Illinois: Adding insult to injury; Sheldon’s nuisance

Casino-based slot machines in Illinois are now outnumbered by ones in convenience stores, bars and truck stops. To make the challenge even worse, the Legislature — which goes out of its way to kneecap the Land of Lincoln’s existing casinos — is contemplating doubling the amount of machines allowed in convenience locations.

SlotTo some extent, the Illinois Casino Gaming Association is to blame, for having stood to one side when the initial enabling legislation went through, bringing truck-stop slots with it. “We underestimated the kind of impact it was going to have. We thought by putting a limit on the number of devices [five per site] it wouldn’t hurt us much,” says Executive Director Tom Swoik, a bit lamely.

The Lege’s priorities, of course, were to raise taxes and to crack down on Illinois’ flourishing-but-illegal video poker industry. Distracted by the competitive threat of more casinos per se and racinos, Swoik took his eye off the ball, a concession that is proving disastrous. Now you can go to the florist, pick up some flowers for the wife, and play the slots. Yes, you can even spin the reels at a scuba store. It sounds like an urban myth but it’s not.

For their part, bar owners where struggling with increased liquor taxes and a ban on indoor smoking. Slots must have seemed like manna from Heaven. They’re also reported to have brought in a wider, AARP-friendly demographic … one that would surely be patronizing casinos if they were still the only game in town. Some form of further expansion seems inevitable, so casinos will have to brace themselves for more pain.

* Caught between out-of-state competition and impending smoking bans, West Virginia‘s casinos are looking for a way to claw back some of that money. The obvious solution? Internet gambling. As a trial balloon, the West Virginia Lottery is mulling online ticket sales. Legislative sanction wouldn’t be needed to sell Powerball, Mega Millions and Hot Lotto via smartphone. Technology is currently proving to be to the Lottery’s detriment. “People used to go in and pay for their gas, and now they’re paying at the pump and not going in,” complained lottery supremo John Musgrave.

sheldon-adelson_170x170* Could Sheldon Adelson‘s beef with online gaming be motivated by trademark piracy and copyright infringement? In June, it sued the owners of 35 Web sites and domain names for garlanding their sites with the Las Vegas Sands name and logo. “The intention was to be associated with the American company in order to lure prospective gamblers to overseas online casinos, and ‘to unlawfully and in bad faith advertise, promote, and provide online casino services and gambling services’,” reports Macau Business Daily. Adelson isn’t the only Macao-centric operator facing this problem which has also hit Galaxy Entertainment.

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