Commentaries

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 concept of what constitutes a casino and their own.  At the moment, Wynn is off in Macau building a flower palace for $4billion dollars, but back at home in Las … [Read more...]

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 profits every quarter; that pressure creates a culture of short-term, impatient for profit management.  The term Wall Street itself is a convenient label for an intellectual … [Read more...]

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 has led to the minting of dozens of new reporters from all over the world eager to cover gaming.  Even the major news services, Reuters, … [Read more...]

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 going up because the VIP operators are raising the minimum wager. How else to increase the profits?  Without increasing the number of players the only way to increase the … [Read more...]

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 Dylan once famously sang: “two men died neath the Mississippi moon, somebody better vestigate soon.” The committee is not so … [Read more...]

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 to Radio Iowa the VLTs are impacting the casinos in Iowa that are close to the border with Illinois.  It is just that simple; people have a limited portion of … [Read more...]

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 reasons for expansion; in true democratic style, gaming sometimes expands by the will of the people and in a less democratic style by the will of the governor.  Ohio, … [Read more...]

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, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Louisiana joined the ranks of states with casinos, Las Vegas and Atlantic City were still the crème of casino crop – the gold … [Read more...]

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 a second career as a gaming agent; Wayne had retired from the California Highway Patrol and had come to Reno to work for the Nevada Gaming Control Board.  He stayed with gaming for 15 … [Read more...]

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, there are still a couple of myths that persist about Indians, Indian casinos and the law; the most common of which deals with Indian wealth.  … [Read more...]

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 tax relief, as the casinos in Indiana did recently; the casinos in Indiana, as everyone knows by now, have been serious wounded by the opening of casinos in Ohio. The Indiana … [Read more...]

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 into three zones, each will get a casino.  Before the gaming commission awards the licenses, the prospective casino licensees have to convince the leaders of … [Read more...]

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.  But for the most part, especially locally, there is no news at all. The regular reporters must always be off on those days; in their absence, as if by magic … [Read more...]

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 a way to increase the size of the jackpot by raising the price of the tickets.  Powerball is not alone in the giant jackpot lottery world.  There are two national lottery … [Read more...]

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 billion people. While each jurisdiction in the United States has a much smaller and more limited regional population base – people living within a hundred miles.  But is that … [Read more...]

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 discover the trends.  It is tricky to pick out the significant events and to find the trends that will impact the industry’s future.  The process is basically the same whether one is … [Read more...]

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, 30 or 40 million dollars anyone can now own a casino on the Boardwalk.  At those prices, one just might make a profit, or so the buyers appear to have been thinking.  After … [Read more...]

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.  The difference between what the casino pays on each wager and the true odds creates the house advantage and that results in the truism: the house always … [Read more...]

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 generates about $10 billion in gaming revenue without the need of a single tourist; the revenue comes from Indian casinos, the state lottery, racing and poker rooms.  In the piece, … [Read more...]

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 Gaming Congress in Philadelphia.  And there is no more perfect place to discuss the downfall of Atlantic City than in the epicenter of … [Read more...]

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 in the debate.  There is one very common argument for expanding gaming - it is used in nearly every state entering into casino gambling for the first time – “We need casinos to … [Read more...]

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 Ebb 1972 When Liza sings the song in Cabaret, it is very poignant.  Sally Bowles is a young woman who has had many lovers in her life, but never love.  Each time, each new … [Read more...]

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 when it comes to thing itself there is often some room for debate, especially when we describe the thing with numbers.  Our world is one bound and valued by economic activity and for … [Read more...]

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 may deny the relationship, but they profit from it.  Gambling fires the enthusiasm that feeds all professional sports in the world.  In Europe rather than deny it, they … [Read more...]

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 Spanish Empire was on the wane and the French Empire was beginning to rise.  But at the time, everyone including the French and Spanish still thought of Spain as … [Read more...]

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 extinct species can be recreated using current technology.   The concept has been getting lots of press lately, mostly because it is the cover story for National … [Read more...]

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 don’t help much, at least they don’t help me much. The easiest way for me to measure the health of the economy is by checking my bank balance, reviewing my … [Read more...]

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 hope and optimism.  Unemployment is falling, housing is recovering and many industries have started to show significant growth.  However, for the most part, the … [Read more...]

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 several locations in Pennsylvania that had a much worse February than Atlantic City.  And the formerly largest and most profitable casinos in the country, … [Read more...]

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 unique opportunity to take advantage of the moment and of course raise some much needed tax revenues.  However, most of the legislators are quite vague on the details and … [Read more...]

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 for the month of February, one thing is clear – it is a dog eat dog world out there for the casino industry.  Not that there have been any surprises thus far; every state with significant … [Read more...]

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; Genting is promising it will turn the property into a magnet for the newly outwardly mobile and affluent Asian travelers.  It was great news for Nevada and Las Vegas; there will be … [Read more...]

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 called Echelon Place.  The Place ran afoul of the economic downturn and construction was halted in 2008; the unfinished building has stood there since, a testament to optimism … [Read more...]

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 fourth casinos, Maryland is adding table games, Massachusetts is still in the initial phases, but it still offers a story a day on developments, Pennsylvania just licensed one resort casino and … [Read more...]

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 generated barely over $200 million, that was 22% less than casinos in Pennsylvania generated and Revel officially declared bankruptcy.  However, even with the dismal … [Read more...]

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 Nevada in Reno to be noticed by the New York Times, let alone a professor who devoted his academic career to the study of gambling.  Bill’s passing was noted by many more … [Read more...]

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 13% decline in revenues and Connecticut casinos had a 12% decline. On the opposite side of the coin, Pennsylvania reported a 12 percent increase in table … [Read more...]

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 point of saturation – full, no more room for new product.  That is just a step away from a gaming market that is over saturated – meaning too much product; something has … [Read more...]

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 to online gambling in the state.  The initial reaction of the supporters of online gambling in Atlantic City was one of dismay, gnashing of teeth and wringing of … [Read more...]

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 and the relatively small group of people that generate the vast majority of the gaming revenue, make Macau a house of cards, a very fragile … [Read more...]

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 gaming in the state; everything that is not specifically defined in the enabling legislation is left up to the commission.  And joyfully Mr. Crosby and his … [Read more...]

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 it almost defies belief, or it would if Macau did not have 1.6 billion Chinese citizens as potential customers. Still, in my mind, the casino business in Macau is … [Read more...]

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 that require analysis of the strategies of all the players – it requires looking for trends and for links between seemingly disparate events.  The king of Denmark’s expedition to Yemen in the 16th … [Read more...]

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 – actually it is third, as Vegas has been passed by Macau.  Atlantic City is now in the process of working its way down the list; AC gaming revenues have been in decline for … [Read more...]

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 lucky and the those lying on the canvas are sure to be bruised and bloody.  Rounds one, two and three in the Massachusetts casino license heavy-weight-fight appear to be over.  In those first … [Read more...]

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 finished the sixth consecutive year of gaming revenue declines; gaming revenues in 2012 were 41 percent below 2006 and the lowest they have been since the 1990s.  … [Read more...]

 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 beautiful, it all depends on your point of view, doesn’t it?  Take state lotteries for example, some people see lotteries as a painless way to raise money for worthwhile causes.  To … [Read more...]

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, the casino industry has attracted its share of unique characters and bizarre ideas.  In the early days of legal gambling in Nevada, gamblers from around the … [Read more...]

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 is never totally wrong because he has the data before him to compile his top ten list or to construct his narrative of the year or to recap the year’s biggest story.  But he is never … [Read more...]

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 rain it brought with it, although both were significant, but rather because it hit the most populous area of the country.  The northeastern states of Connecticut, … [Read more...]

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 to opening its first casino.  It may take only 3 years on average, but there are other examples of a long drawn out process.  For example, the second casino … [Read more...]

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 are released; monthly revenues figures are compared to the same month in the previous year and are used as benchmarks for growth and the health of the industry.  The first state to … [Read more...]

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 nice round sum.  But that is nothing compared to what might have been in another 3 days or even a week of the kind of sales we have seen in the last seven days.  If no one had won on the … [Read more...]

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.  It took a very long time, but the bad taste is gone – today 42 states, the District of Columbia and the U. S. Virgins Islands all have lotteries.  And in November 0f 2012,  … [Read more...]

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, name calling and speech making over.  As necessary as the process is to our democratic system there are times when it radically disrupts the business of living.  I am more than … [Read more...]

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 the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), its subsequent regulations and a tribal-state compact that meets those guidelines and has been approved by the National … [Read more...]

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 on the events that changed the world; according to the advertisement the 36 events that were chosen were absolute turning points in human history and “things were … [Read more...]

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 another state, conditions may very well be reversed and the Republicans support the legislation and the Democrats oppose it.  However, until … [Read more...]

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 than Revel.  There are a number of reasons for Revel’s challenged state.  Revel is the newest casino on the Boardwalk and lacks the customer base the other casinos have been able to … [Read more...]

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 the first two phases had ended because of change in public attitudes caused by some event or series of events – because of corruption, like that of the Louisiana lottery in the 19th century.  … [Read more...]

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 tribes were the poorest segment of the population. Indian tribes had the highest rate of unemployment, lowest per capita income and the highest rates of alcoholism and other health … [Read more...]

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 is no longer talk; on Tuesday, August 6th, the BBC reported that Facebook has its first actually gambling application.  The application, Bingo Friendzy – cute, isn’t it a parody of the essential … [Read more...]