ï»¿Property Tax Plummet for Borgata is Sucker Punch for Atlantic City

Atlantic City just got hit by another storm recently; this one, financial. (Image source: LarryRivera.com)

Poor Atlantic City.

It huuuge reviews gets battered by hurricanes, has its revenues siphoned off by ever-increasing competition from surrounding states like Pennsylvania and Maryland, and has seen a seven-year continuous drop in gaming profits from its 12 land casinos overall. Finally, it has Internet casinos prepared to launch on November 26th, and things are looking up from the revenue stream point of view.

Then again it gets another smack within the face from the income tax man.

Tax Assessment Reversal for Borgata

What proved to be described as a huge victory for MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming was not so much for the already faltering coffers of Atlantic City; the two video gaming behemoths got a 61 % reduction in property fees on the jointly owned Borgata Hotel and Casino which also is certainly one of the less miserable profit disasters in town and now AC has to return pre-paid taxation monies to the two companies.

They can blame it on the Tax Court of New Jersey, which reassessed the top-grossing casino in the Garden State at $870 million, a huge drop from its 2010 assessment of $2.26 billion. Without doubt there ended up being celebratory champagne in the MGM and Boyd Gaming conference spaces over that choice. But Atlantic City leaders had to be putting their fists through some walls, while the last thing they needed ended up being to have to complete a huge payback if they are usually on financial thin ice and in risk of monetary hypothermia.

‘ This is a devastating blow to Atlantic City,’ income tax attorney A. Paul Genato told Bloomberg News via email. The expert that is financial some $48.8 million is now owed to MGM and Boyd for the tax years of 2009 and 2010.

That is clearly a lot of chips.

Show Me the Money

The bigger question now facing the city that is struggling exactly how the heck they’re going to make this payback happen.

Expected by Bloomberg about the tax action, AC’s director of taxation and revenue Michael Stinson cut to the chase: ‘We certainly do not have $50 million sitting in the bank.’

With that reality staring the beleaguered metropolis into the face, they truly are doing a similar thing you or I would do in this situation: at least buying some time, if nothing else, with an anticipated appeal. But wait, there’s more misery in the future; Borgata’s more recent 2011 and 2012 assessments have additionally been challenged by MGM and Boyd, and while no judgments have been rendered there as yet, this could be the blow that offers Atlantic City a genuine knockout that is technical it goes the way of the previous years’ decisions.

If those decisions do go MGM and Boyd’s means, at what point is Atlantic City likely to be in danger of becoming the next Detroit? MGM and Boyd might need to reassess the possibility that they’ll win the battle(s), but lose the war, in the event that whole burg eventually ends up drowning in its very own offal that is financial.

Atlantic City’s casino revenues dropped almost 13 percent in September, in comparison with the same time duration in 2012; all 12 associated with city’s casinos combined produced fairly meager gambling industry revenue of $240.2 million for the month this 12 months.

Just Half A Year In, Nevada Gaming Commission Considers Online Changes

The Gaming Control Board is reviewing and revising after six months of online poker in Nevada. a bit that is little.

It’s only been half a year since internet poker became legal in Nevada, and the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) is moving slowly in terms of expansion of all kinds beyond the popular card game. That said, the Board is looking at some feasible changes that are regulatory.

‘We’re only six months into poker,’ stated NGCB Chairman A.G. Burnett. ‘For now, we should first prove out poker.’

Slow But Steady Wins the Competition

And also with poker, the Board is maybe not rushing such a thing. With only two legal sites up thus far Station Casinos-owned UltimatePoker.com and Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s WSOP.com brand the Board is not planning to approve any more sites until the existing sites’ technology is reviewed and assessed by independent assessment laboratories, as well as the Control Board’s own lab that is in-house. (Obama, simply take note: this is the way you do it.)

‘Nevada is poker only,’ reiterated Burnett. ‘That was the intent that is legislative the start and the board has no plans to complete anything otherwise.’

Just What the Board is looking at in terms of regulatory tuneups revolve around additional technical needs for online poker, and also some language alterations to match up with statutory changes that went into effect via Assembly Bill 114 during the latest session that is legislative.

Nearly Such A Thing Goes, In Theory

All that is theoretically prohibited in the bill is race and sports book wagering online; but Assembly Majority Leader William Horne, (D-Las Vegas), who sponsored the legislation, says he concurs with Nevada’s regulators about moving slowly and cautiously beyond poker, if at all.

‘we believe our intent from the outcome was to take steps that are conservative’ Horne said of SB 114. ‘Nothing prohibits [the control board] from going beyond poker and we want our boards that are regulatory make that choice. I think we’re taking prudent steps.’

Another important topic the Board is reviewing is the issue of interstate compacts for on the web poker, something that is probably going to be critical for Internet gaming to thrive into the Silver State over the haul that is long. Having a population of pretty much 2,759,000 (compared to soon-to-be-competitor New Jersey’s 9 million), Nevada needs other states in order to enter their online games legally to be able to remain afloat in what’s going to be an increasingly competitive market in the coming years. It’s expected that the Board will be asking Governor Brian Sandoval to push forward with this request, and there isn’t any reason to expect he will not comply.

An additional couple of days, Delaware will join Nevada with online gaming, unfurling poker plus a few casino games first of all when they launch on Halloween. Then on November 26th, New Jersey will bring their Web casinos into the universe that is online a complete selection of classic casino games, including poker, of course.

Ultimately, it could make more sense for more centralized regional servers to address entire sections of the U.S., if state and federal legislation complies. At a present regulatory meeting in Philadelphia, New Jersey State Assemblyman John Amodeo (R) discussed a possible new bill that would allow on line gaming hardware and software to be situated outside of actual Atlantic City land casinos ( since they are now required to be), opening the floodgates up to a more online gaming scenario that is nationwide.

Talking to the Press of Atlantic City, Amodeo suggested that ‘ultimately, we could see Las Vegas handle everything west of the Mississippi, and Atlantic City could handle everything east of the Mississippi.’

Sporting Chance UK CEO Says Footballers Gambling with Payday Loans

The CEO of Sporting Chance, an organization that can help pro athletes with gambling problems, says you would be astonished where they obtain gambling money from.

You’ve probably seen the adverts for payday loans on TV or on a billboard those services that will straight away cash your paycheck as a loan, only asking for an insanely high interest rate in return. You may have also used one in a pinch. But you’ve probably never considered the fact that an athlete that is professional just take advantage of this service to help put a bet or two on the side.

Yet that’s just what some UK footballers are doing to fund their gambling habits, based on Colin Bland, the CEO of Sporting potential a charity that helps athletes deal with addiction. Based on the company, about 70 percent of its recommendations are related to gambling, and soccer that is many result in a recurring pattern where they have to use payday loans to continue betting.

Vicious Circle

‘It’s not unusual to have a player in a period of payday loans and gambling,’ Bland told BBC Radio 5. ‘We are working with a whole lot more football that is current. We have had players who have got caught up in the scenario of taking out loans that are payday spot bets. We have had some of those over the last couple of years, so the circle that is vicious.’

This may appear odd to the typical working Joe, who wonders how a professional athlete could squander vast amounts a year on gambling. But according to Bland, that can really be part of the problem. At least one athlete has told him that the problem had been that there’s always plenty of money entering their pockets, meaning it’s always available and able to wager on a moment’s notice.

‘We’ve caused players who have lost up to £7 million ($11.3 million) in 3 years in gambling,’ Bland stated. ‘ But the specific young man I’m talking about said ‘it’s the number of bets I’m putting. I’m placing 50 bets a day…it’s impacting my life, it is affecting my performance…it’s affecting what sort of father I’m able to be.”

Athletes Are Bettors

And while that might seem like an incident that’s out of the norm, it is no secret that athletes around the world love placing big bets. And some former soccer players in the UK have actually fessed as much as losing plenty of cash during their careers.

For instance, Stoke City winger Matthew Etherington publicly admitted to having a gambling problem earlier in his career. In accordance with him, he lost about £1.5 million ($2.4 million) gambling on poker, horse racing, and dog racing during their career. And even though he relied on loan sharks to fulfill his gambling requirements, that’s only because that’s what had been most offered to him.

‘ I do not think the payday loans were about whenever we had been gambling, otherwise we could possibly be one of [the players that turned to them] myself,’ Etherington has said.

‘It just snowballed to where I was frequently spending my month’s wages and then lending cash down loan sharks,’ he stated about his gambling addiction.

The gambling habits of high-profile soccer players have develop into a hot topic in the UK in recent months. Rangers midfielder Ian Black was suspended for 10 matches previously this year for gambling on at least 160 matches over the last seven years, while Crystal Palace striker Cameron Jerome faced a £50,000 ($80,000) fine for breaking Football Association rules related to wagering.