In a business that not so long ago was forced to communicate with the president through back channels and bag men, the casino industry appeared to have found its consummate kindred spirit with the election of Donald Trump.
Barons of American gaming Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, and Phil Ruffin counted themselves as Trump’s friends and supporters; billionaire investor and Strip speculator Carl Icahn was viewed as a consummate insider. Adelson cut big checks. Wynn emerged as a confidant. Ruffin verily beamed over his partnership with the real estate mogul and former Atlantic City hotel-casino owner. And Icahn, who has made a career out of getting through and around federal regulation, stood at the ready to help the new president slash all those pesky rules.
Unlike the casino kings of a previous generation, these moguls didn’t need Bebe Rebozo to deliver a bundle of greenbacks and a message. They reported their contributions and helped finance the inaugural celebration. When they entered the White House, it was through the front door.
Adelson and his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, sat as close as Trump’s own family during the swearing in ceremony. That nearness to the seat of power surely wasn’t missed by casino industry observers.
That unprecedented proximity to the president is part of what made many observers confident that the gaming industry’s agenda would be taken very seriously in Congress. After all, the Commander in Chief was one of them. A proposed rewrite of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which would open the door to widespread legalized sports betting outside Nevada and is a high priority of the American Gaming Association, became a real fast-track possibility when Trump pulled the upset of the century in November. Tightened budgets and loosened regulations at the Internal Revenue Service and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network might relieve all manner of reporting requirement headaches that some industry executives believe does nothing but hamstring business.
Having a pal in the White House, one who certainly knew the ups and downs of running a casino after driving his own Boardwalk gambling palaces into multiple bankruptcies, must have seemed like the best possible news for the current corporate gaming kings.
Ah, but standing so close to the mercurial man in the White House works both ways. And these days, the tweeter-in-chief is plummeting in the public opinion polls. Trump’s inability to tone down the hydrogen-fueled hyperbole and unabashed suspender-snapping — especially when the facts so often haven’t supported him — makes those who expressed confidence in his ability look like court jesters.
The firing of FBI Director James Comey as he was heading a federal investigation of the alleged connections between the Trump campaign and the meddling Russian government is only the latest misstep by the freshman president. The foundering has resulted in the souring of Trump’s credibility with American voters. A May Quinnipiac Poll shows a strong majority of those surveyed, 60 percent to 33 percent, believe Trump is dishonest. That’s a 14-point drop since January, according to USA Today.
And that was before the ham-handed Comey termination.
What must really gall those who invested so much faith, finance resources and personal credibility into his candidacy is the fact that so many of Trump’s troubles are self-inflicted wounds. The largest audience to witness an inauguration? Three million illegal ballots were cast, or he would have won the popular vote? President Obama tapped his “wires” at Trump Tower?
When USA Today offers a front-page headline reading, “Trump’s ‘credibility gap’ is the biggest since Nixon,” the president is experiencing the kind of problems a golf weekend at Mar-a-Lago won’t cure.
As Trump’s precious popularity and credibility slip into deeper and murkier water, the casino industry’s titans who were so ecstatic to support him may soon discover that this presidential friendship is bad for their reputations.
John L. Smith is a longtime Las Vegas journalist and author. Contact him at jlnevadasmith@gmail.com. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.
