Author: Casino Connection Staff

Though an architect of New Jersey’s fight to overturn a federal ban on sports betting, former New Jersey state Senator Raymond Lesniak says he would like to see a unified regulation of sports data to help protect the integrity of sports betting.

In an interview with CDC Gaming Reports, Lesniak said state’s need to share sports betting information just as information on stock trading is monitored.

 “That’s one thing that hasn’t happened yet but needs to happen,” Lesniak said. “Illegal acts are discovered by unusual investing patterns. There’s plenty of software around you can tie it in to raise red flags when a huge amount comes in on a certain game. That’s how these fixes are detected.

“States have to have uniform agreements to share the information. The operators can do it themselves, but government has to step in and make sure,” he said.

Lesniak also said that New Jersey’s move into sports betting and online casino gaming has greatly helped the state’s gambling market.

“Casino gambling and horse racing are not a young person’s sport anymore. But sports betting is,” he said. “It’s gone through the roof, as I expected. New Jersey and the Northeast are a hotbed of gambling.”

Lesniak said the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, the 1992 federal legislation that effectively banned sports betting until overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court had a “noble intent” of stopping a proliferation of sports betting that could have threatened the integrity of sports.

“But that went out the window when Internet gambling came on board” and people could bet anywhere, Lesniak said. “There’s absolutely no reason for any state to not legalize sports betting. I’m just surprised more haven’t done it sooner.”

New Jersey will continue to control Atlantic City’s finances through 2021, despite Governor Phil Murphy’s campaign promise to end the control earlier.

When passed in 2016 under then Governor Chris Christie, the state was to control the city’s finances for five years as the city faced bankruptcy and default on several debts.

A timetable recently laid out by Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver would keep the takeover in place through 2021.

The law enacted in 2016 “was a 5-year statute,” Oliver said during a recent community meeting. “We anticipate the statute will run for a 5-year period.”

At the end of the five years, Oliver said, she hoped to demonstrate to the state Legislature that enough has been fixed in Atlantic City to end the takeover.

Under the takeover, the state has broad powers, including the right to overturn decisions of the city council, override or even abolish city agencies and seize and sell assets. The state monitors can also hire or fire workers, break union contracts, and restructure the city’s debt.

When enacted, the city faced some debilitating debt, mostly brought on by successful casino tax appeals as the city’s casino industry was struggling in the face of competition from casino in other states. Five city casinos closed starting in 2014.

The state has successfully renegotiated several of those tax settlements.

Mayor Frank Gilliam Jr. told the Associated Press that he supports the state’s timetable for ending control and praised a recently announced plan for the city developed by state and local elected officials and community leaders to improve the resort’s economy.

The plan calls for reforms in government effectiveness and accountability, job training and economic development, finding new revenue sources and providing more opportunities for youth. The plan also suggests a review of the city’s casino regulations and a possible cap on casino licenses issued in the resort.

“I don’t foresee this plan failing,” Gilliam said. “For so long, folks have believed that Atlantic City could not flourish within its own self. The Debbie Downers of Atlantic City need to jump off that horse.”

When MGM Resorts Chairman and CEO Jim Murren announced the company’s MGM 2020 plan to usher the company into the next decade and beyond, he said that the plan would include $100 million in salary saving, which means job reductions. It started with buyouts of some of the company’s top executives and last week aimed a bit lower, with the loss of 254 management jobs across the company.

The job losses—along with another round scheduled soon, according to Murren—are “regrettable” but meant to be a “comprehensive change meant to be transformative,” said Murren in a memo to all employees

Murren acknowledged that the job cuts and the reorganization process would be “stressful” and “difficult” but that it would result in a stronger company.

Last week’s cuts affect only management level employees but no unionized employees.

Already gone from MGM are CFO Dan D’Arrigo, MGM Grand President Scott Sibella (who recently accepted the same position at Resorts World Las Vegas) and longtime spokesman Alan Feldman, who will stay on as a consultant.

PokerStars has been fined $10,000 for violating New Jersey’s prohibition of accepting bets on games involving state college teams.

The state Division of Gaming Enforcement said PokerStars accepted 216 wagers on a game involving Rutgers and Eastern Michigan University totaling more than $2,700. The company also accepted a single bet on a game involving Monmouth University and the University of Pennsylvania.

The division did note that PokerStars had voided all the wagers and returned the money to bettors before the games began. It also indicated the company acknowledged the bets violated the law and that PokerStars had agreed to the fine as part of a settlement with the state, according to the Associated Press.

Matt Primeaux, senior vice president for Strategy & Operations, USA at The Stars Group—which owns PokerStars—commented on the case by email to the Press of Atlantic City.

“We generally don’t comment on regulatory matters like these, but we had a manual gating error from our international games into New Jersey,” he said. “We cooperated with the DGE as we always do, have learnt from the problem, and are confident it won’t reoccur.”

New Jersey legislators are currently considering a bill that would set fines starting at $20,000 and ranging up to $100,000 for companies that take prohibited bets on New Jersey college teams. The bill has cleared a state Assembly committee, but not yet gone before the full Assembly for a vote.

Previously, the Golden Nugget casino and Caesars Entertainment were also penalized for taking bets on New Jersey college teams. Caesars was fined $2,000 for taking bets on a Rutgers-Kansas football game in September, and Golden Nugget forfeiting $390 in bets that it took on numerous college games involving New Jersey teams, according to the AP.

State law prohibits wagers on college teams from New Jersey, regardless of where the game is played, or on college games that take place within the state.

In another matter, Wynn gaming has announced it will launch an online sport betting site in the increasingly crowded New Jersey market. The company, however, has not said which live sportsbook it will be partnering with. Online sportsbooks must partner with casinos or racetracks that offer sportsbooks.

The site will be launched with Scientific Games software, according to a press release from that company.

Wynn Resorts will utilize several Scientific Games products and services including: a sports betting and iGaming system; a managed sports trading service and Scientific Games’ market-leading content aggregation system that is home to more than 2,000 digital games, the release said.

A launch date was not announced.

Pennsylvania’s new truck-stop gaming market got closer to reality last week, as the state Gaming Control Board issued gaming licenses to five truck stops and gave conditional approval for 43 locations across the state to add up to five video gaming terminals each.

The first five “truck stop establishments” are spread throughout central and western Pennsylvania: Four sit generally along the Interstate 80 corridor in Emlenton, Snow Shoe, Loganton and McElhattan; and the fifth along Route 22 in Cambria County, near Loretto.

Under the 2017 gaming expansion law, retail locations can add five VGTs each if they meet established criteria as a truck stop. Such establishments must be situated on at least three acres of land, must be a Pennsylvania Lottery sales agent, must have a convenience store, must have no less than 20 parking spaces for commercial motor vehicles and must have diesel islands for refueling such vehicles. The establishments are also required to provide proof that they have sold or expect to sell an average of 50,000 gallons of diesel/biodiesel fuel on a monthly basis for a period of 12 months.

PGCB Executive Director Kevin O’Toole told board members at last week’s meeting that he expects the first gaming machines to be up and running at truck stops sometime this summer. Each licensee will have to meet physical requirements, get their employees who will be supervising the games licensed, and submit internal controls for review before going live.

Last week’s gaming board action leaves 58 VGT licenses pending across the state. O’Toole said those licenses will considered at future meetings. Five additional applicants have withdrawn, presumably because they are not able to meet some of the statutory requirements.

Atlantic City saw another good month for total gaming revenue in March bringing in $273.7 million, up more than 25 percent over March 2018.

Sports betting in New jersey also had a strong month as the NCAA Basketball tournament unfolded with the state seeing a total handle of about $372 million with an 8.5 percent hold of about $32 million. FanDuel Sportsbook at the Meadowland’s Racetrack reported $17.5 million of that revenue, with more than $13 million coming from online betting.

More than $2.3 billion has been bet at the state’s sportsbooks—which includes sportsbooks at the Meadowlands and Monmouth Park racetracks—since sports betting went live in June. New Jersey’s sports books have made over $63 million from sports betting and paid $7.7 million in state taxes in the first three months of this year, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.

Though the opening of two new casinos in June 2018 has contributed to a dip in overall profits for Atlantic City casinos, total revenue has climbed for 10 consecutive months. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, however, recently reported that casino profits for 2018 fell 15.4 percent.

James Plousis, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, attributed the lower quarterly report profit numbers to investments the city’s casinos have made to attract more business.

“Earlier this week, the casinos reported tighter profit margins in 2018, but we are seeing results from the investments they’ve made,” said Plousis. “The regional economy is benefiting, and the industry is hiring. More than 2,000 jobs are open, including about 700 full-time positions.”

Through the first three months of 2019, total gaming revenue is up 22.2 percent over 2018. Seven city casinos operated for the entire year in 2018 with the Hard Rock Atlantic City and The Ocean Casino Resort opening in June. The city’s nine casinos have now reported total gaming revenue of $726.65 million this year.

Online casino gambling revenue has also been climbing steadily with the casinos and their online partners taking in $39.1 million in March, an increase of 53 percent compared to the same month last year. The number reflects a new record for the state.

The Golden Nugget Atlantic City and its online partners led the market bringing in more than $14.2 million in March.

The figures also indicate that online sports betting has helped advance online casino gaming in the state as several major sports betting sites such as DraftKings and PokerStars have added online casino sites to their platforms. Resorts casino online division—which is partnered with both sites—took in about $8.5 million in online casino revenue, according to online poker report.

Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa led in total gaming revenue in March with $65.7 million, more than double the next-closest property. Bally’s Atlantic City, Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City and Tropicana Atlantic City all reported decreases in total gaming revenue in March compared to last year, according to the Press of Atlantic City.

The gaming floor at Monticello Casino & Raceway became the first ever to close in New York when owner Empire Resorts followed through last week on plans to shutter the struggling operation, a fate that was all but predestined after Empire’s giant Resorts World Catskills debuted just six miles away.

“There is not enough business that remains at that VLT facility to justify the cost of operating it,” said Ryan Eller, president and CEO of publicly traded Empire (Nasdaq: NYNY).

The casino’s 1,100 video lottery terminals, which had been taking bets since 2004, were unplugged on April 23, and all players’ points and perks were transferred to Resorts World. The casino’s 160 or so employees were offered either a job at Resorts World or a severance package.

Empire has promised to keep open the 60-year-old harness track, which employs around 40, but observers believe its future is problematic as well as both attendance and handle have plummeted over the years.

“The guardians of racing are the horsemen. Track operators are the guardians of their pocketbooks and nothing else,” said Joe Faraldo, president of the state’s Standardbred Owners Association.

It was not expected that Resorts World’s opening last February would necessarily doom the racino, at least not according to Empire, which hoped the two would serve distinct markets. But when Resorts World struggled out of the gate

Some people like the new skyline feature in Everett, the Encore Boston Harbor casino, and some look at the bronze-colored 27-story skyscraper “like an evil person watching over me,” according to a report in the Boston Globe. To others it simply looks like a typical feature of Las Vegas planted into what used to be a blighted landscape next to the Mystic River.

The $2.6 billion tower is unlikely to ever go away, but who ends up owning and running it is currently up in the air as the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is currently deliberating over whether the pull the gaming license of the Wynn Resorts over sexual allegations against former CEO and founder Steve Wynn—and more important to the commission—how the company dealt with those allegations, and whether what the new CEO and board claim is a totally changed corporate culture and way of dealing with sexual harassment claims is enough to allow the company to operate in the Bay State.

Nevertheless, according to the Globe report, a lot of people who don’t live in Everett, but who pass through the city on the Orange Line on their way to Boston or elsewhere, have strong opinions about the town, which some call “an eyesore,” although as comedian Steve Sweeney quipped, “It’s not exactly blocking trees or a beautiful waterfall. It’s freakin’ Everett.” Helicopter reporter Kristen Eck added, “Look at the other stuff around it — a power plant, a junkyard, an oil tank farm. It’s probably the most attractive thing in the neighborhood.”

Wynn Resorts spokesman Michael Weaver points out that the company originally submitted a design that wasn’t so “Las Vegas,” but that the commission asked that it be designed to look like something from that city. He adds, “It offers a beautiful reflection of its surroundings at night. And it creates a very warm, inviting glow inside the rooms.”

In a 67-31 vote, the Iowa House approved legislation to legalize sports betting and fantasy sports. The Senate earlier voted 31-18 for the measure. It now goes to Republican Governor Kim Reynolds, who has not publicly indicated if she’ll sign it into law. Reynolds said, “We’re going to do the same process that we do with any legislation that passes. My policy team and I will sit down and we’ll review the bill at hand and then we’ll make a decision.”

If Reynolds signs the bill into law, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission would begin establishing rules for betting on professional, collegiate and international sporting events, including motor racing. The rules would be adopted this summer, giving casinos time to prepare for college sports and National Football League games, said IRGC Administrator Brian Ohorilko. Iowans at least age 21 would be able to wager on sporting events on-site at any of the state’s 19 casinos and online after registering in person. Net sports betting receipts would be taxed at 6.75 percent, and taxes and licensing fees could generate annual revenue of $2.3-$4 million annually.

State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, the bill’s sponsor, said, “This is an industry that is here. This bill regulates it, taxes it and polices it.” He added he was “cautiously optimistic” that the governor would approve the legislation, especially since lawmakers added funding for problem gambling services.

At least four versions of sports betting bills were introduced. One gave regulating authority to the Iowa Lottery, another to professional sports leagues and another to the horseracing industry before the final version put casinos in charge.

And Iowa casinos are gearing up for the change. Jill Beasley, vice president marketing, Harrah’s and Horseshoe Casinos, said, “We’re really excited to get sports betting in Iowa.” She said Caesars Entertainment officials recently visited Council Bluffs. “They walked both properties, Harrah’s and Horseshoe to identify the best location to have sports betting at our facilities. We have quite a few options so we’re going to get those back and hopefully put things in place. What we’re really excited about, it’s going to create an alternative for sports fans who like to bet but in a regulated and safe way and that’s what’s really important to Caesars Entertainment.”

At Ameristar Casino in Council Bluffs, Penn National Gaming Vice President Public Affairs Jeff Morris said, “The sports wagering bill was thoughtfully crafted with a reasonable tax rate and appropriate regulatory oversight so that Iowa’s casinos can effectively compete with the off-shore illegal market. Legalizing sports betting will help drive new visitation to our property and provide our guests with another exciting amenity to enjoy at Ameristar Council Bluffs.”

Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino near Des Moines recently completed an 8,600 square foot sports book on its fourth floor. Prairie Meadows Chief Strategic Officer Brad Rhines said, “We are excited to expand our resort offerings with a fully renovated clubhouse that includes both our racing center and new William Hill sportsbook. Once the legislative process is complete, this innovative partnership will provide many fun and unique sports betting options for our guests.” Rhines stated if the governor doesn’t sign the sports betting bill, the new space will be used for horseracing simulcasts.

Also, Catfish Bend Casino in Burlington announced it will remodel its gaming floor to accommodate a $1 million sportsbook, featuring a sports bar, multiscreen video and odds display wall and other gaming options. New Jersey-based PointsBet will operate retail and mobile wagering.

As the Massachusetts legislature begins debate on a $42.7 billion budget, leaders of the House have indicated that amendments having to do with legalization of sports betting will not be considered at this stage. They want to wait until later in the session for that, and for any discussions of new or increased taxes, or online lottery sales.

The Senate will begin discussing the budget next month.

Governor Charlie Baker’s proposed budget includes $35 million in estimated revenue from sports betting. He also proposed a sports betting bill in January. In the Bay State governors are allowed to introduce bills directly.

His bill would allow the state’s three casinos to offers sports book onsite and online. It would also allow daily fantasy sports operators including the homegrown DraftKings to take bets on professional sports.

The governor wants to move quickly, House Speaker Robert DeLeo is less in a hurry. DeLeo was a strong supporter of the bill that authorized the three casinos and one slots parlor, but he wants more discussion on sports betting. He has also said that legalizing sports betting won’t be as simple, “as some people think it may be.”

The Speaker and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Aaron Michlewitz say they are open to taking up revenue measures later in the session, but they want full vetting by committee first.

The Indiana Senate recently passed HB 2015 in a 37-12 vote; the House passed it 59-36. The comprehensive gambling bill legalizes sports betting at the state’s casinos, racinos and off-track betting facilities, among other provisions. The measure now goes to Governor Eric Holcomb who is expected to sign it.

Mobile sports betting was removed from the measure a few weeks ago but it was put back in just 48 hours before the bill passed. State Rep. Terri Austin said, “To me, this is being progressive, and it’s recognizing that in a free market, you had better stay on your toes or you’re going to be left behind.”

Sports betting adjusted gross revenue would be taxed at 9.5 percent. The measure also would ban betting on eSports or amateur athletes under the age of 18. Operators would pay a $100,000 license fee with an annual renewal of $50,000.

The legislation does not include an integrity fee or royalty, but it gives the Indiana Gaming Commission the option to require using official league data for in-game wagering.

Indiana now joins Montana and Iowa in waiting for governors to sign sports betting legislation into law.

The bill also will allow the one of the Majestic Star casinos, owned by Spectacle Entertainment, to move inland for $20 million; originally the fee would have been $100 million. Some lawmakers and officials were unhappy about the decrease. Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said Spectacle owner Rod Ratcliff “played it like a master. All the steak dinners, all the airplane flights, all the convention center work, it all paid off for him. The legislature got bought out, the governor got bought out, the speaker of the House got bought out, everybody got a piece. A $100 million transfer fee goes down to $20 million. Rod Ratcliff saved $80 million. The whole thing is very shady. The whole thing is very corrupt.”

According to Indiana Campaign Finance records, Holcomb did not receive any individual contributions from Ratcliff during his 2016 gubernatorial campaign. However, Holcomb did accept two flights in Ratcliff’s private jet. In fact, prior to the passage of the bill, at a press conference scheduled with just 23 minutes’ notice at the Indiana state capitol, Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett and Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson hoped to shift attention from those flights to how new casinos would benefit their cities’ economies.

“We want to continue to make sure that everyone stays focused on the economic development opportunities, not only in Gary and Terre Haute, but the entire state of Indiana,” said Bennett, who has been promoting a casino in Terre Haute for three years.

Also, Spectacle will have to surrender its other casino license, which will be offered in a bidding process for a casino in Terre Haute in Vigo County. But first Vigo County voters would have to approve a ballot referendum to allow a casino. That vote could occur during next month’s primary or the November election.

Negotiators were able to settle differences regarding helping cities that might be impacted by the new casinos. Under the agreed-upon deal, Gary will make payments to Hammond, East Chicago and Michigan City from its expected growth in casino taxes; the selected Terre Haute casino operator will make payments to Evansville over three years.

The legislation also allows racinos in Anderson and Shelbyville to have live table games starting January 1, 2020—18 months earlier than allowed under current law.

The board and executives team of Wynn Resorts International has come up with a novel formula for convincing the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that it is a changed company since found Steve Wynn resigned from the company and ended all ties with it more than a year ago: Banning him from all of the company’s casinos worldwide.

The company delivered a brief with this suggestion to the MGC last week. Banning Wynn from the casinos that each reflect his personality and ego could be considered a bitter personal blow to the ex-CEO.

The brief included 13 suggestions that the commission set as requirements for the company. According to someone who has seen the brief, it states: “Such measures if accepted by the commission and incorporated into a decision in this matter, will provide additional assurances that the allegations and misconduct that led to the investigations… do not occur again and ensure that the most important changes implemented by the company over the last year may be enforced as license conditions.”

It also reportedly says it was “deeply sorry that it failed to live up to its values and that, in doing so, it let its employees down.” It said that over the past year and more, it had “taken drastic and meaningful measures” to protect employees against sexual harassment.

They hope this may be sufficient to persuade the commission not to yank the company’s license to operate a casino in the Bay State. The $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor (which was originally named after Wynn) in Everett, overlooking the Mystic River and the Boston skyline, is set to open June 23.

The company will offer Wynn’s banning from all Wynn properties, including those in Macao as a condition for keeping the license. The company said it would also accept other conditions, such as forbidding any company executives to have social contact with the disgraced former CEO and founder.

The commission spent a year investigating the accusations of sexual misconduct against Wynn, but most especially how his subordinates, company executives and board members reacted when they first heard inklings of his conduct, and whether they did anything to cover it up and prevent the MGC from finding out about it when it was in the process of granting a gaming license to the company.

Two weeks ago the commission held three days of dramatic testimony when it grilled company executives and board members, and appeared to be especially intense in its questioning of current CEO Matt Maddox, demanding that he explain how, in his lofty position in the company he never had inklings of Wynn’s alleged misbehavior, something Wynn still denies.

The commission is now behind closed doors determining what it will do. This could include huge fines like the Nevada gaming board imposed on the company, it could include withdrawing the license, and possibly the banning proposal put forward by the company.

A decision is expected within a couple of weeks.

During the hearings executives detailed the extent to which the company has gone to jettison Wynn down the memory hole, including removing his recorded voice from hotel phone system and his image from every location in the Wynn Las Vegas resort.

The new chairman of the board, Philip Satre told the panel: “There was a concerted effort to make sure that the people who worked there did not have to see that on a daily basis.”

At the end of the hearings the company’s attorney Jed Nosal described the changes the company adopted on many levels to “enhanced accountability.”

Maddox by far underwent the harshest questioning, to an extent that many left the hearing feeling that perhaps he personally would be held unsuitable to hold his post with the company. Not that the commission has that authority. If the company chooses to defy the commission, it could sell its interests in Massachusetts, which amount to something like 2 percent of its total holdings.

After the hearings the company pushed back at the idea that the commission might require Maddox’s ouster. In a brief issued after the hearing, the company noted that commissioners did not believe their own investigators, who found no evidence that Maddox helped hide the allegations against his erstwhile boss, including that Steve Wynn did not disclose a $7.5 million settlement payment in 2005 to a woman who said she was forced to have sex with him and become pregnant.

The 49-page legal brief also criticized Commissioner Gayle Cameron for her questions to Maddox about his leadership during the days before Wynn left the company. Observers said that the brief could indicate that the company will take the commission to court if it withdraws its license. This could draw out in time the state’s hopes to have a functioning casino in the Boston Metro area and thus might be seen as placing a chip in a complicated chess game between the company and the commission.

It is, after all, of some concern to the commission that the casino open and begin paying taxes to the state on schedule. The commission wants to be perceived as being tough, but perhaps not so tough that it wants to dismiss millions of dollars in taxes. Not to mention the 5,000 employees, many of who are being interviewed three months ahead of the casino’s opening.

It cannot forced Wynn to sell the Encore building to another gaming company.

Meanwhile the House introduced a $42.69 billion budget last week that includes $264 million in anticipated gaming revenue for the next fiscal year, among that revenue from the Everett casino.

Rep. Aaron Michelwitz, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Republican, “I think we are looking closely at what happens with Encore. It is assuming that Encore opens at the approximate time.” That statement may or may not put pressure on the commission, which is theoretically an independent commission beyond the reach of politicians.

An expert on risk management who advises clients on sexual misconduct investigations and compliance told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week that in his opinion Wynn Resorts has done everything right to change the atmosphere of easy acceptable of sexual harassment that pervaded the company when Wynn headed it.

Nicole Lamb-Hale, a managing director of New York-based Kroll Inc., said the compliance program established, which includes an independent review by a former Boston police commissioner, ought to satisfy the commission if anything will.

“There’s not much you can do to turn back the clock, but you can, going forward, with some things that hopefully will set a tone within the organization that will prevent it (harassment) from happening in the future,” Lamb-Hale told the Review-Journal in a phone interview.

She added, “It’s important to elevate sexual misconduct prevention and compliance at the same level as any other enterprise risk issue. The #MeToo movement has taken sexual harassment out of the shadows. These issues have been around as long as men and women have worked together in the workplace.”

She noted that besides the enhanced workplace compliance and sexual harassment avoidance training, the company made it clear that any employee who knew about the allegations against Wynn and did nothing could not stay, and elected three new women to the board of directors.

It also hired a new general counsel and created the new position of senior vice president of human resources and named a new president to Wynn Las Vegas. These new officials, all women, testified at the hearings.

Lamb-Hale said that creating a new corporate culture is a long and drawn out process. “It’s something that you can’t just put together and put on a shelf,” she said. “You have to continue to refine it, you need to audit it and evaluate it to show the regulators they’re doing that.”

At the end of the last day of hearings, on April 4 commission Chairman Cathy Judd-Stein said she and her colleagues would need several days to reach a decision. The decision will be delivered in a written form.

Gaming analyst John DeCRee of Union Gaming told investors recently that he expects the Encore Boston Harbor to open as planned. “Based on the company’s clear and decisive transformation, we believe current management should be able to adequately prove current suitability to keep the license and open the property,” he said. “However, if the commission determines the company is unsuitable (even after appeal), and Wynn is required to vacate its license, we envision a trustee to oversee the opening of the property and an orderly sale process.”

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has slapped the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem with two separate fines totaling $230,000. One fine is for allowing underage gamblers on the floor, the other for abusing the free-play system of rewards. In addition to the penalties, the casino will be required to pay $5,000 in administrative frees.

The first fine resulted from a January incident in which an underage person gained access to Sands Bethlehem’s casino floor by presenting identification that belonged to his older brother. While on the floor, where he was for four hours and 39 minutes, the patron gambled at a blackjack table and was served five alcoholic beverages.

Two days later, he returned, walking onto the floor after the same ID was scanned. This time around, he spent three hours and 22 minutes on the floor, gambling at two tables and consuming three drinks, before he was discovered as underage while exiting the casino floor’s retail store.

The patron was one of 11 underage customers, ranging from 18 to 20 years old, discovered on the casino floor over a 10-month period stretching from March 2018 to January, according to a report in the Allentown Morning Call. The 11 underage gamblers spent a total of around 24 hours on the casino’s floor. Some entered without being asked for ID, while others used someone else’s ID or a fake.

For these incidents, Sands Bethlehem will pay a $120,000 fine to the gaming board, as well as another $2,500 to cover the state’s costs related to the case.

For the free-play penalty, the state discovered 6,428 free slot play transactions that violated the approved “comp matrix,” with employees issuing about $1.05 million in excess of authorized amounts. Sands has since updated its internal controls.

Sands Bethlehem will pay a fine of $110,000 to the board and a $2,500 fee to cover the board’s costs in connection with the matter.

Sands Bethlehem is in the process of being sold to Wind Creek Hospitality, an arm of Alabama’s Poarch Band of Creek Indians.