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Kazuo Okada has won his bid to force a jury trial over Wynn Resorts’ decision five years ago to forcibly redeem his sizable shareholding in the company.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in April following a ruling by Nevada District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez rejecting Wynn’s claim that the state’s “business judgment” rule shields decisions by boards of directors from legal challenges as long as they are made in accordance with proper procedures.

Wynn’s lawyers argued that a July 27 Nevada Supreme Court decision denying Okada and co-litigant Universal Entertainment access to the board’s communications with its legal advisers made it clear that the rule applies.

Gonzalez, however, said in her decision that the rule protects Wynn’s directors as individuals but not the company itself and not Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn and his ex-wife and former director Elaine Wynn, who may also have to stand trial.

The history is tangled. At stake are more than 24 million shares. They were held indirectly by Universal, a leading machine gaming manufacturer in Japan, through its Aruze USA slot subsidiary. Okada, a Japanese pachinko tycoon, founded Universal and was its chairman and controlling shareholder at the turn of the century when he helped launch Wynn Resorts with a $380 million investment and was named vice chairman. His shares represented 20 percent of the company, the largest individual holding after Steve and Elaine Wynn’s.

But then Okada and Wynn fell out, reputedly over Okada’s desire to bring the company into the Philippines as the developer of a gaming megaresort in Manila. Wynn has said he opposed the investment from the start, and the company passed on it. Okada decided to pursue it independently through his own Philippines-based Universal subsidiary.

Then, in 2011, an explosive Reuters report implicated employees of Universal in an alleged pattern of bribery in the Philippines, prompting Wynn’s board to launch an internal investigation into gifts bestowed on Philippine officials at Wynn Macau on Okada’s orders and which the probe concluded were improper. In 2012, the board voted to take back Okada’s shares at a massive discount as a prelude to ousting him from the board and the board of its Hong Kong-listed Macau parent. The shares, worth around US$2.8 billion at the time, were redeemed in exchange for a promissory note for $1.9 billion.

Okada sued, claiming the redemption and ouster were ordered by Steve Wynn, who resented his influence as an independent force on the board. The company has denied this, claiming Okada’s involvement in the Philippines threatened its Nevada gaming license and the board had no choice.

In the midst of this an equally bitter court fight erupted between Steve and Elaine Wynn, who was fired from the board in 2015 after she sued for control of her 10 million shares. The shares effectively were placed in her ex-husband’s control under the terms of their 2009 divorce settlement. She claims Wynn feared an Okada takeover of the company and wanted their combined shares voted as a bloc to prevent it.

“The Wynn board will pull out all the stops to go after, to attack anyone opposed to Mr. Wynn, like Mr. Okada and Ms. Wynn,” Universal lawyer David Krakoff argued before Judge Gonzalez. “But when it comes to Mr. Wynn and his friends, the board does nothing.”

Okada and Universal are seeking to reclaim the shares along with more than $1 billion in damages.

According to press reports, a spokesman for Wynn Resorts said the company had no comment on Gonzalez’s ruling.

A Nevada Supreme Court ruling issued just days after the October 1 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip appears to expose MGM Resorts International to significant liability for the massacre, which left 58 dead and more than 500 injured.

The case stemmed from an assault in 2010 on a California couple inside MGM’s New York-New York casino hotel. The couple sued the resort, but a lower court dismissed their lawsuit on the grounds that the property had no knowledge the attack would occur.

But a three-member panel of the high court overturned that order in a 2-1 ruling that says New York-New York should have known the attack was foreseeable because there had been similar incidents of violence there. Evidence in the case showed there were three fights a week at the resort.

“You no longer have to show the exact circumstance was foreseeable,” said Craig Drummond, a lawyer for the couple. “I think it makes it difficult for MGM Resorts to get the Mandalay Bay case dismissed by arguing it’s a lone shooter and they couldn’t have ever foreseen that.”

Attorney Robert Eglet, a former president of the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association, agrees, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal the decision opens the door for plaintiffs to question whether MGM had sufficient security measures to protect its guests and those at the Sunday evening outdoor concert that was riddled with automatic weapons fire by a lone gunman firing from a suite on the 32nd floor of the company’s Mandalay Bay in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

“I think it broadens the scope of the things a judge has to look at to determine whether this event was foreseeable,” Eglet said. “In other words, it’s no longer, ‘Has anything like this ever happened at Mandalay Bay?’ It’s, ‘Has anything happened like this anywhere?’”

But Jean Sternlight, director of the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law, said Mandalay Bay still has a strong defense under state law.

It’s expected that MGM and Mandalay Bay will be bombarded with lawsuits stemming from the massacre, and their lawyers are already preparing a defense, which Sternlight says will likely argue that it was unforeseeable that a guest would bring a large number of high-powered rifles into the resort and shoot at a concert across the street.

“I think the victims will have a challenging time trying to prove that Mandalay Bay failed to exercise due care in protecting the concertgoers.”

The company, however, isn’t so sure, and has already asked the entire Supreme Court to review the New York-New York ruling. Its lawyers say the ruling “eviscerates” a state law that protects businesses” and has “significant implications beyond just these litigants.”

But reversing it could spark criticism that the court is trying to protect the powerful casino industry, Eglet said.

“I don’t think it would pass the smell test,” he said.

But Steve Morris, who defended MGM in the 1980 MGM Grand fire in which 87 died and more than 700 were injured, said it may still be more difficult for victims to blame the company in the mass shooting case.

“Here you have an abhorrent actor who just happened to be in the hotel,” Morris said. “The guy took a hammer, knocked the windows out and started shooting people. It’s not an act by the hotel.”

Will Kemp, a veteran lawyer on the plaintiffs’ side in the fire litigation, agreed it’s an argument that’s hard to ignore.

“They’ve got the shooter committing an intentional act that they can argue was not foreseeable,” he said.

Eglet, however, believes there is a point where the comparisons break down. “This wasn’t just an accidental fire because of negligence or product defect that hurt a lot of people. This was a direct attack on our city. And so I think everybody collectively feels that anxiousness, that anxiety and that distress over this happening to us.”

Certainly with the approach of the holiday season security is uppermost in the minds of the gaming industry and government both.

The Nevada Division of Emergency Management-Homeland Security has requested $340,000 in funding, nearly triple the usual allotment, to protect tourists during the popular New Year’s Eve celebrations, which drew more than 350,000 visitors to the city. Plans are to deploy busses as roadblocks to deter potential terrorist attacks and 348 National Guard troops will man 22 separate locations. Normally, around 160 are dispatched.

“After October 1, we all agreed we needed to relook at that and give it a different look based on new analysis from that (shooting) event,” said division head Caleb Cage.

In addition, soldiers will be in place longer.

“Instead of being there the day before, the day of and the day after New Year’s, which has been the case in the past, they’ve got the request staggered over about a five-day period,” Cage said.

The five-day presence will cover the entire long weekend as well as the start of the huge CES 2018 convention.

Last week, construction crews started installing hundreds of steel posts along the Strip, aimed at protecting pedestrians from vehicle-ramming attacks and traffic accidents.

Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani wants to entirely ban private vehicles from the Strip from Mandalay Bay to the Stratosphere, claiming the processions of cars, a hallowed Strip tradition going back decades, cause traffic jams that make it difficult for police, fire and paramedic vehicles to quickly respond to emergencies.

She suggests that only pedestrians, buses, taxicabs and ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft be permitted on the neon roadway.

Meanwhile, the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada will spend nearly $2.3 million to examine transit options that would link the Strip, McCarran International Airport and Downtown Las Vegas.

Giunchigliani, an RTC board member, said she hopes her idea will be included in the study.

The American Gaming Association (AGA) is part of a coalition of business calling for full interest deductibility to be preserved in the tax reform legislation being hammered out by both houses of Congress. It recently joined the Businesses United for Interest and Loan Deductibility Coalition.

Among those targeted by letters are Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and ranking member Senator Ron Wyden.

The already passed House bill would limit such deductions. The letter says, “In addition to having a negative impact on economic growth, limits to interest deductibility amount to a harmful new tax on businesses that borrow to invest and grow. To avoid this new tax, the appropriate solution is to maintain full interest deductibility for all businesses across all sectors.”

AGA President and CEO Geoff Freeman, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, points out that Congress has not seriously taken up tax reform in many decades, and that “The gaming industry is so vastly different than it was in 1986 in terms of our big-business nature and in terms of our omnipresence around the country. These issues will have a much more significant effect on us today than they would have in 1986 and it’s good for the AGA to be able to work with other allies on this issue.”

He added, “In the absence of finding other ways to pay for this, they’re now looking at eliminating interest deductibility, which is something that unites the gaming industry with the real estate industry, with the private equity community and a host of others.”

In its first big move since its largest operating division emerged from bankruptcy reorganization last month, Caesars Entertainment has agreed to pay $1.7 billion in cash to buy two Indianapolis-area racinos.

The deal will see the Las Vegas-based gaming giant acquire Centaur Gaming and its Hoosier Park and Indiana Grand racetracks and their 4,000 machine games and electronic table game positions, plus three off-track betting parlors.

Centaur also owns the land under the tracks, leading to speculation that Caesars’ newly spun-off VICI Properties REIT could be a partner in the acquisition and could end up owning both properties.

Another plus is that the tracks could be eligible for live table games in 2021, according to a Bloomberg report cited by SunTrust Robinson analyst Patrick Scholes.

Macquarie gaming analyst Chad Beynon said the addition of live tables could boost EBITDA at the racinos a combined $15 million to $25 million a year. The two posted $400.7 million in combined slot revenue in 2016. Beynon estimated trailing 12-month EBITDA on that at an aggregate $120 million-$150 million.

Caesars already owns two of Indiana’s 13 casinos, the Horseshoe Hammond and Horseshoe Southern Indiana in Elizabeth, and Indianapolis could prove a valuable third feeder market for the company’s Las Vegas resorts. The city currently is connected to Las Vegas by three direct flights daily.

“We believe Centaur Gaming and Caesars Entertainment will be a great combination,” said Caesars President and CEO Mark Frissora.

Centaur Chairman and CEO Rod Ratcliff said the merger “will further build on the successes and contributions of the properties for the benefit of our customers, team members, horsemen, community partners and financial stakeholders.”

The transaction, which requires approvals from the Indiana Gaming and Racing commissions, is expected to close in the first half of 2018.

Expert: Satellite casinos will cannibalize business

Pennsylvania’s new gaming expansion law contains many unprecedented entries, from online gaming to tablet gaming at airports. No provision of the new law, though, has caused more consternation among local governments and current land-based casino licensee than the provision creating licenses for up to 10 satellite casinos up for bid.

Mini-casinos are satellite casinos of up to 750 slots and 10 table games, to be bid on by current gaming licensees and operated outside of a 25-mile radius of any current casino. Local municipalities have until December 31 to vote to opt out of the mini-casino provision, banning the small casinos in their jurisdictions. Bids will begin January 15.

As the details of the law sunk in, current operators and municipalities with no current casinos aligned their forces to either bid on licenses or, in some cases, planned to sue to block the provision, which will create clear winners and losers, owing mainly to the geography of the state and the locations of current licensees. Clear winners include Mount Airy Resort, which benefits from a last-minute amendment that essentially creates a four-county buffer zone protecting the casino from new competition in the form of satellite casinos.

On the opposite side is Penn National Gaming, which is isolated and depends on a customer base mostly from beyond the 25-mile buffer zone. Penn is threatening to sue to block the provision, saying it puts the operator at an unfair competitive disadvantage.

Some analysts agree with Penn National’s assessment that mini-casinos will, in general, take revenues from existing casino licensees. “These satellite casinos will likely cannibalize business from the current operations, depending on where they are located,” said Colin Mansfield, a gaming analyst with Fitch Ratings, the New York-based credit rating agency, in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Mansfield added that most operators are considering mini-casinos “as a defensive play rather than an offensive play,” a means to keep competition away from their territory. That means they will yield little in the way of incremental revenue for the state, Mansfield told the newspaper. “It could just shift the same amount of revenues,” he said.

Meanwhile, local jurisdictions around the state are beginning to make decisions on whether or not they want the mini-casinos in their areas. Spots such as Westmoreland County in Western Pennsylvania are planning to court bids to host the satellite facilities. As noted in the Tribune-Review report, the portion of the county north of New Stanton and east of Jeannette, including Greensburg, Latrobe and Ligonier, falls outside the protected territories of the Rivers, Meadows and Lady Luck casinos, and would all be considered as satellite casino locations.

Meanwhile, jurisdictions such as Bucks County in Eastern Pennsylvania are on the other side. Bucks representatives voted against the bill. State Rep. Craig Staats released a statement last week saying he did not support the bill because he thought expanded gambling would “do more harm than good.”

“It is widely believed that gambling expansion will not bring the level of revenue the new law anticipates, and could actually cost local governments more in enforcement costs should crime increase,” said Staats. “It could also change the nature and character of our communities.”

Former state Rep. Paul Clymer appeared before the Bucks County Commissioners last week to ask for a resolution to ban mini-casinos in the county. “This new gambling bill is a fraud and a disgrace,” Clymer said. “It’s corporate welfare, and the taxpayers are getting ripped off.”

Other jurisdictions coming out in opposition to the mini-casinos include Cheswick, a borough outside of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County; and Muncy, in the north-central region of the state.

According to a report in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Cheswick Borough Council is scheduled to act on a resolution, perhaps as soon as December 13, to opt out of the mini-casino provision. Cheswick is within the 25-mile buffer zone to Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino, but under the new law, Rivers can open up a satellite facility in its own zone.

“Cheswick isn’t suited to have a casino,” Councilwoman Chris Schramm told the newspaper. “I don’t want to see us change from a family atmosphere to a different atmosphere.”

In the eastern part of the state, Muncy Borough Council members discussed whether the borough should opt out of allowing satellite casinos. The council will discuss the issue at next month’s meeting.

The Allentown Morning Call is maintaining a list of communities which have completed the two-step process of opting out of the mini-casino provision. Opting out requires a resolution passed after a public meeting, with the resolution sent to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board by December 31.

The communities opting out so far, according to the newspaper, are:

• Heath Township in Jefferson County

• Limestone Township in Lycoming County

• Lower Makefield Township in Bucks County

• Strasburg and West Earl townships in Lancaster County

• Washington Township in Lycoming County

• Westfield Township in Tioga County

State College Borough, near Penn State University, passed a resolution last week banning the mini-casinos, and will be added to the opt-out list as soon as the gaming board verifies the resolution. Other municipalities are being added to the list every week.

And then there is Penn National, which is still considering a lawsuit to block the current rules for mini-casinos, spokesman Eric Schippers told the Allentown Morning Call. “We’re the only ones where 25 miles will not protect us,” he said. “We don’t have any of the protection of the overlapping casinos.”

In a white paper prepared last month, Penn National officials drew a straight line on a map from the Chester County border to the northern boundary of the Mohegan Sun Casino’s zone around Susquehanna County. Exclusion zones, including the buffer around the Sands Bethlehem casino, created a continuous vertical protection area 127 miles long, the paper says.

The paper says a similar exclusion zone protects casinos in a 95-mile zone in Western Pennsylvania, and even the Presque Isle Downs & Casino has a natural border of Lake Erie and the New York and Ohio borders. Meanwhile, Penn National prime feeder markets like Reading, Lancaster, York and Gettysburg all are in unprotected areas, opening Penn up to new competition.

The New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has approved a $10 million renovation of the city’s Boardwalk Hall lobby.

The funding comes from a $253 million bond issued in 2014. The bond set aside more than $100 million for upgrades to Boardwalk Hall and the Atlantic City Convention Center, according to the Press of Atlantic City.

“The lobby is outdated,” CRDA Executive Director Chris Howard said. “It’s 33 years old and looks every bit of it. It’s the first thing that people see, and it’s not welcoming. It doesn’t look world class.

“There is a ton of space that is unused,” Howard said. “We hope to have a space that will be able to host events like holiday parties, pre- and post-show parties, after it’s completed. Right now, no one wants to do that with the current lobby.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has appointed a new chairman for the state’s Casino Control Commission leading to charges that the current chair, Matthew Levinson, is being ousted for political reasons.

Levenson is the son of Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson—an elected position as the head of the county’s government administration. The county is currently suing the state over its payment in lieu of taxes legislation for Atlantic City casinos. The county wants a larger share of the PILOT money.

Dennis Levinson charged that Christie’s appointment of former Cape May County Sheriff James Plousis as chairman to replace Matt Levinson was political payback for the county filing the legal challenge.

“This is how it works, and it’s not a big surprise,” Dennis Levinson told the Press of Atlantic City. “If you go along with everything they want, they take care of you.”

Matt Levinson and Christie did not comment on the report.

The dispute between the county and state revolves around the percentage of PILOT tax money the county receives for its taxes on casinos. Levinson has said Christie made an informal deal to give Atlantic County 13.5 percent of the PILOT revenue, but the state later backed off that figure. The county has received 10.4 percent of the payments, which is $4 million less than what the county expected, according to the Press.

That shortfall has increased the chances of a county tax hike, officials said, but reports still say the county will receive more in total revenue this year than in 2016.

Still, the county and state have sparred over the extent of the county’s efforts to help the city reduce its massive debt caused largely by successful casino tax appeals that have taken millions off the city’s tax rolls. State officials have said the county could have done more to reduce the city’s costs, but county officials said many of their proposals to do that were rejected by the state.

 “Matt was collateral damage in this, and we expected it,” Levinson told the newspaper. “But Matt told me before the lawsuit was filed that he would be disappointed in me if I didn’t do what I believed was right for the county.”

Plousis, is head of the state’s parole board and has served as the U.S. marshal of New Jersey. He also did not comment for the Press story.

Matt Levinson’s term as chairman expired in August, but he has remained in the seat while a new chairman was appointed. Levinson was re-nominated by the late Sen. Jim Whelan in February, but was not re-appointed by Christie.

Skill-based gaming got a tryout in Atlantic City this year, and for the most part, it flunked the audition.

Caesars Entertainment introduced 21 skill-based games—video game slot machines that reward gameplay—but had to pull them after six months as they were not generating enough revenue to cover their rights fees.

Despite the setback, however, Blaine Graboyes, co-founder and CEO of GameCo, a skill-based gaming developer that supplied the games to Caesars, says the games can succeed if marketed correctly.

Analysts also point to skill-based gaming as a way of attracting younger players to casinos.

“Casinos thrive on new gaming content, and the skill-based products will definitely be increasing their footprint long-term as more of the customer base is exposed to the products,” gaming consultant Robert Ambrose told the Press of Atlantic City. “I think with the skill-based product, the industry needs to take a long-term view. Right now it is something new to the casino floor. Some players I have talked to have met it with both skepticism as well as an opportunity to challenge a game.”

The games could also fit in with a growing trend of casinos hosting eSports contests.

“This game product will draw the skilled video player—and yes, they will be younger,” Ambrose told the Press. “If the game only provides an illusion of skill, the knowledgeable player will not be playing it for long.”

Graboyes, co-founder and CEO of GameCo said that while his company and Caesars mutually decided to remove the skill-based games, the six months they were in action taught them a lot about introducing and marketing the games.

“The big thing that we took away was how to market the machines,” Graboyes told the Press. “How do you get the non-slot player to the machine?”

Ambrose agreed that the games have to be marketed in a way in which video gamers will respond.

“This is where marketing comes in. The players of these games are part of the social network generation,” Ambrose said. “So, some clever strategies via the various social platforms should be part of the plan of introduction. Just dropping the product on the casino floor and seeing what happens will doom it before it starts.”

Meanwhile, some skill-based games are still being offered at another Atlantic City casino—the Tropicana.

Steve Callender, Tropicana Atlantic City general manager, told the Press that skill-based gaming machines are gaining popularity.

“Tropicana Atlantic City continues to offer guests skill-based games on the casino floor. Although they don’t perform to the level of our traditional slot machines,” Callender said. “We’re generating incremental revenue from this new demographic.”

Briefing will preview SCOTUS sports-betting case

Stakeholders in the potential legalization of sports betting joined gaming experts in New York City and a one-day seminar in Washington D.C. within the last two weeks to analyze what a legal sports betting market in the U.S. would look like, and to preview the first hearing at the United States Supreme Court of Christie v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, New Jersey’s appeal in favor of its sports-betting law, which also challenges the constitutionality of the federal ban on sports betting.

The two-day Sports Betting USA conference was directed toward all who would be affected by the repeal of the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which bans sports betting in all but four grandfathered states, with only Nevada offering full sports books. Sessions looked forward to the future of sports betting in the U.S. after the Supreme Court rules in the New Jersey case. Hearings in that case are slated for December 4, with a decision expected next spring.

According to CDC Gaming Reports, MGM Resorts International Vice President of Vice President of Race and Sports Jay Rood told an audience at the conference he was headed to the company’s Borgata resort in Atlantic City to “scout what we’re going to do down there” with regards to a sports book.

“We’re in line with thinking that there’s going to be some sort of movement on this,” Rood said during a panel discussion on the “optimal routes” to a legal sports betting market. “We’re preparing for all the different scenarios. Everyone is going to have to explore how it’s going to fit into (the) business model of their existing operations.”

Dennis Drazin, chairman of New Jersey’s Monmouth Park racetrack, added that his property actually went ahead and spent $1 million to build a sports book while New Jersey’s first sports-betting law was winding through the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear that case, affirming the decision of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals that the New Jersey law violated PASPA.

Another seminar brought a professional sports executive into the sports-betting discussion. Titled “Envisioning a Sports Betting Model That Would Work for the Sports Industry,” the panel, chaired by Yahoo Finance columnist Daniel Roberts, featured Dan Spillane, senior vice president and assistant general counsel for the National Basketball Association; Michael McCann, head of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at University of New Hampshire School of Law and legal analyst for NBA-TV; and Tom Russell, general counsel for Genius Sports.

The NBA’s Spillane reprised the position formerly taken by league Commissioner Adam Silver, who came out in favor of legalizing sports betting.

“Our general position on sports betting is that it should be legal and regulated, pursuant to a federal framework that has minimum safeguards,” Spillane said. “We have advisers in D.C., we have legislation that we’ve been pulling together, talking with other stakeholders in this area. It’s a slow process…

“When the leagues were all just unanimously opposed to it, it really wasn’t a practical discussion to have, and now it is… I think that there will be a little bit more clarity, and people will be more open, especially members of Congress, to talking about potential legislation once the (New Jersey) case is resolved one way or another.”

McCann noted that the U.S. Supreme Court takes only one percent of potential cases, so “the fact that the Court took the case at all is a fairly significant point… at least four justices voted to hear the case.”

The conference also addressed the future of sports betting in connection with the tribal gaming industry. One panel examining tribal gaming and sports betting, moderated by Victor Rocha, publisher of Pechanga.net and president of Victor Strategies, included Debbie Thundercloud, chief of staff of the National Indian Gaming Association; Mark Macarro, chairman of California’s Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians; and Jonodev Chaudhuri, chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission.

Thundercloud said any sports betting discussion needs to recognize tribal compacts with states. “We want the sports betting discussion to recognize our existing compacts with states, to recognize exclusivity clauses, (to make sure that tribes have) access to the customers that are going to be available for sports betting, and to make sure that there’s an economic benefit to the tribes,” she said.

Panelists expressed concern that legalized sports betting will open the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to amendments for the first time in its history—an outcome tribes have sought to avoid. “Once it’s open, it’s open,” Macarro said of IGRA, cautioning that anti-gaming lawmakers could use the opening to restrict the tribal gaming industry.

Macarro added that tribes expect sports betting to be classified Class III, requiring amendments and revamping of existing state gaming compacts.

Other panels examined the Supreme Court case itself, which could result in a full or partial repeal of PASPA. In a session moderated by Cath Breeding, vice president and general counsel for Mississippi’s Island View Casino Resort, Monmouth Park’s Drazin said he is cautiously optimistic. “I do believe we’ll win,” he said, “but there’s more than one way to win. What does it look like? Is it (an affirmation of) the 2014 New Jersey partial repeal? Or is it a complete declaration that PASPA is unconstitutional?”

He added that if the Supreme Court upholds PASPA, “New Jersey has introduced another total repeal. I’m certain there can be a challenge.”

American Gaming Association Media Relations Director Steven Doty told attendees at the conference that the “there’s not a lot of opposition” to a repeal of PASPA, noting that the AGA I “cautiously optimistic” that either the Supreme Court or Congress will overturn the law.

Doty cited a recent Washington Post report which showed a “55 percent majority approve of legalizing sports betting on pro sporting events, a flip from almost a quarter century ago.”

Finally, delegates attending Sports Betting USA recommended a plan of initiatives to expedite the introduction of regulated and responsible sports betting across the country.

Announced by event organizer Ewa Bakun at the conclusion of SBUSA, the so-called Clarion Accord comprises the following five-point plan:

• “Make consumer protection and long-term health of the player the utmost goal through proactive, considerate and sustainable responsible gaming strategies that encompass impact not just now but in the future.

• “Seek sports industry’s buy-in by providing comfort, through an educational effort, that its commercial, reputational and integrity goals are fully met.

• “Action a transparent and inclusive lobbying effort that considers the interests of all stakeholders, both gaming and sports, for a consistent message to policy-makers.

• “Protect the integrity of sports through regulatory framework consistent across the states and enabling full cooperation between sports, gaming, regulatory and enforcement stakeholders.

• “Create a sustainable regulatory and taxation environment that instills trust for the consumer, provides revenues to the state budgets and roots out the illegal market.”

The Supreme Court case will be examined and previewed three days before the hearing on December 1, in a press briefing produced by Spectrum Gaming Group and law firm Becker & Poliakoff.

Famed attorney Theodore B. Olson of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher—who will argue New Jersey’s case before the Supreme Court—will join U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., two Spectrum executives and six other experts to share insights on the legal, economic and operational aspects of sports betting in the United States at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The free event is open to credentialed media. Other attendance is limited. For more information or to register, contact info@spectrumgaming.com.

The agenda is as follows:

• 12:15 p.m. Welcome: Daniel Wallach, Shareholder, Becker & Poliakoff

• 12:20 p.m., The Argument for Christie: Ted Olson, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Elbert Lin, Partner, Hunton & Williams LLP

• 12:45 p.m., The View from Congress: Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee

• 1:00 p.m., Panel Discussion: Sports Betting in a Post-Christie World – Legalization and Regulation:

Andrew Brandt, Executive Director, Jeffrey S. Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law at Villanova University

Michael Pollock, Managing Director, Spectrum Gaming Group

Sara Slane, Senior VP of Public Affairs, American Gaming Association

Daniel Wallach, Shareholder, Becker & Poliakoff

• 1:45 p.m., Panel Discussion: Sports Betting Today and Tomorrow – Scope and Operations:

Daniel Shapiro, VP of Strategy & Business Development, William Hill US; Adam Steinberg, Executive VP, Spectrum Gaming Group

Jake Williams, Director of Legal, Sportradar

• 2:30-4:00 p.m., Interviews, networking

With exactly two weeks to go before the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in Christie v. National Collegiate Athletic Association—New Jersey’s appeal in favor of its sports-betting law, which challenges the constitutionality of the federal ban on sports betting—industry forces are gathering in support of New Jersey’s right to pass a law implementing sports betting.

At the heart of the case is whether New Jersey’s 2014 law repealing the federal prohibition on sports betting violated the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). It was the second time New Jersey legalized sports betting, and the result this time was the same as the first time—New Jersey district courts and the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals held that state-sanctioned sports betting would violate PASPA.

In both cases, laws signed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were challenged by the NFL, NBA, NHL and NCAA on the basis of PASPA. In the current case, New Jersey contends that PASPA itself is an unconstitutional imposition of federal over state authority.

Headed by the American Gaming Association, the gaming industry joined with state officials, law enforcement and others in filing amicus briefs supporting New Jersey’s position, and in forming the American Sports Betting Coalition to lobby in favor of repealing PASPA.

Last week, the AGA was, as usual, at the forefront of public support for New Jersey’s position, and the repeal of PASPA by congressional action if necessary, with two separate Tuesday events in which the organization previewed the Supreme Court case and spoke out against PASPA.

The first was a press call to formally preview the Supreme Court case, moderated by Sara Slane, senior vice president of public affairs for the AGA. Slane began the call by restating AGA’s position in opposition to PASPA as a “failed law” which, instead of prohibiting sports betting, simply channeled it to a vast illegal and unregulated business.

Slane noted that the original arguments against PASPA no longer apply. “It’s a different world than when PASPA was signed,” she said. “Technology has changed. When PASPA passed in 1992, the commercial internet did not exist. Today, data analytics and integrity monitoring technology help us to oversee sports betting activity in real time—a major advantage that could not have been considered 25 years ago.”

She added that the gaming industry itself is now viewed as mainstream entertainment. “Both the perception and the industry have changed,” she said. “Now, it’s time for the law to do the same. We want to empower states and tribal sovereign nations by giving them the opportunity to decide whether to legalize and regulate sports betting, just as they have done for years with casinos, lotteries and other forms of gaming.”

She noted that a wide swath of government agencies has come down on the side of New Jersey in the Supreme Court case. “In addition to the AGA’s brief, 19 state attorneys general and/or governors signed on to West Virginia’s brief arguing the federal ban on sports betting is unconstitutional,” Slane said. “This case has wide-ranging implications for sports betting and federalism alike, which made some of those signing supporting briefs interested parties in this effort.”

The AGA call also featured William E. Moschella, an attorney for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, with his take on possible outcomes in the Supreme Court case. Moschella said the are probably “five or six different options” for how the justices may rule, but that the outcome will most likely be one of these three:

• “The court could reverse the 3rd Circuit and hold that PASPA is unconstitutional. That would basically take PASPA off the books. There are different permutations on how, but then states would be free to pass their own sports betting laws.

• “The second (possibility) is what happened in the 3rd Circuit twice—the court could affirm the 3rd Circuit and uphold PASPA. That would mean that New Jersey’s current statute, which affected a partial repeal of their sports betting ban could not go into effect.

• “Or, the court reverses the 3rd Circuit in part and allows PASPA to survive in part. That could mean many things, but one of the things it could mean is that New Jersey’s 2014 law, which enacted this partial repeal, could go into effect, so you would see sports betting at a limited number of venues specified in the statute but with no oversight by the state regulatory authority.”

The high court will hear oral arguments on sport betting on December 4, and is expected to issue its ruling sometime in early 2018.

On Tuesday evening, American Gaming Association CEO Geoff Freeman reiterated the organization’s commitment to expanded and regulated sports during a keynote address at the Sports Betting USA Conference in New York City. Freeman outlined AGA’s two-track strategy to a regulated sports betting market in the U.S.—efforts both in the courts and the U.S. Congress to effect a repeal of PASPA.

“AGA has long pursued a two-track strategy as a pathway to legalized sports betting,” said Freeman. “Working through the courts and through Congress, I am confident we can overturn this failed federal ban and give American sports fans the ability to legally wager on the teams they follow.”

Many in the industry expect a repeal of PASPA one way or the other, and stakeholders are already lining up their claims.

Scientific Games and NYX Gaming Group are suing British bookmaker William Hill over that company’s alleged interference in the pending acquisition of NYX, a Canadian-based sports-betting platform supplier, by Scientific Games.

The suit alleges that William Hill, which owns a block of NYX stock, had pressed for measures deemed anti-competitive by NYX, including assurances that Scientific Games would not be a competitor.

NYX alleged William Hill had “engaged in wrongful conduct in violation of the New Jersey Antitrust Act in attempting to block the acquisition,” a deal which it claimed would “bring great benefits to the nascent regulated sports betting industry”.

The complaint seeks “injunctive relief, treble damages and attorney’s fees for violations of the New Jersey Antitrust Act.” The suit also alleges “tortious interference with economic advantage, and tortious interference with contract,” and seeks punitive damages.

In a November 10 press release, NYX Gaming announced that it had signed an exclusive agreement with Scientific Games for the development and distribution of a new sports betting platform in the U.S. Under the agreement, Scientific Games will invest US$30 million to fund the development of the new sports betting platform and be granted the right to be the exclusive third-party distributor for a period of 10 years.

“William Hill has made clear to (Scientific Games) and NYX that it fears competition in the marketplace,” NYX wrote in its lawsuit. “William Hill has expressed its view that the U.S. sports betting market is a ‘two-horse race’ between William Hill and NYX, and that as of now, William Hill has control over NYX.”

William Hill spokesman Ciaran O’Brien said the company is defending the rights of its shareholders.

“Aggressive litigious activity is a hallmark” of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S., he said. “But it will not deter William Hill from seeking perfectly reasonable assurances about joint projects with NYX.”

The sports betting conference in New York, meanwhile, was sponsored by many European-based mobile and sports wagering vendors, jockeying for position in the U.S. market. Most, however, are not licensed in an U.S. venue, so compliance may be the first item on their plates.

Meanwhile, Legal Sports Report revealed that the NBA has lobbyists working in Washington D.C. to draft legislation that would permit legal sports betting. NBA Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel Dan Spillane told an audience at a second sports betting conference in D.C. that the league is actively pursuing legislation.

“We have advisors in D.C. and legislation we’re pulling together with our commissioner who jump started the conversation,” said Spillane. “Members of Congress will be more receptive after the Supreme Court decision”

The newly elected mayor of Atlantic City—Democrat Frank Gilliam Jr.—said he will work with New Jersey’s new Democratic governor to end the state’s control of the city’s finances and plans to continue trying to attract non-gaming development to the city.

On the last point, he inherits projects that came to the city under outgoing Mayor Don Guardian, but also will have to face the same economic problems that Guardian had to wrestle with.

Under Guardian, the city did seem to turn a corner as it attracted development such as the new Hard Rock Casino scheduled to open in 2018 and a new satellite campus for nearby Stockton University.

Hard Rock recently unveiled a new billboard in the city touting its planned opening in summer 2018, the first bit of branding it has done in the resort. Also, South Jersey Gas Company, which will share the under construction “Gateway Project” with Stockton, held a topping-off ceremony for their new office building at a key entrance point to the city. The two projects and a number of smaller projects have the city feeling bullish about its future.

In an analysis by the Associated Press, Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University, said people in the region are optimistic about a coming wave of development.

“Part of Don Guardian’s greatest legacy will be the fact that he believed in and worked for a diversification of the city’s economic base, and, as mayor, Frank Gilliam certainly will be able to reap some of the credit and benefits for projects initiated in the Guardian administration,” she told the wire service. “Hopefully Mayor Gilliam will take a page from Mayor Guardian and continue the process of attracting a wide variety of businesses and enterprises to Atlantic City, which will only serve to strengthen the city and the region.”

But Gilliam also inherits problems Guardian could not solve, such as the state’s takeover of city finances and a still crushing municipal debt caused by casino tax appeals and the closing of five city casinos since Guardian took office. The city’s economy, while more diverse than it was, is still heavily dependent on casinos.

Gilliam has said his plans for the resort include an audit of its finances and he has promised to work closely with incoming Democratic Governor-elect Phil Murphy, who has promised to end the state takeover of Atlantic City.

Murphy has said he opposes takeovers, as “they tend to be in communities of color, and result in de-democratization.”

Gilliam also wants to add affordable housing to the city; clean up the resort’s main tourist strip Pacific Avenue; attract more non-gambling development and provide incentives for small businesses. Gilliam also told the AP that city government would work across bureaucratic boundaries in a resort where numerous state agencies hold power over its development.

“Atlantic City has been working in silos for 30 years,” he said. “We have to talk to one another.”

However, Gilliam could quickly find himself at odds with the new governor, as Guardian did with outgoing Governor Chris Christie. Murphy supports expanding casino gaming outside of Atlantic City, something resort officials vehemently oppose.

Murphy has said the state must expand casinos to remain competitive with other state’s such as New York.

“We’re desperate for jobs. If it’s not in North Jersey, before we know it, it will be on the west side of Manhattan,” Murphy said during a gubernatorial debate before the election. “My fear is if there’s a casino on the west side of Manhattan, they won’t send one red cent to Atlantic City.”

State voters overwhelmingly defeated a referendum in 2016 to expand casino gaming and allow two casinos to be built in northern New Jersey. Though that referendum did not name specific projects, proposed casinos at The Meadowlands and in Jersey City were considered the frontrunners.

Opposition to the referendum was strong in southern New Jersey, though several casinos in Pennsylvania and New York also helped finance ads opposing the plan.

Though the referendum was soundly defeated, under state law a new referendum could be brought before voters in 2018. Supporters have said they hope to put a more specific and detailed casino plan before voters.

The New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has ruled that Carl Icahn’s Tropicana Entertainment is eligible for $5.6 million in casino reinvestment funding to demolish part of the former Trump Plaza casino In Atlantic City.

The entire demolition project is set to cost $13.2 million. Lawyers for Icahn said one of two hotel towers at the site will be torn down.

Though casino reinvestment taxes were redirected to help pay down Atlantic City’s municipal debt by law last year, funds collected before the change are still eligible to finance local development projects.

City officials see the re-opening of the Trump Plaza property—which sits at the center of the Boardwalk at the end of the Atlantic City Expressway—as vital to re-development in Atlantic City.

Robert Mulcahy III, authority chairman said the demolition could help attract new development at a prime location in the resort.

“We all feel the demolition of this tower is in the best interest of Atlantic City,” he said. “It’s part of the gateway into the city. That land could be very valuable.”

Outgoing Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian—who sits on the CRDA board—voted against the measure and wondered why Icahn would need assistance to demolish the site.

“I agree this project needs to come down,” said the mayor, who leaves office in January. “But why are they asking us for $5.6 million? You’re already responsible for the project closing and the loss of jobs and the suffering the city has gone through.”

Joining Guardian in his opposition to the funding is New Jersey’s Senate president Steve Sweeney. “Carl Icahn is no friend to Atlantic City and he has a record of harsh treatment of working people,” Sweeney told the Associated Press. “I have serious questions about allowing him to take $5.6 million in funds intended to promote economic development for the city and its residents and instead use the money for his own property. He has a track record as a profiteer who denies fair pay and benefits to workers.”

Sweeney is calling on the CRDA to reject the partial funding of the demolition. This is not the first time the Senator has taken on the billionaire. Soon after Icahn shut down the Taj Mahal casino due to a union labor dispute, Sweeney authorized a bill that would have punished Icahn for his business practices by stripping him of a casino license for the property for five years.
The bill passed the Democratic-controlled state Legislature, but was vetoed by Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

Trump Plaza closed in September 2014 and was later acquired by Icahn out of bankruptcy. Icahn has sold the Taj Mahal casino to Hard Rock International, which plans to open a new resort in 2018.

New York-based Keating & Associates LLC doesn’t appear to be taking no for an answer in its efforts to buy the closed Revel Atlantic City property and has now contracted to buy a one-acre site adjacent to Revel.

Keating has made a $225 million offer for Revel, but the site’s owner Glenn Straub has denied he is in negotiations with the company. For that matter, Straub has denied that he is in negotiations with another firm, Colorado-based Ten RE ACNJ, run by Colorado-based businessman Bruce Deifik, which has made two regulatory filings in the state indicating it is about to purchase the property.

That leaves it unclear whether Keating will simply be a neighbor to Revel, or if their purchase will be part of the overall complex.

According to the website Philly.com, the private equity firm has made a nonrefundable deposit toward an $8 million purchase of the vacant tract. The site is east of the revel property between Rhode Island and Metropolitan Avenues chief strategist Alex Fredericks said in an email to the site—which represents the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.

The current owner of the site, Lazocean LP, had planned a 30-story, 124-unit condominium complex with 4,400 square feet of retail space to be known as the Metropolitan at Revel Beach. The project, however, was abandoned after the Revel closed in 2014.

Keating said in a press release that they have similar plans for the site and would seek a zoning change to enable heights of 40 to 50 stories so that more retail and restaurant space could be accommodated.

“We see such a bright future for this end of the boardwalk,” Keating co-chairman Jeffery Keating said in the release. “There are some really exciting days ahead, and we feel really blessed to be a part of the future of Atlantic City.”

Despite the emergence of Ten RE ACNJ as a contender for Revel itself, Keating officials said they still hope to acquire the former casino.

“We are working between our counsel and Mr. Straub’s to come to a conclusion on the Revel that we are still feverishly excited about,” he said. “The Metropolitan project will only enhance our position and objectives.”

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, which oversees gambling, recently published proposed rules on designated player card games. The changes propose that “card games that utilize a designated player shall be governed by the cardroom operator’s house rules.”

In addition, the changes specify house rules must including assuring the dealer position “rotates around the card table in a clockwise fashion on a hand-by-hand basis to provide each player desiring to be the designated player an equal opportunity to participate.”

Also, the changes are meant to “allow the division to move beyond pending litigation in order to open the card room rules to future development designed to ensure that the rules are closely aligned to statute.”

The litigation refers to the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s lawsuit against the state, in which the tribe claimed certain designated player games were too similar to banked card games, like blackjack, which the tribe offers exclusively in an agreement with the state. A federal judge sided with the tribe, the state appealed and the cased was settled.

DBPR spokeswoman Suellen Wilkins said, “The Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering takes very seriously its duty to ensure card games are played in accordance with Florida law.”

Regulators alleged certain card rooms, during designated player games, violated state law by allowing employees of third-party companies to act as a virtual bank that did not rotate among players. An administrative law judge said in that situation, “the designated player is a player in name only. The existing operation of the games does no more than establish a bank against which participants play.”

Richard Branson’s Virgin Hotels is looking to expand into Las Vegas.

News reports are the company, part of the British billionaire’s Virgin Group, is searching for an existing property to buy as part of an investment group including Bosworth Hospitality Partners and Juniper Capital Partner.

“We are highly energized right now in pursuit of procuring a Las Vegas casino hotel resort,” Bosworth founder Richard Bosworth told the Las Vegas Sun. “Due to confidentiality concerns I cannot share any specific details. However, we are completing our confirmatory due diligence.”

Anthony F. Lucas, a professor of hotel administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said of Virgin, “I do hope they come here because they’re great. I love what they’re doing. I like any business that’s savvy enough to think like a guest. That’s what makes Wynn better than anyone else, and he is. Just like Wynn, Virgin identifies pain points for customers and tries to figure out a way to fix them.”

Brent Pirosch, director of the gaming group at commercial real estate company CBRE, said Virgin would be a great fit for Las Vegas.

“Absolutely,” Pirosch said. “Any brand that’s got recognition outside this market is good, and especially one that’s considered a sexy aspirational lifestyle brand is going to do well here.”

The 67-year-old Branson launched Virgin Hotels in 2010 and opened its first location in Chicago in January 2016. The original plan called for hotels in New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Dallas, New Orleans, Palm Springs and Washington, D.C., by 2020. The company is now targeting 20 hotels by 2025, which has Branson kicking tires in Las Vegas.

Not that he’s a stranger to Sin City. Virgin America, which he sold to Alaska Air last year, makes several flights to McCarran International Airport from various cities, and his Virgin Atlantic Airlines runs direct flights to McCarran from London and Manchester.