Месяц: Июнь 2014

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled unanimously this morning that the rejection of the anti-casino ballot question by Attorney General Martha Coakley last year was an error.
This ruling will allow the repeal of the state’s casino law to appear on the November ballot. It is expected a vigorous referendum campaign will be waged, allowing the voters to decide the fate of the state’s emerging gambling industry.
The casino repeal campaign is likely to attract a great deal of national interest and significant funding on both sides of the issue.
In commenting on the ruling, Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, said:
“While it’s up to Massachusetts to decide whether or not to welcome the thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenues gaming will bring to the Commonwealth, the AGA will ensure that voters have the facts about our industry instead of tired stereotypes.
“Gaming positively affects communities by creating thousands of jobs paying well above the minimum wage, helping small businesses grow and contributing millions of dollars in vital revenues for public services, such as education and safety,” he continued. “Massachusetts could soon discover what communities across the nation already know: that gaming serves as valued community partners and as one component of a strategic, multifaceted economic development plan.”

Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City has announced a partnership with Sportech and NYX Gaming to begin Internet gambling.
That will permit the resort to join PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, the firms recently purchased by Amaya Gaming Group of Canada, in offering online betting options.
Last year, PokerStars attempted to enter the Internet gambling activity in New Jersey by making a bid for the troubled Atlantic Club Casino/Hotel. The deal later fell apart.

HAWTHORNE (CBSLA.com) — The Hawthorne City Council Tuesday decided not to roll the dice on a controversial new casino proposed by Mayor Chris Brown.
Hawthorne’s mayor has drafted a measure for the November ballot that would legalize gambling allow for a casino in the city in effort to ease budget woes.
However, KCAL9′s Dave Bryan reports city council members voted 3-2 to put the ballot initiative on hold Tuesday evening, as constituents spoke in overwhelming opposition to the proposal.
There were also bitter exchanges between the mayor and council member Alex Vargas, who objected to Brown interrupting when he had the floor.
“At the end of the day, I’m interested to hear what all the constituents have to say about this, and I will give them the opportunity to voice their opinions,” Brown later told KCAL9, adding that he would continue to push for the measure to be added to the ballot for Hawthorne residents to vote on in November.
KNX 1070′s Jan Stevens earlier reported the upscale casino, which would only permit card games, would be part of an upscale development of shops, restaurants and other forms of entertainment.
The measure must be approved by at least two city council members to move forward.
Brown says the casinos could help solve a $6 million budget deficit and create 1,000 jobs.
“The casino will bring $12 to $14 million in revenue for our city,” he added.
Currently, there are seven other card clubs operating in Los Angeles County, including the Hustler Casino in nearby Gardena.
While public reaction has been mixed to the proposal, Brown said focusing on the right demographic could be key to gaining support.
“It will need to be sold to our older constituents,” said Brown. “For the younger ones, actually, they think it might be good for the city of Hawthorne.”

As promised, Macau has imposed new restrictions on Chinese tourists who ‘transit’ through Macau to another destination. Previously, mainland tourists who used Macau as an intermediate stop on their way to a third port of call were allowed to stay seven days in the world’s top gambling hub, but this stay has now been reduced to five.

The change, which takes effect July 1, is intended to curb the number of travelers who abused the privilege by never making it to that third destination. In 2013, just under 21% of the 2.6m mainland passport holders who entered Macau using transit visas actually went on to a third country. These 2m visa scofflaws represented 11.2% of all mainland visitors to Macau last year.

Anyone caught abusing the scheme after July 1 will be prevented from making another transit visa trip through Macau for 60 days and their time in Macau will be limited to one day. Repeat violators will be barred from Macau altogether. Union Gaming Group analyst Grant Govertsen doesn’t expect the change to have a huge effect on Macau casino revenue, as most visitors coming to Macau to gamble stay only around two days on average.

UNIONPAY CRACKDOWN A DROP IN THE BUCKET
It remains to be seen whether a crackdown on the illegal use of UnionPay debit card devices can be brushed off so easy. Macau casinos have reportedly been given a July 1 deadline to remove all traces of the mobile swiping devices from their casino floors and from jewelry stores on casino premises. Chinese gamblers obtain cash via the devices, which record the transactions as purchases made on the mainland, thereby circumventing tough restrictions on taking cash out of China.

This week, Portuguese-language media Lusa quoted Macau’s Judiciary Police saying they had probed 19 cases of suspected illegal UnionPay transactions involving 41 suspects between January and mid-May of this year. The total value of these illegal UnionPay transactions came to MOP 180m ($22.5m), just one-tenth of one percent of the total transaction volume in 2013. Yet Deutsche Bank analyst Karen Tang has suggested the total amount of illegal UnionPay transactions in Macau is over $6b.

There’s as yet been no suggestion that the UnionPay crackdown will extend to jewelry stores and pawnshops located off casino premises. This could leave gamblers with the same options as before, only they’d have to walk a little further in order to access them. While it’s probably not a bad idea to stretch your legs now and then after a few grueling hours of immobility at the baccarat tables, we give it six months before every pawnshop in Macau has its own fleet of taxis shuttling gamblers back and forth.

At long last, Japanese legislators have officially commenced debate on the country’s casino study bill, leaving open the possibility that it will be passed this year. The current session of parliament wraps up on Sunday (22) and while casino supporters have no illusions that they’ll be able to engineer a vote on the bill before that time, the plan was to introduce the bill in order to keep it on the agenda for the abbreviated session that commences in late September or early October.

On Wednesday, the casino bill made its long awaited debut in the Japanese legislature’s lower house. Hiroyuki Hosoda, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), told Bloomberg News that the plan was to pass the bill in the lower house at the beginning of the fall session, “then enact it without fail in the upper house.”

As late as last week, it looked like the study bill wasn’t going to make it. A key committee member from the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) threw up last minute objections that appeared to spell legislative doom. But the DPJ wrangled some concessions, including the holding of regional hearings to assess public temperament on the casino issue, which allowed debate to proceed.

As for what lawmakers discussed on Wednesday, GGRAsia obtained a summary of the main topics that included a stated preference for Singapore-style casino entry levies. However, while Singapore imposes a S$100 (US $80) daily levy on locals in order to mitigate potential negative impacts of gambling, Japan is reportedly considering a levy on all casino visitors – domestic or foreign – a suggestion that would likely not thrill casino operators.

Masakazu Hamachi, a member of the Komeito party and of the committee overseeing the study bill debate, said that if a vote was held in the fall session, “those in favor will be in the majority.” Passage of the casino study bill is a necessary precursor to legislation that would spell out the nuts and bolts of resort casino development. Casino operators were originally hoping the nation’s first casino would open by the time tourists flock to Japan for the 2020 Olympic Games, and while that’s still theoretically possible, few view it as realistic.

The owners of the Massachusetts property on which Wynn Resorts hopes to build a casino have signed statements to the effect that no criminals will profit from the sale of the land to Wynn. Assuming it’s granted a license, Wynn wants to build a $1.6b casino on the site of a former chemical plant in Everett, just outside Boston. But the plan has been dogged by rumors that the property’s former owner, convicted felon Charles Lightbody, remains a secret investor, which would be a violation of Massachusetts’ 2011 casino law.

Paul Lohnes and Dustin DeNunzio, two of the Everett property’s three owners, signed statements in December denying any secret ownership. Anthony Gattineri, who officially holds a 46.7% stake in the property, had refused to add his name to the list. Gattineri apparently had a change of heart, undoubtedly influenced by Wynn’s apparent willingness to walk away from the project unless the ownership issues were clarified to the satisfaction of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC).

The Boston Globe reported last week that Gattineri had agreed to sign the oath if the MGC approved a plan for him to pay off a $1m debt to Lightbody. On Thursday, Wynn announced that all three owners had now put pen to paper disavowing any clandestine ownership, which Wynn felt “resolves the issues related to our land acquisition.” The MGC has stated that the land ownership issue would factor into its decision whether to award the lone Boston-area casino license to Wynn or to Mohegan Sun’s rival bid in Revere.

WYNN DARES MACAU MUCKRAKER TO TAKE IT PUBLIC
Meanwhile, Wynn is daring the operator of a new muckraking website to directly accuse it of wrongdoing. Jeffrey Feidler, director of the US-based International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) and the man behind the now defunct CasinoLeaks-Macau website, recently launched a new site, CotaiLandDeal.com. The focus of the new site is a real estate transaction in which a Wynn subsidiary acquired the Macau property on which the new Wynn Palace casino is being developed.

Fiedler told the Macau Daily Times “we still know next to nothing” about Tien Chiao Entertainment Ltd., which received $50m in 2009 from Wynn in exchange for the property. The post on Fiedler’s site has largely rehashed info first disclosed two years ago in the Wall Street Journal but Fiedler is promising future posts will add detail on the companies and individuals involved in the deal. Fiedler ominously speculated that “there is no telling where it leads.”

Wynn is hoping it leads to a courthouse, telling the MDT the new site was just “the latest effort in Mr. Fiedler’s attempts to bully Wynn Resorts and our employees into supporting” the IUOE. Wynn noted that Fiedler “refuses to accuse us directly of any misconduct” but should Fiedler dare do so, Wynn “would respond to it in court.” Other than that, Wynn says Fiedler’s attacks “do not merit any serious response.”