Glenn Straub can’t even heat Revel but he’s got his sights on becoming Atlantic City‘s biggest slumlord. The ever-unpredictable billionaire’s latest plan for the megaresort is to use it to house Syrian refugees. However, this homeless-hostel offer is good for only so long as it takes Straub to hash out a long-term strategy for Revel.
Straub has no shortage of ideas for Atlantic City but they’re scattershot and seemingly whimsical. For instance, flying in VIP players via 25 jets from airports in the eastern U.S. hardly seems to address the city’s underlying problem of a lack of bread-and-butter players. As for the Syrian-refugee problem, a poll by The Press of Atlantic City found 75% opposed while 17% wanted to know whether they’d be relaxing in Straub’s planned water park or taking classes in his genius academy.
* Daily fantasy sports “is obviously gambling,” writes George F. Will but he attributes sudden governmental interest in the activity to envy of the taxable income that’s slipping away. Will has no love for UIGEA, deeming that attempt to stamp out Internet gambling as “Prohibition 2.0,” adding “Someday the number of Americans who bet on the Super Bowl will be approximately equal to the number of Americans.”
But, Will adds, “In fantasy sports, as in real sports … some people excel, usually because they work harder than others.” (If he follows that argument to its logical conclusion, Will should support the rights of advantage players and condemn Phil Ivey‘s persecution for “edge sorting.”) He argues that DFS is already regulated by market forces and is policing itself in a satisfactory fashion. In other words, nothing to see here, folks, move along — not even the conundrum that one form of Internet gambling is A-OK but all others remain off-limits.
* Westgate Las Vegas is getting primed to charge customers for parking. LVA sources have reported “parking ticket dispensers and
gates at the entrances and pay machines by the elevators.” Parking is still free at the moment but a changeover seems inevitable. If that’s the case, it’s a big “fuck you” to Las Vegas locals and a hardship for those of us who have to go to casinos like the Westgate on business. Once again, the casinos seem determined to take a big bite out of your wallet even before you can gamble in the casinos or eat in one of the high-priced restaurants. It seems like self-defeating business policy but a trail of lemmings is beginning to form, headed seaward. The pay-for-parking kerfuffle is the subject of our current LVA poll. Vote early and often.
* Perhaps recognizing the futility of trying to compete with South Point, it’s been decided by Station Casinos to put its 57-acre Cactus Lane parcel on the market for $40 million. The land sits just south of South Point and the hideous Grandview condo development. South Point has mastered the tricky balancing act of appealing to tourists while being well off the Las Vegas Strip and the loyalty of its customers seems deeply entrenched. If Station (which is removing the gaming entitlement — hence the low price — from the Cactus Lane site) wants to get back into development, there’s always on-again/off-again Durango Station waiting to be built. For that matter, the small parcel opposite the Reno-Sparks Convention Center seems overdue for development, especially with the Reno gambling market on the comeback trail.