Wynn: Elaine did me dirty; New Jersey rakes it in

On the principle that two wrongs make a right, disgraced casino mogul Steve Wynn is accusing ex-wife Elaine Wynn of stirring up the Wall Street Journal story that ended his career. This comes by way of testimony by one Renée Palleggi that Mrs. Wynn paid her a six-figure sum to accuse Mr. Wynn of rape. Palleggi adds that Elaine Wynn gave the Journal the names of 150 women to ask about her husband’s sexual misconduct. Where there’s that much smoke there’s bound to be a modicum of fire. (Elaine Wynn denies the allegations.) The testimony comes as Steve Wynn tries to snuff out a lawsuit by former hairdresser Jorgen Nielsen that now-CEO Matt Maddox and others at Wynn Resorts engaged in espionage against him for having taken a public stand against Mr. Wynn. “They say Nielsen is a self-described close friend of Elaine’s and thinks she’ll benefit from his efforts,” reports Bloomberg.

For his part, Nielsen said he was deposed in favor of Andrea Hissom‘s favorite stylist. (Hissom’s son, model Nick “Hizzy” Hissom was once seriously  proposed by Steve Wynn as his successor.) Nielsen, who is being sued by Mr. Wynn for defamation, is seeking $500,000 in damages. His attorney says Wynn Resorts is still “in lockstep” with its founder, despite claims to have expunged all traces of him. As for Palleggi, she describes herself as a close friend of Steve Wynn and even named her son Wynn out of gratitude. Ewwww! Brain bleach!

* Here’s an excellent feature on “the carpetbagging gamblers of the Garden State,” disenfranchised New York citizens who are trekking to the fringes of New Jersey to place sports bets. They can’t do it in the Gotham area, a situation unlikely to change anytime soon. “I know people who drive to the Vince Lombardi rest station just to make their bets,” said former Garden State Gov. Chris Christie (R). It’s a big win for GeoComply, maker of New Jersey’s highly effective geofencing software. 80% of all mobile wagers are being made within 10 miles of the state border. According to FanDuel, 25% of its business is attributable to New Yorkers. As Esquire writes of the train terminals and rest areas that are the new Lourdes of sports bettors, “The Borgata it isn’t. But convenience beats out coddling … the house is open all day and all night, and it’s less than twenty minutes from midtown Manhattan.”

In other New Jersey news, you can now place bets on e-sports, at least to the extent of the League of Legends World Championship, the Super Bowl of e-sports. Borgata immediately posted odds on the LoL, as it’s known. Casino prexy Marcus Glover said, “We are grateful to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement for their partnership in helping advance such an innovative initiative.” Borgata’s example was rapidly followed by FanDuel and PlaySugarHouse and FoxBet. The move is timely, coming as it does on the heels of a new study that says e-sports viewers will reach 300 million by 2022. A lot of them won’t be of gambling age but that’s still a tranche the casino industry will want to cultivate.

Hey, Michael Mathis—couldn’t you have put on a necktie to announce Red Sox Winter Weekend? Or was it Casual Friday?

In addition to the 300 million frequent viewers, an additional 347 million are expected to watch occasionally. Frequent viewership in 2012 was ‘only’ 58 million. 57% of frequent viewers are from the Asia Pacific region, which will be music to the gaming industry’s ears. A relatively paltry 12% hail from the United States, although that number is expected to swell to 46 million by 2023.

* Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida, has opened its guitar-shaped hotel and it’s a stunner. The design is so iconoclastic—to say nothing of iconic—that it’s no wonder the company intends to replicate it in other settings going forward. The Seminoles (or rather, their architects) have even figured out a way to make the truncated neck of the guitar appear whole, using light cannons to project its image 20,000 feet upward at night. Luxor light beam, look to thy laurels!

According to NewAtlas.com, “The entire building is covered in 16,800 V-Sticks – strips of LED fixtures that can individually light up to display different colors and patterns at different speeds and directions. The whole thing can be carefully choreographed to make for some impressive sound and light shows.” Clearly the Seminoles have put their $1.5 billion investment to good use.

* In an effort to shore up her floundering presidential campaign (staff in New Hampshire were recently downsized), Sen. Kamala Harris (D) held a town hall with the Culinary Union, joining Joseph Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) in seeking the Culinary Union vote. It may be too little, too late for Harris, who vastly trails Biden in Nevada. That didn’t stop her from throwing shade on Station Casinos owners Frank III and Lorenzo Fertitta, citing the low taxes for which they’re eligible while criticizing them for nickel-and-diming their employees.

The Culinary promises that this is the first in a series of town halls to be held with presidential candidates (not that they appear to be bothering with any of the GOP aspirants) so we’ll see who makes the trek to Las Vegas to court the Culinary endorsement.

Jottings: Imperial Pacific Corp., which is building a casino on Saipan, had its offices raided by the FBI last week, which also paid a visit to the governor of the Northern Marianas Islands. Corruption in the Northern Marianas? You could knock us over with a feather … Could Virgin Las Vegas break with the hotel industry by eschewing resort fees? That’s what CEO Raul Leal says. We’re going to hold him to it … A story about MGM China on Casino.org was accompanied by a photo of Stanley Ho. That’s a burn … Ho-Chunk Gaming in Madison has banned e-cigarettes and vaping from its premises. The move comes amid heightened scrutiny of vaping products … The Seneca Nation has been ordered by a federal judge to pay $355 million to New York State, money that the tribe has held in escrow during a revenue-sharing feud with Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). Expect an appeal.