Gaming is a “soft target” for politicians and the Obama administration is looking into a backdoor method of engorging more gaming taxes. It is “considering” (but not yet imposing) 
lower thresholds for the “IRS lockdown” on winnings at keno, bingo and slots. In the case of slots, the proposal is fiendishly clever: If you hit a $1,200 jackpot or higher, you would no longer be taxed on that win alone but on any other winnings from the same, 24-hour period. (Ah, the downside of the player’s card!) The official mumbo-jumbo is here.
The taxmen are also considering halving the lockdown amount from $1,200 to $600. Although a bare majority of Americans (51%) support treating casinos the same as any other business, this is the time to make your voice heard. The Internal Revenue Service is taking public comments for the next 90 days (see page 8) on myriad aspects of the proposed change. Speak now or forever hold your peace — and pay higher taxes.
* The tax-evasion case that got Columbia Sussex‘s purchase of Casino Aztar in Caruthersville (now a Lady Luck) tossed into the Missouri state shredder is still hanging fire, eight years later.
* Wynn Resorts is ratcheting up its campaign of pettiness and retaliation against co-founder Elaine Wynn. Her brother, Michael Pascal, no longer has his job as casino host.
Now, he might have quit in a gesture of solidarity but Mrs. Wynn hasn’t called off her fight to stay on the board, so he may well have been sacked to send her a message: “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.” Also, Pascal’s departure, after 30-plus years of faithful service, preceded the disclosure of the rupture between Elaine Wynn and the board of directors. Whether he jumped or was pushed, Pascal is “collateral damage” of the board’s scorched-earth campaign against Mrs. Wynn. (Yes, I know there’s a new Mrs. Wynn, but I can’t very well call her “Elaine.”) Considering that Wynn Las Vegas was a birthday present to her, I wonder how she feels about setting foot in it now?
