Horse Racing Breaks into A Gallop
They’re off. Again. Horse racing made a pivotal comeback last weekend. Churchill Downs and Santa Anita, two of the sport’s bellwether institutions, resumed live programs without spectators. Lesser-known Golden Gate Fields in the San Francisco Bay area and Charles Town Races in West Virginia also came back. Suddenly, it’s a party for sports bettors. Wagers […]
Awesome Foursome: Quartet of Sports Superstars Tee Off for Charity
Talk about star power. This Sunday, four sports legends will play 18 holes to support Covid-19 charities. There’s not a marquee big enough to hold these legendary names. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning will tee off Sunday, May 24 in The Match: Champions for Charity at Medalist Golf Club in Jupiter, […]
Louisiana Sports Betting Faces Uphill Battle
In 2018, Louisiana lawmakers put the decision to legalize daily fantasy sports to the voters. Residents still can’t play. A two-thirds majority of Louisiana lawmakers must approve any tax bill, and that’s been too high of a bar to clear so far on the daily fantasy front. Legal sports wagering may be headed in the […]
Pennsylvania Casino Applies for Sports Betting License
Wind Creek Bethlehem has applied for approval to operate both a casino sportsbook, along with mobile and internet betting. The application, filed April 29, follows a deal in January between Wind Creek Hospitality and Betfred to operate the sportsbook. The filing release issued by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board provides little in the way of […]
Churchill Downs Moves Forward and Backward
Churchill Downs on April 29 announced a Newport horse racing and gaming center just as demolition of the grandstand at Turfway Park in Florence in Northern Kentucky moves ahead, CEO Bill Carstanjen said in an earnings call with investors April 30. But in Louisville, a $300 million project at Churchill Downs has been halted because […]
Oregon Collects Taxes for Shut Down VLTs
The Oregon Lottery is collecting taxes on thousands of video lottery terminals (VLTs) that are owned by hundreds of taverns and restaurants that are closed and not allowed to turn the machines on. One restaurant owner among 550 in the state was forced to pay $2,082 on six VLTs that have been turned off since […]
NJ Bills Promise Help for Casinos
New Jersey lawmakers have introduced legislation to bolster an industry decimated by the coronavirus pandemic. Assembly Bill 4031 lets casinos borrow interest-free loans from the state to cover property tax payments. The money would come from the Property Tax Relief Fund, a pot of money that provides tax breaks to lower-income and senior citizen residents. […]
PA Casino May Offer Gambling by Appointment
Pennsylvania’s Wind Creek Bethlehem casino hotel, which has been closed since March 15 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has revealed details of a phased plan to reopen the facility, although the exact reopening date has not been determined. The plan includes distancing precautions such as limiting the number of guests, limiting players and times on […]
N.J. Approves Luxor to Run Ocean Casino
Luxor Capital Group has succeeded where others failed: generating a profit at Ocean Casino Resort, the beleaguered Atlantic City property formerly known as Revel. Luxor also lowered Ocean’s debt and improved its finances. These successes went a long way in persuading the New Jersey Casino Control Commission to grant final authorization for the New York […]
OK Governor: No More ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ Compacts
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s new gaming compacts with the Otoe-Missouria and Comanche nations illustrate how he’d like to proceed with future compacts: by expanding gambling through new casinos and new types of gambling like sports betting, and basing fees paid to the state on geography, not a flat rate statewide. “No longer are we going […]
Las Vegas Visitation in a Swoon
Visitation to Las Vegas took a dramatic dive in March, falling more than 58 percent to 1.5 million people. All non-essential businesses in Nevada, including casinos, were ordered closed on March 17 to stem the spread of the coronavirus, and the impacts showed on the state’s core industries of tourism and gambling-related tourism. This was […]
Feds Begin Distributing Relief Funds to Tribes
The U.S. Treasury Department has begun distributing $8 billion as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act money to tribes after several tribes won a temporary court victory April 27 that prevents any of the money from going to Alaska Native corporations—for now. The relief funding is part of a $2.2 […]
