Murren takes sanguine view; Straub’s struggles

With MGM Resorts International having rejected one REIT proposal, in part because it relied too much on asset sales, Union Gaming is teeing up another. It’s not providing Jim-Murrenspecifics but says it would provide “additional financial flexibility without the disruption of a major reorganization that could limit longer-term growth prospects for the company.” That sounds like code for saying that more money would remain available for expansion and for capex maintenance, serious concerns when casino companies contemplate REITs.

Meanwhile, CEO Jim Murren seems to be preparing for the worst with regard to online gambling. He pooh-poohed disaster scenarios if Internet betting is nixed — and if sports betting spreads to other states, even if MGM isn’t as well positioned as, say, Caesars Entertainment to recapture that action regionally. “[We] are in the resort-based business, we are not in the convenience gambling business,” Murren said, in a dig at some of his competitors. Besides, he said, the  industry only had itself to reproach for being unable to get pro-‘Net betting legislation through Congress in 2012: “Everyone had a different point of view on how best to craft a bill, and it failed.”

In Washington, D.C., to schmooze visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Murren held court with reporters, covering a wide range of topics. He had, for instance, this Borgatachoice observation on the possible marriage of casinos and fantasy sports leagues: “I don’t know how to run a football team, but I do know how to run a casino and this is gambling.”

He also dropped a mini-bombshell by putting MGM into the running for a northern New Jersey casino, were the Legislature and voters to remove Atlantic City‘s monopoly. That’s pretty remarkable coming from the half-owner of the Borgata, as well as of undeveloped Atlantic City real estate. Murren’s spin was, “The worst, I think, is behind Atlantic City” and upstate casinos would actually help it. “The market opportunity up north is vast. If that were to pass, MGM would be interested in pursuing it.”

* Glenn Straub continues to put the cart before the horse at Revel. By New Jersey law, he’s got to submit to what could be a very long background investigation to determine his suitability to hold a gaming license. In fact, he can’t even own the slot machines on the property. Brace yourselves for a long closure. As for the mooted expansion of the property, no permits have been pulled … yet.

* The private sector having tried and failed to bring passenger-rail service back to Las Vegas, Rep. Dina Titus (D) is pushing for a federal service, while criticizing the erstwhile Amtrak Titus“Desert Wind” as “set up to fail.” Titus convened a meeting of federal and regional movers and shakers at Boyd Gaming‘s Fremont Hotel, where she announced she’s renouncing her former support for a maglev line from Los Angeles to Sin City. “I think the market is there. The will is there. The potential partnership is there. We’re figuring out how much it would cost,” she said of conventional rail service. “You wouldn’t have to build a whole new railroad. It’s a different kind of thing than building a maglev, where you start from scratch. I was very supportive of the maglev, but that’s proven to be very expensive. If we can get some sort of service going in the meantime, great.” As I’ve said before, when times are tough, the federal government is the last ‘whale’ at the table.

* Gambling can be a solitary, even onanistic activity. Macao casinos are meeting the needs of lonely male punters with online escorts, or “gamecasters.” These lovelies cybernetically hold the player’s hand through a session of electronic game play. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before somebody like Cantor Gaming puts this before the Nevada Gaming Control Board for domestic adoption.

* In the course of covering the “Adelson primary“, political blogger MondoWeiss confirms that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) wasn’t invited. That’s hard cheese for Graham, perhaps a punishment for not pushing hard enough in the Senate to ban Internet gambling.

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