After having spent four years being clobbered by slot routes (the installed slot base has reached 23,406 machines), Illinois casinos have decided they’d rather switch than fight. 
Investors in Rivers Casino have purchased a stake in lead operator Acel Entertainment Gaming, although Rivers owner Neil Bluhm (right) is a slot-route opponent. (Unlike his dad, Andrew Bluhm took a flyer into slot-route investment, although it apparently isn’t going so well for him.) The news comes after Penn National Gaming bought out Prairie State Gaming and another route operator, Gaming & Entertainment Management, was swooped up by Jumer’s Rock Island Casino. Traditional gaming houses “see another revenue source out there and see a way to hedge their bets on the future. If you have a regional casino and you feel video gaming is eating your lunch, then you have the ability to be a part of it,” said Illinois Gaming Machine Operators President Michael Gelatka.
Slot-route locations, which are limited to five machines apiece, still succeeded in grossing $913 million last year. Despite the machine restriction, they’ve spread to wildfire, currently operating at some 5,658 sites. Their 2016 revenue ($459 million so far) is on pace with that of the state’s 10 casinos. Dotty’s has even planted roots in the Land of Lincoln. Casinos currently gross more per year than slot routes but the latter are rapidly closing the gap. Wherever you go in Illinois — liquor stores, gas stations, fast-food chains, bars — the slots will find you.
* An irate Las Vegas Sands shareholder is suing CEO Sheldon Adelson, former COO Michael Leven and a slew of board members for an alleged cult personality in which fealty to Adelson outweighed fiduciary duty to the shareholders. It also criticizes the company’s litigiousness as a waste of money, breaches of candor and contract, and a couple of counts of unjust enrichment. This is the third time shareholder William Sokolowski has taken on Sands in court (he’s currently 0-for-2). Company spokesman Ron Reese dissed the latest filing as a warmed-over version of previous litigation. The lawsuit, which references a recent string of federal and state investigation of Sands, calls for a special master to assume the duties of Sands board. Don’t hold your breath.
It was only 17 years ago that Adelson introduced the in-room minibar to the Las Vegas Strip, a revolutionary move at that time. Minibars have had a good run but it would appear that they’re already on the way out in Las Vegas, due in part to rising customer resistance. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen hotel guests toting coolers, grocery-store bags and pallets of bottled water to their hotel rooms, I’d be a wealthy fellow (though not as rich as Adelson). So the first trend you’ll see is the phasing out of the minibar. Then, if the experts are right, when you have a craving for cashews, a robot will be sent to your room with the desired item. In any event, when an in-room bottle of water will set you back an average of $6.67, consumer rebellion was to be expected.
* MGM Resorts International is getting so desperate to fend off a Foxwoods Resorts Casino/Mohegan Sun satellite casino in Connecticut that it used its friends in Congress to smuggle an amendment into a defense-appropriations bill. The amendment would have barred states from having off-reservation tribal casinos if they already have casinos on Native American land. Pyramid Associates economist Clyde Barrow said that “the magnitude of what MGM is engaged in is probably above and beyond anything I’ve seen elsewhere in the country at this point.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D, left) weeded 
the amendment out of the bill, having been put wise to it by state Sen. Chris Murphy, (D), who said,we weren’t going to let that amendment go anywhere. But it’s clear that MGM is using every angle they can find to try to stop this project from going forward.”
Ohio University casino expert Alan Silver doesn’t think MGM’s back-door move is anything extraordinary, adding, “any business person would be doing the same thing.” The company’s official position — that it doesn’t oppose the off-reservation in and of itself — just doesn’t wash, given that the casino is being built expressly to capture dollars that might otherwise go to MGM Springfield. The sudden interest of MGM executives in the southwestern Connecticut market is also suspect: Wouldn’t a project there become obsolete the moment that casinos are expanded in the New York City area a few years hence? Tribal spokesman Andrew Doba responded to MGM’s under-the-radar tactics with some over-the-top rhetoric, saying, “They will say anything, do anything, spend anything to protect their bottom line. And if they’re successful in Connecticut, more residents will find themselves in the unemployment line.” There’s no question that, with a billion-dollar investment at stake in Springfield, MGM is going to try to block Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun on every front.
* Defying his detractors at Revel, developer Bart Blatstein reopened the Showboat hotel on 
schedule, although one guest was a little underwhelmed. “There was nobody in here greeting you or anything … there should be music or something,” she told a reporter. Blatstein intends to re-brand the hotel but is waiting until the off-season before doing anything drastic. He got a rave notice from City Council President Marty Small, who proclaimed it “a big day for the city of Atlantic City … It removes one of the eyesores.” As for Revel, the clock continues to tick on its botched attempt reopening. The latest explanation for the lack of action is that owner Glenn Straub is choosing to sulk rather than apply for a gaming license. He could be using the time to unveil the resort’s new name and start building up brand awareness, but logic and Glenn Straub rarely seem to be found in the same place at the same time.
* Who says Ho Chi Minh City is no fun? When $100 million Hilton Saigon opens in 2019, a casino will be prominent among its amenities.
