Some people either put up or shut up. Glenn Straub can’t put up and won’t shut up. His latest brush with the news pages is his welshing on a bet with Bart Blatstein that the latter couldn’t open the Showboat by his self-imposed deadline. When Blatstein won the 
bet and asked for the money so he could give it to charity, Straub claimed there was no bet and he was keeping the 100 dimes for himself. Now he’s scrapping with Blatstein over the latter’s plans to redevelop Garden Pier, which just seems like sour grapes. Blatstein has crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s in dealing with Atlantic City bureaucracy. Straub, by contrast, seems illiterate. And, yes, there’s still not even hint of a new reopening date for Revel, let alone the much-ballyhooed new name. Rival casino owners shouldn’t be worried because we don’t think Straub can throw up a serious challenge, even if he ever gets Revel back on its feet. We’ll say this for Donald Trump‘s legacy: For all the razzmatazz, he delivered a product — at least in the early going — and helped raise Atlantic City’s profile, sometimes for the worse but initially for the better. Straub talks a good game but so far has nothing to show for it. The empty wagon rattles the loudest, as the saying goes.
* Every so often, a company comes along that drags the gaming industry’s name through the muck. The latest is CG Technology, an outfit that’s synonymous with sleaze. It literally wrote Nevada‘s mobile-gaming law and then, in an immaculate conception, slipped it into the legislative hopper without a sponsoring lawmaker. Now it’s received its second smackdown from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, a sequel to a $5.5 million fine handed down in January 2014 surrounding the actions of executive and convicted felon Michael Colbert. Now the company’s being hit up for $1.5 million for having known but not advised sports bettors that they were being overpaid or (more often) underpaid, to the tune of $600,000. According to regulators, Cantor “effectively ignored a group of several thousand patrons who had won their parlay wagers but who had underpaid their winnings and left responsibility to those patrons to bring an underpayment to the attention of” the firm CG Technology will also have to establish a $25,000 escrow account to make good on the underpayments.
A casualty of the settlement is CEO Lee Amaitis, forced to step down at the end of next month. (Leaving the company plenty of time to look for a new broom, preferably someone from outside CGT.) “The board will not tolerate improper or incorrect payments to patrons by gaming licensees, and therefore takes this matter extremely seriously. This settlement contains several harsh punishments and requirements for remediation that reflect those concerns,” said NGCB Chairman A.G. Burnett. For its part, CGT conceded that the settlement was justified in the light of the evidence uncovered by the NGCB. The settlement marks a disgraceful end to Amaitis’ career, which had hitherto been associated with Cantor Fitzgerald‘s rise from the ashes of 9/11 (terrorists killed over 650 Cantor employees).
Considering that the 2014 fine came with a warning that further infractions could cost CGT its license, the company got off easy. Still, this wave of bad publicity could drive punters into the arms of the growing William Hill US empire of betting parlors. If you don’t want to risk your sports wagering with CGT, avoid the sports books at Venelazzo, the Tropicana, the Hard Rock Hotel, Silverton, the Palms and M Resort … at least until the new regime has earned your trust.
