{"id":6202,"date":"2011-03-31T15:28:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T23:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6202"},"modified":"2011-03-31T15:45:19","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T23:45:19","slug":"salvation-for-illinois-golden-boys-strike-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/salvation-for-illinois-golden-boys-strike-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Salvation for Illinois? “Golden Boys” strike again"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to lobbyists for MGM Resorts International<\/strong>‘s Grand Victoria<\/em> riverboat, the smoking ban in Illinois<\/strong> has stove in casino revenues by 33%. Statewide, the average is -28% since 2008 — costing the state no small amount of tax monies — while nearby Indiana<\/strong> casinos were simply flat during the Great Recession<\/strong>. But rescue may be at hand<\/a>. The Illinois House of Representatives<\/strong> narrowly voted to lift the prohibition in the Land of Lincoln. Both the state Senate and Gov. Pat Quinn<\/strong> (D) could still block the bill but this is unquestionably the best news Illinois casino owners have received in four years.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fun fact<\/strong>: Although his anti-gambling stance made him something of a nuisance in Florida<\/strong>, Sen. Marco Rubio<\/strong> (R, left<\/em>) is the son of casino workers<\/a>. An S&G<\/em> reader who was just watching Rubio on TV writes me that Sam’s Town<\/strong> was apparently Mario Rubio<\/strong>‘s place of employment. (The late Mr. Rubio’s son tends to be vague on the matter<\/a>.) Does this obligate Boyd Gaming<\/strong> to financially support Sen. Rubio’s future endeavors? I’m joking, of course, and I can’t find any Rubio-related donations from Boyd, which owns a jai-alai fronton in Florida that it once hoped to convert into a slot parlor.<\/p>\n

Although Sen. Rubio has categorically ruled out a 2012 presidential bid — making him virtually the only American to have done so — he’s coyly vague about his availability for the veepstakes. Was there something about his parents’ employment that inspired Sen. Rubio’s anti-gaming fervor, even if it did put clothes on his back once upon a time? I wonder how far under the rug Mama and Papa Rubio’s casino jobs will get swept if their son runs for national office?<\/p>\n

Follow the Bouncing “Boys”<\/strong>: Remember those two guys who bought the Golden Nugget<\/strong>, made fools of themselves in a Fox<\/strong> “reality” show, were often in regulatory hot water but managed to unload the Nugget to Tilman Fertitta<\/strong> at a big markup (in a scheme they cooked up with the Fertitta Brothers<\/strong>)? Yeah, those skirt-chasers<\/a> Tim Poster<\/strong> and Tom Breitling<\/strong>? The self-described “Golden Boys” later enjoyed a vague sinecure with Wynn Resorts<\/strong> as Geniuses Without Portfolio.<\/p>\n

\"\"Seriously, Wynncore <\/strong>never ‘fessed up as to what they were doing there although a source of mine speculated that Steve Wynn<\/strong> had ‘adopted’ them, as he sometimes did with executives who intrigued him. Perhaps he entertained the thought of them as successors, particularly since Elaine Wynn<\/strong> disappointed El Steve by failing to produce a male heir … leading to a bizarre episode in which Wynn floated the notion of bequeathing the company to fianc\u00e9e Andrea Hisson<\/strong>‘s teenage sons.<\/p>\n

But I digress<\/strong>. The “Golden Boys” have landed at UFC<\/strong> subsidiary Fertitta Interactive<\/strong>, which is partnering with Internet casino<\/a> Full Tilt Poker<\/strong>, thereby keeping a two-degrees-of-separation distance<\/a> between Station Casinos<\/strong> and the online-gambling industry. Since the official line is there will be “no tie-in” to Station, presumably Tim & Tom<\/strong> are being brought aboard to run the startup while Frank Fertitta III<\/strong> minds the store over at Station. Breitling, the smarter half of the duo, send a carefully worded e-mail to the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> voicing strong support for federal Internet<\/strong>-poker regulation — which he described as the sine qua non<\/em> for the Full Tilt alliance\u00a0 — but not actively opposing<\/a> Nevada<\/strong>‘s attempt to legalize same. Full Tilt runs a distant second to PokerStars.com<\/strong> in its number of real-money players. But since Wynn Resorts has tied the knot with PokerStars, getting the second-best choice is still a coup for the Fertittas.<\/p>\n

\"\"By the way …<\/strong> if not only Station but Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>, Wynn and MGM Resorts International<\/strong> are all agreed that federal oversight (and, let’s face it, taxation) is The Way To Go for Internet gambling, it begs a question of long standing. If they’re willing to trust Uncle Sam<\/strong> to oversee online gaming, then why not have one-size-fits-all federal regulation of casinos, instead of the current state-by-state regime? And if they’re willing to allow Internet-derived proceeds to be taxed, then why oppose a federal tax on existing casinos?<\/p>\n

I’m not saying I favor it, by any means; simply that Big Gaming’s sudden appreciation of the virtues of Washington, D.C<\/strong>.-run regulation raises a tantalizing intellectual and ideological conundrum for an industry that has tried to keep The Man at as great a distance as possible … until now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to lobbyists for MGM Resorts International‘s Grand Victoria riverboat, the smoking ban in Illinois has stove in casino revenues by 33%. Statewide, the average is -28% since 2008 — costing the state no small amount of tax monies — … 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":[60,28,14,36,7,58,68,37,11,33,25,74,57,31,129,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202"}],"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=6202"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6214,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202\/revisions\/6214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}