books, pandemic-driven cost cuts among operators and lower lottery payouts in Italy<\/strong> amidst higher taxes. “Our position is that \u201922 should be reasonably close to pre-COVID-19 gaming demand; as such, the decline in street estimates feels like structurally lower expectations vs. the tail of an extended recovery,” wrote Chaiken. He added that sales projections of slots are now 25% lower than before the pandemic. It’s not a great time to be in the slot biz but at $12\/share IGT might be a low-risk play, provided you can wait until 2022 for it to pay off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Executives at Crown Resorts had better rethink that scheme to buy Sheldon Adelson‘s Las Vegas assets. The company, which has played fast and loose with money-laundering rules, has been provisionally denied permission to open its multibillion-dollar casino in Sydney. Regulators … 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":[23,103,133,219,283,29,241,264,271,248,71,25,182,243,31,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28814"}],"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=28814"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28816,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28814\/revisions\/28816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}