MAVS NEWS:

[F Gump]

I see the gambling angle, but I've never bought it as a "given" to rationalize the motives of the Adelsons moving operations here. Never once has it been mentioned by either them or Cuban - they've always been careful to couch things in terms of "real estate," and while I think them being behind a push to legalize gambling here and find themselves on the ground floor of a gold rush could explain things, I have tried to keep an open mind about other possible motivations, because from my seat, that would've been a huge risk for them. 

I don't want to get political, but for quite a few reasons I kind of feel that Texas will be the very last state in this country to legalize gambling, and again, without going too in depth and taking this forum off topic, I think that's probably for the best. This take has ZERO to do with morality and everything to do with some of my business interests, and I can tell you that when states legalize gambling they frequently shoot themselves in the foot doing so. Almost every economic problem Louisiana has, for example, is due to legalized gambling, but the biggest area of negative impact has been their education system, which is abysmal, and with those two guys out there in Texas on their own personal jihad to privatize education in Texas, let's just say that agenda doesn't mix with the one we're assuming the Adelsons are pushing. Tl;dr: I think it's going to be a WHILE before we see legal gambling in Texas, so I have a difficult time believing a family as rich and plugged in as the Adelsons actually thought it would be so easy. If that was really the play, I think it might have been doomed all along. For that reason, I kind of always bought the idea that they really were just interested in developing an area of Dallas built around the Mavs, as people have promised/tried before and failed to do.

1 I agree with your broad take about gambling in Texas in general. 

2 But respectfully, I think you whiffed completely on the Adelson/Dumont thinking. I believe they saw the Mavs as a way to get the camel's nose under the edge of the tent re casinos, so to speak, and that the potential real estate development tie with the Mavs would be the angle they need. It's not ONLY about a casino in Dallas, but also about a MASSIVE real estate grab of high end land via eminent domain to create a massive entertainment district that they would own and control. But it's not just one or the other, but BOTH.

The planned Town Lake (or whatever the name will be) has imo been a major part of the picture, a glittering jewel to drive tourism and bring people vacationing with lots of cash to spend, with a casino (or three) to offer the bells and whistles to motivate people to leave all their cash there. Hotels. Restaurants. Think of the Riverwalk but with a different configuration. Without the casinos and without the Mavs, it's been "in the works" for about 50 years. It is NEVER mentioned, but imo is at the core of everything the Adelsons want. One day (although it may be another 50 years, who can say) it will happen, bam it will start moving, and then it will be a massive hot spot. 

With the Mavs and an arena, you get eminent domain - like Jerry World, you pick the footprint and then the city/county confiscates the land from the owner who wouldn't otherwise sell it. It has to be bought, of course, but no one can really hold out. AAC is right on the edge of that footprint already, so you have a reasonable ask to shoot for THAT land closer to the water (and everything around it). FWIW it looks to me like Cuban already saw that potential, has moved his things bit by bit in that direction, and perhaps saw a casino group as the way to make those dominoes fall, so to speak.

Adelsons imo have banked on the synergy of "Mavs arena" and "casinos you don't have yet and would really want" as their way to get it done. But they MAY have bit off more than they can chew. 

If you have been keeping up, there's a current push to move the new arena site to the current city hall which is AWAY FROM the water and thus no way to grab that land. Is that what Adelson expected, wanted, and would want to pursue? It might not even be close. Combine that with the state's refusal to budge on casinos and they may have decided they are spending their efforts in the wrong place. Just a thought.