Author: Casino Connection Staff

MGM Resorts International has named Marcus Glover as president and chief operating officer of the Borgata Atlantic City.

He succeeds Tom Ballance, who is becoming executive vice president of operations for MGM Resorts. Glover will take over after he obtains the necessary approval from New Jersey casino regulators.

“Marcus’ proven leadership ability and wide range of skills will continue to serve the company well as he assumes this new role,” said Corey Sanders, MGM’s chief operating officer in a press release.

Glover joined MGM in 2015, serving as general manager and then president and chief operating office of Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. He previously served as senior vice president and general manager for Caesars Entertainment in northeastern Ohio, and as assistant general manager and vice president of operations for Harrah’s in St. Louis. He also held several leadership positions with Caesars in Mississippi and Louisiana, according to the release.

Rick Mazer, Atlantic City regional president of Harrah’s since 2013, has left Caesars Entertainment, the company announced.

 Kevin Ortzman was named regional president in the Atlantic City region, which oversees Bally’s, Caesars and Harrah’s Resort.

“Rick served the company for 21 years in a variety of leadership roles, and on behalf of Caesars Entertainment, we thank Rick for his contributions and wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” Caesars said in a press release.

Ortzman has been with Caesars Entertainment for 13 years and since 2012 has been president of Bally’s and Caesars. He is president of the New Jersey Casino Association and on the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority board.

Adam Silver, commissioner of the National Basketball Association, last week reiterated his longstanding support of repealing the federal ban on sports betting, and predicted states will be permitted to decide on whether to authorize sports betting very soon.

“My sense is the law will change in the next few years in the United States,” Silver told the Sports Business Journal. “People want to bet throughout the game. It results in enormous additional engagement with the fans.”

Silver has long favored ending the federal ban on sports betting. In a 2014 op-ed piece in the New York Times, he wrote, “There is an obvious appetite among sports fans for a safe and legal way to wager on professional sporting events. Mainstream media outlets regularly publish sports betting lines and point spreads. Voters in New Jersey overwhelmingly voiced their support for legal sports betting in a 2011 referendum…

“Congress should adopt a federal framework that allows states to authorize betting on professional sports, subject to strict regulatory requirements and technological safeguards.”

In the fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal from the state of New Jersey in a case that challenges the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which bans sports betting in all but four states and bans single-game sports betting in all states except Nevada.

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments this fall on New Jersey’s appeal challenging the federal ban on sports betting, Connecticut has become the latest state to bet on New Jersey winning its case, while Mississippi appears to be laying the groundwork.

Last seek, Connecticut Governor Danell Malloy signed a bill into law that would authorize a state-regulated sports betting program, should the high court rule in favor of New Jersey and hold that states may decide on sports betting.

The law began as House Bill 6948, which holds, “The Commissioner of Consumer Protection shall adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54 of the general statutes, to regulate wagering on sporting events to the extent permitted by state and federal law.”

The bill also includes authorization of a new casino in the state run by the two current gaming tribes, the Mohegan Tribe and the Mashantucket Pequots, and allows for an increase in the number of off-track horse-racing betting sites.

The new law will allow Foxwoods Resort and Mohegan Sun Casino—and the new joint casino—to add sports books, should the federal ban on sports betting be lifted as a result of the New Jersey case.

Officials in Mississippi passed similar legislation legalizing sports betting last month.

In Mississippi. gaming officials could regulate sports betting in the state’s casinos if the U.S. Supreme Court removes the federal ban against it next term—even though HB 967, the online gaming bill which was signed in March, made no mention of sports betting.

State Rep. Scott DeLano, one of the bill’s six sponsors, said, “The intent of this bill absolutely had nothing to do with sports betting. The 2017 bill put in place consumer protection pieces and regulations to prevent businesses from taking advantage of our constituents for fantasy sports. That’s it.”

State Senator Sean Tindell, author of the identical bill in the Senate, added, “We did not see House Bill 967 in the same light as sports betting. We knew there was a federal law that prohibited sports betting but allowed fantasy sports gaming. We weren’t concerned with sports betting then because we knew the federal law would trump anything we could pass.”

Last year the state legislature passed a law allowing betting on fantasy sports games inside existing gaming establishments through websites like Fan Duel and Draft Kings, but it banned betting on final outcomes of actual sporting events. The law was based on a draft bill that passed in March and included recommendations of a task force commissioned to study improvements to the 2016 law.

However, since the law was signed, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear arguments on whether sports betting should be legalized at New Jersey casinos and racetracks. At issue is the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which outlawed sports betting nationwide except for Nevada. Mississippi is one of five states that joined the case. State Attorney General Jim Hood said the state considers the federal ban as an intrusion on state jurisdiction.

With the Pennsylvania state Senate back in session to pass bills that would fund an unbalanced $32 billion state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, state House and Senate leaders remained at odds on a bill that would fund an estimated $250 million of that budget, the omnibus legislation to expand gaming in the state.

Senate Republican leaders reported progress on the gaming expansion front last week, claiming they had “nearing agreement” with their House counterparts on most of the gaming expansion plan, including legalization and regulation of online gaming and daily fantasy sports, creation of up to 10 satellite casinos at off-track betting establishments, and tablet gaming at airports. Lawmakers also have agreed on a replacement for the casino local-community host fee declared unconstitutional last year.

At press time, however, the key sticking points remained, including the tax rates for online gaming and, most importantly, a proposal to add from five to 10 video gaming terminals, or VGTs, at each of some to 8,000 bars and other liquor-licensed establishments around the state. The latest Senate bill does not include it. Several House leaders are insisting on the provision, which also is backed by the Pennsylvania Tavern Association.

The state House revealed no plans to call the chamber back into session last week. “Conversations are happening,” House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “But the reality is that there are no agreements. And there won’t be until everything is agreed to.”

The gaming plan is only one budget remedy under discussion last week, as the state seeks to avoid a credit downgrade and continues to potentially violate the state constitution by operating a budget that is not backed by a revenue package.

Mark Juliano, the Atlantic City casino veteran who took over as president of Pennsylvania’s Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in 2014, has resigned, according to a memo sent to casino employees by Rob Goldstein, president and COO of parent Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Juliano, who was a longtime executive of the Trump and Caesars casinos in Atlantic City, joined Las Vegas Sands in 2011, as executive vice president of the Marina Bay Sands property in Singapore.

As president of the Sands, Juliano has overseen expansion plans that were ultimately put on hold by the parent LVS over Chairman Sheldon Adelson’s opposition to online gaming, video gaming in bars and other expansion measures being considered by state lawmakers. However, Juliano is credited with improving revenues with a “soft” makeover of the property, including new restaurants and the nation’s largest live table games stadium, which debuted a year ago.

The resignation was confirmed by Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese to the Allentown Morning Call, with no reason noted. “It is company policy no to comment on personnel matters,” Reese told the newspaper.

The departure was unexpected, with local officials including Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez saying he was stunned by the news. Carr commented to the Morning Call that he hopes the next president continues working with the community and get the rest of the property’s master plan developed. “My priorities are the same no matter who is running the casino,” he said.

“Mark Juliano has been a valuable team member at both Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and as president of Sands Bethlehem,” Goldstein wrote in the memo. “On behalf of the management team, I would like to thank Mark for his many efforts and wish him and his family the very best.”

Brian Carr, senior vice president of finance and administration, has been named president of Sands Bethlehem, and will work with other executive team members to ensure operations at the facility “continue in the efficient and professional manner to which we are all accustomed,” the memo states.

The Morning Call reported that the memo from Goldstein suggested it was Juliano’s decision. Juliano did not return calls seeking comment.

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy and leaders of the Pequot and Mohegan gaming tribes held a celebration last week to mark the signing of legislation authorizing the third $300 million casino the tribes have sought to help them blunt the effects of the $950 million MGM Springfield that is due to open next year in Massachusetts.

The ceremony took place in the Old Judiciary Room of the State Capitol, and, besides the governor and tribal officials and officials of the town of East Windsor, included lawmakers and other supporters of the bill.

The bill designates East Windsor, just outside of Hartford, the state capital as the site of the third, satellite casino, which will be jointly operated by MMCT Venture, the development arm of the tribes. The casino will be built in the old vacant Showcase Cinemas complex.

The necessary amendments to the tribal state gaming compacts then went to both houses, with the House quickly approving them 118-32 and the Senate set to consider them next. The compacts altered to allow the tribes to operate commercial casinos. They need approval by both houses and then by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has already signaled it will approve the changes. It still requires 45 days to review the document, however.

Under the terms of the new compacts the tribes will pay 25 percent of their slots revenue to the state, which is the same percentage they pay for their casinos on sovereign land: the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods.

MGM International Resorts, which has fought the possibility of a commercial casino run by the tribes at every step of the way, has gone to federal court to seek an injunction against it.

MGM claims that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause by giving the tribes exclusive rights to operate a casino without putting it out to a bidding process, which MGM claims it would participate in.

Uri Clinton, a spokesman for MGM, issued a statement that declared, “We continue to believe that the process put in place by the legislature and signed today by the governor violates both the Connecticut and U.S. Constitutions. As such, we will continue to pursue all legal remedies.”

The tribes successfully fought off MGM’s first legal challenge, which was tossed out for being premature since it merely created a process by which the tribes identified the site for a casino. It didn’t actually authorize the casino, as this legislation has done.

Mohegan Tribal Chairman Kevin Brown said MGM’s threat was expected. At a news conference, he picked up the gauntlet: “There’s no question that MGM is going to try to attempt to make some sort of legal approach or litigation on this. We have taken before steps to begin planning and constructing the facility under the shadow of litigation, and we’ll do it again.”

Malloy remained neutral for much of the debate about a third casino, but near the end of the process came down in favor of the tribes’ proposal and against the bill favored by MGM, which would have allowed a bidding process to put a casino in Fairfield County, near the border with New York.

At the ceremony, he said the state stands ready to defend the law in court as a measure protecting the state’s interests.

The governor declared, “I believe we have acted appropriately as a state to protect the interest of the state, as well as our partners, the tribal nations, and obviously to the benefit of those who remain employed at those facilities and this new facility.”

He added, “This is not just a symbolic step that we take today, this is another additional step, a real step we take in furtherance of making sure the Pequots and Mohegans are successful in our state.”

Meanwhile, MGM is not only active on the legal front, it is also trying an oblique lobby of the Bureau of Indian Affairs by passing around a letter from U.S. Senator John McCain, one of the authors of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The letter expresses McCain’s concerts about allowing the two Connecticut tribes to operate a non-tribal casino.

In his letter McCain asked the Trump administration and the Department of the Interior to refrain from issuing the non-binding opinion the tribes seek. The Obama administration already previously issued such an opinion. The opinion confirmed the tribes’ assertion that allowing them to operate a commercial casino would not adversely impact their tribal state gaming compacts.

But something more than an informal opinion is now needed—and that is what the BIA will issue in response to the amended compacts in 45 days.

In his letter McCain wrote that he worried the Obama era-opinion “is being construed as the department’s tacit approval for their project.”

The tribes attacked the letter in a statement: “This letter is nothing more than an eleventh-hour tactic by MGM to stall our growing momentum. We’ve been working with the BIA for months, and expect to see the fruits of that labor in the near future.”

In Florida, the political committee Voters In Charge submitted 104,416 valid petition signatures gathered between April 1 and June 30, according to the Florida Division of Elections website. The group must submit 766,200 to put on the November 2018 ballot the proposed Voter Control of Gambling constitutional amendment restricting gambling expansion in the state.

Also, financial reports show the organization spent $472,000 on petition printing, gathering and verification. The group’s major backer, Disney Worldwide Services, gave it $400,000 in June and $250,000 in April.

If voters approve the proposed constitutional amendment, they will have the “exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling” in the state and to approve casino-style games in the future. The Florida Supreme Court approved the wording of the ballot initiative in April.

Voters In Charge spokesman John Sowinski, chairman of the No Casinos political committee behind the measure, said another 300,000 signatures are waiting to be verified. “Tens of thousands of Floridians are signing the blue petition each week to ensure that voters, not politicians, have the exclusive authority to make gambling decisions in our state. There is a fictional belief that the legislature can do whatever it wants. This is really about: Where does this decision belong? We trust the voters.”

Gambling attorney and lobbyist Marc Dunbar said the anti-casino initiative is vague and poorly written, and will invite lawsuits over gambling games that currently are legal. “All this does is shift the issue from the legislature to the courts. It’s a parade of uncertainty,” he said.

On Monday, July 31, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will hear additional evidence on the ownership of the partnership awarded the second casino license for the city of Philadelphia.

The hearing is in compliance with the recent decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court directing the board to re-examine the ownership of Stadium Casino LLC, the partnership of Baltimore-based Cordish Companies and Greenwood Gaming, which also owns the Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

Under the court decision, the board will scrutinize the ownership stake in Stadium Casino’s Stadium Live! project of Stadium principal Watche Manoukian, who owns 85.84 percent of Parx Casino. Under Pennsylvania’s gaming law, the principal owner of a current casino cannot own more than 33.3 percent in a second casino in the state.

The board will hear evidence in the matter beginning at 2 p.m. July 31. The hearing will be streamed live on the board’s website, gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov.

The license for the city’s second and last casino was awarded for a casino in the city’s sports stadium district, carrying the Cordish “Live!” brand. An existing Holiday Inn will be refurbished to create a boutique hotel connected to the casino.

The award of the license—as has every other casino license in Pennsylvania—was appealed by one of the losing bidders, in this case, Market East Associates, to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The appeal was joined by SugarHouse Casino, the current Philadelphia casino, which has opposed any second casino in the city.

The basis of the appeal in this case was the 33.3 percent rule, and this is the second time the board is re-examining the issue with respect to Manoukian. In the initial license and in the first examination of the appeal, the board found Manoukian to be within the legal ownership limits.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania state Rep. Scott Petri, chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, has filed a bill to eliminate the 33.3 percent rule, with the goal of expediting disposition of the Stadium appeal and opening the second Philadelphia casino.

With 12 casinos operating, no award of a casino license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has ever been overturned on appeal from losing bidders.

Although sports betting is illegal in most U.S. states, California is anticipating that U.S. Supreme Court might possibly change that—and one lawmaker in the Golden State wants to be ready.

California Rep. Adam Gray, a longtime champion of gaming expansion in the state, has introduced a bill with an eye towards the Supreme Court’s review of the federal law, which allows some states to have sports betting, and forbids others. Although the court has agreed to review the case, it has not yet said when during the next session it will do so. The Supreme Court returns to work in October.

Gray last week told Legal Sports Report: “I am pleased to see the US Supreme Court has shouldered the burden of bringing legal clarity to the issue of sports wagering and the rights of states under the United States Constitution.” That the high court chose to review New Jersey’s lawsuit to try to get the federal ban overturned caused Gray to introduce his bill, AC 18, which is actually a proposed constitutional amendment that would be forwarded to the voters.

The law New Jersey is challenging, and for which several states have filed friend of the court briefs is the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA.) Gray’s constitutional amendment would only go into effect if the high court rules in favor of New Jersey.

California’s gaming tribes are already crying foul, saying that their compacts with the state guarantee them a monopoly on Las Vegas style gaming.

Steve Stallings, chairman of CNIGA (California Nations Indian Gaming Association) commented, “Historically, the association has opposed bills that expand the scope of gaming in California in violation of tribal compacts limiting casino-style games to tribal reservations.”

The tribes’ lack of enthusiasm for such a measure could make passing an amendment problematic given that both houses of the legislature would have to pass it by a two-thirds majority to send it as a referendum to the ballot box.

Gray counters that his state’s residents are “already betting through unscrupulous websites in foreign countries” and believes “it’s time to (…) crack down on illegal and unregulated online gaming and replace it with a safe and responsible option which includes safeguards against compulsive and underage gambling, money laundering, and fraud.” He says his goal is to bring the practice “out of the shadows.”

If the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a federal law banning sports betting in a case scheduled for early 2018, Mississippi will be ready to allow sports betting on teams and events, regulated by the state gaming commission. A bill passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Phil Bryant legalizes fantasy sports–and sports betting.

State Senator Sean Tindell said if the Supreme Court allows states to offer sports betting, and Arkansas offers it while Mississippi does not, “it will close the casinos in Tunica. I don’t want to give any reason for a person to go to a casino in a neighboring state instead of in Mississippi.”

State Rep. Scott DeLano, a sponsor of the bill, said although sports betting won’t solve all of Mississippi casinos’ problems, “it will provide entertainment options that might attract people to casinos here in Mississippi.”

Mississippi casino revenue, along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast, has slowed in recent years, primarily because of increased competition in Arkansas and Louisiana. State casino revenue in 1993, the first year casino gambling became legal, was $33.3 million. In 1994 it was $95 million, and in 1995 revenue reached $128.8 million.

Casino tax revenue, 8 percent on earnings, peaked at $194 million in fiscal year 2008, accounting for about 4 percent of total state revenue. But for the just-completed fiscal year, revenue was $132.9 million, or less than 2.5 percent of total state revenue.

State Economist Darrin Webb said the impact of sports betting would be much less than the early years of casino gambling. “I can’t imagine it having anything near the impact of the casinos,” he said. According to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, sports betting accounts for less than 1.4 percent of the state’s total gaming revenue.

DeLano said the busiest time of the year for sports betting is driven by the National Football League playoffs and Super Bowl in January and February, which coincides with the slowest time of the year for Mississippi casinos. He said sports betting at Mississippi casinos could attract people who also would play other casino games and spend money on food and other entertainment.

New Hampshire has become the fifth state to adopt a form of online lottery, continuing the process of cracking the iceberg of online gaming that has for many years been limited to Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. Governor Chris Sununu last month signed the bill authorizing the change.

Other states that have an online lottery are Illinois (since 2012), Georgia (since 2012), Michigan (since 2014) and Kentucky (since 2016.)

Lottery Commission Executive Director Charlie McIntyre hopes to launch the online lottery by early next year. He told the Union Leader: “For us, it’s just an evolution of how we do business. We’re not really selling anything new. We’re just doing it in a different way.”

Pennsylvania may become the sixth state. The Keystone State’s legislature has included it as part of an omnibus gaming reform bill that the state’s political observers think will pass sometime this year.

Another state likely to consider online lottery sales is Massachusetts, whose state treasurer, who oversees the lottery, has been pushing for it for several years. The year 2018 is seen as the likely date for adoption. Supporters will likely point to the example of New Hampshire as a selling point.

West Virginia is also poised to join the group, which it could quickly do without legislative approval because of the way the lottery law is written.

The states that have adopted an online lottery have done so with strong safeguards for consumers.

Interestingly, online lottery seems to help rather than hurt the land based lottery. In a December 2016 report by Digital Gaming Group on the Michigan Online Lottery, it stated: “The Michigan Lottery’s success story should be a page in the book of every lottery looking to convince its stakeholders of the value, certainty and complementary nature of this new sales channel.”

A proposal to create up to 10 “satellite casinos” across Pennsylvania, all linked to current licensees, was the state Senate’s latest bid for gaming expansion to help close a $2.2 billion deficit in the budget that was enacted July 1.

However, the proposal—as well as bills to legalize and regulate online gaming and daily fantasy sports, authorize tablet gaming at airports and consideration of a controversial state House bid to legalize video gaming terminals, or VGTs, at bars and taverns across the state—is likely to remain only a proposal until at least fall.

While the state Assembly officially adjourned for the summer, the Senate went back in session for two days last week. However, instead of voting on a gaming package that is being counted on for $250 million in annual revenues, senators drafted a package including some $550 million in new taxes and fees, and a plan to borrow money to fill the gap.

As the week ended, senators were still debating and moving toward a vote that would send the revenue package to the House. That means the gaming expansion package has moved to the back burner, most likely to be taken up in the fall legislative session.

The plan for satellite casinos would be the first such casino expansion in the nation. Each of the 10 large stand-alone and racetrack casinos would have the option of opening a satellite casino anywhere in the state under the plan. The proposal is being pushed as a viable alternative to the VGT plan, which is vehemently opposed by current casino licensees.

According to a report on the PennLive website, auctioning off the satellite licenses, with a minimum bid of $10 million, also is being considered. In addition to providing an alternative to VGTs, the sources told the site the satellite casinos are considered as a method to create a market-protection zone around each of the current casinos.

One operator is not warm to the idea. “The vast majority of the potential sites for these new casinos fall within our market area in central Pennsylvania, representing a severe threat to our property and the more than 1,050 jobs it represents,” Eric Schippers, Penn National’s senior vice president for public affairs, said in a recent statement to PennLive. “We’re beyond disappointed and will do everything in our power to fight to protect our employees’ jobs.”

Fears that President Trump’s travel bans and anti-immigrant rhetoric would scare off international travelers appear to be unwarranted, or so the latest visitor numbers show.

Far from the “Trump slump” scenario that scared experts a few months ago, they’re now talking about a possible “Trump bump”.

The U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Trends Index―a calculation based on hotel, airline and federal government data―showed 6.6 percent growth in international travel to the U.S. in April and 5 percent growth in May compared with the same months last year.

Individual sectors have good news, too.

Hotel occupancy for the first five months of 2017 was “higher than it has ever been before,” said Jan Freitag, a senior vice president with STR, which tracks hotel industry data.

“Impending doom hasn’t manifested itself,” said Roger Dow, chief executive of the U.S. Travel Association. “It’s contrary to everything we’ve heard, but travel is in slightly better shape than it was a year ago. Everyone wants me to tell the story of the sky is falling, but for the travel industry, the sky is not falling.”

Las Vegas is sharing in the increase, with international arrivals over the first five months up 1.2 percent over the same period last year, the equivalent of 1.4 million more visitors, thanks mostly to increased traffic on Air Canada, Korean Air, discount carriers Edelweiss and Thomas Cook and China’s Hainan Airlines, which launched weekly non-stop service to the gambling capital at the end of 2016.

The USA Today poll of casinos has named the Mohegan Sun as the top casino in the United States. The Sun upends the Pechanga Resort and Casino in California, which won the distinction last year and fell this year to third place.

The poll is called the 10 Best Readers Choice Travel Awards for 2017

Ray Pineault, president and general manager of Mohegan Sun, greeted the news happily. “We’re honored to have topped that list; it’s a testament to our whole team and how driven we are to provide the best possible entertainment and gaming attraction we can,” he said. The Sun moved up from second place in 2015, the last time the readers poll was published.

The Sun’s neighboring casino, Foxwoods Casino, fell from third place to seventh place in the poll.

The complete listing is as follows:

Mohegan Sun – Uncasville, Conn.

Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel & Casino – Las Vegas

Pechanga Resort & Casino – Temecula, Calif.

L’Auberge Casino Resort – Lake Charles, La.

Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa – Atlantic City

Peppermill Resort Spa Casino – Reno

Foxwoods Resort Casino – Mashantucket, Conn.

The Cromwell Hotel – Las Vegas

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino – Sioux City, Iowa

Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa – Las Vegas

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation recently announced it will allow West Flagler Associates, operators of Magic City Casino in Miami, to offer jai alai instead of greyhound racing. The move is part of a legal battle over the controversial summer jai alai permit. It’s also the first time a parimutuel facility has been allowed to drop live races and still offer slots.

Effective since 1980, the summer jai alai law allows Miami-Dade and Broward parimutuels with the lowest betting handle for two consecutive years to convert to summer jai alai permits. If those parimutuels do not want to convert to jai alai, other facilities can request the permits.

John Lockwood, Magic City’s attorney, first requested the summer jai alai permit for the facility in 2011. The department’s Division of Parimutuel Wagering denied the track’s request to eliminate dog races, offer jai alai and keep slots, which were installed after voters approved them in a 2004 referendum.

However, the 3rd District Court of Appeal ordered gambling regulators to reconsider the issue, leading to regulators’ reversal, with the condition that the jai alai matches must take place at the same facility where the current greyhound permit is operated. In a declaratory statement, Parimutuel Wagering Director Anthony Glover wrote, “It is apparent that the legislature intended for the term `licensed pari-mutuel facility’ to refer to the physical location or piece of property utilized for parimutuel wagering, rather than just the racetrack or jai alai fronton itself.”

The agency’s decision will not have a broad impact, but operators of other gambling facilities expressed concern. Former Department of Business and Professional Regulation Deputy Secretary Scott Ross, a lobbyist for gambling operators, said, “It’s pretty clear that the department intends for this to not have any far-reaching effects, but once again, John Lockwood has masterfully used a unique set of circumstances to create a positive outcome for his client.”

Hartman and Tyner, Inc., and H&T Gaming Inc., operators of rival Mardi Gras Casino and Racetrack in Broward County, had sought to intervene in the case. Their lawyers argued Magic City was asking regulators to establish “a new and completely unfounded policy that improperly expands the types of permits eligible for slot machine gaming beyond what the plain terms” of the Constitution and state law allow.

But gambling officials rejected the petition to intervene, stating Mardi Gras had not shown “with particularity what real and immediate injury or impact the outcome of the declaratory statement would have had on the intervenors.”

Isadore Havenick, vice president of the family owned West Flagler Associates, said Magic City had wanted to stop offering dog races in Miami because “nobody wants to watch them.” West Flagler Associates also operates a greyhound track in Southwest Florida and owns a 25 percent share of a jai alai fronton in Dania Beach. The Havenicks and other racetrack owners want lawmakers to let parimutuels decouple live horse or dog races from more lucrative slots or card rooms. “Since decoupling hasn’t happened, and since jai alai has to run fewer performances than dogs do, we said if we have two permits at the same location, why can’t we switch sports that we do here. Nobody’s watching. Our dog men complain that they have to come over to Miami and deal with Miami when they get no customers in the stands. So this is a way for us to try a new sport and see if we can make it go of that,” Havenick said.

Until decoupling is legislated, dogs will continue to race in Florida because if parimutuel owners want to continue to operate other gambling activities. Under state law, only parimutuel facilities can offer card rooms and slots and those that wish to open card rooms must keep their level of racing about the same as before their card rooms opened. They’re not allowed to adjust the number of races they offer even though the demand for dog racing has declined.

State Senator Rob Bradley said, “If you isolate decoupling of dogs, I think that you probably would have a majority of legislators, including myself, who believe it makes little sense to require under law an activity that no one wants to watch and many people consider inhumane.” He noted, “What really is the impediment in any gaming legislation is the fact that you can’t do it piecemeal. If you try to only deal with decoupling or only deal with another issue related to gaming, as the bill starts to travel all of the other gaming issues get amended on to the bill and everything becomes related to everything.”

His colleague, state Senator Dana Young added, “The issue is disturbing because unlike some of the other decoupling issues in terms of jai alai and saddle racing, in this situation you have dogs that are being bred for the sole purpose of racing with no one watching. Their racing career is two or three years max. And then the lucky ones get adopted out, but the vast majority are euthanized.”

But greyhound owners, breeders and trainers are a strong political force in the state capital. They have argued that decoupling will kill their industry and eliminate thousands of related jobs. They also said Florida voters should have a say in whether standalone card rooms and casinos should be allowed to replace longstanding parimutuel facilities. Greyhound industry lobbyist Jack Cory said, “There are a lot of legislators that realize if you don’t have live parimutuels you are going to have mini casinos. I think there are a lot of them that realize if you decouple greyhounds then jai alai is next and horse racing is next.”

The state’s 12 dog tracks took in $240 million in bets during the fiscal year that ended June 2016–half the amount wagered a decade earlier. State regulators said they now spend more money regulating the greyhound industry than they receive in tax revenue from the races.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker July 18 signed into law a state budget that included a provision that would allow the state gaming commission to issue licenses that would allow the state’s casinos to serve alcohol until 4 a.m., two hours later than current law allows.

This is the first tweak to the 2011 gaming expansion law that authorized one slots parlor and three casino resorts. That law requires that bars close between 2 a.m.­–8 a.m. Under the change, casinos wouldn’t automatically be able to serve booze two hours longer. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission would have the discretion to issue or not issue the license.

Wynn Resorts, which is building the $2 billion Wynn Boston Harbor, proposed the change, arguing that the 4 a.m. is the industry standard in Las Vegas and would allow the casino to attract more business.

The addition came over the strenuous objections of Senate President Stan Rosenberg, who was one of the key authors in the original gaming expansion law. “I hate it,” he said during a radio interview recently, when he said he feared the casinos would soon ask to be allowed to serve alcohol 24/7 and to allow smoking, which is currently banned.

Also objecting are many of the Bay State’s police, among them Chelsea Police Officer, who told the Boston Herald, ‘‘My concern is people drinking late leaving the casino floor and getting into a motor vehicle.’’

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh has publically castigated the legislation.

But city officials where casinos are being built support the change. Carlo DeMaria, mayor of Everett, where the Wynn casino is going up, declared, “This is purely just a tool to offer the high-end gamer…to get their business.”

He said the casino will be competing for what the gaming industry calls “whales,” big spenders who can afford to go anywhere to play.

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said he had always assumed that the MGM Springfield would be allowed to serve alcohol longer hours.

The Plainridge Park Casino, the only casino currently operating in the Bay State, already has an agreement with the town of Plainville to cut off drinks at 1 a.m., and said it doesn’t plan to change that.

The same budget that Baker signed also included cuts in the state’s gambling addiction program.

The Maine legislature has voted to put a controversial casino initiative on the November ballot, even though the state’s ethics commission is investigating the campaign responsible for the measure for possible violations of campaign finance laws.

So far, the campaign has spent $4.3 million on putting the measure to allow a casino in York County on the ballot—all of that money is at hazard if the commission finds that the campaign tried to hide the fact of offshore interests’ contributions.

The legislature has two options when presented with an initiative submitted with enough signatures: put it on the ballot or directly adopt the measure. Lawmakers chose the former.

So far, the commission has learned that organizations with ties to Shawn Scott— who would be the only person qualified under the initiative to operate a casino— are behind most of the contributions, which the campaign did not initially disclose, in itself a violation of the law.

The controversial Scott in 2003 successfully pushed through an initiative that allowed him to put in the state’s first slots parlor in Bangor. However, under scrutiny by the state’s racing board for questionable accounting practices, Scott sold his interest to Penn National Gaming, opened what is now the Hollywood Casino.

The commission is also investigating complaints that the current initiative used aggressive and deceptive methods to collect signatures.

Resorts World New York City is adding a 400-room hotel to the largest and most lucrative racino on the planet.

The investment is pegged at $400 million, including restaurants, retail stores and the addition of more slot machines to the 5,000 in operation at the venue, located at the famed Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.

It’s all part of a U.S. focus that is coming to define Malaysia-based Genting Group’s global gaming strategy.

The playbook encompasses a Resorts World-branded casino hotel in the Catskills, slated to open early in 2018. A couple hours’ drive from Resorts World NYC, it will feature 332 rooms and suites, an entertainment venue with 2,000 seats, bars, restaurants, pools and a spa. With more than 2,100 slot machines and 130 table games it will also be the state’s closest full-scale Las Vegas-style gaming floor to the Big Apple. Then there’s Resorts World Las Vegas, priced at $4 billion at full build-out, which is moving toward a groundbreaking on the north Strip later this year with the goal of opening in phases beginning in 2020.

“We want to diversify the portfolio, spread out the risk and be able to leverage international travel by having the right assets in the right cities,” said Edward Farrell, president of Genting Americas.

The end game for Genting, whose portfolio includes gaming resorts in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, the UK and the Bahamas, is a marketing reach to match the elite of global gaming.

As Michael Pollock, managing director of industry consultants Spectrum Gaming Group, noted, “You encourage your higher spending, most profitable customers to stick with you. People in Queens will play more often if they can earn points redeemed in Las Vegas.”

Not that everything has gone to plan. A $1 billion joint-venture in the Boston market with the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe is entangled in local opposition and legal difficulties, and a bid to dominate the massive South Florida market with the only destination-scale casino in Miami, an outlay of more than $230 million for the company so far, has yet to win local government approval.

But this is nothing new for Genting, which weathered years of delays and political scandals and had to pay $380 million up front to the state of New York to finally get Resorts World NYC open in the fall of 2011. But it’s paid off handsomely. The racino is the highest-grossing in the world, generating $826.5 million in gaming revenue last year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence―that’s 13 percent more than Atlantic City’s biggest casino, the Borgata, and 26 percent more than Wynn Las Vegas.

The state, which took 70 percent of that, hasn’t fared too badly either. The New York Lottery Education Fund has collected more than $1.9 billion in the five and a half years Resorts World has been open.

That will only grow with the new hotel, which is scheduled to open in 2019. It will generate $200 million in estimated economic activity for New York and provide 3,000 construction jobs, 1,000 new full- and part-time and “thousands of indirect jobs,” according to a company release.

Said Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, “In its more than five years of operations, Resorts World has proven to be an exemplary neighbor and partner to the surrounding community.”

In Illinois, an increasing number of grocery stores have been seeking liquor licenses to allow sales of beer and wine along with prepared food in dining areas. As a result, they also become eligible under state law for video gambling licenses, just like restaurants and bars, truck stops and fraternal and veterans organizations. Recently, Piggly Wiggly in Antioch became one of the first full-service grocery stores in Illinois to offer the games.

Piggly Wiggly owner David Karczewski said the machines offer him a way to compete with big grocery store chains and Wisconsin’s tax-free groceries. On January 11, when Karczewski applied for a new liquor license to serve alcohol inside the store, he told the village board he had no plans to install gambling machines. Less than a week later, the board unanimously approved Piggly Wiggly’s new liquor license. Karczewski paid $250 a year in addition to $2,000 for the license to sell alcohol for off-site consumption.

On March 9, Karczewski applied to the Illinois Gaming Board to install video gambling machines. That license was approved in late May and the machines went live in June, he said. “The gambling machines weren’t really part of the plan, but I’d say we’re pleasantly surprised. I haven’t had any negative responses from any shoppers,” he said.

That doesn’t mean he has had any. Antioch Trustee May Dominiak said, “I don’t think I’d use the word ‘duped.’ I would say I was misled.” Antioch Mayor Larry Hanson noted, “The Piggly Wiggly proposal itself was a unique thing that was intended to help a local business stay afloat in difficult times. I would have preferred to add a clause that prevented gaming, but that was not an option. Overall, I think the business benefits the community, despite the gaming.” In early May the Antioch board passed a resolution asking the state to modify the law to give local governments more control over the type of businesses that can get video gambling licenses.

Illinois Gaming Board records indicate two other full-service grocery stores downstate have video gambling licenses. Gaming board officials said the agency lost a lawsuit in which it tried to limit video gambling in “nontraditional” locations like grocery stores. State law allows the machines at “any licensed retail establishment where alcoholic liquor is drawn, poured, mixed or otherwise served for consumption on the premises.” In other words, once a municipality or county that allows video gambling issues a liquor license for on-site consumption, it can’t stop the establishment from installing up to five video gambling machines.

Anita Bedell, executive director of the Illinois Church Action on Alcohol & Addiction Problems, said “Gambling in grocery stores is going way beyond what the legislature intended and takes it mainstream. You can choose to go to a bar or video gambling parlor, but this is a place where families and children shop. These machines are triggers for gambling addicts, so where are you going to go to get away from it?”

Video gambling revenue is split among business owners, state and local governments and the machine owners, or terminal operators. Business owners and terminal operators each get 35 percent of all revenue, the state gets 25 percent and the local government gets 5 percent.

From June 2016 through May 2017, the most recently reported 12 months, the 61 machines inside 13 Antioch businesses netted $3.5 million. Antioch received less than $175,000 of that amount. Gaming board records indicate dozens of other machines in unincorporated Lake County with Antioch mailing addresses generated millions more, but that revenue goes to the county.

Meanwhile, in Kane County, the board’s administration committee recently voted to keep video gambling legal in unincorporated areas. The board had decided to reconsider video gambling after neighboring DuPage County renewed its ban. The committee’s recommendation will be presented to the full county board in August.

Kane County banned video gambling in 2009 but reversed that after five months. Today the 11 establishments in unincorporated areas that offer video gambling bring in $135,000 in annual tax revenue for the county. In both unincorporated and incorporated areas, nearly 1,000 video gambling machines are in operation.

The Grand Victoria riverboat casino has blamed video poker in the county for an all-time low in profits last year. Kane County’s share of income from all gambling sources now is one-half of 2011 totals. However, local business owners said video gambling helped restore lost profits due to the state’s smoking ban.

Committee member Drew Frasz strongly opposed legalizing video gambling in Kane County in 2009 and 2010. But now he supports keeping video gambling.

On Tuesday, he became one of the leading voices on the committee to keep video gambling in place. “I don’t think anybody opposed video gambling stronger than I did. But as long as the bulk of the county is allowing gambling, I’m reluctant to penalize a select few,” he said.

And in Joliet, the city council unanimously rejected Kathy Wilda’s application for a liquor license for a gambling café called Lucky Daisy 7777 Inc. that also would offer painting parties and other activities appealing to women.

“We really want to focus on a place for women to come, whether you come with one friend for a cup of coffee or five friends for a nice evening,” said Wilda.

She added video gambling would be available “so if husbands come they have something to do. Or, if just women come, they have a nice, safe place to hang out.”

Councilwoman Jan Quillman noted wine bars with painting parties have been successful elsewhere, and suggested Wilda reapply for the license without the gambling. Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, who also is the city’s liquor commissioner, added, “If you want to reapply without the gaming, we’d definitely consider it.”

Wilda said later, “We’re going to rethink and revamp and put some numbers together, and maybe give it another shot.”

Cafes with video gambling, typically located in strip malls and marketed toward female customers, were an issue when the first ones came into Joliet several years ago, and it appeared that many more could be on the way. In Joliet, three video gambling cafes targeted to women have received licenses.