Tree Of Riches

What is Tree Of Riches?

In the late 2000s, we wrote a humor column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Titled “Fear and Loafing,” it involved sampling odd jobs around town. One we wanted to try out was working as a personal assistant to a Vegas celebrity.

Every resident headliner up and down the Strip either declined or ignored our request. Most likely, the downside of having a working reporter snoop around their private life outweighed any potential upside.

Carrot Top, uniquely, was game.

How to play Tree Of Riches

On 4 September, Chief Justice John Roberts denied Station’s emergency request for a stay of a federal appeals court decision that ordered the company’s Red Rock Casino Resort Spa in Summerlin to comply with a National Labor Relations Board mandate and bargain in good faith with the union following a failed labour vote in late 2019. Roberts gave no explanation for the denial.

The NLRB ruled after the election that Red Rock took steps to prevent a fair union vote, and Red Rock sued in response, although the ruling was upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last month. After the court denied a rehearing request on 6 August, it also subsequently denied Station’s request for a stay pending SCOTUS relief on 24 August.

Red Rock may still petition SCOTUS to hear the case, and the court could still choose to do so, but in the meantime the casino must comply with the NLRB ruling. The ruling requires the casino to recognise and bargain with the union upon request, post employee rights notices and other measures.

What is Tree Of Riches?

The rejection of the Clarity Act can be viewed as a victory for gaming stakeholders in their fight against prediction markets, which are closely intertwined with the crypto world. Crypto markets have long been the second-largest category of prediction market trading, behind sports, and many crypto exchanges also now offer predictions. These include Crypto.com, Coinbase, Gemini and many others.

On 16 June, a coalition of gaming lobby groups, state associations and labour unions sent a letter to the Senate urging lawmakers to include language in the bill banning sports and casino-related contracts. Among the signatories were the American Gaming Association, the Indian Gaming Association, the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers and the UNITE HERE unions.

“Litigation may eventually clarify the law, but this is ultimately a question of congressional intent. Congress should not wait while this nationwide expansion of gambling continues,” the letter said. “It should use crypto legislation to reaffirm a simple principle: sports betting falls outside the CFTC’s remit and cannot be offered through prediction market platforms.”