{"id":4249,"date":"2010-08-04T12:09:53","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T20:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=4249"},"modified":"2010-08-04T12:09:53","modified_gmt":"2010-08-04T20:09:53","slug":"east-coast-winners-losers-angles-strange-bedfellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/east-coast-winners-losers-angles-strange-bedfellows\/","title":{"rendered":"East Coast winners, losers; Angle’s strange bedfellows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I’ve become well and truly tired of writing about Massachusetts<\/strong> and its political establishment’s inability to get its act together on casino legalization. Suffice it to say that with Gov. Deval Patrick<\/strong> and House Speaker Robert DeLeo<\/strong> (left<\/em>) firmly entrenched in opposing foxholes<\/a>, chances of enactment this year are now zip. The losers are Bay State taxpayers, as millions of dollars in casino licensing fees and revenues slip through Beacon Hill’s fingers (especially as the value of a casino license itself continues to plummet).<\/p>\n

There’s plenty of blame<\/strong> to go around, starting with Patrick, whose waffling on how much gambling he wanted and where frustrated the efforts of lawmakers to craft a compromise. DeLeo’s not entirely blameless, either, as his desire to “juice” horse tracks into racino status not only makes a joke of regulation but gives tracks several furlongs lead over resort-casino owners, who’d have to apply, get licensed, invest and build, trying to play catch-up with the horsey set and its slot parlors.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, isn’t it past time to rethink of the sport of kings entirely? If it’s inherently unprofitable perhaps its future is to serve as an amenity for slot houses. The races would be a diversionary loss-leader for the casino: sort of like Matt Goss<\/strong> on four hooves.<\/p>\n

Speaking of diminished value<\/strong> … that falling object you just saw was the asking price of an Atlantic City<\/strong> casino (not that you can sell one for love or money these days). Pennsylvania<\/strong> casinos notched an 18% revenue increase<\/a> on the strength of slot play alone. We can now only brace ourselves for an undoubtedly dire July-revenue dispatch from the Boardwalk, especially when the early table game winnings from the Keystone State are tallied.<\/p>\n

Long-struggling Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> trampolined into third place ($24.5 million) on the strength of a 25% gambling revenue increase. Both it and second-place finisher Harrah’s Chester<\/strong> ($27 million, flat from 2009) are still vastly outpaced by Parx Casino<\/strong>, which raked in nearly $37 million and grew its take 19%. At least this month’s report provides some much-needed hope for Sands, which has been on track to be a money-losing dinosaur and is still years away from completion. Perhaps parent Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> can finally start recouping its whopping $743 million investment — or at least up the asking price whenever COO Michael A. Leven<\/strong> gets around to peddling it, as he’s hinted he might.<\/p>\n

\"\"Hmmm<\/strong> … is our friend Sharron Angle<\/strong> cozying up to the anti-gambling crowd? Check out her newest endorser, GING-PAC<\/strong> and decide for yourself<\/a>. It’s not crystal-clear but GING-PAC list of favorites includes some of the champion prudes of our time … along with one<\/a> of “Casino Jack” Abramoff’<\/strong>s pet congressmen. However, Angle herself — feeling the need for cash? — has scrubbed the no-casino-money pledge, along with some vaguely anti-industry language from her Web site (bottom of page<\/a>). Just to keep us guessing, Original-Recipe Angle said she “does not oppose casinos,” which is kind of like me saying I do not oppose your continuing to draw breath … but is a remarkably cool attitude toward the Silver State’s leading industry. New & Improved Angle’s platform simply keeps mum on the issue.<\/p>\n

Somebody please<\/strong> tell me there’s an acceptable third-party candidate out there! And if Nevada<\/strong> were to elect an anti-gambling senator, wouldn’t that be a heckuva thing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve become well and truly tired of writing about Massachusetts and its political establishment’s inability to get its act together on casino legalization. Suffice it to say that with Gov. Deval Patrick and House Speaker Robert DeLeo (left) firmly entrenched … 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":[23,28,14,26,4,7,67,112,95,33,111,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249"}],"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=4249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4253,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions\/4253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}