Et tu, Harry?

Internet gambling dodged a bullet when the federal government’s omnibus spending bill was sent to the floor without Restoring America’s Wire Act tacked on like a flea riding a harry-reiddog. “If we can’t get it into the omnibus, it won’t be in anything,” said outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), whose word can presumably be taken as definitive. However, Harry is not Big Gaming’s friend on this issue: He’s been lately seen breaking bread with emissaries of Sheldon Adelson, Public Enemy Number One when online gaming is concerned.

Reid’s support for ‘Net betting has always been shallow and suspect, never extending beyond support for Web poker and wanly at that. Now he appears he’s ready to sell the whole kit ‘n caboodle down the river. To understand the significance of this, recall that almost all of Big Gaming — especially Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International — was instrumental in Reid’s 2010 re-election win. The only significant holdout was, you guessed it, Sheldon Adelson. And yet Reid is willing to turn on his 2010 backers in order to coddle favor with Adelson, lest the latter use his ultra-megabucks against whoever challenges Reid in 2016. (For that matter, the entire Nevada congressional delegation is lying pretty low.) The newfound power of Adelson’s checkbook to instill fear is quite a sight to behold.

JonesIf he thinks Adelson is going to fall for some poker-only compromise, Reid is being uncharacteristically naive. The Las Vegas Sands CEO is playing for all the marbles. In the absence of Reid opposition, the industry is having to fire back on Adelson themselves. Caesars Entertainment‘s Jan Jones lobbed the first salvo, saying, “We believe that banning Internet gaming is bad public policy from our perspective. We’re pleased this issue will be discussed openly and not hidden in some omnibus bill.” Not a bombshell, but it’s a start. As for Caesars and every company not named Sands, it’s time to ask Reid, “What have you done for us lately?”

* Now that the latest round of consolidation appears to have simmered down, the manufacturing sector of the casino industry can get back to doing what it does second-best: suing each other. In a symmetrical pair of judgments, litigation between SHFL Entertainment and Macao-based LT Game Ltd. has been disposed of. At issue were multi-game electronic table games that involve a live dealer. LT’s claim was dismissed in U.S. District Court. In an inverse development, a Macanese court booted a SHFL action against LT. So, presumably, LT can’t market its product in the U.S. and SHFL’s is unwelcome in Macao. You know the good old days have returned to game manufacturing when a spate of patent-infringement lawsuits hits the newswires.

* Nevada‘s gaming industry generates twice as much economic impact as the next four-largest states combined. However, as big as that cash cow is, if the share of casino revenue generated by gambling continues to dwindle, that will have some dire implications for the Silver State’s general fund.

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