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...]