This week’s casino news kicks off with the latest on the Steve Wynn saga. It doesn’t seem to be coming to a conclusion any time soon.
Wynn May Be Forced To Sell Company Shares
The Steve Wynn situation seems to get worse by the day. The latest for the former Wynn Resorts CEO is that he may be forced to sell shares of his own company. As you may recall, he was forced to step away from the company due to a slew of sexual misconduct allegations. He has been embroiled in a battle with his ex-wife, Elaine, over a shareholding agreement and that has been finalized with both parties basically going their separate ways. The fight started in 2010 but moved to another level in 2015 when Elaine was removed from the board of directors because she moved $10 million in shares to a charity under her name without Wynn’s permission. Then, Elaine countered that Wynn violated the agreement they had by getting rid of her on the board. Now, the industry is waiting to see whether Wynn will sell his shares. The pressure has ramped up as some in the company want him to step away completely given that his association with the company is hurting the brand.
Wynn owns 12 percent of his company but he can’t sell more than one-third of those shares thanks to an agreement he made when he left Wynn Resorts. At least three women have accused Wynn of some sort of sexual harassment. The company doesn’t want to be dragged through the mud along with him but given that it still carries his name, that may be hard to avoid.
New Jersey Posts Strong Numbers In February
The online gambling results are in for February in the state of New Jersey and the numbers look good. The state raked in $22 million for the month of February, which is an increase of 17.5 percent from $18.7 million that was reported in February 2017. Over January and February of 2017, New Jersey brought in $37.5 million, but so far over the first two months of 2018, New Jersey is reporting $44 million in revenue from its online casinos. That’s a healthy year-over-year growth.
Delaware Casino Tax Relief Bill Put On Hold
The state of Delaware had been examining a form of tax relief for its statewide casinos, but that has been put on hold for now until it can determine exactly how much will be lost in tax dollars.
Delaware’s Senate Bill 144 had proposed to get rid of a yearly licensing fee for table games and lower the tax rate for those games to 15 percent. There were other stipulations that would allow casinos to be open for Christmas and Easter, so that they could earn a little bit more on holidays if they wanted to operate.
However, that bill has been shelved for now as the finance committee for the state wants to see how much Delaware stands to lose from this bill. On one hand, it is trying to help its casinos with some relief, which can then be used for reinvestment in some way to improve the properties, offer more to customers or be more competitive in the neighborhood. There is a lot of competition with Maryland’s and New Jersey’s casinos nearby. For now, that relief is on hold until the state finishes crunching the numbers.