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The New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has approved a 2017-18 operating budget, which decreases spending by more than 14 percent.

The $8.7 million budget is down $1.4 million from last year. The cuts were achieved mostly through cuts in CRDA staff.

The authority overseas the Atlantic City tourism district and funds improvement projects throughout the city and state.

“This budget clearly demonstrates the CRDA’s commitment to the Tourism District and to this great destination city,” said Chris Howard, executive director of the state agency in a press release. “By investing available funding in a wide range of partnerships, CRDA will continue to be a key part of the momentum driving the renaissance of Atlantic City. We are excited for all the great things to come in 2018.”

The authority cut 15 percent of its full-time staff during a reorganization in March, according to a report in the Press of Atlantic City. The cuts came after the authority lost $22 million in casino tax revenue as part of a state-implemented Atlantic City rescue package.

The CRDA Board also approved the budget for Meet AC, the resort’s convention and visitor’s bureau which stayed steady at $7 million, according to the Press.

Table-game dealers at Horseshoe Casino Baltimore will receive an hourly pay increase of at least 10 percent under a newly ratified contract negotiated with parent Caesars Entertainment by the National Gaming Workers’ Coalition, a group of five unions representing around 1,000 gaming and food and beverage workers.

Under the new five-year contract, 570 table-game dealers will receive increases of $6.30 per hour, plus up to an additional $1.75 an hour depending on their knowledge of various games. For casino employees who count on tips for the majority of wages, base pay will increase from the current $3.72-$10.76 per hour to $4.66-$11.20 per hour beginning this month. Further increases will occur in October 2021, with that range ending up at $14.76-$31.39 per hour.

The contract also entails an improved health contract—a Kaiser Permanent plan that requires no deductibles, replacing a plan requiring deductibles of up to $3,300 per year.

The Cordish Companies last week completed the exterior phase of construction on the Live! hotel in Maryland the placement of the final steel beam in a traditional “Topping Off” ceremony. The 350,000-square-foot luxury hotel, located adjacent to Live! casino, features a 17-story hotel tower, 310 guest rooms, an event center, meeting spaces, a day spa/salon, and David’s Café, a 24/7 dining establishment. It is the first hotel in the country to carry the Live! brand.

Located within the Arundel Mills Commercial District next to Arundel Mills Mall, Live! Casino & Hotel will offer guests premier gaming entertainment at one of the country’s top commercial casinos, along with luxury accommodations and world-class customer service. Live! also operates Live! Lofts, a boutique hotel minutes from the casino. Together, the properties will offer guests 560 rooms for overnight accommodations and multiple spaces for events and private meetings.

“We are now one step closer to creating an experience that does not currently exist in the region today,” said David Cordish, chairman of The Cordish Companies. “Nowhere else can you find this mix of dynamic gaming, first-class accommodations, entertainment, dining, and retail, plus our trademark customer service. Guests know that when they come here, they are treated like part of our family.”

The Cordish Companies has developed such iconic hospitality destinations as Charleston Place Hotel in South Carolina, and the Seminole Hard Rock Casino Hotels in Tampa and Hollywood, Florida.

Live! Hotel and Live! Lofts are the first two hotels to carry the Live! moniker and round out The Cordish Companies’ portfolio to include both luxury and boutique hotel accommodations. Expansion of both brands is planned across the United States and internationally.

“We can do things differently because we are a family-owned company,” said Blake Cordish, vice president of The Cordish Companies and head of the real estate division. “The combination we are now offering with the luxury Live! Hotel, Live! Lofts boutique hotel, and one of the nation’s top casinos is unmatched. We are especially excited to be introducing this concept in our family’s hometown, where we have received so much support and worked very hard to give back to the community.”

With completion scheduled for early2018, Live! Hotel will feature comfortable guest rooms designed with a modern, contemporary flare; along with public spaces showcasing floor-to-ceiling windows, high ceilings accented with striking chandeliers, and wood and polished marble throughout.

The Grand Event Center will house a 1,500-seat concert venue with built-in performance stage and banquet seating for up to 800 guests. Dining options include David’s Café, with dishes inspired by Chairman David Cordish’s world travels. Guests can relax at the Live! Spa luxury day spa & salon, featuring high-end products, a full menu of spa services, and a state-of-the-art Fitness Center.

Live! Hotel represents a massive additional investment in Anne Arundel County, additional gaming revenue and taxes to the State of Maryland, approximately 400 new jobs for local and regional residents, approximately 550 construction jobs, nearly 1,000 new parking spaces, and numerous new vendor opportunities for local, minority, women-owned, and veteran-owned business.

Tutor Perini Building Corporation currently serves as the general contractor. The Cordish Companies has also assembled a team of contractors, project architects and designers for the project, including Klai Juba Wald Architects, McLaren Engineering Group, Laurence Lee Associates, Cleo Design Corporation, Selbert Perkins, Corsi & Associates, Lynne Curry Spa Consulting, Giovanetti Schulman Assoc., and EDSA. Together, these celebrated firms are responsible for creating some of the most luxurious casinos, resorts and hotels in the world.

Florida state Senator Tom Lee recently announced he may introduce a constitutional amendment to ban greyhound racing in the state. Lee, a member of the Constitution Revision Commission and a candidate for chief financial officer of Florida, has spoken with several dog racetrack operators to “take their temperature,” an industry lobbyist said.

Lee is reviewing what effect ending greyhound racing might have on jobs. Besides live races, they also are simulcast and wagered upon across the U.S. Lee said, “It wouldn’t be optional. This isn’t decoupling. This would be a mandatory ban for dog racing in Florida, to just prohibit it.”

Decoupling refers to changing the state law requiring dog and horse tracks to run live races in order to offer card rooms and other gambling; tracks still could offer dog races if they choose to.

Lee’s proposed amendment must be filed by October 31 under state law, which also requires a Constitution Revision Commission to be formed every 20 years to review and recommend changes to the state constitution. Any amendments placed on the 2018 statewide ballot must be approved by 60 percent of voters.

The completion of the $75 million Tiverton Casino by Twin River has been delayed for three months due to a slow permitting process and construction restrictions by the town of Tiverton, Rhode Island says the developer.

The voters of the state and the town approved of moving Twin River’s casino from Newport to Tiverton, although the town’s vote was very narrow. At that time, the developer promised an opening of July 2018 for the casino, which is opening a few hundred feet from the Massachusetts state line, and is a gauntlet thrown in the face of the MGM Springfield.

Under recent questions by the city council, Twin River pushed back the opening to October 2018.

The company’s lawyer last week sent an email to the Tiverton Casino Subcommittee, outlining new scheduling possibilities. “His assessment reflected the challenges of the site, the in-depth zoning and planning process which occurred after the referendum and the wishes of the town to restrict hours of construction operations,” said a spokesman for Twin River. There is also a problem getting timely delivery of materials—and of the city refusing to extend the number of hours that workers can work.

The spokesman said that once the building is enclosed, late this year, it will have a better idea of when the casino can open. “If we can advance the likely October 2018 opening date, we will,” said the spokesman.

The state isn’t happy about the delay, because it was planning on an additional $26.4 million. Gaming is the state’s third source of revenue. According to the Department of Revenue, the state will lose $2.2 million for each month the casino is delayed.

Building crews are doing site and foundation work at the casino location. Plans are for a 77,500-square foot casino with 1,000 slots and 32 gaming tables. There will also be an 84-room hotel and two-level parking structure.

The Delaware Video Lottery Advisory Council (VLAC) is again ready to recommend that state lawmakers cut the table-game revenue tax from its current 29.5 percent to 15 percent, according to comments by the council’s chairman to a local TV news organization.

Created in a 2003 law, the VLAC includes state Lottery Director Vernon Kirk, supplier representatives, and presidents of the three racinos—Edward J. Sutor of Dover Downs, Patti Key of Harrington Raceway and Bill Fasy of Delaware Park. The council is charged with making recommendations to Delaware lawmakers on ways to improve state revenue from the three casino properties.

For each of the past several years, the council has recommended slashing revenue taxes and fees for the racinos to compensate for business lost to new competitors in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Sutor, president and CEO of Dover Downs and current chairman of the VLAC, told local news channel WBOC 16 that this year’s recommendations, due in a January report, will most definitely include a cut to the tax on table-game revenues.

It will be a revival of a recommendation made in each of the past several years—that the tax on table revenues be reduced from the current 29.5 percent to 15 percent, which would be more in line with the tax charged in neighboring states.

“We can’t sustain ourselves losing money,” said Sutor, who noted that when fees and labor costs are factored in, the three racinos are actually losing money on their table game operations, which is in line with the VLAC reports of the past three years.

In last year’s VLAC report to lawmakers, the council described the justification for a table tax reduction.

“Delaware has the highest table game tax rate in the country,” the report stated. “Maryland’s rate is 20 percent, Pennsylvania’s rate is 14 percent, and New Jersey’s is 8 percent. With annual license fees, Delaware’s effective revenue share rate on table games is almost 40 percent, and combined with the overhead required in terms of payroll costs makes table game operations unprofitable for the state’s three casinos.”

Delaware Governor John Carney, in an interview with WBOC 16, acknowledged that his government is trying to determine some tax relief for the casinos, but that it is too early to talk about individual proposals.

“It is really hard, because it probably means changing the formula in some kind of way that benefits them to the detriment (of the state) to a certain extent,” Carney said.

In just the past three years, the table-tax proposal has been included in the council’s recommendations but has failed in the state Senate. It was inserted then removed from SB 220 in 2014, and then it was included in SB 30 in 2015 and SB 183 in 2016, each of which died without reaching a floor vote.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of the arrival of table games before the end of the year, the Casino at Ocean Downs in Berlin, Maryland is recruiting potential candidates to become dealers. A state program is funding a tuition-free dealer school. Ocean Downs General Manager Bobbi Sample said, “When students successfully complete a class in blackjack, they will have the opportunity to audition to become a dealer here at Ocean Downs. They will continue their education at the school and learn how to deal other games and expand their opportunities.”

The new dealers and table games will be stationed at a 35,000 square foot expansion at the casino. “Construction of the expansion is moving forward. Our goal is to open the expansion and table games by New Year’s Eve,” Sample said.

Ocean Downs opened in September 2011 as the first of four of the original locations the Maryland legislature approved for casinos in different geographic areas of the state. Since then the casino has offered 800 video gaming machines, including traditional slots and simulated electronic table games. The casino has remained the sole gaming facility among the six in Maryland that does not offer live table games.

The $2.5 billion Wynn Boston Harbor rising in Everett, Massachusetts on the banks of the Mystic River is starting to take shape, aiming toward a June 24, 2019

As fall deepens the construction site is a bee hive of activity, of cement trucks, earth movers, workers in hard hats in vehicles and on foot—more than 1,000 of them. As busy as it will ever be, Wynn is spending about $2.5 million a day.

The section farthest from the river will include the hotel and casino “back-of-the-house” functions, such as offices, employee dining and laundry. That work is the most completed, and is safely enclosed from the elements.

The casino itself is closer to the river and is built over an underground parking structure.

The floor is nearly poured for this section as is the mezzanine level that will give a panoramic view of the gaming floor and its thousands of slot machines.

The hotel lobby will overlook the river. Two large escalators will connect the lobby to the mezzanine. At their base owner Steve Wynn plans to install the Jeff Koons sculpture of Popeye he purchased for $28 million, and which is currently housed in Las Vegas resort.

The tower itself will be 27 stories. Currently it is rising at a rate of one story per week. Soon the signature Wynn bronze glass skin will begin crawling up the sides.

But it doesn’t stop at the water’s edge, because currently barges are dredging the river bottom to remove pollutants and make the water safe for ferry boats.

The developer is also restoring the salt marsh that once existed here centuries ago.

Construction will continue through the winter.

Shawn Scott’s campaign to persuade voters to allow him to be the only person to build a third casino in Maine is just two weeks away from being decided by the ballot box. Question 1 would authorize a casino in York County.

Scott, an out-of-state gaming entrepreneur with several companies based off-shore, was the man who introduced casino gaming to Maine, back in 2003. Now there are two casinos, in Bangor and Oxford. Scott wants to be allowed to build a third, in York County. That’s in a state of 1.3 million.

Although Scott’s sister, Lisa Scott, spearheaded the $4.3 million effort to qualify a casino initiative, she eventually left as the official head of Progress for Maine, she left when the state’s ethics commission began peppering her for documents relating to the donors for the campaign. Shawn Scott then became the public face of the Question 1 effort.

Critics accuse Scott of trying to buy an election, get a license, and then sell it for a big profit, as he did in 2003 when he sold his rights to a casino to Penn National Gaming.

Maine Governor Paul LePage has blasted the casino proposal, calling it “a stacked deck,” and adding, “It’s a stacked deck. Once again, Maine’s referendum process has been hijacked by big money, out-of-state interests hoping to pull the wool over your eyes.”

He charges that the third casino will merely drain away profits from the two existing casinos, without generating any new economic activity. The campaign claims that a York County casino will create $45 million in state tax revenue. It would create 2,165 permanent jobs and 2,767 temporary construction jobs, while generating $64.4 million in earnings from operation of the casino, and more than $100 million in earnings from construction.

The Question 1 campaign is being shepherded by the same consulting firm that took the Brexit vote over the finish line in Great Britain about a year ago. The campaign has already spent $1.5 million on the election.

Last week the Progress for Maine announced a new supporter: the Aroostook Band of Micmacs. The campaign unveiled an ad featuring the band’s Vice Chief Silliboy, who declares, “I believe that a gaming facility in Southern Maine would benefit most of the people throughout the state,” and claims the casino will enable his tribe to pursue new economic development.

Campaign spokesman Rebecca Foster commented, “We’re excited to have the support of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, particularly since Question 1 will create new economic benefits for Native American tribes and residents throughout Maine,” adding, “A gaming and entertainment center in York County creates so many opportunities for taxpayers, job seekers and business owners across the state. We hope Maine voters will join us in voting Yes on Question 1 to keep jobs, tourism and tax revenue in Maine.”

The Aroostock Band, and other tribes in the state receive funding from any casino operating in the state. Question 1 would give them $1 million a year. Other beneficiaries would be veterans, property tax relief and senior citizens.

Scott’s career has been controversial. He has opened casino hotels and racinos, but also been denied license and sued multiple times. His career in gaming appears to have been born in the 2003 campaign when voters approved what would eventually become the Hollywood Slots in Bangor.

He sold that license for $51 million after state regulators raised “significant issues about the application including the fact that some of the people intimately involved had significant criminal records.”

Several years later he pulled off a similar feat in Louisiana where he obtained the rights for a casino after spending $10 million and sold it for $130 million.

Scott altered his playing field to the international level—until last year when it was unveiled that he had been behind an effort in neighboring Massachusetts. An effort that fell afoul of Bay State ethics regulators for failing to report the source of donations—a similar mishap to what has befallen the Maine campaign.

Commission on Governmental Ethics and Campaign Practices has been investigating the campaign’s finances for several months, and will make a recommendation by October 31, which could include fines for providing inaccurate or late reporting information.

Scott was asked last week on a call-in radio show if he intends to sell the license if his efforts succeed. He said he intended to operate the casino himself.

He said, “We don’t have any intention of cashing out and leaving. We want to be here for the long haul, we want to develop this project.”

When the radio talk host asked why Scott sold his license in 2003, he answered “Bangor turned out to be a win-win for everybody and it’s producing still $37 million a year in tax revenue. Sometimes in life businesses don’t work out but in the Bangor case that was a win-win for everyone.”

Maine lawmakers want to change the referendum process, calling the Progress for Maine campaign the “poster child” for a process that has jumped the rails.

Senator Roger Katz, chairman of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, declared last week that the campaign twists the Maine Constitution’s intent when it created the referendum.

“It is wealthy interests, often from out of state, that are now the movers and negotiators of citizens’ initiatives and we really need to get back to the basics of why we have this process in the first place,” said the senator. His committee has invited Scott and others backing the initiative to appear before it, but they declined.

Senator Katz called it “kind of ironic” that Scott would refuse to speak to his committee, but would go on a radio talk show. He ticked off Scott’s run-ins with gaming regulators in several other states and in Thailand, and said his efforts in Maine “ought to make Maine people’s blood boil.”

Scott’s initiative is written in such a way that only he or his company could apply for a York County gaming license, which some experts estimate could be worth $150 million.

This year several lawmakers failed to pass two bills that would have amended the initiative process, including increasing the number of signatures required to put one on a ballot, and to require that the signatures come from a wider geographical distribution.

Some legislators point out that the legislature could amend or repeal any measure passed by initiative.

Not all lawmakers oppose Question 1. In an op-ed last week Tom Saviello, a state senator and Lance Harvell, a state representative, declared, “We can’t turn down new state revenue, 5,000 jobs, a boost in tourism and help for the struggling harness racing industry.”

They added, “There will be no hidden taxes. If anything, property taxes may go down as a result of this initiative. Question 1 conjures up $11 million a year for Maine’s Department of Education, $3 million for tuition relief, $3 million in property tax relief, $2 million to the General Fund, and more than $1 million for drug education and addiction prevention. This is meaningful revenue coming at no expense to the state nor the citizens of Maine. Casinos already give the state roughly $50 million a year in similarly tax-free returns, and we now have the chance to almost double that.”

Governor to study gaming provisions before acting

The Pennsylvania legislature passed a budget reconciliation bill to balance the state budget that has been in place since July 1, in a package that includes legalization of online gaming and daily fantasy sports, plus a variety of other gaming expansion measures that include authorization of up to 10 satellite “mini-casinos” in areas without current land-based casinos, tablet gaming at airports, and video gaming terminals, or VGTs, at truck stops.

The bill now goes to the desk of Governor Tom Wolf, who has opposed some of the gaming expansion measures in the past. Wolf commented that he will take a few days to study the gambling proposals before making his decision on whether or not to sign them into law.

Tucked inside a massive bill that relies on borrowing, legalized fireworks sales and new taxes on natural gas drilling and online retail sales, the gaming expansion package, projected to generate $200 million in revenue against the $2.2 billion budget deficit, was the last and most contentious portion of the package.

While Wolf’s signature would legalize online gaming, whether or not land-based casinos apply for iGaming licenses remains to be seen. While the iGaming provision sets a revenue tax of 14 percent for online poker and table-game revenue, online slot games—the most profitable form of iGaming—would be taxed similar to land-based slots at 52 percent, a rate most Pennsylvania operators have called a non-starter that would prevent them from seeking an iGaming license.

The online gaming provision would allow licensed commercial casinos—both in Pennsylvania and outside the state—to apply to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for licenses to provide gambling websites for PC and mobile applications for use by people within the state. License fees would be $4 million each for online poker, table games and slot games, or $10 million for all three.

The iGaming provision also would extend to the Pennsylvania Lottery, which would be authorized to offer keno and other games online, including existing instant-ticket and raffle games. The lottery would be prohibited from offering casino-style games online.

Lawmakers included the online lottery provision to boost lagging sales. The Pennsylvania Lottery ended the recent fiscal year with an $18 million deficit, the first shortfall in the lottery’s 40-year history.

The VGT provision represents a compromise many thought would be rejected by Republican House leaders, who have been pushing for as many as 10 VGTs at each of thousands of liquor-licensed establishments across the state—a proposal that has been vehemently opposed by the state’s current casino licensees as unfair competition that ignores the billions they invested in the state’s gaming industry.

The VGT provision in the legislative package passed by the Senate on Wednesday and by the House on Thursday would allow only five machines at locations that meet a specific definition of a truck stop, with revenue split between the state, license holders, terminal operators and host municipalities.

Among the bill’s other provisions:

• Daily fantasy sports betting would be regulated and taxed, charging DFS operators a $50,000 license fee and taxing revenues at 15 percent.

• The state’s two resort-style casinos, which are limited to 750 slots and require patrons to spend at least $25 in the resort for entry to the casinos, would be relieved from those requirements of the 2004 gaming law for a fee of $2.5 million on slots and $1 million on tables.

• The 2004 provision limiting majority owners of one casino to a one-third stake in a second casino would be repealed.

• Casinos could apply to the gaming board to offer sports betting for a license fee of $10 million, should the federal ban be repealed. Online sports betting would be permitted.

• Casinos could apply to operate interactive gaming parlors at Pennsylvania airports, with consent of the local airport authorities. Eight international and regional airports in the state would be authorized to offer online-style gaming on tablets.

• The casino host fee to local governments, struck down last year by the state Supreme Court, would be reinstated at a flat $10 million annual fee to local governments. Operators of smaller casinos have said they will challenge the new fee on the same basis as the old fee—smaller casinos would pay a higher percentage of their revenues in taxes than their larger competitors.

• Each of the state’s 10 larger casinos would be authorized to bid on a satellite casino license that would allow up to 750 slot machines and 10 table games at a location that is outside a radius 25 miles from an existing casino. Under the bill, bidding would start at $7.5 million with table-game licenses costing an additional $2.5 million. License fees and taxes would go to local and state governments, public schools and civic development.

Even before the Thursday House vote, there were already threats of lawsuits to block the law if signed by Wolf. The Reading Eagle reported that Penn National Gaming is considering filing a lawsuit against the state over the 25-mile buffer zone for satellite casinos. Penn Vice President of Public Affairs Eric Schippers commented that two-thirds of the gamblers at the operator’s Hollywood Casino in the Harrisburg area come from more than 25 miles away, because Hollywood is the only casino in the mid-state region.

“We’re considering our legal options because this would have a uniquely punitive effect on our casino, more so than any other casino in the state,” Schippers told the Eagle. “We’re out in central Pennsylvania alone, so again, we could be surrounded by licenses that would have a profoundly negative impact on our casino and could result in job losses and cannibalization of our business.”

Schippers also called the 470-page gambling package an “ill-conceived plan that has been rushed through.”

That same sentiment was expressed by some lawmakers. “We will become a gambling state without parallel,” said Rep. Steve McCarter, according to the Associated Press. Others complained that there was too little time to study the complicated package of legislation, which some said was loaded with perks for individual districts. Philadelphia-area Rep. Margo Davidson called it “corporate welfare for casinos and special carve-outs for special people.”

Among those carve-outs was repeal of the casino ownership limit, which would render moot a lawsuit holding up construction of Philadelphia’s second casino over ownership stakes of one of the principals. One perk favors Delaware County area development projects that would benefit from taxes on Harrah’s Philadelphia, and another would give extra money to counties with lower-performing casinos.

Rep. Scott Petri, chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, complained about the definition of “truck stops” in the VGT provision. In an interview with the Associated Press, Petri said the definition is “so broad, anything you think of as a convenience store is a truck stop. You literally could drive a truck through the definition and its ability to be misused.”