Details of Steve Wynn‘s site-remediation plan are starting to emerge and they include rendering tainted soil inert by mixing it with cement. What they don’t include anymore are oyster beds to process polluted Mystic River water. Government officials nixed this on the grounds that there was no way of stopping residents from harvesting and eating tainted oysters. Well, Steve tried. Give him points for creativity.
The $30 million project is estimated to take four months and some of the pollutants could qualify as antiques. Long before Monsanto, the Wynn land was used by chemical manufacturers as far back as 1868. Wynn will also be be required to pay whatever it takes to mitigate traffic congestion in Sullivan Square and every vehicle trip above a yet-to-be-specified maximum will cost him $20,000 a year. His remediation payment to Boston has been upped from $46 million to $76 million. (Wynn is taking this all very well, I have to say.) It’s premature to expect a new casino design at this point. A megaresort isn’t reimagined in a day.
* PokerStars‘ baptism as a legitimized Atlantic City casino operator is far from consummated rite, despite the promises of state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D). The actual 
fate of PokerStars is up to the political calculus of Gov. Chris Christie (R), a presidential aspirant who could take weeks — or years — to decide the matter. If Christie wants Sheldon Adelson to loosen his political purse strings in 2016, then it’s in Christie’s interest to keep PokerStars out of New Jersey. Adelson’s absolutist position against online gambling doesn’t allow Christie any wiggle room.
Poker News Daily also suggests that PokerStars parent Amaya Gaming is seeing a saturated online market in New Jersey. If that’s the case, it may be in Amaya’s interest to wait awhile before trying to force the PokerStars issue: “If they were to enter the New Jersey market at this point, they may just steal players from the PartyBorgata and WSOP operations rather than bring in any ‘new blood’ to the game.”
* Texas politicians prim stance against casino gambling may be literally driving business across the border to Mexico. A cottage casino industry is growing in Ciduad Juarez. To seasoned American players, newbie Room 802 may look small and laughable but it’s a symptom of how business is being exported to Mexico by anti-casino policies in Texas and by reformed casino regulations south of the border. (The suspicious-transaction threshold of $744 is a fraction of its U.S. equivalent.) With Room 802 and its cohorts extending their marketing tendrils into the El Paso area, it’s incumbent upon Texas to offer something to keep players at home. Que viva Mexico!
Don’t forget that Sunland Park is already in the metro-El Paso area, but it’s such a terrible proposition for gamblers, it’s little surprise people are willing to take the risk to go Juarez. I think the real question ought be to New Mexico, and what can they do to help get that property viable?