Continuing its sudden flurry of activity, Station Casinos is reviving its dormant Reno-area aspirations. The company is acting on its eight-acre parcel opposite the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, a strategic location if ever there were one. The $50 
million-$70 million project will be sort of a pocket casino, its amenities limited to two fast-food outlets, a café and a sports bar. No hotel has been announced, which strongly suggests that Station is going to deploy the portable license for a no-hotel casino that it acquired a decade ago from the Reno Turf Club and has been keeping its back pocket ever since. Station is proceeding cautiously, holding off developing a larger parcel in the area of Sierra Summit Mall, which would require a more capital-intensive entry into the market. (Yes, I know the captions are reversed on the picture there and, no, there’s nothing I can do about it.)
Station needs a zoning change for the convention-center site and permission from state regulators to use the old Turf Club license, but those should be routine approvals. In other events Station-related, UFC parent Zuffa has been sold for $4 billion. Considering that the Fertitta Brothers bought the league for a rock-bottom $2 million, 15 years ago, there isn’t an adjective big enough to describe the profit they’ve made. The handsome cash-out quickly led to speculation that the Fertittas were going to buy some or all of the [your city here] Raiders. Acting as a spokesman for team owner Mark Davis, Las Vegas Sands COO Rob Goldstein denied any such such dealings, adding that Davis regarded the team as a precious asset. At the very least, the Fertittas can get a sizable equity stake in the seemingly inevitable NFL stadium, if Gov. Brian Sandoval‘s infrastructure committee chooses the Days Inn at Wild Wild West site as the area to be redeveloped.
* The Tohono O’odham Nation may have committed a costly blunder, one that would scotch its hopes for Class III game at its new Glendale casino. “Officials of the Tohono O’odham Nation were discussing possible sites for a casino in Maricopa County even as 
tribes were telling voters in 2002 there would be no new tribal gaming in the Phoenix area if they approve a ballot measure,” reports the Arizona Capitol Times. Tribal minutes disclosed during litigation show the tribe scouting for land close to Glendale, in the interests of maximizing gaming revenue.
Unfortunately for it, the State of Arizona scored an own-goal by sharing the findings with the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, which has its own casino interests at stake. Salt River promptly blabbed the results to the press, even though it was supposed to keep mum. “It was not the intent of the lawyers representing Director Bergin to have these documents shared beyond the attorneys,” said a spokeswoman for Arizona Department of Gaming Director Daniel Bergin (below), who’s been fighting a long and losing fight against the Tohono O’odham. The latter’s chairman, Edward Manuel, tried to downplay the revelation, saying it was nothing new and the material was “written by unknown authors who had no involvement in the compacting process.”
So far, federal courts have not ruled on the state’s claim that the Tohono O’odham committed fraud in a 2002 referendum, supported by the tribe, that implicitly barred new 
casino development in the Phoenix area. (The language was sufficiently ambiguous for the tribe to slip through the legalese.) The issue of fraud may become relevant again now that it is revealed that the tribe was looking at four or more casino sites during the 2002 campaign. The Tohono O’odham were also promising voters that no new casinos would be built near Phoenix while simultaneously shopping for a gaming site with money awarded in 1986 for lands lost to flooding. The tribe is blaming the contradiction on a PR agency that “did not necessarily seek to depict the compact with legal precision.” Noting that their casino was “not illegal” but would raise “political issues,” the Tohono O’odham used a front company to buy the Glendale acreage (partly to keep the price down).
“Do not want people to know of the plan of a casino, even after the land is put in trust, because of the potential political problems of putting a casino up in the central Phoenix area,” read the minutes. That’s an understatement and the Tohono O’odham may have really put their foot in it.
* Plainridge Park grossed $12 million last month for Penn National Gaming, which may be disappointing only to Wall Street. Projections from Deutsche Bank were for a $13 million tally. True, Plainridge is well off the $356/slot/day average of its early, halcyon days but surely it was to be expected that such a pace cannot be sustained. Penn says that its current average ($329/slot/day in June) is the best of all its casinos and I see no reason not to take Penn at its word. In all, punters put $161 million into the Plainridge slots last month.
