
The Revel Casino in Atlantic City probably needs some sage, or a witch doctor, or possibly an implosion. Whatever curse has lain like a black cloud over this once-touted property from Day One just doesn’t appear to be in virtually any risk of going away.
Glenn Straub remains determined to reopen Atlantic City’s Revel Casino, despite the glaring lack of a gaming license. Professionals warn that the reopening could tilt the land gaming market off-kilter.
According to reports from the Press of Atlantic City (PAC), the casino’s next stage spells even more disaster. But this time, it’s for the other gaming houses still running in city.
The casino that is 47-story, which cost $2.4 billion to build and was closed in 2014 having never once switched a penny’s profit, had been bought last year by eccentric Florida property developer Glenn Straub for just $82 million, which is known as a fire purchase deal.
Straub initially said that he would reopen Revel perhaps not as a casino, but as an ‘elite university’ where the world’s finest minds would be free to ruminate on re solving global issues such as famine, cancer, and nuclear waste storage space. But then Straub changed his brain and decided as a casino after all that he would reopen it.
To put an original twist he said the new Revel U would offer such untraditional courses as scuba diving, windsurfing, cooking lessons, and a 13-floor endurance cycling course on it. Maybe Dan Bilzerian is interested in the latter.
Straub, who is engaged in licensing wrangles with New Jersey’s Casino Control Commission, would like to reopen the casino as soon as possible. But analysts said this week it would have been better for the Atlantic City casino industry, which is currently enjoying a period of security after many years of decline, if he had stuck with the crazy university idea.
Noncompete Market
‘The market happens to be rightsized,’ Colin Mansfield of Fitch Ratings told the PAC. ‘But any more competition into the city would simply take shares through the existing properties.’
While Atlantic City itself is close to bankrupt, there clearly was hope that the casino industry is at final showing signs of the bounce back after almost a decade on the skids. But Revel, coupled with a proposal to grow casino video gaming into North Jersey, could back tip the market into oversaturation.
Mark Giannantonio recently warned that expansion into the north, which is due to go to a referendum in November, would result within the closure of three to five Atlantic City casinos.
‘Our findings are quite clear,’ he told the East Coast Gaming Conference last month. ‘The fallout of those 3 to 5 gambling enterprises will be, potentially, 23,000 work losses. Foreclosures will double, unemployment will double.’
Revel Roadblocks
Straub has been arguing with nj-new Jersey regulators that he shouldn’t have to apply for the gaming license because he can be leasing the casino area to a third-party operator. State regulators beg to differ.
‘Instead of welcoming this prospect, brand New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement has imposed a roadblock that is inappropriate and unneeded,’ complained Straub within an official statement week that is last.
Despite his disagreement because of the regulators, Straub is determined to reopen Revel before summer’s end.
Valve Sued for Facilitating Underage Gambling
Designer weapons, known as ‘skins,’ in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which could be utilised by minors as digital casino chips, according to a lawsuit against the game’s creator, Valve. (Image: counterstrikelovers.com)
Valve, owner of the Steam online games distribution platform and creator of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) movie game series, is being sued for allegedly facilitating unregulated, underage gambling.
The suit, filed on behalf of Connecticut resident Michael John McLeod, accuses the video games giant of knowingly permitting an illegal online gambling market to cultivate up across the trading of CS: GO ‘skins’ on third-party websites. McLeod gambled on these markets and lost money, both as an adult and a minor, states the filing.
CS: GO is really a shooter that is first-person which players play in teams either as terrorists or counter-terrorists. ‘Skins,’ meanwhile, are collectable designer weapons which can be purchased in-game and traded for genuine money.
Digital Casino Chips
CS: GO, released in 2012, wasn’t initially a seller that is big the introduction of skins, which is swapped and traded like baseball cards. But because skins have real-world money value, they can also be used as electronic money, and the fact they can be gambled with that they can be transferred to third-party websites means. A slew of skin gambling websites have sprung up, with no age-verification procedures or checks that are regulatory
Despite its slow begin, the introduction of skins made the CS: GO perhaps one of the most popular games of them all. At any given moment, 380,000 people around the world are playing the overall game.
Valve, aided by the Steam platform, the lawsuit alleges, not only allowed this to take place but actively ‘sustained and facilitated’ it in order to profit from it. It’s approximated that over 3 million players bet $2.3 billion worth of skins on the result of e-sports matches in 2015
‘In the eSports gambling economy, skins are like casino chips that have value outside the game itself because of the cap ability to convert them directly into cash,’ the suit says.
Exactly About the Betting
‘In sum, Valve owns the league, sells the casino potato chips, and receives a piece of the casino’s income stream through foreign web sites in order to keep the charade that Valve isn’t promoting and profiting from online gambling, like a modern-day captain renault from Casablanca,’ it stated.
‘That most people in the CS: GO gambling economy are teenagers and under 21 makes Valve’s and also the other Defendants’ actions even more unconscionable.’
Skin gambling sites incorporate software built by Valve, which takes 15 percent of every skin that’s bought or sold.
‘Nothing about Counter-Strike is about the game any longer,’ Moritz Maurer, mind of e-sports integrity at gambling watchdog SportIM, told Bloomberg recently. ‘It’s exactly about betting and winning.’
US Supreme Court Steers Clear of Tribal Casino Labor Question
The United States Supreme Court refused to be drawn as a legal scrap over the question of whether the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has authority over tribal casino operators on their sovereign lands.
The United States Supreme Court has declined to rule on whether the nationwide work Relations Act has authority over Indian gambling enterprises’ workers and practices. The tribes say that much bondibet casino download confusion continues to surround this issue. (Image: hubpages.com)
The court had been petitioned by two native casinos that are american the tiny River Band of Ottawa Indians and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.
At issue was a potential judgment on a US Court of Appeals ruling that had sided with the NRLB in the past. The petition was declined without remark.
The Ottowa operate the minimal River Resort, while the Saginaw Chippewas operate the Eagle that is soaring Resort. Both properties have been in Michigan.
Conflicting Rulings
NRLB had traditionally stayed out of the affairs of tribal organizations operating on sovereign land, which were deemed outside the purview of federal laws. But in 2004, the proliferation of Indian gaming led the Board to deem that such enterprises had become ‘significant companies of non-Indians and competitors that are serious non-Indian owned businesses.’
As such, NLRB believes it’s jurisdiction within the labor methods of a tribe when the tribal business is commercial in nature, rather than governmental. This stance has made it easier for unions to organize labor movements at tribal casino properties. In 2013, NLRB ruled that the Saginaw Chippewas had unlawfully dismissed a housekeeper for discussing union-organizing at Soaring Eagle.
The clarification was tried as a result of previous conflicting judgments offered by US circuit courts.
‘Does the National Labor Relations Act abrogate the sovereignty that is inherent of tribes and therefore apply to tribal operations on Indian lands?’ the petition to the Supreme Court pondered.
Surprising Choice
‘Today, over a decade after the Board’s initial foray onto Indian reservations, the legislation in this area is, to put it charitably, chaos,’ said Paul Clement, lawyer for the Saginaw Chippewa tribe.
‘It’s a surprising that is little court didn’t take this on, because there’s a definite split into the circuits,’ Steve Biddle, a Phoenix-based partner at Littler Mendelson, told the National Law Journal on Monday.
‘No one quite knows what the answer is or what’s next. It leaves the people casinos that are running the employees of these casinos into the dark. Depending on which circuit you’re in, you may manage to arrange or perhaps you may well not,’ Biddle added.
In November, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would effortlessly scrap the NLRB’s powers to regulate enterprises that are tribal would exempt any tribe, enterprise, or institution on tribal lands, from federal labor laws. The bill has since stalled in the Senate.
Northwest Indiana Casinos Deliver $1.7 Billion in re Payments to governments that are local
The Horseshoe Hammond is certainly one of four northwest Indiana casinos providing substantial funds for local governments. (Image: caesars.com)
Northwest Indiana casinos are playing a role that is vital the region’s overall economy. Since the area’s first of four riverboats opened in 1996, the commercial gambling enterprises have supplied $1.7 billion in profits to governments that are local.
Casinos remain viewed by many as a sin tax industry, maybe not unlike alcohol and cigarettes. But Northwest Indiana wants visitors to know the advantage gambling has provided with their towns and cities.
Hammond’s Horseshoe, East Chicago’s Ameristar, the two Majestic Star riverboats, while the Blue Chip Casino have collectively benefited the areas in which they reside. The Horseshoe, Ameristar, and Majestic venues have produced $1.4 billion for Lake County, while the Blue Chip has delivered $302 million to LaPorte County.
In total, the four casino companies have taken in some $20 billion within the 20-year period.
The revenue is utilized by local governments in a number of ways infrastructure that is including, social services, and economic revitalization projects. Perhaps most notable is Lake County’s Hammond where the city utilizes casino capital to invest in college scholarships.
‘It’s been wonderful for Hammond,’ Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. told the Northwest Indiana days. ‘ Without video gaming income, we could not also find a way to dream about having a program like university Bound.’
No further for a Boat
Since Indiana legalized casino gambling in 1993, the industry has been restricted to riverboats and racinos. That somewhat changed thanks to your French Lick Resort Casino, a storied property that allowed the tiny moat surrounding its casino to run dry in 2008.
In May 2015, Governor Mike Pence (R) said he would not sign a bill to legalize casinos that are land-based but also would not stand in the legislation’s way. Without any action by the governor, a State home bill became law without Pence’s signature.
Home to 10 riverboat casinos through the entire state, Gary’s Majestic Star wasted no time in announcing plans to ashore bring its casino. Majestic is looking to spend upwards of $135 million to construct a new casino on its land acreage next to its docks.
With Hammond and Gary both less than 30 miles from downtown Chicago, grander casinos that are land-based bring even more Illinoisans to the Hoosier State.
Trump Had Been Here
Gambling is a key component to northwest Indiana, but its initial foray into the market was as rocky as the waters of Lake Michigan. And yes, like most things gambling in the mid-1990s, Donald Trump played a task.
The Majestic Star II originally opened in 1996 as the Trump Casino.
The future Republican Party nominee said, ‘Gary’s had some rough times over the years at the time. This is truly the start of the end of those rough times.’
Gary did not majestically turn into a blossoming powerhouse that is economic. But, Trump’s forecasts, while perhaps overstated, did to some degree come true.
Nine years after it exposed, Trump sold the riverboat amid financial troubles to Majestic owner Don Barden.
Now no more confined to riverboats and buildings surrounded by almost comical moats, the more gambling that is favorable should lead to even higher revenues in the coming years for Indiana municipalities.