Like a couple of crotchety codgers sitting in their rocking chairs, Steve Wynn has joined Sheldon Adelson in the “You kids get off my lawn” club when it comes to Internet gambling. (Not that he has allowed this to stop his pursuit of a New Jersey license.) In an interview with Jon Ralston, he raised many of the same concerns about underage access to Internet casinos. He’s not quite alarmist, thinking Washington gridlock will solve some of the problem: “They can’t agree on anything, especially something this esoteric.”
In fact, Wynn’s central concern isn’t that Little Johnny will spend the family dry but that federal legitimacy could come with heavy taxation. He also thinks it 
could be co-opted by state lotteries (not a problem for Wynn in Nevada). Wynn also admits to feeling out of his element in cyberspace. “I know how to do that [in bricks and mortar]. But I don’t know how to do that on a 17-inch screen … The big problem I see is I don’t see the government letting us keep the money.” Hmmmm, so because you can’t do it, others shouldn’t have the opportunity? Still, if Wynn and Adelson are so het up about the “narcotic” effect of having access to gambling, perhaps they should choose a different line of work. Not to worry, though: In New Jersey, they’d rather smoke weed than gamble.
In the course of bragging on his casino-development skills and promising that Wynn Boston would the best casino on the East Coast, Wynn said something odd. “Wynn remarked that he “would be able to capitalize on the thousands of Asian and Middle Eastern students who come to school in the Boston area, and whose parents are regular visitors as a result.” So it’s OK to prey on college kids at a terrestial casino but not in cyberspace? Yup, totally honest, Steve.
Speaking of Wynn’s newfangled bromance with Adelson, recent numbers from the European Casino Association write the epitaph for EuroVegas, his $22 billion pipe dream. In 2012, ECA members combined had gambling revenues of $8.9 billion. In 2011, Hungary‘s entire casino industry grossed just $29 million. No wonder that Adelson’s Iberian quest smacked of folly.
* Surprisingly, gray-market video-gambling parlors operate out in the open in over 12 states. One of them is Connecticut, where a smackdown is being urged by state Sen. Dante Bartolomeo. These “Internet sweepstakes” operations have essential fallen through cracks in existing law. It’s an unregulated industry and its extermination will be smiled upon by the vast majority of the gambling industry.
* Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board hearings over the state’s final license ended in a morass of uncertainty. However, it’s clear that A) cannibalization is a major worry in Philadelphia, B) commissioners are spooked by the fate of Revel Resort and C) you’d better have a lot of parking spaces.
* As states fight over a finite gambling market, we may be seeing the beginning of the end of casinos as an economic Dr. FixIt. In Delaware, the after-tax properties at Dover Downs were a famished $13,000. That can hardly be allowed to continue.
