Caesars was acquired in an LBO for $6 billion in cash and $22 billion in debt at the height of the financial crisis.
Current Long-term debt of $24 billion is 16x LTM EBITDA of $1.6 billion.
At 8x - 10x LTM EBITDA, Caesars is worth $12 - $15 billion, much less than its $24 billion debt load.
Caesars' stock is worthless.
Given over $20 billion in long-term debt and flat to declining EBITDA, Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ:CZR) was in deep trouble heading into its Q2 earnings. The company owns, operates and manages over 50 casinos in over 13 states and five countries. Its 39 casinos in the U.S. are primarily land-based, riverboat and dockside casinos.
As the Gaming Commission prepares to award a casino license for the Boston area early next month, it needs to look into the eleventh-hour reports that one of the bidders, Mohegan Sun, may have violated the terms of its agreement with a Palmer landowner last year. The 2011 state casino law requires the commission to ensure the suitability of potential casino operators, including their integrity.
Mohegan Sun passed its initial suitability hearing last October. At the time, it planned to build a casino in Palmer on land owned by Northeast Realty Associates. When that plan was narrowly rejected by Palmer voters in November, Mohegan Sun quickly struck a deal with Suffolk Downs racetrack to build a casino there instead. The Palmer landowners allege those discussions — which, as shown by emails obtained by the Globe’s Mark Arsenault, began before the referendum’s defeat was formalized — violated the terms of its contract. That contract forbade Mohegan Sun from “engaging in discussions or negotiations concerning the opening of any gaming facility in Massachusetts” other than the Palmer site.
The Gaming Commission has held applicants to the highest ethical standards, and shouldn’t relax them just because the process is nearing the home stretch, with a final decision expected in September between Mohegan Sun’s Suffolk Downs plan and a rival Wynn Resorts proposal in Everett. Luckily, the Palmer allegations should be easy to investigate quickly: If Mohegan Sun can explain its actions to the satisfaction of the commissioners, the questioning shouldn’t delay the decision on the license.
Now-defunct My-Play, overall decline in use led to lack of machines on Eastern Shore
Video lottery terminals can no longer be found along a stretch of the Eastern Shore. (THE CHRONICLE HERALD / File)
Video lottery terminals dot the sleepiest parts of rural Nova Scotia. Bev Williams, a retired teacher, can find five of the gambling terminals within 400 metres of her Mount Uniacke home. A kilometre farther, there are more.
However, Williams discovered recently that there’s one stretch of Nova Scotia that has become VLT-free.
A combination of factors in the past few years appears to have led to the removal of all the machines between Porters Lake and Spanish Ship Bay, where VLTs are only available three nights a week.
Williams, who struggles with a gambling addiction, was killing time before a wedding recently when she did that two-hour drive, hoping to play. She said she was surprised but ultimately relieved to learn of the no-VLT zone.
“I wish they would be removed,” she said.
“I think the solution to my problem would be easier.”
Eastern Shore residents can point to various changes that led to the disappearance of the terminals, from provincial programs to local attitudes. They say the just-cancelled My-Play system has made a difference, though not for the reason its creators hoped.
Nova Scotians’ overall use of VLTs has recently declined, unlike in the other Atlantic provinces.
VLT sales in Nova Scotia fell by $31 million in the last two years, cutting away nearly one-quarter of 2012’s total sales of $137 million.
The province’s effort to retire VLTs helped remove those on the Eastern Shore. The terminal or terminals at a Sheet Harbour convenience store were taken away when the store was sold.
VLTs are always removed from circulation when businesses close, said Liberal caucus spokesman Nick Cox. Attrition has removed 56 VLTs across the province since 2011 out of more than 2,000.
The machines can also be picked up at the request of a business owner, said Cox. That was how the Royal Canadian Legion in Sheet Harbour gave up its three VLTs about four or five years ago.
According to people who were involved with the legion then, the province exchanged the machines for some token cash and took them away. No official program like that was announced at the time, but several people said a buyback was arranged.
“They got rid of them because there wasn’t enough business,” said Jean Josey, whose husband was a vice-president at the legion. “They were getting a few, but not enough to employ a bartender and stuff to keep the doors open. There’s not that many gamblers in that area.”
When smoking was banned in the legion, people didn’t want to stay inside and gamble, and for various reasons, the terminals just never caught on, said Josey.
“A lot of people thought they shouldn’t have them. But they just decided on their own to take them out.”
At the Spanish Ship Bay legion, the next-closest VLT site, there’s still enough interest to keep them around, said bartender Wayne White. However, while he has seen lineups for the machines, interest has declined in recent years, especially since My-Play was introduced, he said.
My-Play is meant to promote responsible gambling by tracking each player’s time and allowing people to set limits, but that’s not why it cuts down on play, said White. His customers think “they’re being tracked” and that their odds are sabotaged, he said.
“There’s all kinds of conspiracy theories. I’ve one guy that comes in, gets a new (card) every night.”
Williams, who only began gambling after she retired 10 years ago, said addicts don’t set limits with My-Play, but they can be superstitious about it.
“These cards were everywhere. They’re on the floor of the tavern. They’re in the parking lots. And people often think they’re losing because of the card, the password that goes with the card.”
The provincial government announced Wednesday it was cancelling My-Play because evidence showed it was not helping problem gamblers.
The Atlantic Lottery Corp. tracks all VLT use and considers the Eastern Shore normal, considering its low population, said spokesman Craig Ennis.
“All of our indications are that demand is being met in the area.”
The lure of untold wealth lures people at their most vulnerable. Photograph: Hire Image Picture Library / Ala/Alamy
The name of the horse eludes me now, but for a few weeks in the middle of the 1990s it held me in its thrall as I followed its lunchtime progress in some of England's most hallowed greensward, including Chepstow, Haydock and Doncaster. A friend of a friend had a share of the beast and so, one afternoon, I backed it with a few notes. It was the first time I had ever placed a bet on a horse race.
A few minutes later, we were all standing in front of the telly in a Glasgow pub and even now I can tell you exactly who was there and what we were all drinking. Prior to this, television racing was merely something of which you were barely aware. I wouldn't have paid it any attention even if a lady was disrobing on the back of one of the horses. But then none of those races included a horse with my money riding on it. On this particular afternoon, as I watched my horse romp home, the scales fell from my eyes and I suddenly understood the magic of horse racing and gambling.
For those few anointed weeks, the nag won three races on the trot before gradually beginning to fade before the final furlong of its races and so also from my consciousness. I have only been occasionally to race meetings since then, usually corporate occasions when the racing is second to the hospitality and you bet gingerly on races following some advice from a professional tipster whose wisdom comes with the package.
It's not like the real thing though, for nothing can ever compare to visiting a high street turf accountant's for a few furtive minutes and then scurrying back to the pub to watch your investment perform before your eyes. And this is why I will never become puritanical about gambling: happy are those who can enjoy this activity without wrecking their finances; poor and pitiable are those who simply cannot. But despised must be those who exploit, manipulate and ultimately destroy the lives of those who have a problem with gambling or are hopelessly addicted to it.
Last year, in one of the less physically onerous assignments on which I've ever been engaged, I was asked one long Saturday to compare and contrast BT's £1bn live football package with Sky's sleek and proved 22-year-old Rolls-Royce. Before long, I found myself counting the number of different online betting products that bookended the advertising segments: I counted eight. This wasn't gambling though, this was a mass feeding frenzy of sharks as they gorged themselves on an easy prey: men watching live football, many working-class men among them, whose vulnerability had often been increased by alcohol.
Eight online and internet betting machines were spending millions on advertising to get at their victims by setting odds for every available occurrence in a 90-minute time frame. It is nothing other than state-sanctioned electronic exploitation of an entire strand of society. And they do it by manipulating the senses aided by all the tricks that a well-crafted television advert can conjure… and Ray Winstone, of course.
I am mesmerised by Ray Winstone's accent. It is the purest form of cockney I have ever heard. In full spate, it is a rich and textured growl where the vowels seem to outnumber the consonants. His wee "Don't mess with me" face appears at the end and the beginning of every advertising interlude in every major football match. On Champions League nights, his presence is more powerful than Jeff Stelling's as he announces the odds on the next player to score or on a 3-0 win for the home team.
"It's oohllabaaat the in-play," he urges us and then, my favourite: "Ehhvve a beng on thet." Are trainee London cabbies given Ray Winstone tapes to learn by heart?
It's irresistible and utterly pernicious. How many of us, full of expectant euphoria because our boys are a goal up at half time against Manchester City or Chelsea, simply want to hit a button on an iPad or iPhone to back Rooney or van Persie or Adebayor to be the next to score at rather seductive odds?
The sheer range of options and volume of operators, all spending hundreds of millions to reach their target demographic, makes Dodge City look like Cholmondeley Pageant. It appears devoid of any regulation and the government connives at it because it's a massive tax earner.
The human consequences of such unfettered profiteering are catastrophic for our society as well as for the individuals and their loved ones. Problem gambling is a silent and stealthy addiction that leaves no visible mark, but instead works from the inside, taking a person's soul and identity. The NHS reports that only around one in 20 problem gamblers seeks help for their addiction. Unlike many alcoholics and drug addicts, who know what they are doing to themselves, the gambling addict is only ever one big punt away from redemption.
More than 350,000 people in the UK suffer from a gambling addiction and there has been a steady increase evident over the last few years with the recession and sheer availability of online gambling outlets. For many others, it occupies an inappropriate level of priority in their lives. Gambling is available throughout the country 24 hours a day and every day of the year.
The national lottery is even more insidious. It's a stealth tax on the poor. First of all, pay people obscenely low wages, cut their benefits when they reject these jobs, penalise the disabled and punish them for having a little spare capacity in their property. Then point at the immigrants and blame it all on them.
Send in impostors such as Tony Blair and the rest to destroy the party that once helped these people and permit the banks to wreck the economy with no fear of retribution in a country that has kidnapped radicalism. Then, when they are at their most vulnerable, sell the poor a fantasy of riches beyond imagination and sit back and watch them pay for all your big capital projects. Welcome to the United Kingdom, August 2014.
Bookies’ cash helps to support racing, but betting on the horses is becoming less popular, according to Ladbrokes and Gala Coral
Bookmakers complain of falling profit margins on horse racing but the industry says spectator numbers are in rude health, in particular for big events such as the Royal Ascot Gold Cup (above)Photo: PA
There was an unseasonable chill in the air as racegoers made their way to the Knavesmire, the marshy, green area of York where the infamous highwayman Dick Turpin met his death by public hanging in 1739.
The Knavesmire is now home to the city’s racecourse. Long coats and hats usually reserved for jump-racing fixtures such as the Cheltenham Festival had to be dusted off for the Ebor Festival, one of Yorkshire’s most prestigious racing events, which came to a close on Saturday afternoon. But the changeable weather was not the only thing to be sending a chill through the horse-racing industry.
Ladbrokes recently issued a stark warning to courses, trainers and breeders: betting on horse racing is fast becoming “unsustainable”.
Younger gamblers are more interested in having a flutter on other sports, especially football, according to Britain’s second biggest bookmaker. Gaming machines are also competing for the pounds in punters’ pockets.
In the Seventies, betting fans queued up to back legendary horses such as Red Rum. But nowadays online poker and roulette, and figuring out who will open the scoring for Chelsea, are competing for attention.
“It’s football and these other sports which are helping to counter the ongoing decline in attractiveness the industry is seeing in the dog and, in particular, horse-racing markets,” Ladbrokes’ chief executive, Richard Glynn, warned at the bookie’s half-year results earlier this month.
“If turnover trends do not improve and if the current cost structures are maintained for horse betting in particular, it may rapidly reach the point where it becomes unsustainable as a product.”
Ladbrokes is not alone in its fears. On Friday, Gala Coral warned that the profitability of horse racing in its shops has halved over the past five years “and the trend shows no signs of abating”.
Ladbrokes has produced some alarming numbers to support its claim. The bookie believes that next year racing will only account for a fifth of winnings at its betting shops — down from 40pc in 2005 — unless “drastic action” is taken to reinvigorate interest in Britain’s second biggest spectator sport. Over that nine-year period, the bookie says, the costs of racing to the betting industry have doubled. The two main costs are the horse-racing levy, a statutory duty on bets placed “off course”, plus media rights. Traditional bookmakers have to pay for the rights to broadcast races in their shops. They agree deals with one of two broadcasters – SiS or Turf TV, a joint venture between Britain’s top racecourses and Joe Lewis, the billionaire owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Bookies claim media costs jumped 20pc between 2008 and 2013.
Statistics from the Gambling Commission appear to back up the argument that horse racing is becoming less profitable, while the appeal of football betting is on the rise. Between 2008 and 2013, turnover from “off course” betting on horse racing fell 11pc from £5.7bn to less than £5.1bn. During the same period, gross gambling yield — the total value of stakes minus customer winnings — has dropped from £843.79m to £697.05m. Meanwhile, football betting turnover has jumped by more than a fifth to £1.2bn, while the gross gambling yield has also improved from £224.94m in 2008-09 to £293.41m in 2012-13.
Income from bookies accounts for around a fifth of the horse racing industry’s total income.
Sources within the industry admit that it would be disastrous if a major bookie withdrew its support. So is there a danger that horse racing is entering the final furlong?
“Reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated,” insists Simon Bazalgette, chief executive of The Jockey Club, the largest racecourse group by turnover in the UK and the owner of 15 tracks, including Aintree, Cheltenham and Epsom Downs. In April, The Jockey Club posted its fifth consecutive year of record operating profits and Bazalgette says the sport’s appeal to spectators is as strong as ever.
“As far as racing and its customer and audience are concerned, it’s in good shape. There are about 6m people who go racing every year, that’s the second biggest spectator sport,” he says.
“Over the last five years people who say they have got some interest in racing has gone up from one in 10 to one in five. Our TV reach still remains very high — 40pc of people during the course of the year watch some horse racing on television. That is a very significant number, [which] is not declining.” Bazalgette argues that the sport has also worked hard to ensure the younger generations are engaged with racing. Many courses allow
under-18s to attend for free. Race nights finishing with music concerts are also extremely popular.
“The 16 to 34 age range represents about 52pc of our customers,” says Bazalgette.
A recent report by the British Horseracing Authority and Deloitte also painted an encouraging picture. In 2013, 5.6m people attended 1,369 fixtures, helping to provide direct and indirect employment for 85,000.
The healthy headline figures do mask problems, however. Few on the racecourse side of the industry will dispute the fact that gambling on horse racing in betting shops is losing its allure.
There has long been a stand-off between bookies, racecourses and breeders over costs in the industry. The Government has frequently had to step in and mediate in the annual negotiations over the Horserace Betting levy.
On the one hand, the bookies claim the UK racing industry has never been wealthier. They produce figures showing that total income has increased by 44pc since
2004-05. Meanwhile, betting shops are coming under increasing pressure because of taxes. Ladbrokes estimates that taxes now equate to close to 70pc of profits in its retail business. From December bookies will also be hit with a 15pc online betting tax while duty on gaming machines will rise next year. The top three biggest bookies in the UK are all closing shops.
On the other hand, the racing industry argues that income from the levy has declined from a peak of £110m in 2007-08 to just £80m, and betting companies in this country make a lower contribution to the sport than their counterparts in other countries.
Bets placed online are also a point of contention. Many of the major bookies such as William Hill and Ladbrokes have relocated their online businesses offshore. Bets placed through their fast-growing digital divisions are, therefore, not captured by the Horserace Betting Levy.
Chancellor George Osborne announced in this year’s Budget that the Government will seek to change that. A consultation on the future of the levy is also expected to be launched next week, looking at longer-term funding solutions for the industry.
While British horse racing may not have run its course, fears over rising costs suggest the going won’t be smooth over the next few years.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Oneida Indian Nation and federal government completed their historic land trust agreement Thursday, ending almost a decade of legal disputes that strained relations between the Oneidas and their neighbors.
With the stroke of a pen in a private signing ceremony in the Oneida Nation Council House, the federal government transferred into trustabout 13,000 acresin Madison and Oneida counties.
The Oneidas called it one of the largest transfers of land into trust in modern American history. The action, firstapproved by the federal government in 2008, means the land will be exempt permanently from state and local taxes and control.
The documents signed by Oneida Indian Nation representative Ray Halbritter and Johnna Blackhair, acting regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, affects some 330 parcels in the two counties, according to an Oneida spokesman.
"With the federal government ending disputes against our sovereignty and transferring 13,000 acres of our homeland into trust, the Oneida Indian Nation now has reclaimed more homeland than we have ever had since 1824," Halbritter said in remarks at the ceremony.
The Oneidas will be allowed to add an an additional 12,000 acres in Madison and Oneida to the federal trust as part of a dealapproved in Marchby a federal judge.
Halbritter said the land transfer "represents the realization of generations of diligence and perseverance in the face of negligence, disrespect and, at times, outright hostility. Over many decades, we have worked to resuscitate our culture and rejuvenate our community."
He added, "While we appreciate the federal government agreeing to end disputes against our sovereignty, this is not an act of charity. This is not (an) achievement being given to us -- a proud and strong people have reclaimed our rights to be universally recognized as the sovereign stewards of this land. That achievement came after decades of work to rejuvenate and reestablish our community."
The land taken into the tax-free federal trust includes the profitableTurning Stone Resort Casinoin Verona. Under a separate deal with the state, the Oneidas are expected to pay about $50 million a year to the state in return for a casino monopoly in a 10-county area.
Overrides of gubernatorial vetoes are extremely rare in New Jersey. But on Sept. 22 we may see the most realistic attempt at an override in recent history.
That’s when state Sen. Ray Lesniak has decided to push for an override of Chris Christie’s veto of a bill he sponsored that would repeal the state’s ban on sports betting at casinos and racetracks.
Earlier this month, Christie vetoed that bill for reasons that didn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
In his veto statement Christie first said he did not wish to defy the federal law prohibiting states from setting up sports-betting operations. But that bill does nothing of the sort.
In its decision on New Jersey's prior attempt to set up a sports-betting system, the Third Circuit ruled that the state can’t set up a system to regulate the practice.
But the court also left open the possibility that instead of setting up a sports-betting system the state could simply repeal its laws prohibiting the practice. That’s what Lesniak wants to do. (Read more on that here.)
Apparently so does Christie. Right after writing that he didn’t want to sidestep the law, Christie proposed doing just that. He wrote that “the time is right to examine the Third Circuit’s opinion carefully and determine if a different approach towards sports wagering would comply with federal law...."
But the governor has yet to tell us just what that approach might be.
Chris Christie: If he doesn't like Ray Lesniak's plan for sports betting then he should put forth his own.Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger
“Put up or shut up,” said Lesniak, a Democrat from Elizabeth. “He’s had over 60 days to let me know what this other way is. If he doesn’t know by now, he’ll never know.”
The bill passed both houses overwhelmingly. If the legislators simply stuck to their prior votes, the override would pass. However in normal circumstances legislators won’t go against a governor of their own party.
“Put up or shut up." - state Senator Ray Lesniak
But these are not normal circumstances. Three casinos are set to go out of business in the next couple weeks. Lesniak said that about 10,000 people will be losing their jobs. That should put pressure on Christie’s fellow Republicans to provide the votes need to reach the two-thirds majorities need for an override.
Besides, what’s the harm in trying?
Christie didn’t make that clear in his statement. Monmouth Park is set to go ahead with sports-betting as soon as a bill becomes law. Does that mean the feds would come and arrest the people running the betting?
Nope. The law in question, called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA for short), does not have criminal penalties. It simply states that the sports leagues can go to court and sue to get an injunction against the racetrack.
“The state wouldn’t even be involved,” said Lesniak. “I don’t expect we would lose, but if we did no harm, no foul.”
There’s a good chance the court case could drag on for months while the betting continued, he said. That would help set a further precedent for legalization. And there's also a good chance the leagues would lose the suit. In the prior case, they conceded that "Nothing in the unambiguous text of PASPA requires states to keep prohibitions against sports gambling on their books."
The state certainly needs to try something. Among the casinos closing is the multi-billion-dollar Revel, which opened just a couple years ago. At the moment there are no buyers, but sports-betting offers the best way to breathe life into it and the other two casinos that are shutting their doors.
“The Revel was not designed for casinos but would be a welcoming location for sports bettors,” he said. “Unlike the average Atlantic City visitor who spends 11 hours in the city, they’d come for long weekends during football season, the Super Bowl and the NCAA championships.”
Meanwhile the state’s racetracks could also come back from the brink by offering an attraction outside of racing season. And there are a few Republican senators who have either tracks or horse farms in their districts.
So this should be fun for sports fans. It will also be fun for us conservatives. There’s beena big resurgence in interestin what is known as “nullification” among conservatives – the historical practice of states telling the federal government to mind its own damn business. This could be a classic battle along those lines.
Still, maybe he’s got some plan of his own up his sleeve. If so, he should put it on the table. But if Christie's not going to propose anything, then he can hardly object if the Legislature gives it a shot.
Atlantic
City casinos generated 3.5% less revenue in the first six months of
2014 than they brought in during the same period last year. Figures released on
Friday by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) showed overall casino
revenue through June 30 was $1.88b. Gaming revenue was down 3.8% to $1.32b, room
revenue fell 3.3%, food & beverage slipped 3.7% while entertainment &
other revenue rose 1.5% to $86.4m.
On the plus side, hotel occupancy in the second quarter was up 4.9 points to
83.3% and total gross operating profit rose 34.9% to $83m, reflecting this
year’s addition of online
gambling revenue and suggesting the casinos are getting better at squeezing
every nickel. However, more than half ($43.2m) of those profits were enjoyed by
AC’s market-leading Borgata
property, which benefited from a recent $88m favorable
tax settlement with the city, over $11m of which was booked as revenue in
Q2.
Of the three casinos set to close their doors before the end of September,
only the Showboat
finished the quarter in the black. The Showboat posted a profit of $7.6m, down
from $9.5m during the same period last year. Meanwhile, theTrump
Plaza lost $3.3m compared to a $143k profit last year, and the
bankrupt Revel lost $24.3m, better than the
$43.7m loss in Q2 2013.
SAVE IT FOR THE MORNING AFTER
New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie has scheduled a Sept. 8 meeting with city officials,
casino operators and labor unions to discuss ways of righting AC’s sinking ship,
but the thousands of casino staffers who will soon be out of a job are seeking
help from a higher power. On Wednesday, the Atlantic City Fellowship of
Churches organized a prayer rally at which Rev. Eric
McCoy asked God to “open new doors” for AC’s soon to be unemployed
masses. McCoy said the Almighty “had plans for us before casinos existed and
he’ll have plans for us after they’re gone.” Plans, just not jobs.
MGM RESORTS CLEARS ANOTHER HURDLE TOWARD
RELICENSING
Atlantic City may soon be welcoming MGM
Resorts back to the fold. The casino operator, which shares
ownership of the Borgata with Boyd Gaming, has been trying to
revive the casino license it voluntarily surrendered in 2010 after New Jersey
gaming regulators objected
to MGM’s Macau joint venture with Pansy Ho, daughter of
Stanley
Ho, whom the regulators accused of having links to triad activity.
MGM put tis [sic] 50% Borgata stake into trust while it looked for a buyer but MGM formally
applied to have its AC license reinstated in February 2013 after Pansy
reduced her MGM China stake to a minority position.
This week, MGM and billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian (who
holds a 19% stake in MGM) paid New Jersey a $250k fine to settle claims related
to former MGM board member Terry
Christensen, who was convicted in 2008 for his role in the illegal
wiretapping of Kerkorian’s ex-wife. Christensen had continued to work as an MGM
consultant after resigning from MGM’s board in 2006 once the wiretapping
allegations came to light. MGM spokesman Alan Feldman told
Bloomberg the fine was “simply an administrative means of closing a file on a
previously resolved matter … in advance of our licensing hearing next month.”
Before he became the heavyweight “champeen” of the world, Rocky Balboa eked out a living as a reluctant thumb-breaker for bookies, numbers-runners and loan sharks.
If the boxing thing had not worked out, Rocky might have considered a legislative career. Lawmakers have made themselves something of a thumb-breaker for the casino industry.
When the Legislature authorized casino gambling in 2004, it created a mandatory $75,000 fine for conviction of any of 12 crimes committed in connection with or against the casino industry, including perjury or cheating.
According to lawmakers who authorized the draconian fine and eliminated judicial discretion in applying it, its purpose was not only to punish offenders but to protect public confidence in the integrity of the industry. Who needs Rocky when you have the entire machinery of state government working for you?
Then, in 2010, the Legislature added simple theft to the list of crimes subject to the mandatory $75,000 fine.
So when Matthew Eisenberg, 29, a dealer at a casino in Allegheny County, was charged with slipping $1 and $5 poker chips into his tip cup, he faced a $75,000 fine for allegedly stealing $200.
If he had worked anywhere but a casino and had been charged with stealing company money, he would have faced no more than a $10,000 fine, and at the discretion of the judge.
This week, the state Supreme Court overturned the fine as being unconstitutional, calling it “strikingly disproportionate” and adding that making it mandatory exacerbated it.
Lawmakers often try to steer the state’s massive power to help their favored narrow interests, such as the natural gas and casino industries. What are the odds that they’ll use the court decision as a reminder that their obligation is to the far broader public interest?
BOSTON -- Arguing it would sap $600,000 budgeted for the Gaming Commission, Gov. Deval Patrick sent back to the Legislature a bill that would lower the state's take on greyhound simulcast wagers.
"The bill does not provide any replacement for that lost revenue, and the FY15 General Appropriations Act anticipates that the full fees will continue to be paid," Patrick wrote in a Wednesday letter to lawmakers. "Accordingly, the bill would leave the Racing Division nearly $600,000 short of its operating budget this year, and would create an annually recurring shortfall of approximately the same amount."
The Gaming Commission's Racing Division oversees live horse racing at Suffolk Downs and Plainridge Racecourse, and simulcast races that are available for wager at the two horse tracks as well Raynham Park, a former dog track.
The bill only applies to simulcast greyhound racing, and officials have said it would bring the state's share of the handle on greyhound simulcast down to the same level the state takes for simulcast horse racing.
Faced with smaller crowds of gamblers, the state's racing tracks have attempted to hitch themselves to the fledgling [NON-EXISTENT] casino gaming industry.
Plainridge, located in Plainville, won the state's lone slots license and has reportedly begun construction on a new facility. Suffolk Downs, which straddles Revere and East Boston, is vying against Wynn Resorts for the Metro Boston resort casino license, and Raynham had been in the running for the slots license.
After voters abolished greyhound racing in Massachusetts in 2008, Raynham closed its track, while continuing to offer simulcast racing.
The bill, filed by Rep. Shawn Dooley, would also reduce the number of live racing days Suffolk Downs and Plainridge would need to hold in order to keep running simulcast races. Patrick left that language intact while striking the provision that reduces the state's share of simulcast greyhound wagers.
Backers of the ballot initiative to eliminate greyhound racing have argued that passage of the referendum should have banned Bay State betting on out-of-state simulcast greyhound racing as well. They say simulcasting was reauthorized through the 2011 gaming law.
Efforts to reach George Carney, the owner of Raynham Park, were unsuccessful.
By sending the bill back with an amendment, Patrick leaves both himself and lawmakers with options.
The House and Senate have held their last formal session of the year, meaning if Patrick used his power to veto the bill, the branches wouldn't be able to override the decision.
Gov. Deval Patrick has blocked legislation that would reduce the state’s take on simulcast greyhound racing featured at Plainridge Racecourse and the state’s two other race tracks.Patrick sent the bill back with an amendment knocking out a provision he said would drain $600,000 budgeted for the state Gaming Commission and create a continuing shortfall.
The gaming commission’s racing division oversees live horse racing at Suffolk Downs and Plainridge Racecourse. The tracks, along with the former Raynham Park dog track, also feature simulcasts of races from other facilities.
The bill, originally filed by state Rep. Shawn Dooley, R-Norfolk, applies only to simulcast greyhound events and would also reduce the number of live racing days the tracks would have to host in order to qualify for simulcasting. Dooley said the provision reducing the state’s revenue take was not part of his original proposal and was added by another House member.
Dooley said he was “thrilled” by the governor’s action which would leave the other portions of the bill intact.
Penn National Gaming, which won a state license for a slot parlor in Plainville, is currently constructing a new facility in that town while continuing its harness racing schedule. Suffolk Downs, located in Revere and Boston, is competing with Wynn Resorts for a full casino license. Raynham Park, which lost out to Plainridge in its bid for a slot license, continues to offer simulcast wagering.
A statewide referendum scheduled for November asks voters to repeal the 2011 law legalizing casino gambling. If approved, the measure would also ban simulcast dog racing.
Dooley said he expects the amended bill will be taken up next week in the House.
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