Donald Trump may have sold his soul to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and cheaply at that. Pro-Trump Global Gaming Business is reporting that the mogul promised not to 
oppose Sheldon Adelson‘s anti-Internet gaming legislation if only the R-J would endorse him. It was, if true, a poor bargain. The R-J is a piddling newspaper in the grand scheme of things and its political endorsements (anyone remember anti-casino scold Sharron Angle? Or its threefold endorsement of Marco Rubio?) are widely ignored: The Silver State went “blue” at the presidential, senatorial and congressional levels this year, so Trump could have kept his Faustian pact in his back pocket. Perhaps he made his promise knowing that Adelson’s RAWA has bombed in Congress this year and was likely to do so again without any intervention from him. The congressional makeup has not changed enough to affect the political calculus.
* Instead of trying to catch the wind in a ‘Net, Adelson might be better advised to turn his energies toward Brazil, where the Senate has just approved casino gambling. The Chamber of Deputies has yet to vote on the measure but the momentum toward legalized casinos appears inevitable.
* Add Mohegan Sun Pocono Downs to the list of Pennsylvania casinos that have agreed to pay voluntarily host-community fees in the absence of legislative action to correct the unconstitutional fee structure that was until recently in place. Plains Township relies upon Mohegan Sun for $2.5 million a year.
* Stanley Ho was conspicuously absent from a Sociedade de Jogos de Macau charity dinner, although SJM Executive Director Angela Leong and CEO Ambrose So were prominently seen. When last put on public view, Ho was little more than a vegetable. It’s time to recognize that Leong is the real power at SJM.
* Unlike the larger hotel industry, Airbnb isn’t making Las Vegas resort owners lose sleep. Why? Because a Vegas hotel room comes with so much more.
