NEWS & NOTES

England’s Premier League will continue to make matches available for fans to watch live on television in the U.K. with in-person attendance still banned due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All matches from January 30 through February were broadcast live, and the league has confirmed that all matches will be available live until fans are permitted to return to the stadiums. • Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino is challenging its property tax assessment for 2020, which remained unchanged despite the months-long pandemic shutdown. Holdings Acquisition Co. LP, the casino’s owner, is appealing to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court after the county’s board of property assessment appeals and review refused to change the venue’s 2020 assessment of $245.9 million. The assessment is the highest in the county. The county could see a wave of assessment appeals this year from hotels, restaurants, retailers and commercial and office property owners looking for reductions after pandemic-related losses. • Pansy Ho Chiu King, a co-chairperson and executive director of Macau casino operator MGM China Holdings Ltd, has sold an aggregate of 1 million shares of MGM China’s parent, MGM Resorts International, for US$35.6 million. The transaction was at an average price of US$35.6006 per share, according to information filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. ● Genting Singapore will delay the expansion of Resorts World Sentosa in the city-state until 2022 as a result of Covid-19. The expansion will increase the property’s gross floor area by 50 percent, add two new themed areas and 1,100 hotel rooms, and also increase MICE facilities as the property becomes a “waterfront lifestyle complex.” ● Macau will be connected to Beijing via a maglev high-speed train link, according to the 2020-35 National Territorial Spatial Plan for Guangdong Province. Maglev technology uses strong electromagnets which lift and propel the train forward on a cushion of air, with no friction between wheels and rails. Maglev trains are able to hit greater speeds than conventional locomotives, and with less noise and vibration. ● M Resort in Las Vegas, home of the city’s new football team, the Raiders, is launching the Raiders Tavern & Grill, with more than 3,400 square feet of dining space, two bars, Raiders memorabilia, merchandise and 45 high-definition TVs. The Raiders had the misfortune to kick off in the 2020-2021 NFL season, their first in Las Vegas, in the brand-new $2 billion Allegiant Stadium. But they played all year without fans due to Covid-19. ● Atlantic City is looking into a $15 per hour minimum wage for city workers after the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority increased its minimum wage to that amount for its workers at the Special Improvement District. The increase would cost the city about $451,000 per year and affect 139 workers. ● A new ferry service linking Taipa, Macau and Zhuhai’s Jiuzhou Port is set to start operating on March 1, according to the Marine and Water Bureau. The Port of Zhuhai is the main ferry port of the Chinese city and China’s largest waterway passenger port, receiving more than 5 million passengers annually. ● The Hard Rock Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma and nine other casinos in Green County, which shut down recently to help conserve energy in the bitter cold, all have reopened. CEO Chuck Garett said the casinos were using a significant amount of energy and it didn’t seem right to stay open when homes were without power. ● The $439 million Macau Light Rapid Transit line between Macau and Hengqin Island will be built by Chinese state-owned company Nam Kwong and is estimated to be operational in 2025. The passage will include a 2,950-foot tunnel, a viaduct, an underwater tunnel and two stations, one at the Lotus Flower Bridge in Cotai and one at the new Hengqin border in Zhuhai. ● The risqué comedy show Absinthe will be back onstage at Caesars Palace on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, almost a year to the day, when entertainment shut down on the Las Vegas Strip, and a little more than a year since Absinthe played to a full-capacity crowd. The show will mark its 10th anniversary on April 1. ● The Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, originally named Union Plaza, will celebrate its 50th anniversary year with special hotel packages cash giveaways. When it opened on July 2, 1971, the Plaza was the largest building in Downtown Las Vegas, featuring 22-stories, 504 rooms and a 66,000-square-foot casino. ● A proposed urban food truck lot in Downtown Las Vegas’ Arts District is creating a divide between developers and local businesses. Petitions are circulating online both supporting and opposing the plan. One commenter wrote, “Since the pandemic, the food and beverage industry has been sliced in half. Considerable concessions should be given to get business back open.” A critic wrote, “This is an affront to brick-and-mortar businesses that have done the work and made the investment in the Arts District.” ● Pop superstar and Las Vegas resident Celine Dion says her “Courage” world tour is being moved back to 2022, with a return to her hometown residency late next year or in early 2023 at the Theatre at Resorts World. ● Cherokee Tribal Bingo in Cherokee, North Carolina, has been closed for almost a year now due to Covid-19, and officials say it will remain closed through at least the end of June. “We are tentatively scheduled to open no sooner than July 1, 2021, but those plans are subject to change as we continue to monitor the current health risks and operational concerns,” said General Manager Rhoda Bigmeat. In 2017, the operation contributed more than $25,000 to the tribal enterprise; last year, the total was less than $4,400. ● The Greyhound bus station at the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Downtown Las Vegas closed its doors last week after nearly 50 years. Plaza CEO Johnathan Jossel said in a post on Twitter that the station’s closure was an “end of an era.” The 48,500-square-foot space will be redeveloped into new restaurants, retail options and an entertainment venue; a bridge will be built over the train tracks, allowing pedestrians to travel between the hotel and casino to Symphony Park. ● A Southern California “experiential retailer” will open two stores in Resorts World Las Vegas’ 70,000-square-foot retail district. Fred Segal, which has stores on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, in Malibu and at Los Angeles International Airport, will open its doors when the 3,500-room megaresort debuts in the summer. ● FanDuel Group and the Washington Redskins Football Team have announced they will contribute $1 million to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF.) This will be in the form of the FanDuel/Washington Football Team Emergency Student Aid Fund aimed at students enrolled in Virginia’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). It will assist students seeking emergency assistance for technology, house, food, tuition etc.