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Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, owner of Pennsylvania’s most profitable brick-and-mortar casino, the Parx Casino in Bensalem, was the first of nine operators to submit an application for full online gaming, including online slots, poker and table games.

The casino is now moving quickly to prepare to offer online games. Last week, Parx announced the hiring of Matthew Cullen as senior vice president of interactive gaming & sports. Cullen is charged with developing both online gaming and sports betting domains for Parx.

“Matthew is joining the Parx Casino team at a very exciting time for our company,” said Chief Technology Officer John Dixon. “With online gaming and sports betting on the near horizon, Parx Casino is perfectly positioned to offer our guests the absolute best gaming and entertainment experience anywhere in the region.

“Matthew’s unique professional pedigree of online gaming, corporate development, marketing, product and business strategy, and digital technology, makes him an ideal person to lead our expanding business footprint.”

Cullen has 25 years of experience in online gaming and digital media. He served as CEO of San Manuel Digital, president of RocketPlay (now part of AGS), and vice president of new ventures for Paddy Power Betfair.

Greenwood is partnering with GAN to launch online gaming, naming GAN as the provider of its online gaming platform in its iGaming petition to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. “GAN has demonstrated its regulated gaming capability in New Jersey and the merits of integrating with a casino management system,” Dixon told MarketWatch. “Parx Casino will have the opportunity to launch regulated gaming in Pennsylvania later this year, subject to the regulatory approval of the PGCB.”

Well-known Nevada gaming attorney Ellen Whittemore has officially joined Wynn Resorts as executive vice president and general counsel.

Whittemore, a 30-year gaming law veteran, has represented many of the largest companies in the industry. She was most recently a shareholder in the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

She replaces long-time GC Kim Sinatra, whose close ties to founder Steve Wynn made her a controversial figure after Wynn was forced to resign as chairman and CEO earlier this year amidst widespread allegations that he routinely preyed on women employed by the company for sexual favors.

Sinatra’s exit has been linked to an ongoing investigation into those allegations by regulators in Massachusetts, where the company is developing a $2.4 billion resort casino outside Boston, and her departure is the latest in a series of resignations among Steve Wynn loyalists, which now includes 60 percent of the board of directors who were in place at the start of the year.

The company did not disclose the terms of Sinatra’s severance, which Wynn’s ex-wife Elaine Wynn has challenged, calling for an independent review to judge whether her departure was “for cause”.

Ms. Wynn, who has emerged since Wynn’s ouster as the company’s largest shareholder, claims Sinatra knew of past complaints by employees reputedly victimized by the tycoon, which in at least two cases resulted in private cash settlements.

Prior to joining Brownstein in 2016, Whittemore operated Whittemore Gaming Group, a boutique law firm in Nevada. She previously served 20 years with Lionel Sawyer & Collins, one of the best-known firms in the industry. She also served as a supervising deputy attorney general in Nevada for the agency’s Gaming Division.

Deal solves problems for both operators

The parent company of Rhode Island’s Twin River Casino will acquire Delaware’s Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment and its Dover Downs racino, in a stock-swap deal that will merge the two operators into a single public company.

Dover Downs, Delaware’s only public casino, has struggled for years to maintain profitability in the face of new competition in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The Delaware legislature just voted a major tax break for the state’s three casinos, which has led to Dover Downs embarking on construction of a new restaurant and other amenities. The casino hosted the start of full-blown live sports betting in Delaware in early June, beating New Jersey as the first state outside of Nevada with full sports books.

Dover Downs officials call the Twin River merger a new beginning financially, as the company has lost money two of the past four years, including a $1 million loss last year.

Twin River Worldwide Holdings is in the midst of a major expansion, including the opening of a larger casino, the Tiverton Casino Hotel, on September 1. It will simultaneously close the Newport Grand Casino in Newport, its former rival, which Twin River purchased in 2015. Twin River also owns the former Hard Rock Biloxi in Mississippi and a Colorado racetrack.

Twin River recorded around $427 million in revenue during the first quarter (two and a half times that of Dover Downs), completing a comeback after high debt forced a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2009. The operator’s flagship Twin River Casino, one of the largest in North America, is about to open an attached 136-room hotel.

The merger with Dover Downs is seen as a quick way to go public as the operator continues to grow.

Under the agreement, the two companies will exchange shares equal to 7.225 percent of equity in the combined company. The multiple investment firms that currently own Twin River will control 92.775 percent of the new public company. New York City-based Standard General is the largest of those firms, holding about 34 percent of Twin River.

The sale still must win regulatory approvals from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and state agencies in Delaware and Rhode Island. 

“Becoming part of Twin River will be transformational for us,” said Denis McGlynn, CEO of Dover Downs, in an interview with Delaware’s News Journal. “It will make for a more stable, stand-alone entity that will invest in our people, our marketing program and our facilities so we can compete at the highest levels.”

McGlynn said the merger will not impact employment at Dover Downs, which currently has a workforce of around 1,500, with another 300 employed by outside vendors. The company eliminated 72 table-game positions in 2015, trimming back weekday table operations. “We have no fat to cut, quite honestly,” McGlynn told the News Journal. “We’ve been operating bare bones for years. But we’ll have to see down the road what the synergies are.”

State Senator Brian Bushweller, who sponsored the recent tax break for the Delaware industry, lauded the move. “I view this as completing an excellent one-two punch,” he told the News Journal. “The first punch was correcting, to a certain extent, the level of tax the state imposed on the casinos. The second punch is merging Dover Downs with a larger organization that I think can bring a lot of stability, creativity and a bright future to Dover Downs.”

In an interview with the Dover Times, Twin River spokeswoman Patti Doyle said the merger is a good fit for both companies.

“The size of the combined company should bring meaningful economies of scale, likely in the areas of health care, insurance and food and beverage, and new opportunities for future expansion,” she said. “Further, the recent tax relief in Delaware, coupled with combining best-in-class management practices, will allow the combined company to reinvest in the Dover Downs property and drive revenue growth.

“The merger is expected to create a financially stronger company which is good for Dover Downs employees, customers, and the state of Delaware.”

“You’re going to see a company that’s better able to compete in this highly competitive gaming market in the Mid Atlantic,” McGlynn added to the Times. “You’ll see investments in our people, our marketing, and our facility. It will enable us to do much more to remain competitive than we would have as a stand-alone company.”

In a separate interview with the News Journal, Doyle said part of the attraction of Dover Downs was the property’s expertise in sports betting. “The expertise that Dover Downs has in sports wagering is going to be of value to us as we prepare to launch that amenity in Rhode Island in the fall,” she said. “The expertise that Dover Downs has in the online gaming sector may be leveraged in other properties.”

Pending regulatory and SEC approval, the merger is expected to close early in 2019.

Tioga Downs Casino Resort, which opened in December 2016, del Lago Resort & Casino, which opened near Rochester in the Finger Lakes region in February 2017, Rivers Casino opened in Schenectady a little later in 2017, and Resorts World Catskills debuted in February 2018, have all posted disappointing revenue numbers, far below what their owners have projected.

All four properties are in dire need of more customers. The three casinos—minus Resorts World—combined fell short of their first-year revenue projections by more than $200 million. Rivers and Tioga Downs have recovered somewhat in the first half of this year, but del Lago’s revenue woes continue, and the property has begun shuffling upper management, bringing in industry veteran Mark Juliano in hopes of righting the ship.

But with Resorts World Catskills, the newest, largest and most expensive casino of the group, not to mention the closest of the four to New York City, undergoing similar struggles since opening in February, it’s clear that New York’s upstate market faces challenges that go beyond experienced leadership.

Along with the four commercial casinos the state is home to seven Indian casinos, 10 VLT casinos at racetracks and parimutuel betting at racetracks and OTBs. In sum, New York is saturated with options for the gambling public, and the surrounding states are no guaranteed feeder market either since the same largely holds true for them as well.

In its first four months, Resorts World Catskills has averaged $11.9 million in gaming revenue, placing the property on a pace for $143 million its first year. Owner Empire Resorts has projected $277 million. Moody’s Investor Service has been concerned enough to reassess the $900 million property’s debt, a hefty $535 million, downgrading it to a “negative” Caa1.

“The issue is not that it’s a bad property,” said Keith Foley, a Moody’s senior vice president who covers gaming. “The issue is market saturation.”

Empire Resorts CEO Ryan Eller says the marketing up to this time has been low key because not all the amenities were in place at the start, but now they’re ready to get started.

“We’ve got an integrated resort in place now and we’re expecting to ramp up our programs and customers very quickly,” he told GGB News.

Of course, it’s still early in the game. The resort’s impressive hotel has opened in stages since the February opening, and a penthouse level with 12 suites will ramp up by the end of the year. An indoor water park and a golf course are set to come on line in the middle of next year.

“They’ll certainly improve themselves when those other things open,” said Richard McGowan, a Boston College management professor specializing in gaming. “There’s a question of how much more casino activity can take place. What we have here is a classic case of over-projection.”

As the August 24 opening of the $960 million MGM Springfield looms, MGM told state gaming regulators last week that it will hire 3,000 employees before the casino opens, and that it is approaching its diversity and local hiring goals.

However, it’s not there yet. Last week the casino resort had 762 workers on staff.

MGM Springfield President Mike Mathis said the company had not achieved its 50 percent hiring goal for women because of the executives that were brought on early.

“We had to on-board what is typically a more male-dominated department, such as security,” he said.

That didn’t mollify Gay Cameron of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. “We have to change that, though,” she said. A former deputy superintendent with the New Jersey State Police, she added that women make great security officers. “Women are great at diffusing the situations.” Cameron is a former deputy superintendent with the New Jersey State Police.

Mathis said the percentage of women hires will increase the closer they come to opening, especially in customer service and marketing.

The casino is ahead of its goals of hiring 35 percent of its workforce from Springfield, and ahead of hiring veterans.

Mathis said the company will employ 2,229 employees fulltime, 506 part-time and 266 on-call.

MGM’s construction workforce hiring goals have exceeded expectations, with about 20% of the work done by racial or ethnic minorities, ahead of the 15.3 percent goal.

Jill Griffin, the MGC’s director of workforce, supplier and diversity development, pronounced herself “very impressed” by MGM’s hiring efforts.

Marikate Murren, MGM Springfield’s vice president of human resources, said, “Overall, MGM Springfield is on track to meet its overall hiring goals of approximately 3,000 employees, 35% city residents, no more than 10% from outside the region, as well as the goals for minorities, women and veterans.”

Also during the MGC meeting the panel approved of MGM’s final design plan. Left unapproved was one area where MGM is behind in meeting a commitment: that of providing 54 units of market rate housing in the downtown. MGM is negotiating with the city and developers to acquire land for this purpose.

The commission also approved MGM’s regional tourism plan. MGM has formed partnerships with various organizations, such as the Greater Springfield Convention Visitors Bureau, and the Mass. Office of Travel and Tourism. MGM is committed to promoting both its casino and regional attractions.

The plan’s goal says MGM is “to drive visitation and incremental revenue to the property, city and region through a multitude of channels including advertising, database, cross-marketing and partnerships, entertainment and employee marketing” and “”to position MGM Springfield, Pioneer Valley and Western Massachusetts as a world class, full-service destination for the region.”

For example, the gaming company is teaming up with the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority to provide a free downtown shuttle that links the casino with other tourist attractions.

It is also supporting existing entertainment venues in the city and region. In one instance it will book MGM entertainment events at the nearby CityStage and Symphony Hall.

It will employ its existing database of 30 million guests to provide offerings at local golf course, ski resorts and other attractions.

It will also partner with Amtrak and CTrail to offer ticket discounts to its customers.

It has multi-year promotional agreements with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Six Flags New England.

Many businesses are cropping up in the vicinity of the casino, taking advantage of the proximity to the MGM money machine. Even those who originally opposed it.

WAMC reported last week that the church group Epiphany Development Corporation, which campaigned against the casino, has opened a boutique hotel that will benefit from being near the casino. The hotel development plans, which repurposed a blighted building that had been unused for years. were announced 12 years ago, so the church’s good fortune isn’t hypocritical. Archbishop Paul Baymon, who heads the development corporation, observed. “Timing is good. I am grateful to God and we are here.”

A Holiday Inn Express, it has almost 100 rooms and operates within walking distance of the casino.

MGM is unveiling a new marketing campaign aimed at attracting guests from the region. The theme is “This is a First” emphasizing MGM’s claim that it will be providing the first casino entertainment destination of its kind in the region. In one ad the announcer proclaims: “The best of Las Vegas is coming to the heart of New England. This is a first.” The casino will have 2,550 slots, 120 tables, a poker room and high limit VIP space.

MGM is targeting Springfield, Boston, Albany, Providence and Worcester, cities within 150 mile radius. It will include TV, print, digital, billboards and social media.

For a year the casino has been announcing “We’re ready to roar!” referencing MGM’s signature icon Leo the Lion.

MGM’s Michael Mathis announced last week, “With this campaign, we are marking the grand arrival of an unparalleled experience from dining and entertainment to nightlife and gaming.” He added, “Each component is meant to capture the energy of the resort and showcase the ‘wow’ moments guests will encounter throughout the destination.”

Its toughest competition will be the two Indian casinos of Connecticut, Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun, and casinos in Rhode Island and New York. MGM has been successful in its efforts to postpone one competitor; the satellite casino being built by the Mohegan and Pequot tribes in East Windsor.

Meanwhile, employees that are already on the property are completing work on dining and retail venue, while others are being trained in the MGM way of doing things.

Saverino Mancini, the casino’s director of communications, told the Republican, “We also have hundreds of employees here on the property who are in the middle of their on-site training. We have chefs and cooks practicing on various menu items, and employees are testing the food and the procedures around the service. We are still walking around with hard hats, but it’s a very exciting time.”

Besides the casino, there will be a 250-room hotel, food and drink, retail shopping, a luxury cinema where movie-goers can dine while they are entertained, all served by a free 3,400 unit parking structure.

Dining options will include Cal Marie, combining seafood and Italian cuisine, the Chandler Steakhouse, the TAP Sports Bar, which will have a 10-lane bowling alley and arcade; Wicked Noodles, a pan-Asian eatery, Jack’s Lobster Shack, Bill’s Diner, the Hearth Grill, offering healthier food, and the South End Market, offering wine and cheese bar, gelato and espresso.

Vice President of Food & Beverage Anthony Caratozzolo told the Republican,

“When our doors open, guests will find a resort that blurs the line between food and entertainment, and we can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been working on.”

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, who worked to bring the casino to his city, beginning in 2011 when the state approved the Expanded Gaming Act, is reveling in what is considered to be the largest commercial development in the region’s history. He hopes this is just the beginning.

He said, “Like many urban centers in America, there’s been a ‘chip on our shoulders.’ My administration has worked tirelessly to reinvent/redefine our city – to move away from, ‘what do you expect, its Springfield?’ to now, ‘why not Springfield!’ We continue to accomplish this goal.”

He added, “It’s an exciting time for our city.”

The grand opening parade will be led by the Budweiser Clydesdale horses.

Encore Boston Harbor

Investigators for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission say they will complete their probe into Wynn Resorts by the end of August.

Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby told the Boston Herald, “We’re still targeting this summer, but we’re going to be as specific as we can in the next week or two to try to give you a more definitive schedule. Some of our people are in Vegas now for what will hopefully will be one of the last rounds.”

The commission’s gumshoes are looking into allegations that Wynn executives knew that the company’s founder and former CEO and president Steve Wynn was the target of multiple allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior and paid a multi-million settlement to a massage therapist who claimed he attempted rape. Wynn resigned and divested himself of all Wynn stock earlier the year.

The purpose of the investigation is to determine whether corporate executives kept these allegations secret while they were applying for a license to operate a casino in the Boston metro area.

Several weeks ago, Wynn Resorts announced that the company’s general counsel, Kim Sinatra, who was allegedly aware of the settlement, will be leaving the company.

Crosby said this was not done at the behest of the commission.

Currently the investigators are at Wynn’s corporate headquarters in Las Vegas, possibly speaking to witnesses.

Wynn is also conducting its own internal investigation, according to spokesman Michael Weaver, who announced this week: “The Wynn Resorts Board of Directors received an update from the Special Committee of the Board yesterday afternoon.” He added, “The Special Committee is committed to its previously announced timeline and anticipates completing the process in the third quarter of this year.”

The World Series of Poker set an attendance record for the sixth straight year as 123,865 players turned out for the 50-day tournament event.

The prize pool of the 78-tournament series at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino was the largest in its 49-year history, amounting to more than $266 million in prize money—an increase of more than $35 million compared to last year, according to the Associated Press.

A record 18,105 participants got a cut of the prize pool with 28 earning at least $1 million. The series’ Main Event saw 7,874 entries, making it the second largest in the series’ history. Indianapolis resident John Cynn won the main event taking home $8.8 million.

The Fox Sports network will be among the first to cash in on the legalization of sports betting with new programming, according to an exclusive report in the Sporting News.

SN reports that Fox is planning a sports gambling-centered TV program starring Charissa Thompson, Brent Musburger, oddsmaker Todd Fuhrman and Fox Sports radio commentator Clay Travis. Thompson will host a discussion program described by a source as “around the horn for sports betting.”

Fox declined to comment to SN on the report, but the publication quoted sources as saying the FS1 network will host what will be one of the first major sports betting shows on cable TV. The cast would provide an eclectic mix, designed to compete with ESPN. Thompson is a former ESPN analyst, and the controversial Travis has blasted ESPN for being too liberal. Fuhrman and Musburger are the sports gambling experts, with Musburger still broadcasting a radio show from the South Point casino in Las Vegas.

Musburger, who has made gambling references in his commentaries for years at CBS and ESPN before starting his current radio show on VSiN, last week offered advice to first-time sports bettors, saying no one should expect to make a living off sports wagers.

“Be careful,” Musburger said, according to USA Today. “I would tell you right now that not many people can beat those numbers over a daily, weekly, however you want to do it.

“If you’ve never been around it, never experienced it… listen to what people tell you, how to approach it. But don’t think that you’re going to walk in and say ‘this is my life, this what I’m going to do. I’m going to make a good living at this, I can beat these numbers.’ I’m here to tell you you can’t.

“Let’s be honest, there are a few guys and a few syndicates who have been successful at it over the years, but there’s a reason why those casinos get bigger and bigger. My warning would be just kind of tiptoe in, stay in the shallow end.”

After weeks of inaction, there has been renewed interest in the recently approved mini-casinos in Pennsylvania.

Stadium Casino LLC, the partnership of Pennsylvania’s Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment and Baltimore’s Cordish Companies that is currently building the Live! casino hotel in South Philadelphia, last week became the first Pennsylvania casino licensee to pinpoint an exact location and submit a project plan for one of the 10 Category 4 “mini-casinos” created by last year’s gaming expansion law.

The first official plan submitted to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is for a mini-casino in the two-story space currently occupied by the soon-to-close Bon-Ton store at Westmoreland Mall in Hempfield Township, on state Route 30 around 30 miles rom Pittsburgh.

On Wednesday, Stadium Casino and mall owner CBL Properties announced plans to develop an approximately 100,000-square-foot casino and entertainment complex in the space of the store, which will close in August. A construction timeline will be determined after the gaming board approves the project.

Stadium was the first licensee to submit its proposal without requesting an extension of the six-month period to pinpoint a location after being awarded a license, as three other projects have done. The partnership paid $40.1 million for the license, the second satellite casino license awarded.

The casino is projected to create more than 600 permanent jobs and generate millions of dollars annually for the local community.

“CBL’s strategy is to reinvent its properties by bringing new and exciting experiences to our shoppers,” said Steven Lebovitz, CBL’s chief executive officer. “We are adding fitness, dining, hotels and other uses to properties throughout our portfolio. The addition of a casino to Westmoreland Mall is the ultimate combination of entertainment, dining and experience.

“We are especially pleased to attract leading developers of high-profile gaming and entertainment destinations, such as the Cordish Companies and Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment. This combination of gaming and new dining venues, which is the first in the CBL portfolio, will draw new traffic to Westmoreland Mall from across the region, positioning the property for long-term growth and success.”

Joseph Weinberg, CEO of Cordish Global Gaming and partner in

Commenting on the announcement, Joe Weinberg, Partner in Stadium Casino, added, “We look forward to working with the Gaming Control Board, Hempfield Township and Westmoreland County in creating an exciting new destination in Westmoreland County. The property is ideally situated in the region, with excellent infrastructure and road networks in place. The synergy of this new gaming and entertainment facility with the existing retail and dining amenities in the property and surrounding area will be tremendous.”

State Senator Kim Ward, who represents Hempfield Township, was one of the main supporters of placing the mini-casino at the mall, and one of the sponsors of the mini-casino legislation last year. “I’ve worked for nine years to expand gaming to allow ancillary casinos, so it’s gratifying to see this finally come to fruition,” Ward said. “This project will bring a sizeable increase in our tax base, a significant number of full-time jobs, and will help revitalize the Westmoreland Mall complex.”

The mini-casinos are limited to 750 slot machines, and up to 30 table games with an additional fee. All must be tied to an existing casino licensee. Stadium has paid the extra fee, and will offer 30 table games in addition to the slots.

Mount Airy Granted Extension on Mini-Casino

The state Gaming Control Board has granted Mount Airy Casino Resort a two-month extension on its deadline to pinpoint a location and provide a plan for its Category 4 mini-casino planned for Lawrence County in the western part of the state.

Mount Airy was the third successful bidder for one of 10 Category 4 licenses, which authorizes a satellite casino with a maximum of 750 slot machines and up to 30 table games with an additional $2 million fee. The operator’ winning bid, submitted in February, was just under $21.2 million.

Under Pennsylvania’s gaming expansion law, Category 4 licensees must identify a 15-mile radius within which the mini-casino will be located, and then have six months to pinpoint a location and provide a plan for the property. Mount Airy’s 15-mile radius is centered in New Castle, a city 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

The extension gives Mount Airy until October 4 to identify an exact location. Lawrence County officials are eager for the facility to be built, after spending nearly 10 years as the host of a Category 1 racetrack casino that was never built. The planned Lawrence Downs went through several owners that failed to come up with financing, before the gaming board canceled the license, which has yet to be rebid.

Officials in Big Beaver borough, in Beaver County but still within Mount Airy’s 15-mile radius, also have met with Mount Airy officials in an attempt to lure the operator to build its mini-casino there. The three Beaver County commissi0oners met with casino officials in May.

While the commissioners signed a non-disclosure agreement, Commission Chairman Daniel Camp told the Beaver County Times last week that the county is a finalist to host the casino. The 15-mile radius also allows Mount Airy to consider properties in Butler and Mercer counties.

“We’re looking at an investment into the community in two ways: up to 500 permanent jobs once it is built and hundreds of construction jobs,” Camp told the newspaper. “The most important is the money the county and municipality will receive from the gambling tax.”

The extension, the second granted by the board, was one of two requested last week. Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment, owner of the Parx Casino in Bensalem, also asked for a two-month extension for its mini-casino plan, on a bid of $8.1 million submitted in February. Two weeks ago, Penn National Gaming was granted an extension on its plan for a mini-casino centered in York.

Meanwhile, Greenwood was slated to make its presentation to the board of South Middleton Township to discuss the possibility of locating its central Pennsylvania satellite casino in the township. South Middleton opted out of the satellite casino program last December; casino officials hope to convince officials to opt back into the program.

Penn Drops Mini-Casino Lawsuit

Penn National Gaming, which holds two of the 10 licenses for Category 4 mini-casinos created by last fall’s gaming expansion law, has dropped a lawsuit it filed shortly after the law was enacted that sought to invalidate the mini-casino program.

Penn filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking to block the Category 4 program on the basis that the law put the operator at a competitive disadvantage because of its requirement that no mini-casino can be located within 25 miles of an existing casino. Most of the customers of the operator’s flagship property, Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course outside Harrisburg, come from farther than 25 miles, a fact Penn said would cause cannibalization of its primary customer base.

Penn protected that customer base by winning the first satellite casino license, identifying a 15-mile radius centered in York, at an industry-topping bid of more than $50 million. It won a second mini-casino license in the second round of bids, for just over the $7.5 million minimum bid.

In a statement to the PennLive news site last week, Penn National spokesman Eric Schippers said planning the two new satellite casinos took priority over pursuing the lawsuit.

“We made a business decision to withdraw our lawsuits against the Category 4 law,” Schippers said. “While we continue to believe in the merits of our arguments, we have chosen to focus entirely on our development efforts for our two new casinos, rather than pursue what is likely to be a lengthy and costly legal battle.”

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has levied a $52,000 fine on the Valley Forge Casino in King of Prussia, reportedly for going overboard on issuing free-play rewards to its loyalty club members.

According to the board, lower-level employees were found to have regulatory loaded loyalty cards with free play rewards, totaling 557 times in 2016 and 2017 for a total or $411,000, in violation of regulations requiring close control of such player rewards.

Casino lawyer Michael D. Fabius told the Philadelphia Inquirer that no fraud was involved in the free-play awards, as each was approved by a supervisor with the authority to issue comps.

“We have absolute confidence that every one of these free-play transactions was issued to a real customer with a real business reason,” Fabius said. He noted that 170 customers received the slot play noted by the board, with 80 percent of the award money going to the casino’s top 20 players.

The gaming board has been hyper-sensitive to excessive free play since a scam by an executive of Mohegan Sun Pocono in which he loaded free play totaling $420,000 to cards to a cocktail waitress, using numbers she lifted from player cards while serving drinks. The waitress then played the amount through and cashed out to split the money with the executive. That scam resulted in a $1 million fine for Mohegan, the largest fine issued by the board in the 14-year history of gaming in Pennsylvania.

Valley Forge officials agreed to pay the fine in the current case.

The $48 million, 38,000 square foot second-level casino space recently opened at MGM National Harbor in Prince George’s County, Maryland. President and Chief Operating Officer Melonie Johnson said, “It’s a great result when positive customer demand drives a business to expand its offerings. This year, we have set new casino revenue marks. Expanding our gaming offerings will help us meet the desire of our customers for more luxury gaming entertainment space while welcoming new players to the resort as well. Most importantly, we are providing 250 additional jobs and additional tax revenues to Prince George’s County and the State of Maryland.”

Johnson added the expansion created 250 new jobs, bringing the total to 4,200. The $1.4 billion casino resort opened near Washington, D.C. in December 2016.

The property’s poker room moved to the new second level. It now offers seven more tables for a total of 46 with seating for 460 players. A new high-limit poker room features two tables.

A new off-track betting lounge, in partnership with the Maryland Jockey Club, founded in Annapolis in 1743, offers 24 screens.

Dining options include a fast-casual dining venue and the Terrace, featuring a 700 square foot overlook with stunning views National Harbor, the Maryland countryside and Virginia shores and sunsets over the Potomac River.

The largest contributor of taxes among Maryland’s six gambling operations, MGM National Harbor contributes the largest amount of taxes to Prince George’s County. Tax revenues are likely to increase since moving the poker operation to the second floor allows the casino to he expand first-floor offerings.

According to the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, in 2017, MGM National Harbor contributed more than $170 million to the state Education Trust Fund, and paid nearly $24 million in taxes for the month of May. MGM reported revenue of $59.3 million in June, up 18 percent over June 2017.

Also in Maryland, Live Hotel & Casino in Anne Arundel County, MGM National Harbor’s closest competitor, recently added a 310-room high-end hotel, event space, spa and restaurant. Live casino posted $48.2 million in revenue in June, up 15.1 percent increase over June 2017. And the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore posted $22.8 million in revenue in June, up 2.2 percent over June 2017. Altogether, Maryland’s six casinos reported a 14.1 percent increase for June 2018 versus June 2017.

According to new draft regulations, the Virginia Racing Commission may allow up to 3,000 historical racing machines at racetracks and off-track betting parlors throughout the state. Communities and counties with populations of 120,000 or more could apply for up to 700 machines each, including Richmond, Chesapeake, Hampton and Henrico County. Fewer terminals would be placed in smaller communities and counties.

Although opponents said it would be a significant expansion of gambling, Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill to legalize the machines earlier this year, as a way to boost Virginia’s struggling horseracing industry. He told the racing commission to come up with “reasonable limitations” on the machines.

Local governments would have to sign off on any large-scale betting facilities. Without local approval, the number of machines allowed at off-track betting facilities in large localities would be capped at 245, or 35 percent of the maximum limit. Off-track betting sites in smaller localities would also require local government approval before being allowed to have the maximum number of machines.

At Colonial Downs in New Kent, the number of historical racing terminals would be tied to the number of live racing days; for example, 30 days of live racing would be required to operate 3,000 machines. The track owners would have to hold more live races in order to add machines. The regulations require a minimum of 14 live racing days, with at least six races per day. Speaking on behalf of Colonial Downs, communications consultant Mark Hubbard said, “We are reviewing the proposed regulations and assessing our next steps. We appreciate the expeditious work of the administration and look forward to working with the Virginia Racing Commission as the rule-making process continues.”

Chicago-based Revolutionary Racing bought Colonial Downs for $20 million in April, contingent on the legalization of historical racing machines. The venue is scheduled to reopen in 2019. An economic study commissioned by Revolutionary Racing indicated when Colonial Downs reaches full capacity in 2022, it could create 1,400 jobs, have an annual economic impact of almost $350 million and generate $41.6 million per year in state and local tax revenue. Most of that money would come from historical racing machines.

Virginia racing officials said they studied Kentucky’s historical racing machine regulations when drafting theirs. In May, Kentucky had 1,755 machines that collected $98.9 million in total bets and paid out $90.8 million to players, with $6.2 million in commissions for the machine operators and almost $1.5 million in tax revenue.

The regulations also state that Colonial Downs must file an annual report detailing its efforts to identify problem gamblers and direct them to resources to prevent or treat gambling addiction.

Revolutionary Racing also plans to operate 10 off-track betting facilities. The state currently has two in the Richmond area, one in Chesapeake and one in Henry County outside Martinsville.

The racing commission will meet again on July 31.

Caesars Entertainment has taken the first step toward capturing a greater share of the lucrative Las Vegas convention market with the groundbreaking of its $375 million Caesars Forum.

The 550,000-square-foot facility, slated for completion in 2020, will feature 300,000 square feet of meeting space and a 100,000-square-foot outdoor plaza suitable for receptions or break space in a prime Strip location nestled behind the LINQ, Harrah’s and the Flamingo, which will connect with it via walkways.

Caesars has already booked $70 million in convention business for the venue, said Michael Massari, vice president of meeting sales and operations, evidence of the city’s robust business tourism market. The number of convention attendees traveling to Las Vegas has risen nearly 50 percent since 2010 compared with an 8 percent increase for leisure tourists.

Not surprisingly, the city’s convention space is at peak utilization rates of around 75 percent, according to a recent Morgan Stanley report, and operators are rushing to establish fresh supply. MGM Resorts International is building a 250,000-square-foot convention center at the MGM Grand that will open the end of this year. In February the company completed a 200,000-square-foot meeting space expansion at the Aria. Wynn Las Vegas this year launched construction of a 400,000-square-foot convention center.

In Las Vegas, Caesars Entertainment currently operates roughly 1.5 million square feet of meetings space, but LINQ, Harrah’s and Flamingo account for only 130,000 square feet of it, though they house a total of 8,500 hotel rooms. Caesars Forum will boost the company’s meetings space footprint in town by nearly one-third.

“Every property needs access to business travelers. (LINQ, Harrah’s and Flamingo) are really under-indexed in terms of the meeting space they have available and this gives us a chance to correct that,” Massari said.

In a separate transaction, Caesars’ VICI Properties REIT has completed its $507.5 million purchase of the Octavius Tower at Caesars Palace.

The sale calls for Caesars to continue to operate the 668-room hotel, which includes the 4,300-seat Colosseum theater, convention and meetings space and other attractions, under the terms of an existing ground lease that works out to annual rent payments to VICI of $35 million.

VICI, created last fall as a key component of the Caesars bankruptcy restructuring, currently owns 20 Caesars gaming facilities nationwide soon to be 21 with the pending $82.5 million purchase of Harrah’s Philadelphia four championship golf courses and 34 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the Strip.

Two Ohio state senators have introduced a bill that would create framework for sports betting in the state.

Senate Bill 316, introduced by Senators John Eklund and Sean O’Brien is what is known as a “shell” bill, one that leaves the details largely to be filled in. That’s on purpose, says O’Brien. Details needed clarification include whether bets could be made on major sports teams or college teams.

In fact, all the bill says is this: “It is the intent of the General Assembly to develop and enact legislation legalizing sports wagering.”

O’Brien said he wanted the bill to have a number and then to encourage feedback from constituents. He hopes to fill out some of the details by next month or the end of summer. There is plenty of time since the Buckeye state’s legislative session ends on December 31.

Last week O’Brien said, “My thinking right now is we already have casinos and racinos set up. I’d kind of like to keep it in those institutions because they are set up for gaming. I’m not sure we want it in every 7-Eleven … and every bar.”

The state is getting some pressure from neighboring West Virginia, where sports wagers will be taken at casinos and racetracks by the end of August or early September; and from Pennsylvania, where it is already legal.

It’s also getting prodded by Jack Entertainment, which owns three casinos in the state, whose CEO Matt Cullen wrote last week: “Under the proper regulatory framework, we support the State of Ohio moving forward with sports betting at brick and mortar facilities.” He added, “However, the detailed state regulations that will be written in response to the Supreme Court’s decision will determine the safety and viability of this potential amenity. Certainly there is significant guest interest in sports betting being available at our facilities.”

Jack’s controlling interest is held by Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, which complicates any sports betting laws. Different states treat this issue differently. In Atlantic City regulations would prevent the Golden Nugget, owned by Tilman Fertitta, who also owns the Houston Rocks, from taking any NBA bets. However, in Nevada regulations only forbid a casino from taking bets on games in which the owner’s team is involved.

Given that homegrown fans of Ohio State University are known for their intensity, betting on college games has a built in complication.

It is also the home to several NCAA football and basketball teams, including members of the American Athletic Conference and the FBS Mid-America Conference.

Other details to be worked out would be a tax rate. Currently the state’s four big casinos and seven racinos pay a 33 percent tax.

Ecklund said he doesn’t expect to see legalized sports betting before mid-2019.

Both houses of the legislature would first have to pass a bill legalizing sports betting, then voters would need to amend the state constitution. Casinos taxes go for education, host cities, the Ohio Casino Control Commission, Ohio Racing Commission, law enforcement and addiction programs. Racinos pay after expenses profits to education.

Thirteen other states have either introduced sports betting legislation or adopted such legislation.

O’Brien said he’s in no hurry to flesh out the bill. “We want to make sure we do it and do it right,” he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.