NEWS & NOTES

Wynn Las Vegas has announced plans to permanently close the stage show Le Reve, putting about 275 performers, musicians, technicians and ushers out of work. The culprit, as usual, is “the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent physical distancing requirements for which an end date cannot be predicted, but are necessary to keep our guests safe,” the company said in a statement. ● The food service provider at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas will lay off 940 employees. HMSHost sent a letter to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation detailing the layoffs, most of which will affect fast food clerks, restaurant hosts, baristas, bartenders and servers. ● Construction has resumed at the site of the MSG Sphere on the Las Vegas Strip. MSG Entertainment officials say the facility, originally set to open in 2021, will finish sometime in 2023. The construction site, adjacent to the Venetian, sits on 18 acres along Sands Avenue. ● Seneca Gaming Corp. of New York has eliminated 150 positions due to a slowdown in business caused by Covid-19. “The challenges presented by the pandemic, notably the closure of our three Seneca Resorts & Casinos properties for 90 days, have been dramatic,” the company stated. Seneca Gaming operates casinos in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca. The company is working to place affected employees in other open positions. ● SciPlay has announced an $82,000 donation to Direct Relief, a global humanitarian aid organization, after raising the funds through in-app events. “Our games serve as a creative reprieve to millions of users around the world,” said SciPlay CEO Josh Wilson. “I can’t think of a better way for our gaming family to give back to the world’s essential workers.” ● Sky Sports Racing has extended its partnership with Ascot Racecourse until 2024. The deal allows Sky Sports to broadcast live coverage of Ascot’s 25 annual events. This strengthens Sky Sports Racing’s global rights portfolio, which includes events such as the US Breeders’ Cup and Kentucky Derby, France’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and Australia’s Melbourne Cup Carnival. ● Reno City Council on August 12 approved a new casino and commercial development near the Boomtown Hotel-Casino. Verdi Crossing will have a 7,500-square-foot casino on the site of a former helicopter landing pad for Boomtown. There will be no more than 165 slot machines, five table games and a keno game. ● Sycuan Casino and Resort in San Diego will no longer allow guests to enter wearing bandannas, gaiters and face coverings with valves. The tribe says such face coverings allow unfiltered, exhaled air to escape more easily than other types of coverings, increasing the risk of transmitting Covid-19. Guests who arrive wearing unacceptable face coverings will not be turned away, but will be provided a face mask. ● The Golden Moon Casino in Choctaw, Mississippi has reopened after a five-month closure. Guests must submit to “a massive fever screening system” to enter the casino, according to local media. Masks are required, and hand sanitizing stations will be positioned throughout the property. ● Churchill Downs will allow 23,000 fans at the 2020 Kentucky Derby on September 5. The plan includes no general admission, and the infield will be closed. Reserved seating will be limited to a maximum of 40 percent occupancy, and standing-room-only tickets have been eliminated. A crowd of 23,000 would be about 13.5 percent of the record 170,513 that attended the Kentucky Derby in 2015. ● Atlantic City’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has approved the preliminary site plan for a $100 million indoor water park. Developer Bart Blatstein wants to build the venue next to his Showboat Hotel on the city’s famous Boardwalk. ● A new casino dealer school opened Monday in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The school is sponsored by Live! Casino, a unit of Baltimore-based Cordish Co., which is building several full-scale and satellite casinos in the state. Upon completion, graduates can work at any casino in Pennsylvania. ● The complimentary Caesars Rewards Shuttle now includes Tropicana Atlantic City on its route. The circuit begins at Caesars Atlantic City, goes on to Bally’s, heads over to Harrah’s Resort’s and now ends at the Tropicana. ● The process of demolishing the former Trump Plaza casino from the Atlantic City skyline will begin this month. Work crews will first gut the interior and taking down portions of the building in preparation for an implosion next year. The 10.5-acre property is owned by billionaire Carl Icahn. ● Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City has announced a live outdoor concert series that will begin at the end of August and run until October. “Bayside Rock Live” will take place every Friday until October 23 at the Waterfront Conference Center’s outdoor parking lot. ● Boomtown Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi closed briefly after a small fire on August 17. The casino, owned and operated by Penn National Gaming, was shut down for 24 hours; no structural damage or injuries were reported, and fewer than 100 people were evacuated from the property. ● The launch of Shambhala, the second casino in the Primorye Gambling Zone near Vladivostok, Russia, will create 500 new jobs before the end of 2020, according to officials. The second major casino to open in the region following the launch of Tigre de Cristal in 2015, Shambhala will open in two phases: the casino first, followed by an entertainment sector and hotel complex that will take around three years to complete. NagaCorp and Diamond Fortune are developing casinos in the zone. ● Pennsylvania’s Greenwood Gaming, owner of the Parx casino and racetrack in Bensalem, has lost its bid to recoup $1.1 million in overpaid state taxes. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week upheld a lower-court ruling denying the operator’ bid to credit the overpaid slot revenue tax, for revenue between 2009 and 2011, against future state taxes. The court decisions concluded that Greenwood had filed its request six months too late. • Las Vegas-based Scientific Games’ four year contract with the Minnesota Lottery has been extended two years. One of the most popular Minnesota Scratchers are the SLINGO games designed and produced by Scientific Games. Wes Harms, director of operations for the Minnesota Lottery, commented, “Branded games like SLINGO have been popular with our players, which helps generate funding to support Minnesota’s environment and state services.” • The Del Norte County, California Board of Supervisors has endorsed the ratification of a tribal state gaming compact with the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation. The compact change would allow the tribe to offer off-track betting at its Class III Lucky 7 Casino. The next stop for the compact is the legislature. • Las Vegas-based Aristocrat Technologies is introducing its MarsX cabinet to Montevideo, Uruguay’s Codere and Dirección General de Casinos. Players will be able to discover titles like Phoenix Storm, Lion Charge, Ji Cai and Guo Nian. MarsX was named “Top Performing New Cabinet” in the 2019 EKG Awards. • BMM Testlabs is partnering with National Tribal Gaming Commissioners & Regulators association to offer a virtual Regulator Certification Academy in August 2020. The original academy’s in-person training was cancelled due to the coronavirus. The academy is designed for and provided by tribal gaming regulators.