Paid to not play?; More trouble for Trump, Caesars

Although the American Gaming Association came down against Massachusetts‘ proposed “managed play” system of regulating losses, casino companies are saying, “Not so fast.” Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts International and Penn National Gaming are all in favor of the idea of allowing players to cap their losses in advance. However, they are opposed to rewarding it with future free-play incentives, fearing that players will set exaggeratedly high limits they have no intention of hitting, qualifying them for free play. Said Wynn’s Robert DeSalvio, “If someone has a problem the worst thing is to give him incentives to come back.” He wasn’t opposed, however, to programming the limits into loyalty cards. Penn and MGM representatives had their own reservations about the program’s feasibility.

The industry representatives seemed more concerned, overall, about players gaming the system to get free goodies than whether or not the limits were a good thing in themselves. They seem to have conceded the latter argument, although DeSalvio made the rather weak argument that making the signup part of the loyalty-card enrollment would drive players out of state. If not then, when? And if so, wouldn’t the “managed play” concept send them fleeing anyway?

In a related development, Wynn took out $1.25 billion in debt on its Boston project, while MGM issued $1.15 billion in debt, to be split between MGM Springfield and its National Harbor casino.

* According to Judge Kevin Gross, if Trump Entertainment Resorts doesn’t get its act together and come up with a bankruptcy-exit strategy, things could get dire — if that were possible. TER could get kicked out of Chapter 11 and into Chapter 7 liquidation, a move that would run a cart and horses through Carl Icahn‘s elaborate (and taxpayer-contingent) takeover plan. Judge Gross told all parties involved, “There is urgency and an endpoint to their finding common ground.”

* Elsewhere in town, Caesars Entertainment was hit by a default notice from UMB Bank. The asserted default is believed to have been provoked by Caesars’ sequestration of prime assets in subsidiary Caesars Growth Partners. Caesars called the accusations without merit.

It’ll be a frosty day in Hades when a Super Bowl is played in Las Vegas, the lack of a venue being among the least of the problems. However, casino executives can get a vicarious idea of what it would be like from the foot traffic and volume of play that the Phoenix-area casinos will see this February.