Shady dealing in Massachusetts; Caesars mediation breaks down

Shadowy casino speculator Eugene McCain is trying to make his coveted Revere slot a fait accompli by having a special election held prior to November in which local voters would massachusetts-quarterexpress their ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ before statewide voters weigh in during the November election. Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo is neither enamored of McCain, whom he dismisses as a “fly by night” casino developer nor of the cost to the city of holding a special plebiscite: $50,000. Stonehill College political science professor Peter Ubertaccio says McCain’s strategy is a canny one — if Revere voters approve the slots parlor McCain covets, outstate voters may think twice about overriding the local mandate. “The point they will make is that, if Revere wants a slots parlor, why should voters outside the city deny them. Voters can say, ‘Hey, it’s not in my town,’” Ubertaccio told the Boston Globe. A judge has ordered Arrigo to hold the vote before Oct. 26 but Hizzoner continues to resist.

As for the loophole this could create in the Bay State’s three-casinos-and-one-slots-parlor statutory regime, Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said, “To change in any fundamental way the basic competitive environment that our licensees, the casino operators, have bought into during their license period, would not be fair. It would be prejudicial.” Indeed, especially when it’s a sweetheart deal, designed to juice McCain into a gaming license. His association with shady casino fringe dwellers Shawn Scott and Hoolae Paoa also does not fill one with trust. This proposal should be drop-kicked clear into the nearest landfill.

* Carl Icahn really means what he says about closing Trump Taj Mahal. After a month of apparent indecision, he’s requested the necessary permissions from the New Jersey Icahn 2Division of Gaming Enforcement. If you want Taj chips or cards or dice as souvenirs, better get them now. They’ll all be destroyed when the Taj closes. The irony is that Icahn is, by his own admission, losing millions of dollars while Unite-Here Local 54 continues to picket the casino … and yet for $1.3 million more in health benefits, he could have labor peace and an end to the strike. It makes you wonder if Icahn ever seriously intended to turn the Taj around or bought it so he could remove one more chess piece from the board, protecting his flank at the Tropicana Atlantic City. Also, S&G hears rumblings that Caesars Entertainment is contemplating a shutdown of Bally’s. If that happens, the low-rollers who would normally migrate to the Taj will probably gravitate to the Trop or Resorts Atlantic City — although the Golden Nugget has shown itself to be exceeding successful at providing a new home for orphaned players.

* In another setback for Caesars Entertainment, its bankruptcy mediator has resigned. “I’m convinced that I can’t continue and possibly a new mediator will be able to establish a Caesars Palaceworkable process,” wrote a weary-sounding Joseph Farnan in a letter conveying the bad news. Farnan blamed neither Caesars nor its junior creditors but Judge Benjamin Goldgar and his “atypical views” of how a mediator should act. Farnan claimed to be making progress at bringing the two sides together when Goldgar ruled that lawsuits against Caesars could proceed — a ruling subsequently stayed until Oct. 5. Goldgar wanted Farnan to testify as to the nature of his progress but the latter felt that was too great a betrayal of confidence. Directors of Caesars co-owner Apollo Management, meanwhile, are complaining about the interrogatories submitted to them for the pending lawsuits, which supposedly demand such priceless and germane information as “receipts and instruction manuals for their children’s toys.” Sheesh! Does this really sound like a bankruptcy procedure that will be settled amicably? Apollo has offered to pony up an extra $250 million but that’s not enough money to get the deal done.

Speaking of Caesars, CEO Mark Frissora‘s modernization initiative has taken another step forward. The company is using WeChat as a means of marketing it Las Vegas properties to Chinese players, starting on Thursday. (Bad news for travel agents and tour junketeers.)

* In the Philippines, the crackdown on gambling continues. Pagcor has revoked the licenses of 17 electronic-betting sites run by Leisure & Resorts World. It has also stated its intent to allow to expire the licenses of 324 e-bingo parlors and 302 e-games ones. This is hardly a climate that seems conducive to new investment — or regulatory confidence.

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