Battling along the Boardwalk; Supreme Court gives tribes the brush-off

While the previous record for an Atlantic City casino strike is 34 days, the showdown at Trump Taj Mahal looks like it will go the distance. Neither Local 54 of Unite-Here nor Carl Icahn shows any signs of backing down and the union is talking tough. However, the strike may hurt Icahn sooner than expected: The Taj has stopped taking hotel bookings, meaning it will have to eke out the strike on casino revenues, of which the Taj’s are some of the lowest in town. Meanwhile, Glenn Straub has done a miraculous disappearing act, although it will not be so easy to make gargantuan Revel to disappear. When last heard from, Straub was raging at the Division of Gaming Enforcement for not issuing the licenses he sought and arguing that since he was going to job the casino out to a (still unspecified) third party, he didn’t need a gaming licensing.

In the meantime, Polo North was tardy with its Casino Reinvestment Development Authority paperwork, Revel still didn’t have a new name and it’s unclear whether Straub really has a casino operator on board or is just playing mind games. By contrast, everything seems to be going as smooth as silk with Bart Blatstein‘s reopening of the Showboat, which brings 852 hotel rooms (but no gaming) back into the market and “smells like soap.” Like Straub, Blatstein is planning to rebrand his property but is giving himself the rest of the year to get that done. Unlike Straub, he’s both hired staff and obtained a temporary certificate of occupancy. He doesn’t have a liquor license yet but won’t let that stymie his July 8 reopening. Straub is trying to play spoiler, threatening to sue over the sale of volleyball court to Blatstein. The latter replied, “What Atlantic City doesn’t need is more negative. It needs more positive.” Well spoken.

* It’s up to Gov. Tom Wolf (D) to say aye or nay to Pennsylvania becoming the fourth state in the U.S. to permit Internet gambling. As approved by the state Senate, the final package contains slot routes at OTBs and in airport lounges (but not in bars, a sore point with casinos), Internet gambling and daily fantasy sports — if those last two items are not a redundancy. Backers say that licenses, fees and taxes will bring in $266.5 million, helping to close Pennsylvania’s yawning budget gap. “We’re about to vote on a bill to spend $31.6 billion and we literally don’t know where we’re going to get the money,” said state Rep. Dan Truitt (R). Wolf hasn’t endorsed the bill yet but says that proposed fee increases to date (including a higher cigarette tax) aren’t enough to bridge the budgetary ravine, so it’s hard to see how he could nix gaming expansion in good conscience. Projections for Internet-casino revenue are $165 million for Year One, scaling up to $220 million over time. Those airport slot routes won’t come cheap: In addition for a $5 million licensing fee in Philadelphia ($1 million everywhere else), the state and the airports will split a 54% tax levy.

* Inaction by the Supreme Court handed victory to casino workers in two tribal cases. The high court deferred to a 2007 precedent that the National Labor Relations Board has jurisdiction over tribal casinos. This case came as a blow to the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and to Soaring Eagle Casino, each of which had sought to have tribal law ruled supreme. Should the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rule against the NLRB in a pending case involving the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians, the Supremes will be forced to reconcile the Ninth’s ruling with the ’07 precedent. It’s a win for the Obama administration, which had hoped the high court would stand aside. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are trying to get a filibuster-proof majority for the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act, whereby tribes would enjoy the same footing as the federal government, bypassing the NLRB. The bill has passed the House of Representatives but is stalled in the upper chamber for the moment.

* Slamming an iron fist upon the casino industry, new President Rodrigo Duterte has moved immediately to rescind all Internet gambling applications and follow that up swiftly by running existing operators out of business. These moves have left the Philippines gaming industry in a daze. Duterte doesn’t mess around: His idea of law and order is to have drug dealers executed, bad news for the street-corner pusher.

* A trio of Tesla charging stations are among the upgrades Golden Entertainment has made to Rocky Gap Resort & Casino. The bar and grill now has an outdoor area, where you can play bocce and volleyball, and the table game area has been expanded to include roulette and three-card poker. The range of activities which qualify one for loyalty points has also been widened. Golden isn’t stopping there. Next up is a renovation of the hotel rooms. Said Golden CEO Blake Sartini, “The goal remains to get our test rooms remodeled, give the final approval to the design and amenity packages, and then provide a detailed phased hotel remodel program going forward.”