http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/top_three/trump-plaza-sold-to-california-company/article_dcb69502-76e8-11e2-9f0a-001a4bcf887a.html
Associated Press
ATLANTIC CITY — Trump Plaza, the Boardwalk centerpiece of Donald Trump’s one-time Atlantic City empire, was sold Thursday to a California company for $20 million in the cheapest of a series of bargain-basement deals for distressed gambling halls in the struggling New Jersey seaside resort.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/new-jersey-s-sports-betting-lawsuit-continues-today-with-arguments/article_9fc29f6c-76d7-11e2-817c-0019bb2963f4.html
By HOA NGUYEN, Staff Writer
Lawyers representing New Jersey are appearing in front of U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shipp this afternoon to argue that a federal sports ban is unconstitutional. They are joined by lawyers representing the five professional and amateur sports organizations, which sued the state.
| By WagerMinds
Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes rightly points out “Right now, sports betting is a cash cow for the mob,” said Hynes. “I’ve been in favor of legalized sports betting. It has always made sense to me.”
Now, the odds are long that sports betting will be legalized in New York anytime soon. Avella’s bill would need to be approved in two consecutive votes by the legislature and by the voters as the bill amends the state’s constitution. And if it can clear those hurdles, New York would then be where New Jersey is: having to fight to overturn the federal ban on sports betting in every state except Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon.
But this is yet another development that seems to indicate the tide is turning and the sentiment in favor of legalization is growing. It won’t happen overnight but it seems more and more likely it will happen sometime.
http://blog.northjersey.com/meadowlandsmatters/2740/the-poll-question-that-only-10-percent-of-garden-staters-got-right/
To follow up on Monday’s blog post: Joe Brennan Jr. (no relation to me or my brother Joe), chairman of the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (IMEGA), passed along the details of the 2010 poll I referenced regarding New Jerseyans and gambling.
The key question in that poll, taken by a Governor Christie pollster: “Please tell me if the following statement is true or false: ‘New Jersey currently offers wagering on horse races to New Jersey residents through the internet.’”
10 percent of those polled correctly said this is true (and has been for nearly a decade; see 4njbets.com). But 55 percent said they didn’t know and a remarkable 35 percent said this was false.
A followup question notes that such betting is legal, then adds, “with that in mind..” do those polled support or oppose internet gaming? In that context, 28 percent strongly support and 23 percent strongly oppose. Intriguingly, 34 percent “somewhat support” and only 7 percent “somewhat oppose.”
What does this tell us, combined with Monday’s FDU poll?
I would say that it shows a certain softness in the opposition to online gaming. The overall vibe seems to be that maybe the state shouldn’t cross a new frontier and allow gambling on the internet. Once it’s pointed out that horse race betting has been going on for years online, that seems to be enough to erase a lot of the opposition.
This issue already was approved rather easily in the Legislature last year before being vetoed by Christie, and likely will approve it again this year. State Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union, hopes to see the issue voted on by the full Senate by the end of this month, while the Assembly may or may not get to it before it takes July and August off.
Christie’s reluctance has been understandable: He questions whether allowing internet gaming runs afoul of the state Constitution, which says that all casino gaming can only take place in Atlantic City. Is an online poker player sitting in his living room in Teaneck, Trenton or Tinton Falls doing something related to Atlantic City?
Constitutional experts have come forth to say that since the bet is not executed until a server in Atlantic City records it, no referendum is required. That could be crucial, because supporters know that it would be difficult to win such a statewide vote.
The key, of course, would be an expensive campaign to get across the idea that since residents already can bet on horse racing, this is just an extension of something that already is out there.
By:Seth Lubove
Friday, May 11, 2012
In his ground-level office on a back street of Las Vegas, Lee Amaitis is worlds away from the 15-story building in London where he served as the second in command at Cantor Fitzgerald until 2008. Rather than looking at the Tower of London on the River Thames from his office, he now has a view of men entering and leaving Sheri’s Cabaret, featuring “Hot Fully Nude Girls.”
The cabaret is part of the Las Vegas scene that Amaitis, who today heads Cantor Entertainment Technology, thrives in. He shellacs his hair back Gordon Gekko-style and wears the collar of his white shirt wide open. With a swagger typical of a casino high roller, Amaitis says he plans to turn Cantor, one of the world’s largest brokers of government bonds, into a sports-gambling powerhouse, too, Bloomberg Markets reports in its June issue.
“We came here to change the face of the industry,” says Amaitis, who’s retained a bit of his native Brooklyn accent.
Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 of its 960 New York employees when terrorists slammed an American Airlines jet into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, is known for playing tough. The brokerage’s chief executive officer, Howard Lutnick, battled the widow of founder Bernie Cantor in court for control of the firm in the 1990s. Since then, he has launched a series of lawsuits alleging patent infringement and broker poaching against ICAP Plc and other rivals, who have reciprocated with their own litigation.
Equipped with technology drawn from Wall Street and a trader’s appetite for risk, Cantor is now charging into sports betting in Las Vegas. The business – conducted in a section of a casino called a sports book – is characterized by volatile swings in profit and loss, competitors like the MGM Grand and Caesars Palace and expert gamblers known as wise guys.
“I have friends who run sports books,” says Joe D’Amico, owner of All American Sports, a Las Vegas handicapping service. “I got to tell you, none are without stomach problems.”
While Wall Street firms are no strangers to Vegas – they have long helped casino developers raise money – Cantor is the first to explicitly set itself up as a gambling operation. With a $150 million investment, the New York bond brokerage has taken control of and retooled seven sports books. They are owned by the Venetian and the Palazzo – part of Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. – and other casinos.
Cantor has also produced wireless tablets so gamblers can bet anywhere in the casino or hotel. Eventually, it wants to start an online poker casino, too.
To promote its new Android app that allows betting from smart phones and tablets in Nevada, Cantor put cardboard flyers in Las Vegas taxis in February. They feature a curvaceous woman’s derriere with the tag line “Sports Betting on Your Android? You Bet Your App!”
“The idea that we can bring so much technological innovation to that market is a great opportunity,” says Lutnick, 50. “I think it will dramatically add to the size of the market.”
Cantor’s bookmaking software, a modified version of what Wall Street traders use, has changed the way sports gamblers at the Venetian bet. They walk past cocktail waitresses in tight skirts and low rollers at slot machines to get to the sports book, a 10,000-square-foot room furnished with 118 bright-red betting stations. Cantor installed a 100- foot-wide TV screen that can show 34 sporting events at once.
On this February evening, two dozen gamblers bet on events ranging from 14 simulcast horse races to college and professional basketball games. Cantor says its computer servers, driven by the kind of algorithmic-rich software that fuels derivatives trading, spew out odds on events at the fastest rate ever in Las Vegas. This speed allows gamblers to place bets during contests on dozens of situations just seconds before they unfold.
During a Los Angeles Lakers-Boston Celtics game, a betting opportunity suddenly pops up on the stations. It offers a $100 payoff on a $220 wager that the Celtics’ Paul Pierce will sink the two foul shots he’s about to take. Gamblers bet on Pierce by swiping a finger across the screen. Pierce sinks both.
Before Cantor ran the sports book, people could usually bet only once, before the game began, on the outcome. Today, more gambling means additional revenue for Cantor, which gets a fee of about 2 percent of some wagers, plus its winnings, which are shared with the casino.
“You want to build Wall Street on Las Vegas Boulevard,” says Andrew Garrood, a former derivatives trader at UBS AG, who helped Cantor develop the software.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/despite-revel-s-opening-atlantic-city-casino-revenue-falls-percent/article_07643f70-9aad-11e1-88b0-0019bb2963f4.html
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Staff Writer |
ATLANTIC CITY — Revel’s new, $2.4 billion megaresort was not enough to propel Atlantic City’s casino industry toward higher revenue in April.
Overall, the 12 casinos posted $260.6 million in winnings from slot machines and table games, a 10 percent decline from the $289.4 million earned in April a year ago, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement reported Thursday. Slot revenue fell 9 percent to $189.5 million, while table games were down 12 percent at $71.1 million.
Revel, which opened April 2, generated just $13.4 million in gambling revenue during its first month of operation, placing it eighth in the industry. Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis explained that a limited number of hotel rooms and technology glitches hampered business during the start-up phase.
“Generally, it has been very, very positive,” DeSanctis said of Revel’s debut. “I would expect May will improve a little bit. I expect revenue will really pick up in June, July and August.”
Revel has characterized its first eight weeks of operation as a preview period leading up to a formal grand-opening celebration over the Memorial Day weekend headlined by pop superstar Beyonce.
Atlantic City officials have been pointing to Revel as a catalyst for growth. Revel, the first new casino to open here in nine years, may eventually challenge Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa as the top-grossing casino, analysts predict. However, April’s surprisingly low revenue shows it will take time before Revel fully ramps up.
“Although it is too early to judge the success of Revel based on one month’s revenues following a soft opening, gaming revenue of $13.4 million is underwhelming,” Andrew Zarnett, an analyst for Deutsche Bank, wrote in an investor note. “Although not entirely comparable, the Borgata in its first full month of operation generated gaming revenues of approximately $47 million in July 2003. As we head into the busy summer months, gaming revenues for Revel will need to dramatically improve … and we believe they will.”
The Atlantic City market continues to struggle with the fragile economy and against casino competition in surrounding states. In a year-over-year comparison, revenue has declined in every month — except December 2011 — since September 2008.
“It would be hard to say it wasn’t disappointing,” Tony Rodio, president and CEO of Tropicana Casino and Resort, said of the market’s overall performance in April. “We had a new entrant in the market. I certainly would have expected better results than what we saw. It’s certainly disappointing.”
Tropicana was the lone standout during April, scoring a 10 percent increase at the slot machines and nearly tripling its table-games revenue compared to April 2011. Rodio said Tropicana benefited from a few high rollers losing big at the tables, although he noted that Atlantic City blackjack whiz Don Johnson was not one of them. Johnson raked in $5.8 million in winnings from Tropicana’s blackjack tables in April 2011, which made this April an easy comparison for Tropicana.
“The table games are going to swing wildly from month to month. My focus is on the slots side,” Rodio said.
Overall, Tropicana’s revenue soared 39 percent in April. Tropicana was the only casino to post a double-digit increase in slots revenue for the month. Rodio attributed the jump in gambling revenue to a spin-off effect from The Quarter, Tropicana’s retail, dining and nightclub complex.
“We’ve just re-energized the place,” he said. “We’ve created a fun atmosphere by leveraging The Quarter. There is so much energy, so much activity and so many different elements to it. It is starting to pay dividends.”
Golden Nugget Atlantic City, which has begun to capitalize on its newly completed $150 million renovation project, was up nearly 8 percent at the slot machines in April, but a 22 percent decline in its table-games win kept its revenue essentially flat overall.
Atlantic Club Casino Hotel was the worst performer for the month, suffering a 41 percent overall decline in revenue, including a 63 percent plunge at the table games. Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and sister property Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort both were down more than 30 percent overall.
Michael Frawley, the Atlantic Club’s chief operating officer, blamed construction disruptions on the casino floor for driving down business in April. But with upgrades to the casino floor now completed, Atlantic Club is preparing to launch new promotional slot giveaways to draw customers back.
“We’re just about ready now and we’ll be coming out with an aggressive marketing campaign. Now that we’re finished, we have something special to offer our customers,” Frawley said.
Frawley, though, warned about the sluggish economy and competition from casinos in surrounding states continuing to be a drag on business. He pointed to Atlantic City’s April results as reasons for caution.
“It’s absolutely part of the weak economy,” he said. “We have regional gaming hanging over our heads all the time. It’s beyond difficult at this point.”
http://nj1015.com/jersey-congressmen-pushing-separate-sports-betting-bills-audio/
By: David Matthau | January 24, 2012
With the Giants heading to the Super Bowl, a lot of Jersey football fans will be placing a friendly wager on the big game.
Frank Pallone (Facebook)
Now we get word two Jersey Congressional representatives are sponsoring separate measures to legalize sports betting in the Garden state.
Congressman Frank Pallone says after Jersey voters passed a non-binding referendum last November to approve sports betting – by a 2 to 1 margin “it really isn’t fair and it isn’t appropriate for the federal government to stand in the way.”
He says his legislation would lift the federal ban – only for New Jersey.
“We’re not dealing with any other state” says Pallone, ” we’re simply making a carve-out for New Jersey and we’re saying that any sports betting would be allowed in New Jersey that is passed by the state Legislature… this is a way to generate some significant revenue that helps take the burden away from the middle class – and also creates jobs.”
He points out “right now, many people are placing bets – they’re betting off-shore, they’re betting illegally under the current law – we’re losing the revenue to – who knows who – and that revenue could come to the state…I’m hopeful we can move on this – I do think it has a good chance of passing.”
A separate bill – sponsored by Congressman Frank LoBiondo – would re-open the federal statute prohibiting sports-betting in 46 states, including New Jersey.
“Jersey has been clear about its intent to host sports-betting” he says, “legalizing sports-betting would strengthen Atlantic City in the face of stiff competition, giving it an additional edge to attract visitors and critical tourism dollars. Now that Governor Christie has signed the sports-betting bill into law, I will introduce my legislation to give our state that right.”
His measure would give all states the right to approve sports betting – as long as they act by 2016.
LoBiondo Co-chairs the Congressional Gaming Caucus.
http://www.covers.com/articles/articles.aspx?theArt=274352
What do we do with Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey who not long ago wanted his state to be the East Coast’s all-inclusive gambling Mecca but now appears to be main impediment toward accomplishing that goal?
What do we do with a governor who keeps moving the goal line after others in his state do all the heavy lifting to get sports betting and online gambling legalization into the red zone?
What do we do with someone who by all indications is now in a holding pattern as he waits to see if he’ll be picked for either vice president or a cabinet position in a Romney Administration?
Other than applying public pressure, the answer to all three of the above is: Nothing.
Make no mistake. Chris Christie is the reason that New Jersey is dragging its feet on a court challenge to the federal law which limits single-game sports betting to Nevada. And he’s the reason that N.J. is missing a golden opportunity to become the first state in the country to provide portals for online gambling. A quick phone call to his attorney general, and Dobermans from his attorney general’s office could begin the process of dismembering the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.
More than six months have passed since the voters of New Jersey authorized Christie to move on PASPA, and more than four months have expired since the legislature passed (and Christie signed) enabling legislation. Since then, crickets.
http://www.nj.com/times-opinion/index.ssf/2012/02/amick_against_odds_politicans.html
Published: Monday, February 27, 2012, 7:00 AM
Once again, New Jersey politicians are trying to correct a past mistake after the odds have shifted against them. I don’t mean the Democrats’ effort to authorize same-sex marriage, although that fits the description nicely. The goal of this belated campaign is to allow the state’s casinos and racetracks to take bets on sports contests.
In 1992, Congress enacted the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which forbade states to adopt sports betting but grandfathered Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana, the four that already had that form of wagering. In addition, New Jersey was given a special deal, a year in which to legalize betting on sports, because it had had casino gambling for more than a decade. But New Jersey didn’t take advantage of the dispensation.
The Legislature was swayed by the opposition of the pro sports leagues and the lobbying of U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), PASPA’s sponsor and a former basketball star for Princeton and the New York Knicks, who warned that legal betting would destroy the integrity of sports and send the wrong message to children. Sanctioning it would “turn athletes into roulette chips,” Bradley said. Sen. Richard Codey (D-West Orange), who also strongly opposed the idea, suggested that sports betting would lure college players into “shaving points before they shaved their beards.”
The issue died in the Assembly Judiciary Committee and was forgotten until it was exhumed two years ago by Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth). Lesniak contends that sports betting would help the casinos and tracks, which have been battered by competition from neighboring states, and, in the process, would generate badly needed revenue for the treasury. Citing estimates that this form of gambling would bring in $1.3 billion in gross revenues and $120 million in taxes, the senator set off on a two-route pursuit — through legislation and litigation — of a train that had left the station nearly two decades earlier.
Lesniak and two pro-gambling trade associations filed a federal lawsuit to overturn PASPA, arguing that it violates the Constitution by giving an unfair advantage to selected states at the expense of the others. Last spring, U.S. District Judge Garrett Brown dismissed the suit. Because New Jersey had no sports-betting law, he ruled, there was no injury to remedy, and, in any event, the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to claim one. The judge noted, however, that the governor and attorney general — who weren’t party to the suit — could have pursued the argument, on behalf of the state, that PASPA violates New Jersey’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment.
Meanwhile, the Legislature authorized a referendum on a state constitutional amendment that would permit sports betting at Atlantic City casinos and the state’s racetracks, when and if the federal law was overturned. The only contests off-limits to betting would be college games played in the state or those involving New Jersey colleges played anywhere. The votes were 36-3 in the Senate and 54-17 in the Assembly, and last November the people approved the question by a margin of nearly two to one. Follow-up legislation was quickly enacted and signed into law by Gov. Christie.
Christie and his new attorney general, Jeffrey Chiesa, haven’t said whether they’ll now file a lawsuit similar to the one dismissed by Judge Brown. But the strong public support demonstrated in the November referendum prompted Christie to say: “One of my jobs as governor is to listen to the people. They’ve spoken. I’ll work as hard as I can to make it a reality.”
The National Football League and National Basketball Association still oppose any change in PASPA on grounds that extending legal betting would hurt the integrity of their sports. But, with $2.6 billion a year bet on sports in Nevada and many times that amount wagered illegally nationwide, the position isn’t easy to sustain. It’s also hypocritical, critics say, because analysts on TV and radio discuss point spreads and compete to pick winners with no noticeable objection from the leagues.
Some legal experts are convinced the state eventually would prevail in court, although it would take time and appeals. One, Professor I. Nelson Rose of Whittier Law School, observed on his website Gamblingandthelaw.com that gambling traditionally has been an issue for states to decide on their own. “I cannot think of any other act of Congress that prevented a state from changing its public policy on gambling,” Rose wrote. “It is difficult to know where in the U.S. Constitution Congress got this power to begin with.”
In Washington, two New Jersey congressmen, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-Ventnor), have introduced separate bills to amend PASPA. Pallone’s bill would add New Jersey to the list of states exempted from the ban on sports betting, while LoBiondo’s would allow any and all states the chance to play. They think their bills have a good chance of passage, although at least one big obstacle, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), stands in their way. Reid has always been protective of his state’s gambling interests, and probably has the clout needed to block any measure that would allow other states to threaten Nevada’s domination of casino sports betting.
An optimistic Sen. Lesniak has predicted that by the next Super Bowl, New Jerseyans will be able to legally bet on the winner of the game. That seems awfully soon. You probably could get better odds that the Eagles and Jets will be competing in it.
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/05/14/new-jersey-voters-want-sports-gambling/
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A new poll finds most New Jerseyans oppose legalizing Internet gambling, but want the ability to legally bet on sporting events.
A Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released Monday finds 58 percent of state residents are against legalizing online gambling, while 31 percent support it.
But voters, by the same margin, support the legalization of sports betting.
New Jersey lawmakers are moving toward approving both kinds of gambling, saying it would give Atlantic City’s struggling casinos a boost. But concerns over the constitutionality of both measures still linger.
Gov. Chris Christie signed a law allowing sports betting, but it can only happen in New Jersey if a federal ban on it is lifted. The governor vetoed an Internet gambling bill last year, and has not said if enough changes have been made this year for him to support it.
“Online gambling may be a good bet for new state revenue, but lots of voters don’t think it’s a good bet for New Jersey,” said Peter Woolley, director of the poll. “I suppose there is something to be said for losing money without the inconvenience of leaving town, but that’s usually called property tax or alimony.”
Internet gambling bills are awaiting votes in the full state Senate and Assembly. Those bills would let Atlantic City’s casinos accept bets from gamblers in other states and even other countries, provided state casino regulators determine that doing so wouldn’t violate federal law.
There are also concerns by lawmakers about verifying a player’s age, although proponents say there is existing technology available to ensure that only those 21 or over can access the systems needed to gamble online.
Proponents say Internet gambling and sports betting are ways for New Jersey to garner millions of dollars in new tax revenue currently being lost to illegal operators, including organized crime and offshore betting sites.
Christie signed a sports betting bill into law in January. But the real work still remains: overturning the federal ban on sports betting in all but four states.
So far, New Jersey has not moved to sue in federal court to overturn the law.
Women opposed Internet gambling by a 65 to 25 percent margin; men voiced opposition at a 52 to 37 percent rate. The younger a voter is, the more likely they are to support it, but the only age group that supported it in the poll were those 30 and under.
Republicans (58 percent) and Democrats (60 percent) oppose Internet gambling at roughly the same rates.
In terms of sports betting, 60 percent of voters said they want it legalized, with 26 percent opposed and 14 percent unsure.
The telephone poll surveyed 797 registered voters statewide between April 30 and May 6. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.