In the 21st century, poker has become big business.  It is played online, in casinos and in free standing poker rooms.  Poker has been played in this country for a very long time. Poker has had a checkered past; it… [continue reading]

Impact is one of my favorite typefaces – because it delivers on its promise – it has an instant impact on the reader.  But Impact is fast becoming much more than a typeface for me.  Impact is becoming the dominant… [continue reading]

New casino development in Las Vegas is on lockdown. Gaming expansion into states beyond recently approved markets is virtually nonexistent. Those are two reasons regional casino giant and M Resort owner Penn National Gaming struck a deal with a San… [continue reading]

In recent months CDC Gaming Reports has run several news stories and one commentary expressing the fear that a casino expansion could hurt a region’s performing arts. Since I have a personal and professional interest in both gaming and the… [continue reading]

It’s game on, Japan. Word leaked out this past week that two Nevada casino companies have made inroads with Japanese officials to build a nearly $5 billion hotel-casino in Osaka. Now other gaming operators have their corporate jets pointed toward… [continue reading]

There are undoubtedly cities in New York that can benefit from a casino.  Saratoga Springs, however, is not one of them. In 2013, the State of New York decided that a quick way to fill its fiscal coffers was to… [continue reading]

It is budget time in New York and gaming is in the budget.  Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal anticipates casinos opening by January of 2015.  There is no time to waste, the state needs the tax money those casinos will… [continue reading]

I am 59 years old today – and could not be more thrilled. And in six months I expect to be telling folks that I am “going on 60” because I like the sound of that. I have never been… [continue reading]

There is a reason officials from CG Technology (formerly Cantor Gaming) said they were “glad to have reached a resolution” with Nevada gaming regulators and will pay the largest fine ever leveled against a casino or affiliated company. The Las… [continue reading]

It is being reported that HBO has decided to stop producing Boardwalk Empire after its fifth season.  The HBO series was based the book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson.  It is… [continue reading]

The collegiality developed within the gaming industry as casino companies weathered the economic downturn has evaporated. Opposing opinions are healthy to any debate, especially when the topics include casino expansion into new markets and the potential state-by-state rollout of Internet… [continue reading]

How cold was it? It was cold enough for two casinos to close; that is the good news.  The bad news is worse; casino revenues in December dropped faster than the temperatures in January.  As everyone in the world knows,… [continue reading]

In a recent research note, J.P. Morgan gaming analyst Joe Greff said MGM Resorts International offers “fresh ideas” for stock investors exploring their options in the new year. And that was before the casino company cleared several giant hurdles in… [continue reading]

Sheldon Adelson is not the most popular person in the industry.  He is said to be a very harsh manager, a very demanding negotiator and very critical of his competitors – but with his very high profile he is difficult… [continue reading]

Both personally and professionally, I am happy to look back on 2013 as a very good year, and look forward to a better one in 2014. This year CDC Gaming Reports increased our website traffic by 325%, continued our collaboration… [continue reading]

Last week, in a widely anticipated decision, Maryland authorities awarded MGM Resorts the state’s sixth and final casino license. MGM will use that to build a massive Vegas-style facility at National Harbor, just south of Washington, DC. While the decision… [continue reading]

In the last twenty-five years, many states have discovered that when properly managed legalized gambling can be a golden egg laying goose.  The states have had many options from which to choose: lotteries, casinos, slot machines, poker, sports betting, bingo,… [continue reading]

Rather than having only International Game Technology executives tout the company’s products to the investment community, the company put its customers on the hot seat. The move could have backfired. But it didn’t. Several analysts attending IGT’s annual Investor Day… [continue reading]

If you haven’t heard some version of this as a joke, you probably will:  “How sad, I will not get a billion dollars for Christmas this year or even half a billion.  I had my hopes; I owned 50 percent… [continue reading]

One of the ways we measure the health of the casino industry and track its trends is with the monthly casino/gaming revenue; each state with casinos releases the monthly revenue numbers separately and in different formats.  The state reports paint… [continue reading]

I ‘ve always received straight A’s in history, but for some reason could barely pass Geography – it has never been my topic. In last Thursday’s Flash when writing about their $28 Million expansion I accidentally moved the Oneida Casino… [continue reading]

Anyone trying decipher subliminal messages from the early November policy address by Macau’s top government official would have an easier time determining whether the Beatles were secretly telling us Paul was dead through the “Abbey Road” album cover. Both ideas… [continue reading]

In September 2013, the City Council of Venice agreed to privatize the operation of the city’s two gaming sites. The company which will run the world’s oldest casino is to selected by the end of this year, by a public… [continue reading]

It is no secret; the cat is out of the bag. Online casino gaming has officially arrived.  New Jersey’s entry into online gaming kicked off a new era for the gaming industry.  Granted, Nevada and Delaware both began online gaming… [continue reading]

It has been two years since the enabling casino gaming legislation passed in Massachusetts and nothing has happened.  That is not exactly accurate as lots has happened, but no casinos have been built. In fact none have been licensed.  The… [continue reading]

I was eight years old, in the third grade – and about to begin a rare Friday afternoon off from school, because there was teacher conferences at Adrian Elementary that day. I was playing with a friend on the third… [continue reading]

Horse racing is probably a bad analogy for an election, but it paints the right picture for the moment.  According to the British bookie, William Hill, the 2016 campaign for president of the United States has officially begun with the… [continue reading]

If Jeffrey Compton would ever be accused of promoting gambling it won’t be over blackjack, horse racing, sports betting or even video poker; my weakness and joy is election wagering. Today’s is an off-year election with only two governorships up,… [continue reading]

The casino gaming news these days is filled with stories of expansion. Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania all have expansion on their radar screens. New Hampshire is working on new regulations as a prelude to expansion… [continue reading]

Has there ever been a gaming company that suffered through a worse 72-hour period than Caesars Entertainment Corp.? On a Friday evening, Caesars was punted from a proposed $1 billion project in Boston. Then the company was forced to dump… [continue reading]

Caesars has some serious issues, but the reason it withdrew from Massachusetts should not be one of them. Caesars has been in the news a lot lately and most of it has been negative. The latest flurry of Caesars news… [continue reading]

Although the signage changes with increasing regularity, names are important things in the casino business. So it came as a relief to learn that Caesars Entertainment Corp., as the Review-Journal reported Monday, had decided to dump the Gansevoort Hotel Group… [continue reading]

At first glance, the homepage of FanDuel looks like an online sports casino. But the company, which paid out $50 million in winnings in 2012, is not a traditional online sports bookie. Rather, FanDuel is a fantasy sports website, offering… [continue reading]

Nevada is a very small state with an estimated 2.7 million inhabitants in 2012.  Seventeen states have fewer people, but only eight have more land.  That sums up Nevada, few people, but lots of land – desert land.  In a… [continue reading]

In his far-too-short tenure as CDC Gaming Reports Flash Editor, the late Jeff Simpson repeatedly told me “Check out which news stories our subscribers click and read. It will improve the products, plus you will learn a lot about the… [continue reading]

One fact stood out at G2E 2013; slot machines are getting bigger.  In fact, compared to the little boxes of the 1950s slots that provided the basic DNA for today’s games, they are gigantic monsters.  And like the dinosaurs, the… [continue reading]

In the era in which we live, the media panders to the basest elements of human nature.  It chooses subjects that titillate us, rather than subjects which might inform us.  Every day on internet news sites, in the print media… [continue reading]

Gaming Industry Colleagues— As you’ve no doubt heard, Congress failed to reach an agreement on funding for the federal government and all non-essential functions entered a “shutdown” as of midnight this morning. No one in Washington has a good sense… [continue reading]

G2E 2013 was huge; nearly 30,000 people attended. In attendance and in expo space being used, G2E 2013 approached pre-recession levels.  The attendees did what people have been doing at G2E and its predecessors for years; G2E is an annual… [continue reading]

As she made her way through the Sands Expo Center, the most dangerous woman in Las Vegas easily passed for one of the thousands of attendees at last week’s behemoth Global Gaming Expo convention. In a town where showgirls and… [continue reading]

G2E is getting ready to open its doors on its 2013 edition, the gaming/casino industry’s annual trade show.  For three days, twenty thousand or so people from around the world will gather in Las Vegas to listen to discussions on… [continue reading]

In the gaming industry, regulation does more than control the gaming activities; regulation also limits and defines legal gaming and the nature of a casino. Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos are byproducts of each state’s gaming regulations.  The size… [continue reading]

On September 10, the Las Vegas Review-Journal had a touching story about Bob Vannucci. According to Richard Lake, Vannucci is in hospice care and does not have long to live. His last wish was a romantic dinner with his wife…. [continue reading]

Dennis Gomes led a romantic life. He died in 2012 in the midst of an attempt to turn around the struggling Resorts Casino in Atlantic City.  It was the last act of a 40-year career of swimming upstream against common… [continue reading]

Wherever he goes and whatever he does, Steven Wynn attracts attention.  Of course, the main reason people are interested in the comings and goings of Wynn are his casinos.  Any time a new Wynn casino opens it is international news. … [continue reading]

Wisconsin was one of the first states to agree to Indian tribes casinos.  That the casinos were to be on traditional tribal land was an underlying assumption.  By June of 1992, Governor Tommy Thompson had finalized the last of the… [continue reading]

On Thursday, August 22nd, 50 people were injured when a bus bound for San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino in Highland, California overturned.  These days it takes a bus accident before the topic of “casino buses” interests anyone beside the… [continue reading]

Numbers alone and by themselves are meaningless if they no context, comparison or accompanying narrative.  We need something more than the numbers themselves to give them meaning.   So, for example, to say that the casinos in Mississippi generated $192 million in… [continue reading]

Understanding another culture is nearly impossible, but it is far more difficult when you are thousands of miles away with nothing but a few scattered newspaper articles for information.  Even when the culture is your mother culture, it is a… [continue reading]

The casinos in Ohio are in giving free play a serious test run.  In July, some of the casinos gave away as much as 30 percent of casino “win” in free play.  That is a foretaste of some of bloody… [continue reading]

From the opening bell on May 26, 1978, the casinos in Atlantic City were successful.  In its first year, Resorts generated $134 million in gaming revenue and by 1981 there were 9 casinos in the boardwalk city generating over a… [continue reading]

The July gaming numbers are in for Ohio.  The casinos which were open in July of 2012 were down in July 2013.  The Horseshoe in Cleveland was down 17 percent – about the same as the casinos in Indiana have… [continue reading]

Horse racing has been a challenged industry (some call it a sport) since casinos started to spread out of Nevada and across the country.  In any state with racing as soon as casinos start to open in that state or… [continue reading]

The casino industry is dynamic. Nothing remains the same for long and those who fail to note that fact get left in the dust.  The famous trendsetters like Steve Wynn are always reinventing the casino experience and broadening both our… [continue reading]

It is often argued that Wall Street is the cause of many of the worst of modern business practices. It is the world of Wall Street that puts a constant pressure on all publicly traded companies to increase earnings and… [continue reading]

One of the side effects of the rapid expansion of gaming is a rapid expansion of gaming reporters.  Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Maryland have all spawned homegrown reporters with new assignments covering the gaming industry; and Macau has by itself… [continue reading]

There is a phenomenon taking place in Macau that reminds me of the 1980’s in Nevada casinos.  In Macau, the number of players is decreasing or remaining the same, but the average wager per player is increasing.  The wager is… [continue reading]

A congressional committee, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, is holding hearings on the impacts of economic practices on national security; and last week that mean money laundering in Macau.  Some of the committee members are thinking, as Bob… [continue reading]

Today, Radio Iowa had an article that makes a perfect follow-up to my blog; The Law of Unintended Consequences and VLTs in Illinois.  The article is about casinos in Iowa not Illinois.  However, it mentions the VLTs in Illinois.  According… [continue reading]

Expansion in mid-2013 is still the major story in the casino industry.  Expansion into new states or within a state has often been driven by lawmakers looking for new sources of revenue to balance budgets.  But, there have been other… [continue reading]

Since 1978, it has been impossible to avoid comparing the cities and the casinos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.   In the beginning they were the only American jurisdictions with casinos; but even as Iowa, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois,… [continue reading]

Over the course of everyone’s career a few people always standout; people who for one reason or another made a big difference.  One of those people for me was Wayne Gilliland.  In the 1980s Wayne was in the midst of… [continue reading]

Indian gaming under the regulation of the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act has been around for 25 years.  Most of the newness and strangeness has worn off, and in most communities with Indian casinos, Indian gaming is pretty well-understood.  However,… [continue reading]

The lotteries may be able to change the rules, but casinos can’t; when casinos become overwhelmed by the economy, competition and taxes they are left with few options. One of those options is going to the capitol to ask for… [continue reading]

Massachusetts is in a long, slow and tedious process of introducing casinos.  With the regulations in place, the selection process has begun; at stake are three casino licenses and one license for a slot parlor.  The state has been divided… [continue reading]

One news phenomenon always confuses me; there is no news on holidays. Why is that?  Of course, there events that are undeniable and unavoidable, such as earthquakes, bombs and deaths of well-known people – those get reported by the media. … [continue reading]

The second largest lottery jackpot in the history of the world hit on Saturday, May 18, 2013; it was $590.5 million.  The run-up to the record levels of mega jackpots has been much faster since the Powerball officials figured out… [continue reading]

Just why is gaming revenue in Macau growing so fast?  Why has it stagnated in the United States, at least in all existing jurisdictions?  Of course, we all know that Macau has mainland China has its primary market – 1.6… [continue reading]

The major challenge in being a casino industry observer is making sense of the news.  It is part of the job, as it were, to take the  information available daily, sort out the significant from the routine news and to… [continue reading]

Just when it seemed that the Atlantic City casino industry was being reengineered from the bottom up Carl Icahn has called a time out.  Buying casinos in Atlantic City at bargain basement prices has been a trend lately; for 20,… [continue reading]

Lately, I have been thinking about some numbers in gaming; and casino gambling is all about numbers, the dollars wagered, won and lost and probability of each expressed numerically.  Every casino game is designed to pay less than true odds. … [continue reading]

A while back I wrote a piece about the growth of gaming in the United States, in particular about the growth of other forms of gaming.  I cited Florida and California as examples – California with its 38 million people… [continue reading]

After six years, everyone gets it – Wall Street, investors, state officials, regulators, casino operators, casino employees – everyone considered: Atlantic City is in trouble.  The demise of Atlantic City was a topic of discussion at the eight annual Pennsylvania… [continue reading]

Recently, while the Texas legislature was in a discussion about allowing casinos in Texas,  a bus crashed into the midst of the debate.  The bus did not crash into the legislature itself, but its impact is likely to be felt… [continue reading]

Maybe this Time Maybe this time, I’ll be lucky Maybe this time, he’ll stay Maybe this time For the first time Love won’t hurry away It’s got to happen, happen sometime Maybe this time I’ll win Cabaret, John Kander, Fred… [continue reading]

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,By any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 1597 As Willy so famously said, it is the thing that matters, not what we call it.  But… [continue reading]

Sports and gambling go together like bread and butter – or something.  It is hard to imagine any major sporting event without gambling; it is hard to imagine because it does not happen.  The sport leagues in the United States… [continue reading]

According to Hilaire Belloc, there is a lag between reality and public perception of reality.  Writing in 1929 about French Cardinal Richelieu and his impact on Europe, Belloc describes the lag in terms of the Spanish Empire.  In 1620 the… [continue reading]

It seems that cloning has become passé; we have moved passed cloning to a new era of species reproduction – reproductive physiology – using DNA to create a copy of the original organism.  Scientists are now saying, that even some… [continue reading]

It is difficult to understand the economy; we are given dozens of measurements to help us – the Down Jones average, unemployment rate, job grow, housing sales, cars sales and customer confidence.   They are all important numbers, but they… [continue reading]

The last five years have been brutal economically; housing tanked, unemployment soared and business in general stopped or at least stalled.  Little by little we are creeping out of that dark time and entering once again into an era of… [continue reading]

Atlantic City is grabbing headlines again, but this time it is not the casino revenue doing the grabbing.  After years of decline, Atlantic City casino revenues casinos no longer garner much attention outside of New Jersey.  In fact, there are… [continue reading]

Since Nevada and New Jersey had their race to be the first to the Internet, there has been lots of activity on the subject elsewhere.  Pennsylvania, Illinois, California and New York are mulling over the idea; each state sees a… [continue reading]

One cannot put too much emphasis on comparisons between February 2012 and February 2013 – this year was not a leap year; in fact it is beginning to look more like a stumble year.   As the gaming results roll in… [continue reading]

For certain, the biggest news story of the week in gaming was the announcement that Genting is buying the Echelon parcel in Las Vegas from Boyd Gaming.   Genting paid $4 million an acre for the site on the famous Strip;… [continue reading]

In 1958, the Stardust Hotel Casino opened in Las Vegas on the Strip.  It closed 48 years later to make way for a grand new casino resort; Boyd Corporation imploded the building intending to build a $4 billion dollar project… [continue reading]

There is a new kid on the block, online on the block; As there has been every month for the last couple of years, the gaming news is filled with stories of gambling’s expansion.  Ohio is closing in on its… [continue reading]

Atlantic City has moved back onto gaming’s center stage in February, there was bad news and good news from the Boardwalk.  The bad news first, the city’s casinos reported a 13% decline in gaming revenues in January, the city’s casinos… [continue reading]

Since he died on February 11, 2013, Bill Eadington has been the subject of dozens of columns and obituaries from around the world, including one in the New York Times.  It is rare for a professor from the University of… [continue reading]

As the revenue figures continue to come in from across the northeast, the impact of the increased competition is being becoming clearer; its is more damaging than anyone would have believed in 2005.  In January, Atlantic City casinos reported a… [continue reading]

Recently, I posed a question: “Have all the good things been taken?”  In that piece I argued that all of the good opportunities for further expansion of gaming are gone. The implication was the American gaming market was nearing a… [continue reading]

For the second time in as many years, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey has vetoed an online gambling bill.   On Thursday, February 7th, Christie exercised his right to reject legislation approved by the state legislature and said no… [continue reading]

Several times in the last year, I have written about Macau, about the challenges for any non-Chinese company trying to operate there; essentially there are two major unresolved issues in my mind.  Those issues, the uncertainty of Chinese policy making… [continue reading]

The gaming commission in Massachusetts is front and center of all of the activity leading up to the actual start of casino gambling in Massachusetts.  It set, as all gaming commissions do, the regulations and conditions for the conducting of… [continue reading]

The casinos in Macau are the busiest in the world; they dominate the income statements of three of America’s largest casino companies as well as the largest Australian casino company. The casino industry in Macau has grown so fast that… [continue reading]

Looking for the trends behind the news is a kind of game for me; it is something I do it with everything that I read or see anywhere. It is comparable to reading a mystery story, or playing any game… [continue reading]

As I have written before, the torch has been passed to a new generation of casinos. In 2006, the casinos in Atlantic City were second only to the Las Vegas Strip casinos in revenue.  That position now belongs to Pennsylvania… [continue reading]

At first glance, the competition for a casino license in Massachusetts may not look like a heavy weight fight, but by the time it is over no one will doubt that it was; those left standing will be scared, but… [continue reading]

The news from Atlantic City has not been good this week; the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement released the gaming revenue figures for December and for 2012 and the numbers are not pretty.  The casinos in Atlantic City just… [continue reading]

 The billboard depicts a caricature of a pig in a suit with a Union Jack on its lapel, holding a vacuum cleaner that is sucking dollar bills out of an elderly woman’s purse. Lottery Post, 1-9-13 Good, bad, ugly and… [continue reading]

What do Vladimir Lenin,  windjammers and volcanoes have in common?  Not much you might say, but in the gaming industry they are exactly the same thing, the same concept dressed in different clothes. Over the course of its modern history,… [continue reading]

It is the end of a year, 2012; the end of any year always brings out two kind of pundits, those who summarize the preceding year and those who peek into the future.  Both are subject to error, the summarizer… [continue reading]

Hurricane Sandy was probably the most destructive storm to hit the United States, ever; the hurricane was even given a hyper name, Super-Storm Sandy. Sandy was terribly destructive not because of the power of its winds or the amount of… [continue reading]

The latest state to walk down the gambling road, Massachusetts is walking slower than the others.  The American Gaming Association studied the subject and concluded that 3 years was the average it took a state to go from passing legislation… [continue reading]

It is an old story already, but one that is being still reported; there are too many casinos in the Northeast and there are more on the way. The stories usually appear each month when the monthly gaming revenue figures… [continue reading]

And then, like all good things it came to an end; I, for one, am disappointed.  I wanted to see what would happen if the jackpot continued to grow.  It hit on Wednesday, November 28th for about $590 million; a… [continue reading]

The modern version of the state lottery started in 1964 with New Hampshire.  It had taken about 75 years for the bad taste of the corrupt lotteries of the second half of the 19th century to leave the national consciousness. … [continue reading]

Well, at last the election is over, regardless of whether your candidate won or lost, or whether your ballot issue passed or failed you, too, must be as glad as I am to have to constant barrage of campaign advertising,… [continue reading]

When is Indian gaming Indian gaming and when it is something else?  Of course, in a technical sense Indian gaming is only Indian gaming when an Indian tribe operates a gaming operation under the guidelines and within the constraints of… [continue reading]

Identifying the precise moment of change is not always possible, nor is always possible to identify the person who brought it about.  Today, while waiting at the blood clinic for my appointment I was reading an advertisement for a course… [continue reading]

Whenever gaming appears on the political landscape it takes on a partisan cast.  In some states, the Democratic Party is pro-gaming and supports gaming legislation, while the Republican Party takes the opposite point of view and opposes the legislation.  In… [continue reading]

By now, it is no secret that Atlantic City casino market is challenged; casinos have grown up in all of its feeder markets and are siphoning off the cream from its cash-flow.  No property is going to be more challenged… [continue reading]

Twenty years or so ago, I. Nelson Rose wrote a piece about the spread of gaming.  At that time, Nelson said that we were in the beginning of the third wave of gambling expansion in the United States.  Each of… [continue reading]

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act passed in 1988; in the 24 years since the IGRA passed there have been many changes Indian country.  It would be safe to say that before the Act and the advent of Indian gaming Indian… [continue reading]

Bang!  For a moment today, the earth stood still, frozen like a bad connection on Skype.  In that frozen picture you could, if only for a second, see the future – a new sort of Brave New World.   It… [continue reading]