Bobby Soper, the former CEO of Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, was fined $60,000 by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for failing to fully disclose business interests related to Pennsylvania’s Mohegan Sun Pocono. Soper was CEO of the casino from 2005 to 2012. “The fine against Mr. Soper stemmed from his failure to properly disclose on his key employee and principal license renewal forms his ownership interests in 10 companies including two, Drinkholder and ReferLocal, which did business directly with Mohegan Sun Pocono,” the PGCB wrote in its enforcement notice. • MGM National Harbor continues to dominate the revenue landscape for Maryland casinos. The property, which opened last December, logged $52 million in gaming revenue in October, just shy of the monthly record it set in September. The closest casino was Maryland Live, which earned $45.8 million in October, down nearly 14 percent year-on-year. Overall, October revenue for Maryland’s six casinos was $133.2 million—up nearly 40 percent, thanks mainly to the MGM property. • A team of five architectural firms led by TVS Design has been selected to design the $1.4 billion expansion and renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The group beat out two other design teams in competition before a panel of LVCVA staff members and local experts and business leaders. The panel’s recommendation must be approved by the full LVCVA board of directors, which is scheduled to vote on the contract this Tuesday. • Station Casinos is mapping a $485 million overhaul of the off-Strip Palms that includes the addition of 60 hotel rooms, a 29,000-square-foot nightclub, a day club and restaurants under the auspices of celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, Michael Symon and Marc Vetri. The project is expected to be completed in early 2019. • Belgium is considering measures to more tightly regulate its online gambling industry. They include raising the legal gambling age from 18 to 21 and prohibiting television advertising before 8 p.m. and during live sporting events. • The Las Vegas Monorail Company plans to request permission from the Clark County Commission to extend the line one mile to connect with the Luxor and Mandalay Bay resorts at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. The work is pegged at $100 million to complete and has to be financed. It also will involve some construction at McCarran International Airport and reportedly will require approvals from two companies operating at the airport and the Federal Aviation Administration. • Victoria Gate Casino in the English city of Leeds has expanded its poker room by 20 tables and added a VIP gaming area called the Ruby Lounge. Owned by Global Gaming Ventures, the 50,000-square-foot Victoria Gate opened in January at a cost of £30 million. It features 140 machine games, 24 live table games, 75 e-tables, bars and a gourmet restaurant. • New York’s Saratoga Casino Hotel has received a 4-Diamond Hotel rating from AAA for overall hotel quality, range of facilities and level of services. • Apex Gaming has installed its Dragon Egg Island Jackpot in two Cyprus casinos, the Savoy Ottoman Palace and the Casino in Kyrenia. Dragon Egg Island Jackpot has two banks of four Apex slot machines: Pinnacle Premium slots. Each has 27 inch screens. The unit has a total of 16 different jackpot levels going at once. Savoy General Manager Semih Zafer Güven commented: “This Dragon Egg island is something we have envisaged as an all-in-one jackpot solution. We see ourselves at the forefront of gaming in Northern Cyprus and require the best for our customers.” • Hard Rock Casino is in the process of moving its expansion of the Rideau Carleton Raceway and Casino through the city’s approval process. The expansion includes going from 21 to 35 gaming tables. • California’s Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians has entered into an agreement to amend its previous Memorandum of Understanding with the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and the Redwood Valley-Calpella Fire District to mitigate off reservation impacts of the tribe’s plans to move and expand its current casino into a Class III casino that will only slightly expand the footprint. The MOU included monthly payments of $5,000 to the fire district and annual payments of $55,000 to the county for fire and police on the reservation. The former casino project was never completed when it was headed off by the Great Recession. The tribe is looking at a summer 2018 opening. • The Macau Civil Aviation Authority is waiting for approval from the Chinese central government for a proposed expansion master plan of the Macau International Airport. Macau wants to expand airport capacity in three stages, with the goal of accommodating up to 15 million passengers by 2040. ? Air traffic at Macau International continued to grow in October, with a passenger volume of 610,000 for the month, up 20 percent year-on- year. From January to October, 5.86 million passengers travelled through MIA, an increase of 6.5 percent over 2016. ?The Macau government has granted 487 million patacas (US$60.6 million) to small- and medium-sized enterprises affected by Typhoon Hato.Each affected SME could receive up to 50,000 patacas (US$6,200) patacas to compensate for damage from the August 23 storm, which killed 10 people, injured 244 and caused massive damage.
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