Richard N. Velotta’s Inside Gaming column appears Sunday and Wednesday in Business.
rvelotta@reviewjournal.com … @RickVelotta on Twitter. 702-477-3893
If California’s Internet poker debate was an actual card game, PokerStars just doubled up. But the European online gaming giant is still short-stacked against two of the state’s largest tribal casino operators in the company’s effort to gain a piece of California’s potentially lucrative — albeit nascent — Internet poker market.
A year ago, Las Vegas Sands Corp. was looking to sell its Pennsylvania hotel-casino complex, housed on the historic site of the long-closed Bethlehem Steel Mill. Now, the company is prepared to invest $800 million into the development.
California is known for having high-priced beachfront real estate. But even $4.9 billion might not be enough of a payment to let a Canadian gaming company settle into the neighborhood.
Just as the recession began to grip Las Vegas in 2008, gaming executive Terry Lanni made a prediction.
Payoffs to government officials typically don’t show up on the balance sheets of U.S. gaming companies.
