Commentaries

A proud Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey last month called the legislation amending the state’s compact with tribal casino operators historic, and it certainly was that. It was, in fact, something that many believed would never happen. More cynical observers might have thought that it should never happen: Any plan to reopen the compact could lead to more trouble than profit. But all parties appear … [Read more...]

As it emerges from the nation’s coronavirus crisis and each day shows signs of returning to full speed, it’s easy to forget there was a time that Las Vegas wasn’t so much a place as an idea. I was reminded of that while reading Larry D. Gragg’s new book, Becoming America’s Playground: Las Vegas in the 1950s. For Gragg, an academic by profession at Missouri University of Science and Technology, … [Read more...]

An economic report by the federal government said the economy is recovering at a record pace, with an annual growth rate is 6.4 percent. And the number of people seeking unemployment aid reached its lowest point since the pandemic struck. Thus far, the post-pandemic economy is as good as anyone dared hope. But at the same time, an unanticipated dilemma is surfacing, a severe labor … [Read more...]

Las Vegas is healthy again, but more needs to happen before the patient receives the all-clear. As we look back at the last 14 months, this week’s slate of news from Las Vegas could be viewed as the tipping point for the epicenter of the gaming industry. Analysts, the investment community, and the industry in general are anticipating the time Las Vegas achieves business levels and numbers that … [Read more...]

With his shock of white hair and seemingly unflappable cool, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert might be the most recognizable face in horseracing. All eyes were on him at the Kentucky Derby on May 1 after Medina’s Spirit powered its way to a first-place finish. He was still the center of attention on Sunday when Churchill Downs officials announced his suspension after his winning horse failed a … [Read more...]

Las Vegas is well acquainted with Bill Foley. He’s not afraid of swinging away at multimillion-dollar deals. He also doesn’t like to lose. In 2016, Foley paid $500 million to the National Hockey League for the expansion Vegas Golden Knights. At the time, Foley predicted the Golden Knights would win the Stanley Cup Championship within six years. In the team’s inaugural 2017 season, … [Read more...]

A few details need to be worked out before Southern California’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians takes ownership of the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Such as who gets the shark? The off-Strip Palms is loaded with high-priced artwork, some of which was acquired by Red Rock Resorts executives Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta. The company sold the Palms to the tribe last week for … [Read more...]

When Las Vegas-based Global Gaming Asset Management (GGAM) in late March took its pursuit of the Philippines’ second-richest man to the U.S District Court of the Southern District of New York, it was only a matter of time before its lawsuit began to reverberate through the casino industry. Beyond the breaking news and the ugly allegations contained in the litigation, it is a reminder of the big … [Read more...]

For a time, Jason Robins seemed to be on the outside looking into the clubhouse. Today, he and DraftKings are seated at the head of the table. In the three years since legal sports betting began its rapid expansion across the U.S., DraftKings has gained mobile and/or retail sports betting access in some 65% of the available market. In the vast majority of the states where it operates, … [Read more...]

Nevada’s stunning $1.066 billion gaming revenue total for March, especially the Las Vegas Strip’s $501.4 million contribution, had the investment community buzzing. The overall figure, the state’s largest single-month revenue total in more than eight years, happened despite COVID-19 operating restrictions and capacity limitations. The results reported from the Las Vegas locals markets were … [Read more...]

I realize the Academy Awards will never rival the Super Bowl when it comes to attracting sports bettors. Some traditionalists around the sportsbook would probably scoff at the very idea of setting serious odds on such a frivolous affair as the annual race for the Oscars. But that doesn’t mean the massive sportsbooks of Las Vegas should be left out of the delight of placing a few bucks on … [Read more...]

For 30 years, the city of Chicago has coveted a casino of its own. Mayor Richard Daley, the Second, wanted the city to own the casino and lease its operations to a casino company. The other mayors in the hunt, Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot, were willing to host a casino, collect the taxes and enjoy the other benefits. Lightfoot may get that wish on her watch. In June 2019, the Illinois Senate … [Read more...]

Casino resorts operating in major downtown cities are not unusual. Detroit has three gaming properties, including the 400-room MGM Grand Detroit, which opened in July 1999. Ohio’s two major cities, Cleveland and Cincinnati, have been home to casinos for nearly a decade. The 671-room Encore Boston Harbor opened in June 2019 in the town of Everett, roughly five miles across the Mystic River … [Read more...]

Another 4/20 came and went with nothing for the casino industry to celebrate. Despite recreational cannabis use being legal in Nevada, gaming operators remain prohibited from allowing marijuana use on resort properties. Meanwhile, legal marijuana dispensaries operate in the shadow of Las Vegas Strip resorts. Still classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule 1 substance up … [Read more...]

In June 2015, the National Football League abruptly halted its participation in a convention focused on fantasy football that was to be headlined by then Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. The reason? The conference was scheduled for the Venetian Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip. The NFL did not want any association with gambling, the casino industry, Las Vegas, and especially sports … [Read more...]

Sometimes you learn from other peoples’ troubles; other times you learn from good examples. For gaming regulators and operators, the saga of blackjack rules in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania illustrates those different paths. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments this month over lawsuits accusing the state’s two casinos of shorting blackjack players by millions of dollars … [Read more...]

At some point, Baltimore will have three sportsbooks within less than two miles of one another. Only one will be located inside a traditional casino. Under Maryland’s new sports betting legislation, Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium, the homes for baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, have the same rights to operate a sportsbook as the neighboring … [Read more...]

Let’s start by agreeing that Tulsa is nice this time of year. And Kissimmee’s a fine place to be if you ever find yourself swatting mosquitos in central Florida. But, well, they’re not exactly Las Vegas. Given the chance, Top Rank founder and CEO Bob Arum will say plenty of nice things about Tulsa and Kissimmee. They are, after all, the sites of his company’s championship boxing promotions … [Read more...]

There has long been a rivalry between Boyd Gaming and Red Rock Resorts. Their founders, the late Sam Boyd and son Bill Boyd, and the late Frank Fertitta, Jr., are considered pioneers in the Las Vegas casino market catering to Southern Nevada residents. Today, the companies are the two dominant operators. But the competition once got heated. In 2009, Boyd made a $950 million offer to … [Read more...]

It was nearly a decade ago when the NCAA and the four primary professional sports leagues sued the state of New Jersey to stop the enactment of a voter-approved sports betting referendum. The NCAA and the leagues would spend millions of dollars in legal fees over the next five years in what was ultimately a failed effort. It’s safe to say the National Football League, National Basketball … [Read more...]

Given its history, it’s no surprise the casino industry continues to provide an endless source of fascination for readers. But it’s not all shadowy gangsters and larger-than-life corporate titans. For my money, the best stories always seem to come from behind the scenes and straight from the casino floor.  It’s something Joe Dorsey knows plenty about. Joe’s Dash: From Million Dollar Drug … [Read more...]

A decade ago, when the Bally’s name was attached to one of the gaming industry’s leading slot machine developers, Soo Kim was gaining an understanding of the casino business. Standard General, a New York-based investment firm that Kim co-founded, led a group of creditors that took ownership of Aliante Station in North Las Vegas following the bankruptcy reorganization of Station Casinos in … [Read more...]

Think of the Betfred sportsbook inside the newly opened Mohegan Sun Casino Las Vegas as a model home. Betfred Sports, the U.S. subsidiary of United Kingdom-based Betfred Group, is awaiting licensing from Nevada gaming regulators. Until then, the 1,250-square-foot space provides the company’s Head of USA Development Stephen Crystal a boutique showroom inside Mohegan’s 60,000-square-foot casino … [Read more...]

The casino gaming industry is in a funny place. For those of us inside the bubble, it’s a business brimming with regulations, compliance, and integrity. For those outside it, though, casinos are still, for lack of a better word, seedy. On one hand, we can point to the unprecedented spread of legal casino gaming in the United States as evidence of the industry’s robust legitimacy. On the other, as … [Read more...]

If there’s one thing Las Vegas has always been good at, it’s marketing itself to the world. From low-roller bargains to high-rolling penthouses, sexy singles getaways to family-friendly atmospheres, you name it, and some Las Vegas marketing maven has probably thought of a way to grab their attention. But now the world has changed. Now in its second year, the coronavirus pandemic continues to … [Read more...]

At the end of February, VICI Properties President John Payne suggested the real estate investment trust was keeping its eyes firmly planted on Las Vegas. On the Strip, the New York-based company owns the land and buildings associated with Caesars Palace, Harrah’s Las Vegas, and the Caesars Forum Convention Center. VICI also has the right of first refusal should Caesars Entertainment sell … [Read more...]

Last week, Nevada marked the 90th anniversary of the relegalization of commercial gaming — an event that led directly to the development of today’s gaming industry. Today, we mark another milestone of Nevada gaming history, one that reminds us how far the state and the industry have come, and how far both still have to go. On March 26, 1960, Governor Grant Sawyer, Las Vegas NAACP President Dr. … [Read more...]

Scandalized former casino mogul Steve Wynn has found a place where they welcome his name on a building. It didn’t come cheap. Wynn has announced he’s donating $50 million toward the construction of a new hospital in downtown Utica, New York. The hospital, owned by the Mohawk Valley Health System, will bear his name. The donation announcement comes at a time Wynn is still battling the fallout … [Read more...]

The business model provided the reason as to why Joe Hasson went from consultant to candidate for the general manager’s position at the Mohegan Sun Casino inside Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. It was familiar to him. Mohegan Gaming, the business arm of Connecticut’s Mohegan Indian Tribe, unveils its 60,000-square-foot gaming space inside the renovated former Hard Rock Las Vegas on Thursday. The … [Read more...]

Communist China is once again proving to be an enigma to the casino-gaming world. Early in the year, China announced an extension to its blacklisted gambling destinations for Chinese. And beginning in March, it said it would enforce a law that makes it illegal to solicit Chinese gamblers to travel outside of the country and across borders. It is also a violation of the law for Chinese gamblers to … [Read more...]

The troubles facing former President Donald Trump’s faltering business empire were well documented by Bloomberg News this week. Jumping back into the casino industry, however, probably isn’t the most viable solution that would be offered up by Trump’s creditors. They are owed some $590 million in loans that come due over the next few years. Based on Trump’s gaming industry track record, … [Read more...]

Today marks the anniversary of what might be the most consequential event in American gambling history: the relegalization of commercial gaming in Nevada in 1931. Without Nevada rolling the dice in 1931, it’s likely that gambling in the United States — and the rest of the world — would look very different today. When Governor Fred Balzar signed Assembly Bill 98 into law on March 19, 1931, he … [Read more...]

The tributes continue for former middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler, who died last week at age 66. The accolades are well-deserved, of course. Hagler was one of the greatest middleweights in the history of the sport. He won 62 of his 67 professional fights with 52 knockouts and reigned supreme in his division throughout most of the 1980s, perhaps boxing’s last golden era. All … [Read more...]

Can you smell the optimism? A cautious confidence is emanating from Las Vegas casino operators that the early stages of an economic rebound is on the horizon. On Monday, gaming floors and restaurants boosted capacity levels to 50%, just ahead of the NCAA’s March Madness. The buoyant mood also comes from gaming leadership in the regional markets and Macau. Investment firm J.P. Morgan … [Read more...]

New York and Chicago appear to be getting closer to a hometown resort. Chicago is currently taking a step down that road. The city is expected to release an RFP soon. Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the city would like premium casino companies to bid for a Windy City resort. The mayor went so far as to hope the companies applying would have a Las Vegas return address on their proposal. A casino in … [Read more...]

March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month. It’s a time set aside for a status-check on the ongoing effort to address the complex issue of compulsive gambling. As it has with all other aspects of daily life, the pandemic has complicated efforts to inform players about problem gambling and provide treatment options. In Nevada, so reliant on gaming and tourism for its tax revenues and economic … [Read more...]

Virginia is a state on the move, reinventing itself for the 21st century. The changes are startling. Statues of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee and confederate flags are vanishing. Urbanization, technology companies, Amazon, casinos and sports betting are popping up all over the Commonwealth. Two years ago, it seemed that the current round of casino gaming expansion had run its course. … [Read more...]

Add Caesars Entertainment to the growing list of gaming companies that are more than curious about the possibility of Texas legalizing casinos during its upcoming legislative session. CEO Tom Reeg, however, isn’t holding out much hope. “That's another state where I'm highly confident there will be significant public interest,” Reeg said on the company’s quarterly conference call last week. … [Read more...]

As I watched the live feed of the Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning at the Nevada Legislature, I couldn’t help wondering where we would be without all our technology. That sense of reliance has only been enhanced during the coronavirus pandemic. The State Legislature is back in session but is only available to most of us by watching its Internet feed or via its Youtube … [Read more...]

Roughly 60 minutes into a Nevada Gaming Commission licensing hearing that quickly devolved into a four-hour interrogation, it was abundantly clear Blaine Graboyes’ future as CEO of skill-based slot machine developer GameCo was in peril. Less than 24 hours after Graboyes was denied a gaming license on a 4-1 vote, the sharks were circling. A handful of investment types were on the phone … [Read more...]

Andrew Yang is seeking to be elected mayor of New York City. Yang has no political experience, although he has campaigned for public office once before. In November 2017, he filed to run for president of the United States, leaving the race in February 2020. Yang is not rich, nor is he well-known nationally. He graduated from law school, but only practiced law for “the worst five months of my … [Read more...]

Observers hoping Boyd Gaming’s fourth-quarter results would help extrapolate the financial influence Circa Casino Resort has had on downtown Las Vegas’ gaming market didn’t find any answers. Boyd’s total revenues from two of its three downtown Las Vegas properties – Main Street Station has been closed since March – declined 74% to $18.2 million for the last three months of the year. For all … [Read more...]

Red Rock Resorts leadership didn’t have much to say last week about the Palms Casino Resort, the off-Strip property that cost the company more than $1 billion over the past five years in acquisition costs, renovation charges, and write-offs associated with a failed nightclub. The Palms closed 11 months ago when Nevada shut down its gaming industry for 78 days in an effort to slow the spreading … [Read more...]

Australian gaming company, Crown Resorts, has had a very difficult time of late. Its troubles probably began in 2016. In October of that year, 19 employees were arrested in China for illegally recruiting gamblers. The press coverage was unfavorable for Crown and James Packer, the company’s largest stockholder, and it probably had an impact on subsequent events. In March 2018, Packer resigned from … [Read more...]

I have one question for Koch Real Estate Investments, the fourth owner of the unfinished Fontainebleau-Drew project, a hulking eyesore on the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip. Do they know a good demolition expert? The company, the Dallas-based real estate arm of the politically uber-powerful Koch Industries, said in a statement late Thursday it acquired the development, which sits on 24 … [Read more...]

A funny thing happened on the way to watching the Kansas City Chiefs repeat as champions of the National Football League. And it wasn’t the ugly outcome of the game. My wife and I went over to her mother’s house to celebrate the Big Game between the Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was a party of three, socially distanced and just about my speed. Then a strange and wonderful thing … [Read more...]

Many professional teams located in states where sports wagering is legal have taken on “official sports betting partners,” which primarily provide sportsbook operators signage inside stadiums or arenas and other marketing opportunities. Arizona lawmakers are considering allowing teams to take that designation one step further. Legislation introduced in Phoenix last week would permit the … [Read more...]

Even under coronavirus pandemic restrictions and amid a reeling economy, Super Bowl LV figures to generate a lot of excitement and a gargantuan handle by sportsbooks across the country and around the world. As a sentimental aside, I can’t help but pause to reflect that it wasn’t long ago the National Football League and its team of lawyers would have thrown a flopping fit and sent out … [Read more...]

Las Vegas Sands still has that New York state of mind. After all, CEO Rob Goldstein said the company has “been looking at New York for, I think, about 100 years, it seems like. I don't think it's any secret that we're big believers in New York.” Goldstein was exaggerating a bit during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call last week, but the potential for an integrated … [Read more...]

Jet-setting sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein died in 2019, but he continues to haunt his old associates. One of those, Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black, certainly knows his way around Las Vegas and the casino industry. Apollo announced this week that Black would step down as CEO following the release of an investigation by its board of directors that focused on his relationship with … [Read more...]

Online sports betting went live last weekend in Michigan with 10 different platforms, each with a single partner – one of Detroit’s three commercial casinos and seven of the state’s tribal gaming properties. That’s a crowded field even for a populous, sports-crazy state like Michigan. Imagine the frenzy in California and Texas if those states ever decide to get around to legalizing sports … [Read more...]

Nearly 60 years have passed since Congress created the Federal Wire Act. U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy pushed the legislation as a deterrent to organized crime by making the transmission of interstate gambling information illegal. But the Wire Act has outlived its usefulness. In today’s modern gaming universe, commercial and tribal casinos are found in 43 states, legal sports betting … [Read more...]

After four tumultuous years, Donald Trump is no longer President of the United States. Impeached twice and the provoker of a failed insurrection, the man who set out to shake up Washington D.C. certainly accomplished the task. It’s not easy to have 400,000 Americans die of a containable coronavirus pandemic and walk away without a simple acknowledgment of the great loss, but Trump managed to do … [Read more...]

Since 2019, Rhode Island-based Bally’s Corp. has struck deals to acquire or build 11 casino properties in nine states, tripling the regional gaming company’s previous portfolio. Bally’s – formerly known as Twin River Worldwide Holdings – is also creating an omnichannel interactive betting division through its $125 million acquisition of sports betting platform Bet.Works and its partnership with … [Read more...]

Singer Phyllis McGuire, who died just before New Year’s in Las Vegas at age 89, never ran a casino – but there was a time she turned the gaming industry upside down. As a member of the ‘50s sweethearts The McGuire Sisters and as a solo act, she stopped regularly performing years ago. But I can attest that she never lost her magic whether onstage or over a long-distance line. The McGuire … [Read more...]

The last time I interviewed Sheldon Adelson, he was more interested in talking about a meal he’d recently been served in Israel than the multimillion-dollar judgment he was contesting in front of the Nevada Supreme Court a few days later. The “wonderful lunch of chicken and falafel” was obviously more satisfying to the billionaire than the $96 million he and Las Vegas Sands ended up having to … [Read more...]

Back in October, Dave Portnoy, founder and “El Presidente” of media platform Barstool Sports, decided to help save the historic Reading Terminal Market in downtown Philadelphia, which had been hit hard by COVID-19 lockdowns. With an assist from casino operator Penn National Gaming, which owns 36% of Barstool, more than $250,000 was raised for location. Penn donated $100 for every new Barstool … [Read more...]

An integrated resort casino in New York City. Las Vegas-style gambling properties in several of Texas’ major metropolitan markets. Legal sports betting in California. These aren’t predictions for 2021. But they could happen. Expansion of legal gaming is on the docket in several state legislatures, as governors and lawmakers deal with billions of dollars in budget shortfalls brought on by … [Read more...]

As a Nevada state senator for more than three decades, Joe Neal rarely agreed with the powerful gaming industry on anything. He was a thorn in the side, a fly in the ointment, a pain in the, well, you get the idea. Neal, who died on New Year’s Eve at age 85, was an unabashed liberal. He was Nevada’s first Black state senator. He supported greater workers’ rights and stood up for the Culinary … [Read more...]

Somewhere out in the dark and empty desert around midnight on New Year’s Eve, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority officials oversaw the spectacular implosion of a 2020 sign. Maybe they were channeling the scene from the 1995 film, “Casino.” Gangster Nicky Santoro described Las Vegas as having “a lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes.” Via a live … [Read more...]

A few weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in August 2005, wiping away Mississippi’s flourishing casino market, then-American Gaming Association CEO Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. told those gathering for the Global Gaming Expo that the storm was the worst disaster to ever strike the gaming industry. COVID-19 was Katrina on steroids. The pandemic of 2020 tore through every corner … [Read more...]

It was easily the worst day in the history of Las Vegas locals casino Arizona Charlie’s Decatur. Luckily for the workforce, some who had been employed at the small hotel-casino west of downtown Las Vegas since its opening in 1988, Ron Lurie was there to offer support. Two of the casino’s security officers were senselessly gunned down when they were investigating an incident in one of the … [Read more...]

Hanging by the maître d’s podium before guests ride the two high-speed elevators to Circa Casino Resort’s 60th-floor rooftop Legacy Club is a black-and-white photo of a Las Vegas poker game. The three players are the late Stuey Ungar, a three-time World Series of Poker champion, the late casino owner Bob Stupak, and longtime poker consultant Eric Drache. Stupak, his face resting on his right … [Read more...]

California’s tribal gaming industry is about to commit one of gambling’s ultimate sins. The group is leaving money on the table. The tribes submitted a ballot referendum a week ago that would legalize sports betting at Indian casinos and licensed racetracks. After collecting more than 1.4 million signatures, the tribes hope to place the question in front of voters in November 2022. Mobile … [Read more...]

Less than 24 hours after Nevada’s governor said he wasn’t closing the state’s casino industry for the second time this year despite rising COIVD-19 numbers, the initial shipment of the much-anticipated Pfizer-produced vaccine arrived in Las Vegas. Front-line health-care workers and residents at long-term care facilities are first in line to receive the doses, which began being administered on … [Read more...]

The sale of the Eldorado Casino in Henderson, Nevada, didn’t rattle the financial register for Boyd Gaming Corp. The Las Vegas-based regional gaming company still operates 28 casinos in 10 states. A small, slot-machine-only property – located in Nevada’s second-largest city 20 minutes south of the Strip – wasn’t a material piece of business for Boyd, which has a market capitalization hovering … [Read more...]

As legislatures throughout the U.S. return to business in 2021 – albeit under COVID-19 health and safety guidelines – gaming expansion is being considered in several states. Lawmakers and governors view casinos, sports betting, and igaming as providing a new form of tax revenue in an effort to repair massive budget deficits caused by the pandemic. Nevada, however, could be on the wrong … [Read more...]

Nevada’s governor doesn’t want to close casinos or limit visitation to the Las Vegas Strip, even as the state’s current COVID-19 infections show a “wildfire of community spread (that) continues to grow out of control.” More than a week after implementing a “three-week pause” that tightened capacity restrictions on casinos, restaurants, and private gatherings to 25%, Gov. Steve Sisolak said the … [Read more...]

To the casino industry, Texas is Captain Ahab’s white whale, Sir Galahad’s Holy Grail, and James Hilton’s Shangri-La. It’s the state about which casino operators have long dreamed. “Texas remains the largest untapped market for gaming in the United States. COVID-19 has seemingly made the state reachable,” said Global Market Advisors Director of Government Affairs Brendan Bussmann. “The Lone … [Read more...]

Progress on the development of an efficient vaccine to thwart the spread of coronavirus sent the stock markets to record levels this week. The news also changed some thoughts toward the gaming industry, notably the length of recovery time facing the Las Vegas Strip as the market seeks to get back to pre-COVID-19 levels. Fitch Ratings Service gaming analyst Alex Bumazhny said the availability … [Read more...]

Casino operator and budding sports betting provider Bally’s Corp. views its new partnership with media giant Sinclair Broadcast Group as a customer-acquisition vehicle. The Bally’s name will replace Fox on Sinclair’s 21 regional sports networks while wagering information and content will be provided on the group’s 190 television stations in 88 markets – 70% of all U.S. households. The agreement … [Read more...]

Long before he became famous for picking winners in the Super Bowl, Lem Banker was a tall, talented young basketball player growing up in New York and New Jersey. He was good enough to receive more than one college scholarship offer. He had a gift for numbers, you might say, but he wasn’t interested in an accounting degree. He was interested in betting on sports at a time when the activity was … [Read more...]