Archives: Articles

The $140 million Tiverton Casino Hotel in Tiverton, Rhode Island, will open September 1 the Twin River Management Group announced last week. That’s a month earlier than expected, said Twin River Chairman John Taylor, who attributed this to the “tremendous progress” made by construction crews during the winter.

“We’re grateful that the construction team on the job have really dug in and allowed for this accelerated opening date,” said Taylor.

The casino, which is located a stone’s throw from the Massachusetts border, will have 1,000 slot machines and 32 gaming tables as well as an 84-room hotel.

The company also owns and operates Twin River Casino in Lincoln.

Last month Taylor released a progress report that said, in part, “For the casino, we are enclosing spaces and painting, the ceiling grid is being installed and light fixtures and security cameras are also actively being installed,” he said. “The restaurant area is taking shape and the food court is just about ready for coolers and other serving fixtures. With respect to the hotel, the rooms are in the process of being dry-walled and within the coming month, we’ll be tiling bathrooms and painting. Last, the garage is scheduled to be completed within the next month or so.”

Twin River is in the process of closing its Newport Grand Slots casino and moving the license to Tiverton. State voters approved this move in November 2016 and the town’s voters also narrowly approved hosting the casino. The casino will pay 61 percent of slots revenue in taxes and 15.5 percent of table revenues.

Casino gaming is the state’s third largest source of revenue. It amounted to more than $350 million last year.

Last week the Tiverton Town Council by a vote of 4-3 approved of 24-hour gaming at the casino. The hours were requested by Twin River. This doesn’t change the hours for serving of alcohol, which will not be served between 1 a.m. and 10 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. on weekends.

The close council vote may be attributed to some protest by residents who said they didn’t know the casino had planned to operate 24/7 when the community was asked to vote to be a host community.

The Department of the Interior last week took the action that the State of Connecticut and its two gaming tribes went to court to try to force: publishing a notice in the Federal Register that one of the amendments to the state tribal gaming compacts submitted to the DOI last summer. The action addressed the Mohegan tribal compact, but not that of the Mashantucket Pequots.

This could remove any blocks to the tribes opening the third tribal casino, a satellite casino, in East Windsor.

It is only half a loaf however, since only the Mohegan compact was noted. The Department published notice that the amendment “is considered to have been approved,” since Interior took no action on it within 45 days of the tribe submitting it.

However, the Pequots expect to have their compact approved soon. “We are pleased that the department is taking this step and we expect similar action on the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal amendments in the very near future,” said Andrew Doba, spokesman for MMCT Venture, the joint tribal gaming authority.

This rekindles the brass knuckles battle between the tribes and MGM Resorts International, which immediately protested the decision.

MGM released a statement that said, “Today’s Federal Register notice raises more questions than it answers. The notice provides no supporting reasoning and contradicts not only the Interior Department’s prior ruling, but also the clear limits on off-reservation gaming imposed by federal law. After consulting with our attorneys, we can find no legal justification for the Interior Department’s unprecedented action.”

MGM said it planned to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to “uncover the process and inputs that led to Friday’s notice.”

MGM has aggressively fought the tribes’ proposed casino, which is clearly intended as a defense against the $965 million MGM Springfield that will open in less than three months 14 miles from the Massachusetts-Connecticut boundary. Studies have shown that the tribes could lose millions in revenue annually, as well as around 9,000 jobs.

The Mohegans and Pequots formed MMCT Venture as a joint authority to operate the casino, which has been delayed for almost a year due to MGM’s successful tactics.

MGM first went to federal court to try to stop the tribes, then last year it opposed the bill that authorized the tribes to build in East Windsor. Then in the fall it proposed that the legislature open the state to commercial bids and unveiled a $675 million casino proposal for the state’s largest city, Bridgeport along the waterfront. This drove a wedge between Bridgeport’s large and powerful legislative contingent, which fought this spring for the Bridgeport casino, and much of the rest of the legislature, especially members from the Hartford area and eastern part of the state. That proposal has probably been dealt a deathblow by the announced purchase of the Yonkers Raceway racino by MGM last week.

During that interval the Interior Department did not act on the amended compacts. Investigative reporters determined that MGM and lawmakers from Nevada lobbied top officials to sit on the approval since the bill, Public Act 17-89, that authorized the casino required that the federal government approve of the change in the compacts.

The compacts spell out the revenue-sharing between the tribes and the state on the East Windsor facility, which so far is just a future construction site without any building activity. Demolition of the abandoned cinema complex began in March. Financing for the casino has not yet been acquired. The tribes have already invested $300 million in the site.

MGM’s statement added, “Unlike the Interior Department, MGM’s position has not changed: We remain committed to a transparent process that would give all parties an equal opportunity to compete in Connecticut.” The statement continued, “We believe our proposed world-class entertainment complex in Bridgeport is the best option for creating new jobs and revenue, and we will vigorously advocate for our legal rights — including by challenging Public Act 17-89’s unconstitutional no-bid scheme — if that is what it takes to prevail.” MGM did not refer to its purchase of the Yonkers Raceway, which is about 48 miles from Bridgeport, and would probably be considered too close to have another MGM facility.

Doba fired back, “For the last year, they’ve been making countless promises to Bridgeport all while they were actively working to buy the facility in Yonkers,” he said, referring to the Yonkers Raceway in New York state. “Think about that. Think about how many times they testified at the legislature or held a press conference talking about what’s in the best interest of Connecticut, when they were working to buy a facility just a few miles from the border. “I am quite frankly baffled as to why anyone would take anything they say seriously. MGM cares about one thing: their bottom line.”

Doba added that the tribes now intend to go forward with their satellite casino. “We want to do right by Connecticut and to preserve the strong relationship between our tribal nations and the state,” he said. “The decision is the latest step in our overall goal to preserve thousands of good paying jobs and millions in state tax revenue.”

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who, along with several members of the state’s congressional delegation protested the Interior Department’s lack of action on the compacts, which sparked an internal investigation by the department’s Office of the Inspector General, said the delay had caused real hardship for the tribes and the state. “This delay has exacted real world costs and the Inspector General investigation into conflicts of interest must continue,” Blumenthal said.

The senator added, “The timing again raises the reasons the IG is investigating — namely conflict of interest. The potential favoritism is a pattern here. This inexcusable delay squarely raises questions about why they would need so much time.”

The Mohegan Sun, which unsuccessfully vied for the Boston metro casino license four years ago, May 28 petitioned a Superior Court judge to overturn the license that was awarded to Wynn Resorts in light of recent revelations about Steve Wynn that forced him to step down as chief executive officer of the company he founded and divest himself of all its stock.

The tribe claims the Massachusetts Gaming Commission failed to properly vet the company and didn’t discover multiple allegations of sexual impropriety against Wynn, including a $7.5 million settlement with a massage therapist who claimed he tried to rape her.

“The Gaming Commission’s failure to uncover the allegations of Steve Wynn’s reprehensible conduct and the lack of corporate controls in its initial investigation of Wynn Resorts is another example of the bias and flaws in the Commission’s approach to the Region A licensing decision,” said the tribe’s attorney in a statement.

This complaint was the latest in the long court challenge the Connecticut-based tribe mounted to the awarding of the license. The complaint notes that multiple sources existed that might have uncovered Wynn’s sexual misconduct and treatment of his employees. “Despite this poorly-kept secret, nowhere in the IEB’s report on Wynn’s suitability is there any indication that the issue of sexual harassment was investigated, even superficially,” says the filing.

It alleges that Wynn’s conduct was “hiding in plain sight,” and thus calls into question the MGC’s methods, including its bias in favor of Wynn.

The commission answered the amended filing, saying the investigation of Wynn and the company is ongoing. “The Investigations and Enforcement Bureau plans to issue its suitability report to the commission sometime this summer, and the commission will then conduct an adjudicatory hearing,” says the filing.

Meanwhile at Encore Boston Harbor, Boston restaurateurs Frank DePasquale and Nick Varano, will be opening the Fratelli Italian restaurant at the Encore Boston Harbor. The Fratelli (Italian for “brothers) will accommodate 135 diners. The partners have opened and run restaurants for over three decades.

The menu will include brick oven pizza and calzones, homemade pasta, grilled meats and seafood and burgers.

Encore Boston Harbor President Robert DeSalvio commented, “We want our resort to be part of the personality and culture of the region when we open, which is something these two North End icons help us achieve instantly.” He added. “Everyone loves the character and taste of the North End; they bring an authentic and colorful flavor of the North End to our resort.”

The casino will host a dozen other restaurants and bars. The only other that has been announced is Sinatra, a brand that Wynn operates in Las Vegas.

Liquor Hours

The MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor have requested that the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) allow them to serve alcohol until 4 a.m., two hours later than other businesses sell the beverages. Local restaurants are opposing the request.

The Massachusetts Restaurant Association argues that this could hurt business for restaurant and tavern owners in the area who are forced to stop serving alcohol at 2 a.m. They already worry about the casinos’ ability to give away food and entertainment to attract players.

Association CEO Bob Luz told the Boston Globe, “If you’re going to do this for them, you’ve got to give surrounding communities the ability to also do. To not do it that way seems completely unfair … I don’t want to give the casinos an advantage.” He notes that the Indian casinos in Connecticut and the Twin River casino in Rhode Island do not serve alcohol after 2 a.m.

No other businesses in the Bay State are allowed to do so either, however last year lawmakers amended the 2011 gaming expansion law to give the MGC the option to grant such a request if it thinks it’s justified.

The MGM Springfield says it won’t serve alcohol later in the bar but would use the option to serve until 4 a.m. on the gaming floor. It also plans to make the drinks complimentary for the most part.

The Springfield City Council’s oversight committee has endorsed the request. It says the region and the casino would both benefit.

Wynn Resorts, which is scheduled to open the $2.5 billion Encore Boston Harbor next year, would also only serve players on the casino floor late drinks. Cosmopolitan travelers expect such service when they travel all over the world, says the company.

Robert DeSalvio, the president of the Boston-area casino, added, “In order to be globally competitive and maintain our commitment to deliver an enjoyable stay for guests, we support extended cocktail service in the highly controlled environment of the casino floor.”

Atlantic City has settled a lawsuit against a city police officer accused of beating a casino patron for $650,000.

The federal lawsuit filed by Anthony Moore of Pennsylvania accused Atlantic City Detective Franco Sydnor of the beating and highlighted a string of allegations against officer, including past claims of sexual assault and beatings, according to the Press of Atlantic City.

“It’s settled,” attorney Steven Glickman, who represented Sydnor, told the paper. “As with every settlement, everyone is somewhat satisfied and somewhat dissatisfied.”

According to the Press, the suit alleged that Moore, his brother and a few friends were visiting Bally’s casino on Oct. 7, 2012, when some members of the party grew disruptive and were asked to leave. Security footage shows the situation escalate into a brawl as Sydnor, who was working a special detail at the casino, joined security staffers trying to usher the group toward the door. Footage shows Sydnor striking Moore several times with a baton.

The suit also alleged a string of previous abuses by Sydnor and argued that the city and police department were aware of Sydnor’s behavior.

Moore claimed he suffered a concussion and still experiences headaches as a result of the beating. The suit named the police department and city as defendants, the Press reported.

Under the settlement, none of the defendants, including Sydnor, Atlantic City and the police department, admit guilt in the 2012 matter. The settlement will be paid in four installments between June and December of this year according to the Press.

Last week, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board announced it is officially accepting petitions for sports betting licenses. In April, the state opened a 90-day window for land-based casino licensees to apply for online gaming licenses.

But the state’s gaming law, signed by Governor Tom Wolf in December, may torpedo both efforts to expand the state’s gaming pie. The reason? High taxes and fees.

The PGCB announced that it “has notified casino license holders that they can begin submission of petitions requesting approval to conduct sports wagering.” The state adopted initial regulations at its Wednesday meeting, and will adopt more regs at meetings in the coming months.

“The actions taken by the Board are the first in our efforts to launch sports wagering in Pennsylvania as soon as possible,” said PGCB Executive Director Kevin O’Toole, according to Legal Sports Report. “In the coming months, we expect to regularly ask the board for approval of additional temporary regulations that will move us toward a launch of this new gaming initiative.”

The law permits any current Pennsylvania casino to offer sports betting both through on-site books at casinos and off-track betting parlors, as well as online via mobile sports-betting apps.

However, it remains to be seen how many operators will seek licensing for either sports betting or iGaming, because of onerous taxes and fees written into the state’s gaming legislation. The law requires a $10 million up-front application fee each for sports betting and online gaming, and will tax sports-betting revenues at a whopping 36 percent—both costs by far the highest of any state that has passed a sports-betting law thus far. The 36 percent tax is higher than any sports-betting jurisdiction in the world.

Most other state sports-betting laws would impose a tax somewhere around 10 percent. In New Jersey, the tax will be 9 percent. In Nevada, it’s 6.75 percent.

Comments from operators indicate cost is going to be a big problem in creating a viable sports-betting program in Pennsylvania. “In their push for higher revenues, they wanted to not just squeeze the golden goose, but in this case strangle the goose with higher tax rates,” said Eric Schippers, senior vice president of Penn National Gaming Inc., in an interview with the Associated Press.

“If you’re paying $10 million up front for the privilege of paying 41 percent in (combined state, local and federal) taxes, plus the infrastructure costs, it’s difficult for me to see how you make money in Pennsylvania,” Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill US—the British bookmaker that runs sports books in Nevada and will create a book for the new Ocean Casino in Atlantic City—told the AP.

“You can’t run a casino in an underground black market and pay zero taxes, but you can run (an illegal) bookmaking operation that way. A bookmaker will be able to offer a 25 percent rebate on losses to his customers and still have an advantage over the legal market.”

Asher reiterated his stance in a panel at last week’s GameON conference staged by gaming supplier AGS. “The Nevada model for sports betting has worked well for decades,” he said. “Why reinvent the wheel?”

Most observers, though, have predicted that at least the larger Pennsylvania casinos will move to offer sports books in any event, even with the high cost. Whether the high cost will cause losses that outweigh sports betting as a loss-leader remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the iGaming tax rates in Pennsylvania are just as bad—16 percent for online table games and an unfathomable 54 percent for online slots, the same tax the state sets for brick-and-mortar slots.

In April, the state opened its 90-day application period for accepting full iGaming licenses—the $10 million fee would cover both slots and tables. Halfway through the application window, no operator has applied. After 90 days, operators will be able to apply for individual online slot or table licenses, at slightly higher individual fees.

“The hefty upfront fee and the tax rate of 54 percent on slots makes it virtually impossible for any operator offering all three verticals (slots, table games, and poker) to realize a profit in its first five years,” iGaming analyst Steve Ruddock told Online Poker Report.

Both houses of the New York legislature now have sports betting bills to consider and roughly two weeks to hammer them into a single measure to present to Gov. Andrew Cuomo before lawmakers adjourn for 2018.

In other words, the clock is ticking.

Last week saw Assemblyman Gary Pretlow finally introduce a regulatory measure in the Democratic-controlled lower house, more than two months after Sen. John Bonacic’s bill debuted in the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority.

The bills are similar in their essentials. Which is not to say there aren’t key differences. The question is whether these can be finessed and enough yes votes obtained before the legislature calls it a year on June 20—a process complicated by an array of competing and influential interests jockeying for a piece of the action in one of the most crowded gambling markets in the country.

It’s also the fourth-most populous market, home of the nation’s largest city, and packed with millions of potential bettors, many of them fitting into younger demographics that don’t normally patronize casinos or racetracks but who can be counted on to wager enthusiastically on their phones and laptops.

So, if there’s one thing everyone agrees on, it’s the enormity of the opportunities—and it has, in the words of the Buffalo News, “set off a full-blown lobbying firestorm in Albany”.

Leading the field are the state’s four new commercial casinos, which have sports betting written into the legislation that authorized them five years ago. Add to these the eight racetrack-based casinos. Then there are the five off-track betting corporations, which together operate some 200 outlets across New York. Last but certainly not least there are the three gaming tribes, most notably the Seneca and Oneida nations, whose six casinos dominate the state’s western and central gaming markets.

That’s not counting racing interests, including tracks, horse owners, trainers and breeders, myriad out-of-state interests

Moody’s Investors Service predicted in a report last week that even under the most optimistic scenario, states can expect only a small revenue boost from legalized sports betting.

Delaware launched its full-blown sports betting program last week, and New Jersey is expected to finalize regulations and launch sports books within the coming weeks. Several other states have sports betting laws in place, and some 20 others have bills to legalize and regulate sports betting in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 14 decision declaring the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) and its ban on sports betting to be unconstitutional.

Although estimates put the annual handle of illegal sports wagers at around $150 billion, the profit margin of legal sports books is only around 4 percent after winning bets are paid.

The 50 U.S. states could collect a combined $1.5 billion in taxes if they broadly legalized sports bets, including online wagers, and taxed at the 8 percent rate that New Jersey is setting, Moody’s predicted, based on data from an Oxford Economics report commissioned by the American Gaming Association.

That $1.5 billion is less than 0.2 percent of states’ combined operating funds for fiscal 2017, Moody’s said.

For New Jersey, which was the defendant in the Supreme Court case ultimately legalizing sports betting, while Moody’s predicted only a “minimal lift” in revenues from sports books in Atlantic City casinos, the addition of sports wagering is likely to bring new customers to the market.

“It should help increase tourism and boost the city’s casino-dominated economy,” Moody’s said. “At the state level, New Jersey will experience only a minor bump in tax revenue from the legal wagering relative to its budget.”

MGM Resorts International has bolstered its growing presence in East Coast gaming with the acquisition of Empire City Casino in Yonkers, N.Y.

The combined cash and stock purchase, which will give the Las Vegas-based gaming giant four major casinos in the Mid-Atlantic and New England states when it’s completed next year, is being pursued as a joint venture with the company’s real estate investment trust, MGM Growth Properties.

And it leaves no doubt that MGM intends to be a leading competitor for all sectors of a greater New York City gambling market numbering some 16 million potential customers.

Chris Grove, managing director of sports and emerging verticals for Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, said it “signals a certain confidence that online poker and sports betting will move forward in New York.”

The state could generate as much as $1.2 billion in sports betting revenue annually if the tax rate were below 10 percent and gamblers had access to mobile as well as brick-and-mortar locations, according to a 2017 report by Oxford Economics.

The Senate is considering a comprehensive measure to put the industry in operation, and a companion bill is expected to be introduced in the Assembly, but doubts have been expressed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and others that a deal can be done before lawmakers adjourn the end of this month.

MGM is paying $850 million, $260 million of it in stock, for Empire City and the adjoining Yonkers Raceway. Located just 15 miles from Times Square, the casino portion houses 5,200 slot and electronic table game positions and posted $70 million in EBITDA on $230 million in revenue in the 12 months ended March 31. No live tables are permitted at his property or at Resorts World New York City at Aqueduct racetrack, a facility that MGM once targeted for development but eventually turned down.

MGM will sell Empire City to MGM Growth for $625 million and lease it back for $50 million a year. The balance of $225 million pencils out to 11.5 times adjusted earnings, a steep price for a property with no hotel and little by way of non-gaming attractions, according to some on Wall Street, although MGM says that will drop to more like six times when cost synergies and new growth opportunities are factored in.

Those opportunities aren’t limited to sports betting either. As analysts point out, there is little overlap with MGM’s current customer base, which increases the potential to market Empire City players to the company’s other resorts on the East Coast and on the Las Vegas Strip.

It also positions MGM to cash in on New York City’s lucrative Asian market if Empire City receives permission to host live table games. MGM tried to buy into that market a year ago with a $1.3 billion stab at Sands Bethlehem that failed to come off and has agreed to add $50 million to Empire City’s purchase price if tables games are approved there in the next four years. Sands Bethlehem was recently sold to Wind Creek Hospitality, the gaming development are of Alabama’s Poarch Band of Creek Indians.

“This property essentially gives you that population base that’s coming from New York City and gives you access to those people,” said Colin Mansfield, a gaming, lodging and leisure analyst with Fitch Ratings.

It was with one eye on the Asian market that MGM last year proposed a $675 million casino on the waterfront in Bridgeport, Conn., at the same time it was developing a $960 million resort casino slated to open later this summer in nearby Springfield, Mass.

“We believe that there is significant unmet demand in the region, which is why we’ve been enhancing our presence in the Northeast,” MGM spokeswoman Debra DeShong. “We will be opening a resort in Springfield, Mass., have been advocating for a process that would allow for a competitive process in Connecticut, and now we’ve invested in Yonkers. We’ve long believed this is an underserved area.”

A council member in the District of Columbia says officials are currently gauging the support for institution of a sports betting program through the D.C. Lottery, and says betting could be in place by the end of the year if the support is there.

The D.C. Council rejected a previous attempt to institute multi-game parlay betting on NFL games, amid condemnation from the professional sports leagues. However, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision removing the federal ban on sports betting, district officials are considering implementing wagering, a D.C. Council member told the Washington Post last week.

“I think the world today is a vastly different world than it was even 10 years ago for gambling in the District of Columbia,” D.C. Council member Jack Evans told the Post. “Anytime there was any talk of casino gambling in the District of Columbia, it was very strongly opposed, largely by the religious community. Fast-forward 15, 20 years, the world is different. Maryland has a casino less than a mile away from the District of Columbia, the MGM Grand, and Maryland is rife with gambling everywhere. So the idea of religious institutions being opposed, I think, is long gone now, certainly in Maryland.”

Evans said if the support is there, he ideally would like to see sports betting “by the end of the year.”

“Virtually every state in the country has gambling, and many of them have casino gambling, and for Congress to say you can’t have gambling in the District of Columbia when virtually every jurisdiction has gambling now would be completely hypocritical,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a stumbling block, either. So I think we can do what we think is best for the city.”

Sports betting is illegal in the District of Columbia under an early 20th century law that makes it illegal “to bet, gamble, or make books or pools on the result of any trotting race or running race of horses, or boat race, or race of any kind, or on any election or any contest of any kind, or game of base ball.”

The current D.C. statute expands the betting ban to include “football, baseball, softball, basketball, hockey, or polo game, or a tennis, golf, or wrestling match, or a tennis or golf tournament, or a prize fight or boxing match, or a trotting or running race of horses, or a running race of dogs, or any other athletic or sporting event or contest.”

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy met with leaders of the state’s two gaming tribes before a special session of the legislature that he has called to address sports betting.

Malloy declared, “The future is now and it’s happened. We need to definitively state what our position is.”

He said he wasn’t interested in widening the special session to address other issues such as a casino in Bridgeport or to allowing commercial gaming that would challenge the casinos of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes. However, at the tribes’ urging he agreed to add online gaming.

“It is my opinion, and the opinion of lawyers who have looked at this, that we move forward with a compact where we would not endanger the revenue we receive from the tribes,” said the governor.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, who is campaigning to replace Malloy when he retires at the end of this year, urged a session that addresses both sports betting and a Bridgeport casino.

Gainim’s spokesman Av Harris, said, “What we do not support is exclusivity of gaming in our state — for anyone. If the governor wants to amend the tribal gaming compacts, then let’s look at everything, not just sports betting.”

House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, through a spokesman, indicated that he wants to limit the session to sports betting.

“I need to know whether it’s the intention to include in-state, on-line gaming, because it would make sense to negotiate those things in one negotiation as opposed to two negotiations,” Malloy said, asking if lawmakers would include that too. “And I think, quite frankly, doing them together makes it more like we would reach agreements with the two tribal nations.”

Malloy has been speaking with the tribes about amending the compacts to address sports betting. “I’ve already reached out to the tribes and acknowledged the best way forward is a compact and having discussions with other groups, such as University of Connecticut, which has a major NCAA program,” he told reporters. “It begins with an agreement with the tribes. I would not sign anything into law that endangers the gaming proceeds with the tribes.”

Recently when the state authorized Keno it negotiated a revenue sharing agreement with the tribes. The compacts give the tribes exclusive rights to offer slots. In return they pay 25 percent to the state. Last year this was about $250 million.

Although the existing compacts do not mention sports betting, the tribes say that effectively it is included because they assume that sports betting would be conducted using a video machine.

Pequot Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler, quoted by the New York Times, said, “We have said, ‘We want to work with you,’” Butler said. “Let’s work out an arrangement.”

Everybody agrees that if the state allows a commercial casino in Bridgeport that would violate the compacts. MGM, which is pushing the casino, says the taxes it would pay would more than make up for the $250 million the state would lose.

Harris supports that view. “Taking this step could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue and create thousands of jobs without threatening any gaming industry jobs we already have,” he said.

Bridgeport representatives warn that even if the session is limited to sports betting that they will demand to address a casino for their city.

After meeting with legislative leaders, Malloy seemed to accept that bets being made on smartphones could be a result of allowing online gaming.

“You’re asking questions about how you will prevent that which we already have been unable to prevent in the past,” Malloy said. “I think the right way to ask this question is how we build the best system and the fairest system that allows for gaming, which now is going to become more common nationally than it has in the past.”

Senator Tony Hwang, who has long opposed any expansion of gaming in the state, said that just because other states allow sports betting doesn’t mean Connecticut should.

“ ‘Everybody doing it’ doesn’t mean we should,” he said. “It is important for us to really take a step back and take a look at sports gambling and online gambling. The National Council on Problem Gambling says online and sports gambling are gateway drugs.”

Legislative leaders of both parties, after meeting with the governor, promised to give him direction on what he should be negotiating with the tribes.

New Jersey legislators are still on track to vote on new sports betting regulations June 7 as several venues prepare to begin offering wagers as soon as Governor Phil Murphy signs the bills.

Major League Baseball and the NBA, among other leagues, began lobbying the state’s lawmakers to include an integrity fee in the legislation. Former New York Met and New York Yankee Al Leiter, a New Jersey native, joined representatives of the two leagues and the Professional Golfers Association to lobby lawmakers for the leagues to have a cut of the revenue once sports betting begins, according to a report by NJ Advance Media.

The two leagues were principals in opposing the state’s plans for sports betting in its nearly seven-year legal battle to have the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act overturned. The act banned sports betting in all but four states. The state eventually won the battle when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the law last month.

Technically, the state won a challenge to protect its current law which allows self-regulated sports betting at casinos and racetracks. However, the legislature has blocked attempts to start sports betting until it can adopt a new regulatory framework.

The leagues are now lobbying for a 1 percent tax on sports betting to be used to protect the integrity of the sports.

Leitter told reporters then there’s “got to be some regulation and some people watching to make sure that everything is done properly and maintain the integrity of the respective sport.”

However, the integrity tax is being opposed by the state’s powerful Senate President Stephen Sweeney who has called the fee “extortion” and urged all states considering sports betting not to include the fee.

The leagues said they want to form a coalition with sports betting operators and states to make sure proper data is shared and consumer protections are in place.

“We continue to engage with legislators to discuss a partnership with New Jersey that contains strong protections that safeguard our sport and will help ensure the success of sport betting in New Jersey,” Major League Baseball said in a press statement.

Also, the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association filed a legal action against the four major pro sports leagues and the NCAA, claiming the leagues cost Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport N.J. more than $139 million in lost revenue by challenging the state’s sports betting law. The track is also planning a lawsuit against the leagues.

According to the Associated Press, the association’s legal action claims the leagues acted in bad faith when they sought a restraining order in 2014 to block Monmouth Park from offering sports betting. It charges that the leagues were actively promoting and endorsing daily fantasy sports companies while seeking to block sports betting in the state.

The association’s claims Monmouth Park would have made $139 million in revenue from sports betting between November 2014, when a judge imposed a permanent injunction barring the state from offering sports betting, and this month’s Supreme Court ruling.

“During the intervening years the leagues’ actions nearly put Monmouth Park out of business, inflicted significant financial and emotional hardship on hundreds of innocent Monmouth Park workers, and jeopardized the continued viability of New Jersey’s entire equine industry,” the filing said.

The suit seeks payment of a $3.4 million bond the leagues posted in 2014 to secure any loss the horsemen’s association might suffer during the time the temporary restraining order was in effect and also seeks a hearing to determine the total damages owed by the leagues, the AP report said.

Attorneys for the NFL and other sports leagues, however, claim the filings by the track and association are “meritless, if not frivolous” in an answer they filed in federal court, according to the Asbury Park Press.

Meanwhile, the Ocean Resort casino in Atlantic City—formerly the Revel casino—announced it has signed a deal with William Hill to run its sports book. William Hill is also partnered with Monmouth Park racetrack in Oceanport N.J., which is expected to offer sports betting the first day it is allowed under the new state law.

William Hill also operates 115 of Nevada’s 183 sports books.

The casino said it has partnered with the bookmaker to operate a 7,500-square-foot betting facility on its main gambling floor. Casino officials also said they are planning to offer private sports bet suites for major events.

“We are very excited to be a part of Ocean Resort Casino, and to have a presence on the Atlantic City boardwalk,” Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill US, said in a press statement. “We have had great success working with Ocean’s senior management in Las Vegas, and we are excited to have the chance to do so in Atlantic City at what will be the best sports book in town.”

Jordan Deifik, property principal of Ocean Resort Casino, told the local Press of Atlantic City that the sports book would be ready for the casino’s scheduled June 28 opening, pending regulatory and license approvals.

Also, daily fantasy sports giant DraftKings has begun advertising that it will introduce its own sports betting product to New Jersey, though the ads set no date for when it will begin. The ads are mostly seen on billboards along the major routes to Atlantic City, according to published reports and promise that sports betting is coming soon to DraftKings.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board awarded a five-year license renewal to Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem after a routine 35-minute hearing. Never mentioned in the hearing was the impending sale of the property by Las Vegas Sands Corp. to Wind Creek Hospitality, an arm of Alabama’s Poarch Band of Creek Indians, in a $1.3 billion deal.

The sale is expected to close late this year or early next year, after which the property will be known as Wind Creek Bethlehem. It is expected the tribe will continue to develop the former industrial site, making use of more of the historical buildings on the site, the former Bethlehem Steel plant.

The hearing concentrated on the property itself, with a slide presentation to the board highlighting the casino offerings, non-gaming amenities and community impact of the Sands property. Carr also told the board that Sands recently completed a $5.7 million renovation of its high-limit pit, a $6 million renovation of its poker room and an investment of $7.4 million in the nation’s largest electronic table games stadium.

Carr also addressed the future prospects for the property in the face of new competition for New York gamblers in Resorts World Catskills. He said the new resort has had a limited impact on Sands so far, thanks in part to ongoing improvements such as the 2016 $12 million renovation of the Sands’ 282-room hotel.

“As we continue to think about future growth into the rest of the facility, I think the No. 1 thing is how do we turn it more into a resort destination and that getaway for our guests,” Carr said.