STATESIDE
Incidentally, I’m unaware of anyone in Congress donating part of their salary, despite many multimillionaires among them.
AGA now has four focus issues: • Securing additional COVID-19 economic relief through temporary liability protections, travel and tourism investments, supportive tax policy and additional tribal relief.
• Developing gaming champions in Congress and the Biden administration.
• Blocking harmful policies, including new taxes, and advancing specific reforms that enhance industry competitiveness. Payment modernization and digital payments decrease money laundering opportunities. It also combats problem gambling when players set budget limits. Finally, raising the $1200 slot tax threshold, unchanged since the late 1970s, to a realistic 2021 rate is a must.
• Using proprietary research and strategic communication efforts to ensure that gaming’s interests are heard.
The AGA’s resource materials are available on its informative website that offers solid news, research and advocacy information.
www.americangaming.org. Finally, some thoughts on Sheldon Adelson’s recent
passing. Depending on one’s politics, he was a king maker or a pariah. He made a $35 billion fortune in the casino industry and lavished donations on global Jewish causes and medical research. He and his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, contributed $500 million over eight years to conservative Republican campaigns.
Objective people can appreciate Adelson’s exceptional vision of creating a new concept to benefit Las Vegas. After co-founding the successful COMDEX IT show in 1979, he sold it for $862 million in 1995. That funded the Las Vegas Sands (LVS) projects. Gaming
never appealed to him, but real estate did. Adelson imploded the iconic Sands Hotel in 1996 and began constructing the million-square-foot Sands Expo Center. Next came the Venetian and the rest is history. Adelson recognized that staying competitive with emerging
markets required Las Vegas to promote weekday conventions. It worked and he took the same plan to Macau and Singapore. I once heard Adelson describe his poor Boston childhood where his father drove a taxi and gambled too much. That memory formed his opposition to online gaming. He believed problem gamblers could always sidestep any controls. His successor, Robert Goldstein, reflects a younger
generation who will do what most new leaders do. They forge their own paths and that will almost certainly include online and sports betting in the LVS future. I’ve never met Goldstein, but first interviewed him in 2005.
As contemporaries, we grew up in the same Philadelphia area. He later made his way to Atlantic City and joined a team of talented people. They left for Vegas in the mid 1990s and never looked back. As President of the Venetian, he struck me as a pragmatic
guy and his obvious talent has paid off. Goldstein has just been named CEO of LVS. Good luck to him. Not bad for a kid from my old neighborhood.
FEBRUARY 2020 11
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