{"id":8857,"date":"2012-04-23T15:19:57","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T23:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=8857"},"modified":"2012-04-23T16:07:30","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T00:07:30","slug":"maryland-accord-totters-massachusetts-cities-get-testy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/maryland-accord-totters-massachusetts-cities-get-testy\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland accord totters; Massachusetts cities get testy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Never say “never” but a pet casino project of Maryland<\/strong> Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller Jr<\/strong>. is in critical condition<\/a>. The sweetheart deal, which would gift-wrap a casino for National Harbor<\/strong> in Miller’s Prince George’s County<\/strong> (in return for concessions to existing operators), is pegged at a cost of $1 billion. Considering Maryland’s 67% tax — to be “relaxed” to 60% if Miller’s bill passes — this is an enterprise only for the foolhardy. Even sitting across the river from the District of Columbia<\/strong>, potentially interdicting business that would go to Baltimore<\/strong>, spending a cool billion would be an exceptionally difficult investment to recoup when the state is taking six dollars out of every 10 in your till.<\/p>\n

\"\"While Gov. Martin O’Malley<\/strong> (D, right<\/em>) is no friend of gaming in general, he’s got a point that Miller and his colleagues are moonstruck<\/a>. They’re bedazzled by the idea that a Prince George’s casino is the panacea that will cure the state’s budgetary ills. Neither in the long term nor the short one is a megaresort going to close a $500 million revenue shortfall. And, as long as the Lege is rewriting the rules of casino development in the state, why leave Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s Rosecroft Raceway<\/strong> out of the discussion altogether? Penn has been an obnoxious brat and poor corporate citizen, to be sure, stirring up political trouble and probably making few Annapolis<\/strong> friends along the way, but the peremptory award of a site to National Harbor is another instance of why lawmakers would be wise to put the brakes on this attempted stampede.<\/p>\n

\"\"Good fences don’t make good neighbors<\/strong>, at least when casino development in Massachusetts<\/strong> is on the table. At first blush, it might seem absurd that the good burghers of Walpole<\/strong> want a say in whether adjoining Foxborough<\/strong> can permit Steve Wynn<\/strong> to build a casino (left<\/em>) in its city limits. Similarly, while Suffolk Downs<\/strong> may straddle East Boston<\/strong> and Revere<\/strong>, its traffic could back up into nearby Winthrop<\/strong> if Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> builds a racino at the downs. Walpole’s infrastructure will likely be drawn upon by Wynn’s project<\/a>. The “spillover” impact is going to turn what looked like an orderly series of votes into the equivalent of a raucous New England<\/strong> town meeting, as as many municipalities as possible try to be heard. As for Walpole resident Mike McCarthy<\/strong>, who will likely have a Wynn Resorts<\/strong> casino sitting a mere 50 feet from his kids’ jungle gym, he has our sympathies.<\/p>\n

“Trailer Station” fans<\/strong> had best fill up the gas tank before seeking out the next eight-hour Nevada<\/strong> casino. On May 22, United Coin<\/strong> sets up gambling-for-a-day in a defunct supermarket … in Carson City<\/strong>. Trust me, it’s not worth the trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Never say “never” but a pet casino project of Maryland Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller Jr. is in critical condition. The sweetheart deal, which would gift-wrap a casino for National Harbor in Miller’s Prince George’s County (in return for … 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":[28,14,7,72,112,69,33,111,25,79,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857"}],"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=8857"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8863,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857\/revisions\/8863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}