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]