Now that he’s no longer standing for reelection, Sen. Harry Reid (D) has flung himself fully into the arms of Sheldon Adelson, calling for a ban on online gambling that might even 
extend to Nevada‘s fledgling I-poker industry (although Reid’s being wildly ambiguous on that last point). Isn’t it nice to see that Senate Majority Leader borrowing domestic policy from China? Adelson flunky Andy Abboud added to the nonsense by arguing that online gambling should be outlawed because it is doing poorly financially. So what? If Abboud is right, free-market forces will solve the problem without Congress having to lift a pinkie.
Of the various attempts to outlaw Internet gaming being pondered in Congress, at least Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) is amenable to a carve-out for online lotteries, which often use out-of-state servers. But Adelson and water-carrier Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R) will have no such talk of compromise. Adelson wants to protect his precious casinos and Chaffetz is the most vocal of his lickspittles on Capitol Hill.
* Once its casinos are up and running, Massachusetts is going to be the most paternalistic gaming jurisdiction in the U.S. Already Attorney General Maura Healey is calling for gambling parlors to be on the lookout for drug dealers and white slavers. (I’m not making this up.) “Obviously, everyone is opposed to money laundering and human trafficking,” 
responded Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby, adding, We don’t want to blow it out of proportion, but you do want to think aggressively and creatively about how you make sure these things don’t become problematic in our state.”
The American Gaming Association was less diplomatic, calling Healey “completely misguided” and the victim of “deep and disappointing bias against the casino gaming industry.” Indeed, she was a casino opponent prior to be elected A.G. last November. She’s already promising to oversee casinos with what some would say is a heavy hand.
In an unrelated development, Bay State legislators raised the “IRS lockdown” at which slot winnings must be reported from $600 to $1,200, bringing Massachusetts into compliance with federal practice, as well as that of other states. The thought of making customers fill out twice as much paperwork as in Rhode Island or Connecticut must not have been far from lawmakers’ minds. Or, as Rep. Brian Dempsey (D) put it, “To someone who’s gambling to that amount, it could be a deterrent for that individual to be gambling in Massachusetts.” Lawmakers attached the provision to a must-pass supplemental budget containing funding for homeless shelters and Gov. Charlie Baker (R) shrugged off the new language.
* As of this week, the MGM Resorts International portfolio contains one less non-core asset, the ancient Railroad Pass Casino. The 84-year-old property was sold to Joseph DeSimone, who still awaits licensing.
Meanwhile, Carlo Santarelli sat down with the head honchos of Land & Buildings to discuss their proposed REIT-ization of MGM and partial takeover of its board. Santarelli still 
rates both events as being of a “low probability” but outlined more modest ways in which MGM could achieve similar goals: asset sales (Crystals frequently gets mentioned), tighter cost discipline, de-emphasizing growth in favor of deleveraging and consolidating — or deconsolidating — ownership of unspecified assets. Think Borgata, Grand Victoria in Illinois, CityCenter. As for some of Land & Buildings’ ideas, Santarelli wrote, “levering up the asset for a significant special dividend only raises the risk profile of the entity and … selling or spinning the [Macao] asset likely puts MGM in a difficult longer term position when positioning for other Asian expansion opportunities.
