Look out, Macao, here comes Crimea

PutinThat’s the message from Crimea‘s puppet leaderRustam Temirgaliyev, who claims that Crimea could outdo Monaco, Las Vegas and even Macao. (It is not recorded whether anyone laughed at his assertion.) “Our task is to create a tourist cluster, which will operate year-round, using a gambling zone as an advantage,” Temirgaliyev said. “We have been considering construction of a gambling township on Crimea’s southern coast and have been considering several more sites. At issue is a territory of around 100 hectares directly on the seaside.”

Casinos are presently illegal in Crimea but a bill has been introduced in the Russian Duma to change that. It’s got the parentage of chest-baring despot Vladimir Putin, so I guess it’s a done deal. Bad Vlad’s exile of the casino industry to remote provinces has been a flop, undoing a $5.5 billion industry. Crimea offers relative convenience of proximity and, evidently having decided that casinos weren’t such a bad thing after all, Putin is putting his eggs in the Crimean basket.

Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby will participate in May hearings on Boston’s validity as a host community and Beantown Mayor Martin J. WalshWalsh will not. That’s the latest development from the Bay State, where Walsh is playing a curious rule-or-ruin game with the Wynn Resorts and Mohegan Sun casino projects. “The commission’s role is not to participate in or be distracted by the politicizing of certain aspects of this process but instead to remain focused on the mission and challenge at hand: to successfully implement the expanded gaming law in a manner that is participatory, transparent and fair,” an MGC spokesperson stated with studied detachment.

Walsh’s people may have Mohegan Sun pinned on one critical point: As a casino amenity, the Suffolk Downs racetrack sits squarely on the East Boston side of the face. This means Mohegan Sun will have to find some way of arguing that Suffolk Downs isn’t germane to the project. That could be difficult when you’ve repeatedly made the future of Suffolk Downs contingent upon the success of your casino bid.

Making a trenchant counterthrust, Wynn Resorts pointed out that Walsh’s predecessor, Thomas Menino, had already acceded to surrounding-community status and to beginning talks on that basis. Walsh may have some difficulty blustering his way around that, although the man appears to be without shame.

Menino, incidentally, turned up on talk radio recently, predicting doom for casinos at November’s ballot box.

This was a record that Harrah’s Philadelphia didn’t want to set: It’s the biggest property Chester Downstaxpayer in three Pennsylvania jurisdictions. The company has until Friday to file an appeal in court of a $5 million bill, based on a $218 million assessment of the racino’s value. It would not be without local precedent: “Parx Casino in Bensalem [which is paying property taxes “under protest”] and several casinos in Atlantic City are among those that have fought to have their taxes reduced, asserting that they were not as profitable as anticipated, or that the buildings had been assessed at more than their fair market value.”

Harrah’s Philly was part of the Keystone Opportunity Zone, but that jurisdiction — and its tax deferments — sunset last year. Harrah’s assessed value is 10 times that of the rest of the district put together. Host city Chester is hanging upon the $1.6 million Caesars Entertainment owes it as part of the larger assessment, as is the Chester Upland School District ($2.8 million). But they’ll probably have to wait a year to cash in, as the appeal process is worked through. Chester only assesses it at $52.5 million, implying the property would have a $210 million value on the open market.

Congratulations to Aliante Casino. Better pack a lunch if you’re headed up there, but its pool has been chosen as one of the 10 best in Vegas, and the competition is stiff.

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