See Scoundrel’s and die; Caesars fumbles the ball

It’s been a long time since the Nevada Gaming Commission even suspended a license. (I believe it was dive bar Snick’s Place, back in 2009, but I could be wrong.) However, the NGC has taken back the license of Scoundrel’s Pub. When asked, Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett admitted he couldn’t even remember the last time the NGCB had yanked a license. OK, aptly named Scoundrel’s is a restricted licensee — a slot route, in other words. But it must have done something really bad, right? Right. Between 2009 and 2015, Scoundrel’s averaged one gang-related shooting per year. Not the place where you want to repair for a few quiet hands of video poker, in other words. Las Vegas Metro also responded to 144 calls — the vast majority involving violent incidents — at Scoundrel’s during the same time frame, the kind of notoriety that recalls the pre-Tamares Group years of the Queen of Hearts motel in Downtown, a hotbed of police calls. The NGC softened the penalty by allowing Scoundrel’s to surrender its license, a face-saving sop from Chairman Tony Alamo. After all, we can’t admit anyone’s so bad as to deserve losing their license, can we?

Although Scoundrel’s owner David John Zderik is able to get out of turning over his license (and paying a fine) without admitting any wrongdoing, Deputy Attorney General Ed Magaw nonetheless issued a statement that he “failed to exercise a proper level of control over the business’s operation at the location and have permitted dangerous conditions to exist, putting the safety of the public, its employees and its patrons at risk.” “There was nothing the owner could have done in any of those shootings,” responded Zderik attorney David Crosby. License or no, the issue is somewhat moot since Scoundrel’s closed in December, lending a Theatre of the Absurd overtone to the proceedings. In other business, Derek Stevens got zapped with a $250,000 fine for the issuance of under-the-counter markers at the Golden Gate, although Stevens denies the charges.

* Although it already has 800 VLTs (now replaced with slot machines), Tioga Downs racino in New York State hasn’t achieved full-fledged casino status. Yet. Owner Jeff Gural is on the verge of getting a licensure vote from the New York Gaming Commission. Opening of Tioga Downs 2.0 is still a ways off (November) but when it comes, it will be with $110 million worth of added amenities, including a hotel. The slot-machine inventory will increase to 950 and 45 table games, something Tioga hasn’t had before, will be added at some point — the rules regulating table games at New York’s four new casinos are still being drafted. As Gural put it, “The casino is virtually complete. Basically, we have to work out a timetable based on the rules being promulgated.” Once the license is issued (and there’s no reason to believe it won’t be), it will be sweet vindication for Gural, who was left out in the cold when the first round of casino licenses were awarded. The upgraded Tioga Downs should open just as Gural is getting the results of a New Jersey vote that will determine whether or not his Meadowlands Racetrack is a contender to be a new casino.

* Just when it looked like the Caesars Entertainment bankruptcy was headed for an amicable resolution, Texas Pacific Group and Apollo (Mis)Management (which just got smacked by the SEC) gummed up the spokes by refusing to sweeten the pot with an additional $990 million. This is not behavior that will endear them to bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar and increases the chances of imminent litigation. Caesars is right to fear a trial: The sham “sale” of Total Rewards out of Caesars Entertainment Operating Group for literally not even one penny practically screams “fraudulent conveyance!” Wouldn’t you love to be in the courtroom when Gary Loveman takes the stand and swears that his Total Rewards pride and joy is worth nothing?

* Seen yesterday in the VIP section of the opening of Amorino Gelato in the Linq Promenade: a man in shorts, flip-flops and an Ed Hardy wife-beater. ‘Vegas glamour’ is dead, buried and rapidly decomposing, folks. We did see a man in a tux at the opening of Shawn McClain‘s Libertine Social (at Mandalay Bay), as well as the winner of the Chris Christie Lookalike Contest. Oh, and the Scotch olives were scrumptious.

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