After it became apparent that the World Poker Tour plans to move all made for TV final tables to the Las Vegas Esports Arena at the Luxor, Lee Davy opines on the possibility of using the facility for heads-up matches.

I am a big fan of Lean Principles.

I learned about them after reading The Machine That Changed The World: How Lean Production Revolutionised the Global Car Wars. 

It was a tale of how Toyota managed to adopt a new set of business practices and philosophy to become more efficient than Ford. The book was a game changer with manufacturing services all over the globe utilising the same principles, and then service organisations duly followed.

Las Vegas casinos are weighing the potentially significant cost of a labor strike that could commence as early as Friday.

Last week, members of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 voted 99% in favor of walking off the job if there’s no satisfactory replacement for their current labor agreements with 34 Vegas casinos that expire at midnight Thursday.

On Wednesday, union analysts claimed that casinos on the Las Vegas Strip and in the downtown district are facing a penalty in the nine-figure range in the first month alone if the strike goes forward. MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertaiment, which together operate 18 of the vulnerable casinos, could face losses of $206m and $113m, respectively.

Union reps conceded that accurate projections of losses are difficult given that the last major strike was way back in 1984, when Vegas was a very different place, both in terms of the number of hotel rooms and visitor traffic. But the unions maintain that MGM and Caesars are likely looking at a 10% daily cut in revenue.

This is The Mouthpiece, a guest contribution by Martin Owens. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Part one: Why Legislators Need Horse Sense

The big problem with widely publicized Supreme Court decisions is that people insist on reading all sorts of things into the decision. Things that would be nice to have, but simply aren’t there.

The first thing to remember about the Supreme Court decision in Murphy v NCAA ,is that it did not, repeat NOT actually legalize sports betting throughout the United States, as some seem to be claiming. What the decision did is to remove a Federal obstacle to states legalizing sports betting, if they so wish. That bears repeating: if they so wish. No state has to license sports betting. State governments maintain their plenary power over gambling. English translation – state governments can do anything they like with, to, or about gambling, so long as they don’t actually violate established constitutional protections in doing so.

The meta-charity, Raising for Effective Giving, has urged World Series of Poker participants to donate 3%+ of their final table winnings to effective charities in their #WSOP4Charity campaign, and Andrew Barber promises to pay $100 for each pledge received. 

A hungry eagle is circling my skull looking for an opening so he can squeeze in his beak and start tearing at my mind.

Doom.

My eyes sting.

PokerStars Team Pro, Muskan Sethi, has announced the online qualification stages of the forthcoming Global Poker League India, with the winners picking up five Platinum Passes for the PokerStars Player’s No-Limit Hold’em Championship.

As I watch the black umbrella sitting awkwardly on top of the ‘Things to do in Cardiff’ box, I can’t help wondering if someone, somewhere, is smacking a kid around the head for leaving it there.

It looks sad in a made for a funeral type of way.

I wonder if they use umbrellas in India?

Autumn in New York would be even lovelier with legal sports betting, but the clock is ticking.

New York legislators are scrambling to approve a sports betting bill before their current session expires on June 20. Not much time, clearly, but New York always waits until the last minute to formally consider gaming-related issues.

New York pols were treated to a parade of sports betting advocates on Wednesday, including Major League Baseball lobbyists and former Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who told reporters that he’d urged legislators to “get something passed that protects the integrity of the game – this session.”

On Wednesday, Assemblyman Gary Pretlow introduced his version of the betting bill previously introduced by state Sen. John Bonacic, which includes a controversial cut of sports betting handle for the sports leagues on whose games New Yorkers will wager.

The Swedish state-owned gambling operator Svenska Spel has inked a three-year deal to become the primary sponsor of the Swedish Esports Federation pumping more validity into the burgeoning sport.

We have been so foolish.

While we sit at home counting our pennies, as the wife flicks through the catalogue searching for a top of the range nuclear fallout shelter, it’s not the North Koreans we should have been worrying about.

It’s the Swedes.

Uganda’s gamblers will soon have to register in order to indulge their gambling appetites, according to the local regulator.

This week, Edgar Agaba, CEO of the National Gambling Board Uganda (NGBU), announced that the regulator was developing a central monitoring system (CMS) to track gamblers’ activity and ensure underage citizens are kept out of gambling venues.

Local media quoted Agaba (pictured) saying the CMS will be connected with Uganda’s Financial Intelligence Authority to guard against money launderers. The CMS, which Agaba hopes to have in place by December, will also link to the National Identification and Registration Authority, utilizing biometric and personal information to ensure gamblers are who they say they are.

Ugaba believes enhanced monitoring would lead to increased government tax revenue. The government’s share of gaming revenue hit UGX37b (US$9.8m) in the 2016-17 fiscal year and this figure is expected to hit UGX42b in 2017-18 and UGX50b by 2019-20.

Casino operator Macau Legend Development Ltd (MLD) has vowed to help expand infrastructure in Laos if the government will allow MLD some freedom in reallocating its gaming taxes.

The Hong Kong-listed MLD held its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, and CEO David Chow Kam Fai updated investors on a variety of topics, including plans for its operations in Macau, Laos, Cambodia and Cape Verde.

In Laos, where MLD operates Savan Legend Resorts (formerly the Savan Vegas, pictured) Chow said the company had requested the right to redirect some of the flat tax of US$10m per year it currently pays the Lao government into developing the local infrastructure, including upgrading the Savannakhet airport to facilitate direct flights from Macau.

Chow said MLD plans to develop a “bungalow-type resort” on land adjacent to Savan Legend, one of “several” projects MLD has on its mind for the Laos market. Last month, Chow suggested MLD could invest up to $500m in expanding its Laos operations.

China’s official sports lottery sales overtook their welfare lottery counterpart in April and further growth is expected in the run-up to next month’s World Cup kickoff.

On Wednesday, China’s state-run media outlet Xinhua reported that April’s overall lottery sales totaled RMB41.7m (US$6.5b), a 9% rise over the same month last year. For the year to date, total lottery sales are up 9.3% to RMB 145.8b.

April’s sports lottery operations totaled RMB22b, a 12.7% year-on-year increase, outpacing the traditionally stronger welfare lottery business, which grew only 5.3% to RMB19.7b.

The sports lottery business is expected to soar in tandem with the June 14 kickoff of the 2018 FIFA World Cup football tournament in Russia. Sports lottery sales nearly doubled during the 2014 FIFA tourney, and a similarly healthy spike was enjoyed during the 2016 UEFA European Championship.