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In Florida, the House Commerce Committee recently approved in a 9-6 vote HB 7067, the 83-page gambling bill sponsored by Tourism & Gaming Control Chairman Mike LaRosa. The bill now will move to the House floor. Like the Senate bill, SB 840, it includes ratifying a 20-year compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which would bring the state $3 billion over seven years. In return, the tribe would have exclusive rights to conduct banked card games, such as blackjack, at five of its casinos, and offer slots outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Also under the House bill, parimutuel facilities could not offer lucrative designated player card games. In addition, the bill does not address decoupling.

House Democrats oppose the provision in the bill that would direct Seminole funds to “schools that serve students from persistently failing schools”—referring to House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s plan for “Schools of Hope.” Democrats consider the plan a giveaway to privately-owned charter schools; state Rep. Joe Geller called it a “poison pill.” Corcoran also had said any House legislation must be “an absolute contraction” of gambling in the state.

State Rep. Mike Miller said the House legislation would provide “certainty” after years of disagreement regarding the gambling industry and legal battles between the state and the Seminole Tribe.

Certainty is especially important this year with the Voter Control of Gambling constitutional amendment set to appear on the November ballot, which would allow voters to determine all future gambling in Florida if it gets 60 percent approval. “This could be our last possible chance to regulate gaming as a legislative body,” state Senator Travis Hutson said.

The Senate bill includes authorization for slot machines in eight counties where voters approved them in local referendums. Senate President Joe Negron said the legislature should respect the will of the people. Galvano said, “I have always been clear those referendums that took place were not done pursuant to state law; in fact, they were done in spite of state law. Nonetheless, Negron has been a proponent of that, so we are putting that issue in play.”

The Senate measure also would allow greyhound racetracks to decouple live racing from other gambling, but it exempts thoroughbred horse racetracks and jai alai frontons.

Galvano also said future money from the Seminoles could be used to “backfill” recurring costs for public school safety “hardening” following the tragic shooting at Broward County’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Galvano stated the Seminoles “continue to have an interest in getting something together. Their last offer was really not very impressive.” He added he and Speaker-designate José Oliva “continue to have conversations. We are, in concept, together on the idea that we need to solidify our relationship with the tribe.”

While the legislation is being negotiated, the Seminoles released a broadcast in the Tallahassee market that urges lawmakers to pass the compact. Tribal spokesman Gary Bitner said the ad “was in production prior to the most recent interactions with leaders of the legislature.”

In the 30-second ad, a narrator says, “For years, the Seminole compact has come through big for the people of Florida. With over 19,000 jobs and more than $2 billion already paid to fund vital services. Today, the Seminole Tribe is making one of the largest private investments in Florida, creating nearly 20,000 Florida jobs. The Florida compact is working. Let’s keep it going.”

The House and Senate must agree on a final bill before the legislative session ends Friday, March 9.

The Virginia House of Delegates approved legislation sponsored by state Delegate Michael Webert that would allow historical horse racing machines at the shuttered Colonial Downs and satellite locations. The measure is now being reviewed in the state Senate.

Supporters said the legislation would help revive the state’s equine industry and lead to reopening Colonial Downs, which closed in 2014. Chicago-based Revolutionary Racing is negotiating to buy the track; officials there have said allowing historical racing must be part of the deal.

The make-up of the legislature could help the bill’s chances. Since last year’s election, Republicans control fewer seats. And some lawmakers who previously voted against pro-gambling bills said they may change their minds. For example, staunch social conservative state Senator Dick Black said, “I guess for the first time ever, I’m going to make an exception.”

Webert said his proposal is a considered approach that would not lead to expanded gambling in the state. He said unlike slot machines, historical racing machines require some skill. He explained bettors would not know the horse they are betting on, but would have data on odds and could place different types of bets, like win-place-show. “If you know something about horse racing, you’ll probably be a little bit better off,” Webert said.

But social conservative groups claim the legislation eventually would pave the way to casinos in Virginia. Reverend Eddy Aliff of the Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists said, “Once we go down that road, it doesn’t stop.” They point to Maryland where 10 years ago voters approved legalizing video slot machines at five locations. Then that law was amended and the state’s gambling industry has exploded, leading to MGM Resorts International’s MGM National Harbor, a $1.4 billion, Las Vegas-style casino complex near Washington, D.C.

The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which controls Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun, and was passed over for the Boston area license, is continuing to press its lawsuit appealing that decision—and is using Steve Wynn’s fall from grace as new ammunition.

The license was granted to Wynn Resorts in September 2014. Not long after, the Mohegan tribe sued to reverse the license, arguing that the process was tainted from the beginning in favor of Wynn, a Massachusetts native.

That legal battle continues in Suffolk Superior Court, where the tribe’s lawyers have been pressing the accusation that the MGC overlooked the criminal backgrounds of two people who were formerly investors in the land that Wynn purchased in Everett for the site.

Commission attorneys argue that the tribe has been unable to offer any proof of favoritism and instead is trying to second-guess the commission.

The judge will hear oral arguments in April.

Nothing that has happened so far has slowed down the pace of the construction of the $2.4 billion Wynn Boston Harbor tower, which is rising on the banks of the Mystic River, across the water from the Boston skyline.

But it is also true that Wynn remains a major shareholder in the company, despite stepping down as chief executive officer and president.

Meanwhile, a $2 million donation that Wynn Resorts made to the Republican Governors Association in 2014 was not improper because it was made after the Massachusetts Gaming Commission awarded the license for the Boston metro casino to Wynn, the MGC ruled last week.

The commission’s chief enforcement counsel, Loretta Lillios, looked at the donation at the behest of the three Democrats who are running against GOP incumbent Charlie Baker: Jay Gonzalez, Bob Massie and Setti Warren.

Meanwhile, commission and its staff continues its investigation of Wynn Resorts. It is following up on the recent resignation of Steve Wynn from the organization due to multiple accusations of sexual improprieties, and the question whether his payoffs to one of the women who accused him was deliberately kept from the commission when the company was applying for its license.

MGM Springfield

The $960 million MGM Springfield has begun the long lope that will soon spring into a sprint toward the September opening. And the major part of that is hiring.

MGM plans to hiring 3,000 employees, including 450 table dealers. The average salary, including benefits, will be $45,000. About 200 staffers are already at work while another 2,000 are fully involved in construction.

MGC estimates that the number of applicants for jobs of all kinds at all three of the planned casino authorized by the 2011 gaming expansion legislation will range from 7,000-12,000. The great majority of those jobs will go to high school grads or those with a GED—or higher.

The jobs include barbers, hair stylists, massage therapists for the spa, staff for the luxury cinema, pastry chefs and even butchers.

Wanda Gispert, who is in charge of “talent and workforce development” for MGM, has been contacting colleges and high schools for many months now as part of her recruitment efforts.

She told the Daily Hampshire Gazette: “We have a lot of positions people might not be aware of. Any profession except for medical, we have it here.”

A few blocks from the casino itself is the Career Center, in Springfield’s South End, where computers are available on-site, so applicants can learn about jobs that are available and hiring and submit applications. Professionals are there to answer questions. There is even an on-site drug testing facility—although MGM does not test for marijuana use.

The Center will soon be open seven days a week. Currently 600 potential employees have used the Center and 150 ended up employed by MGM.

Holyoke Community College and Springfield Technical Community College are working in association with MGM and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to provide training for casino and casino-related jobs through the Massachusetts Casino Career Training Institute. The Institute held its first classes in downtown Springfield last week. It offers classes in blackjack, roulette, craps, poker and other games.

Anyone who completes these courses is guaranteed an interview with MGM.

Holyoke and MGM also worked together to open the $6.43 million HCC MGM Culinary Institute last month. The 20,000 square foot facility has five European style kitchens.

MGM Springfield’s Vice President of Table Games, Robert Westerfield, told the Gazette, “I went to school just like these guys. I didn’t know a kitchen table from a craps table.” He worked as a dealer for a year before becoming a supervisor. “All positions have a career path,” he said.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management also offers a casino management certificate program.

MGM is also busy filling positions at the very top rungs of the company. President and COO Mike Mathis likes to brag about the diversity of his leadership team. He’s been conducting interviews among finalists for the team—he calls department heads “number ones”— for the last few months.

Nine of the team’s 16 members are minorities or female or both, one of the best examples of diversity in the industry, he says.

He told BusinessWest, “The résumé gives me good insight into what their technical experience is. But I’m looking for personality and cultural fit, and you can usually get to that through them talking about their experiences.”

For Mathis “diversity” includes gender, age, race, point of origin and experience in the gaming field as well as with MGM itself.

He explained, “We have some who are internal MGM and others who are external to our company but in the industry.” He added, “We have a combination of young and those not as young, as I like to say, those with a little more experience. And we have a few from outside the industry; the company took a chance on me, and we’ve continued to take some of those chances on others.”

Now that he has the top positions nearly filled, “The number ones hire number twos, and the number twos hire number threes. And then, from there, you start building out your business plan and prepare for mass hiring.”

Mathis was legal counsel for the Venetian Las Vegas in 1999 and helped open Echelon Place in Las Vegas, but this is his first experience putting together a team from scratch.

He told BusinessWest, “What’s really nice is how, organically, this team reflects the personality of the community and our original vision. For me, as a day-one employee, I feel I’m a steward of the original vision of our president, Bill Hornbuckle, and of the mayor and the different community-group stakeholders I originally met with. And I want to reflect all that in the team we put together.”

Mathis thinks one reason he put together such a good team is because he was new at it—and in fact he had not worked with most of the team members before. “I came at it without some of those preconceived notions about who the team members should be. The group is really eclectic, and we make each other better.”

A Pennsylvania appeals court has revived efforts of the partners in the doomed Foxwoods Philadelphia to recover a $50 million license fee paid to the state in 2007. The license ultimately was revoked, but the state kept the $50 million fee.

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court’s ruling that upheld a U.S. Bankruptcy Court ruling denying a claim for a refund of the fee by Philadelphia Entertainment & Development Partners, which included the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe.

The partnership was awarded one of the two casino licenses for Philadelphia, and the tribe was going to operate Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia on the Delaware River in South Philadelphia. The project ran into trouble early, with neighborhood opposition both in its original location and in the hastily re-chosen Gallery at Market East shopping center area ultimately leading the Gaming Control Board to revoke the license.

After the project was taken over and dropped by Harrah’s Entertainment and Steve Wynn, the Stadium Casino partnership of Cordish Companies and Greenwood Gaming eventually got the license for Philadelphia’s second casino.

The Foxwoods Philadelphia case now goes back to U.S. District Court, but could eventually end up back in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

New York’s Oneida Indian Nation is looking for another hot hand from its third gaming resort in the state, the $40 million Point Place Casino.

With its debut last Thursday, Point Place brings the number of gaming facilities in New York to 20, and it enters an increasingly crowded market that got a lot more crowded just three weeks earlier with the opening of the state’s fourth privately owned casino, Resorts World Catskills, a property of Las Vegas dimensions with a deep-pocketed backer in the Genting Group and a location that positions it advantageously for taking market share from the competition.

But New York has been good to the Oneidas. Their flagship, Turning Stone Resort Casino, located off the New York State Thruway in Verona, has been a cash cow and the tribe’s principal economic engine for decades. And they’ve been strategic in expanding the brand’s reach ever deeper into the center of the state: first with the “Wizard of Oz”-themed Yellow Brick Road Casino, which opened in Chittenango in 2015 at a relatively modest investment of $20 million; and now with Point Place, a similarly boutique offering with 500 slot machines, 20 table games, a couple of casual, family-friendly eateries, two lounges and a confectionary and pastry shop.

“It’s got a whole different feel and vibe to it than our other casinos. It has that outdoor, Adirondack feel, and we’ve drawn from all the natural elements around us,” said Ray Halbritter, chief executive of Oneida Nation Enterprises, the tribe’s sprawling business arm whose holdings include branded retail, golf courses and other non-gaming leisure developments and companies engaged technology services and support and multimedia production.

Point Place places the tribe even closer to the region’s population hub of Syracuse, just 15 miles from downtown, and with a ready-made tourist backdrop on Oneida Lake in the town of Bridgeport.

“There’s plenty of market here,” Halbritter said. “We are very careful about our investments. It’s not just spontaneous. We wouldn’t build the property if we thought the market wasn’t there.”

Casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson has offered to fund some of building the U.S. Embassy in Israel’s actual capital of Jerusalem— and the Trump administration is considering taking him up on it.

State Department attorneys are researching the legality of accepting a private donation for such a purpose. The Department is planning to hold a ribbon-cutting for a temporary embassy in Israel’s capital May 14, the 70^th anniversary of the creation of Israeli state.

The attorneys are mulling one possibility of soliciting not just donations from Adelson, but also from other donors of the Christian and American Jewish communities.

President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is highly controversial, even among the State Department, despite the fact that the relocation is mandated by U.S. law passed several administrations ago.

Adelson, who built the Las Vegas Sands casino empire, is a major contributor to the Republican Party, and especially of Donald Trump. He contributed $5 million to the president’s inaugural committee.

There has been mixed reaction among local municipal officials in Pennsylvania about the prospects of hosting one of the Category 4 mini-casinos created by last November’s gaming expansion law.

Greenwood Gaming, the Parx Casino owner which won the fourth Pennsylvania license to open a mini-casino in Cumberland County in the south-central part of the state, told the PennLive.com website that it has not yet chosen a location for its casino, authorized to have a maximum 750 slots and 30 table games (pending a $2.5 million fee).

The 15-mile radius identified by Greenwood in its winning $8.1 million bid includes the cities of Chambersburg and Carlisle along the Interstate 81 corridor. Tourism officials in the area are bullish on the idea, but some municipal officials want nothing to do with one of the satellite facilities.

“A use like this fits right into our mission of creating jobs, increasing the tax base for our local taxing bodies, and increasing visitor spending,” Cumberland Area Economic Development Corp. chief Jonathan Bowser told PennLive. “I think it would just further diversify our tourism economy, which I think is a good thing.”

A member of the Carlisle Borough Council had a different take in an email to PennLive. “I do not believe it is all the sunshine and rainbows some make it out to be,” Sean Schultz said. “Casino games will detract from the small games of chance upon which many local nonprofits rely. Finally, I have seen the ravages that gambling addictions have inflicted on families, and I am unwilling to even indirectly take part in that.”

Meanwhile, municipalities in Western Pennsylvania have begun to lobby Stadium Casino LLC, which won the mini-casino license for Westmoreland County, to host the new casino. Potential host communities in that one include Greensburg, Hempfield, Unity and Salem townships.

“They all want it,” Hempfield Supervisor Rob Ritson told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “We are more than willing to have a mini-casino in Greensburg,” that city’s planning director told the newspaper. And from Derry Township Supervisor David Slifka: “We have a good area. We feel it could work out for Derry Township and the casino people.

The communities all passed resolutions promoting hosting a Category 4 casino.

The next auction for a mini-casino will be held this Wednesday. The auctions are being held biweekly through May 16.

Accusations of sexual harassment and coercion continue to swirl around disgraced casino mogul Steve Wynn, with one woman claiming she had his child after he raped her and another claiming she was fired from her Las Vegas casino job for refusing to have sex with him.

It’s not certain what significance would be attached to the accusations, which refer to events allegedly dating back to the 1970s.

In the first instance, the woman told Las Vegas police Wynn raped her at least three times in her Chicago apartment and that she became pregnant as a result and gave birth to a girl in a gas station restroom.

The second woman said she had consensual sex with Wynn “several times” while she worked as a dealer at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas, which Wynn owned at the time. She said she “felt coerced to perform the acts.” and after finally refusing him was accused of theft and forced to quit.

They allegations were published by The Associated Press from reports the women filed with Las Vegas police in the aftermath of a January Wall Street Journal story that contained explosive testimony from several women claiming they were sexually victimized by the billionaire