NEWS & NOTES

The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) announced last week that it has lowered the preliminary annual fee rate for Indian casinos to its lowest rate in five years. The rate effective March 1 is 0.00 percent for tier 1 operations; 0.062 percent for tier 2 operations; 0.031 percent of Class II revenues for self-regulating tribes under 25 CFR part 518. “The tier 2 preliminary annual fee rate represents the lowest fee rate adopted by the Commission in the last five years. We are able to reduce the rate and work efficiently to expand our commitment to compliance with the mandates of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and the NIGC’s regulations,” said Chairman Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri.  •  The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas said it will open a 15,000-square-foot, Class II casino with 365 slots and a restaurant on tribal land in April.  •  Maryland lawmakers are working on a measure that would make it legal to hold weekly poker games in residential homes, instead of incurring criminal penalties of up to two years in jail and a $1,000 fine.  •  The Par-A-Dice Riverboat Casino in Peoria, Illinois, is reduced its Sunday to Thursday hours by closing at 4 a.m. and reopening at 8 a.m. but will remain open until 6 a.m. on weekends.  •  The Westgate Las Vegas announced it closed the Graceland Presents: Elvis the Exhibition show after the tenant in charge did not pay for site improvements.  •  The University of Nevada-Las Vegas will break up its William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration into three separate departments, with a new vice dean to be appointed to help improve the program.  •  The Island Resort and Casino in Harris, Michigan, announced an $8 million expansion will add the Drift Spa to its amenities, with a spring opening planned.  •  Fantasy Springs Casino Resort in California’s Coachella Valley will be adding a new sign along Interstate 10 that will be visible for miles and will be one of the largest and tallest signs in the valley. The LED screen sign, built by Yesco LLC, will be 88 feet tall and over 33 feet wide. The screen will face eastbound and westbound traffic and will be capable of playing video at 60 frames per second. A special event celebrating the sign’s unveiling is scheduled for March 16.  •  The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in February adopted a resolution recognizing March as National Problem Gambling Awareness Month. The board directed its staff to maintain a public booth at the state capitol for three days during March. The board’s Executive Director Kevin O’Toole said the board’s responsibility extends beyond just overseeing casinos, to helping those who develop gambling problems because of those casinos. He noted that casinos are near the state’s largest population areas, and that’s why a percentage of casino revenues are set aside for treating that problem. That helps fund the Bureau of Compulsive and Problem Gambling.  •  Forbes Travel Guide has named Arizona’s Casino Del Sol Resort and its PY Steakhouse as a Four-Star hotel and Four-Star restaurant. The resort is the only hotel in the state to earn the designation, and this is the fourth year it has gotten the award. According to Forbes Travel Guide CEO Gerard J. Inzerillo, “Our Star Ratings recognize the finest hotels, restaurants and spas in the world. These ratings serve as the most authoritative guideposts for guests seeking exceptional travel experiences.”  •  The Maine Secretary of State’s office announced last week that supporters of a proposal to create a third casino, this one in the southern part of the state, didn’t gather enough signatures. More than 91,000 signatures were delivered, but only 35,518 were valid.  •  Calling it “not the right fit,” leaders of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes in Connecticut have dropped East Windsor as a possible site for their third, satellite casino to be sited near the state’s boundary with Massachusetts. Leaders of the two tribes said they would now go into the next phase of talks with the towns of East Hartford, Hartford and Windsor Locks. The purpose of the third casino is to keep the MGM Springfield 11 miles away from draining away hundreds of millions of dollars from the two tribal casinos.  •  The US$2.7 billion Parisian Macao on the Cotai Strip will not open until November, but its half-size replica of the Eiffel Tower might open before September, says Sands China President and COO Wilfred Wong Ying Wai. The Parisian Macao will have 3,000 rooms, a casino, meeting space, retail, a theater and a themed water park. The property’s Eiffel Tower features a restaurant and observation decks.  ?  Gaming operators in Macau have cancelled 11 shuttle bus routes between and “optimized” 10 others. Lam Hin San, director of the Transport Bureau, said the routes between the Cotai and Taipa districts have been rearranged according to peak, non-peak hours, weekdays and weekends. Many operators have merged routes for Macau Taipa Temporary Ferry Terminal and the adjacent Macau International Airport.  ?  The first of the Macau-funded projects in the Guangdong-Macau Cooperation Industrial Park on Hengqin Island should be completed in the second quarter of 2018. Secretary of the Economy and Finance Lionel Leong Vai Tac said Macau enterprises were investing RMB9.65 billion (about US$1.6 billion) in 12 projects in the tourism and leisure, cultural and creative, information technology, logistics and other trade services industries.