Jilted in Iowa

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett is feeling like a swain who got stood up by his best girl. After the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission voted 4-1 against Cedar Crossing Casino, Corbett made a speedy exit from the room and was still stung several hours later: “We felt all along that they were encouraging us. Now we have a little bit of a feeling that we were misled.”

roncorbett470Corbett has a valid point to feel led on and perhaps falsely encouraged by the two-year application process. But the IRGC has the at least equally valid point that it has to be guided by what its market studies tell it — and the tale they told of Cedar Crossing was one of severe cannibalization. Heck, Cedar Crossing conceded as much by offering to share revenue with Riverside Casino & Golf Resort, but the latter’s CEO, Dan Kehl, wasn’t having any of it. It was spinach and to hell with it.

Kehl also  had some good advice for Cedar Crossing’s backers: “They would have been more prudent to wait for the [commission’s] market studies to come out before launching on their endeavor. But they opted to go the other way.” Cedar Crossing did do a marketing study … one which basically said what Cedar Crossing wanted to hear.

As for dissident commissioner Dolores Mertz, who favors a free-market  approach, Chairman Jeff Lamberti “said Iowa’s casino industry has never been a free-market affair, but instead has been a state-regulated industry with the ‘overarching goal’of creating a ‘stable and predictable gaming environment’ that is ‘free of significant disruption.'” Count stability and predictability among yesterday’s winners.

Quote of the Day: “It’s the beginning of the beginning, and its hard to draw long-term conclusions. There is a degree of confidence that month-on-month growth is sustainable and will probably accelerate in the next few years.” — GamblingCompliance Managing Director James Kilsbyon the slow start-up of Internet gambling in New Jersey.

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