Where will the Caesars fight be fought?

In the battle between Caesars Entertainment and its dissident creditors, the opening route — the choice of venue — may be the decisive one. As noted previously, Caesars wants Gary_loveman_Cropped_fmtthe case heard in Chicago and not in Wilmington, even though it is a Delaware-incorporated company. Dissidents point out that Delaware is practically in CEO Gary Loveman‘s back yard of Wellesley, Massachusetts. For its part, Caesars has proffered a variety of excuses … Chicago is closer to Las Vegas, there are more Caesars casinos around it, its law firm is headquartered there, etc.

And then there’s this: “Federal courts in Chicago apply a looser standard when deciding whether to release company affiliates, owners or insiders from liability related to a bankruptcy. Such third-party releases are harder to come by in Wilmington,” reports Bloomberg Businessweek. If Caesars is granted those releases, the fight may be as good as over. But Wilmington-based Judge Kevin Gross has the prerogative of keeping the case before his bench, since the initial litigation was filed there. Plaintiffs Silver Point Capital, BlackRock Financial and Franklin Mutual Advisers have 3.5 billion reasons to hope Gross sees things their way.

* As baccarat goes, so goes the Strip. It’s expected that last year’s Strip gambling numbers will be down 1%, driven by a 4.5% baccarat slippage. In 2012, the game was up 9% and Baccaratoverall gambling revenue up 2%. The year after that, a 17% climb in baccarat revenues propelled the Strip up 5%. Looking ahead, analysts are feeling the love for MGM Resorts International, with its widely diversified portfolio. Said Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets analyst Steven Wieczynski, “MGM’s Strip returns have also benefited from judicious cost management, which has allowed modest top-line gains to generate outsized cash flow growth,” and that MGM Macau‘s “greatest value lies in its ability to grow MGM’s share of the market’s nongaming business, the segment we expect to deliver superior return in the years ahead.”

* Now that the major-league sports are openly in bed with fantasy-sports sites, they’re going to have a hard time blocking moves like this: Bills in both the upper and lower houses of the Washington State legislature would reclassify fantasy sports as “contests of skill.” This would make betting on them legal in the state, in much the same fashion as a poker tournament. There’s plenty of money to be won: It’s estimated that FanDuel alone paid out $400 million last year. Similar legalization pushes are on in Iowa, Arizona and Maryland, and when you consider that the amount being wagered already, the taxable-income aspect of fantasy sports must be very difficult to resist, although tribal opposition killed an earlier push in Arizona. State Sen. Pam Roach (R) minimizes tribal objections, adding, “The fact that you’re decriminalizing fantasy football — since nobody really knows it is a crime — wouldn’t increase participation.”

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