A new Caesars, made from the old Harrah’s, Caesars, and Eldorado By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • October 25, 2020 In yet one more shuffle in the gaming world, the former Harrah’s now has a new owner, Eldorado Resorts. In the process, Eldorado acquired a new brand name - Caesars - a list of customers as large as the population of England, and a bundle of casinos. Eldorado is now the proud possessor of 55 casinos, but arguably the most important assets that Eldorado acquired in the mammoth merger were loyal … [Read more...]
Analysts: Full House has the upper hand for Illinois casino project By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • October 24, 2020 A casino project in Waukegan, Illinois – roughly 40 miles north of downtown Chicago and 15 miles south of the Wisconsin state line – could increase the value of Las Vegas-based Full House Resorts by more than four times its current market capitalization. That’s the opinion of gaming analysts at Minneapolis-based investment firm Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Full House’s $375 million American … [Read more...]
The U.S. sports betting industry needs to get smart! By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • October 21, 2020 I was listening to an online discussion about the growth of online gambling in the U.S. and various industry figures were talking about what products were popular, which states were likely to legalise online gambling next, which companies might come out ahead and what products would be allowed. All appeared rosy in the garden, except perhaps in potentially the largest market, California, where too … [Read more...]
Old Hilltop and Old Randall Park By Bernard Kroviak, CDC Gaming Reports • October 20, 2020 Growing old has some disadvantages - and a few advantages as well, like gaining new perspectives on things. I don't have much of a clue about how the human brain functions, but it seems patently obvious to me that a younger one would have less in it than, say, a 70-year-old one. Of course, retrieving that stuff gets to be a problem for us older people every once in a while, but nonetheless, I’m … [Read more...]
Keeping an eye on the ball, and tracking the rebounds By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • October 18, 2020 Legal Sports Report recently reported on a study first published in the Journal of Prediction Markets that looked at NBA scorekeepers and the possibility the some of the data being recorded was subjective. The study suggested that there was pressure to produce some specific types of data. The study focused on rebounds, but other measurables intrinsic to sports might also be subject to the same … [Read more...]
Potential Bally’s branding and name change comprise an operational boost for Twin River By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • October 17, 2020 Twin River Worldwide Holdings is paying Caesars Entertainment $25 million to acquire Bally’s Atlantic City in a deal that was announced in April. We learned this week that Twin River is also purchasing the Bally’s intellectual property from Caesars for $20 million. So which is the better deal? Truist Securities gaming analyst Barry Jonas said taking control of the Bally name and brand, which … [Read more...]
Consensus: Gaming shows cooperative tone over Maryland sports betting referendum By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • October 13, 2020 Maryland’s sports betting ballot referendum has a more united effort and cooperative tone in the gaming industry than the state’s previous gaming expansion referendums. It only took eight years for détente to settle in. Sports betting operators and casino leaders are on the same page when it comes to Maryland’s Question 2. If approved by voters on Nov. 3, sports betting will head to the … [Read more...]
King James Packer will abdicate, and the Crown will survive By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • October 11, 2020 Media mogul Kerry Packer, the father of Australian casino king James Packer, was a gambler, and, when he died in late 2005, Australia’s richest man. Packer was famous for his gambling junkets. He was a high roller, a whale, willing to win or lose 30, 40, even 50 million dollars at a time. It is said he once offered to flip a coin - winner take all - for $100 million with a Texan who had bragged … [Read more...]
Fahrenkopf, having navigated gaming dustups, is capable of weathering political discourse By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • October 10, 2020 During a nearly two-decade tenure as CEO of the America Gaming Association, Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., navigated the complicated relationships within an industry where the Washington D.C.-based organization’s membership often had competing interests and weren’t always on speaking terms. For example, the AGA board included CEOs of International Game Technology and Bally Technologies, the two largest … [Read more...]
Pandemic-influenced woes continue to tarnish Macau’s gaming market By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • October 6, 2020 Golden Week isn’t so golden, and the reverberations of the depressed Macau gaming market are being felt in Las Vegas by three casino operators. Many analysts expected Golden Week – the second most lucrative holiday on the Chinese calendar – to be the turning point in boosting the gaming enclave that has experienced six straight months of 90% gaming revenue declines. Roth Capital Partners … [Read more...]
Focus on Asia: Junket jitters By Ben Blaschke, Managing Editor, Inside Asian Gaming • October 6, 2020 It’s hard to imagine any more challenging time for Asia’s VIP junket industry than 2020. That seems quite remarkable given the devastating impact China’s anti-graft campaign had on the sector in 2014 – stripping away two-thirds of its gross gaming revenue and forcing a period of consolidation that has seen the number of licensed junket operators in Macau fall by some 60% in the six years … [Read more...]
Focus on Asia: Will the pandemic change how Asian countries regulate smoking in casinos? By Andrew Klebanow, Principal, Klebanow Consulting • October 6, 2020 When COVID-19 first emerged as a global threat in February, Asian nations quickly responded by shutting down cross-border traffic and most commerce. Casinos across the region, along with other industries, were ordered to close. They have now begun to re-open, with a host of health and safety protocols in place to protect customers and employees. Cigarette smoking in casinos, long an accepted … [Read more...]
Despite loosened restrictions and new protocols, Las Vegas’ 2020 events calendar is dead By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • October 3, 2020 The reaction within Nevada’s gaming community last week to the lifting of the state’s 50-person cap on public and private gatherings ranged from mild skepticism to muted optimism. A few hours before Gov. Steve Sisolak announced the changes that expanded the ceiling to 250 people, MGM Resorts International unveiled a comprehensive conference attendee COVID-19 health and safety plan, which … [Read more...]
Confidence in downtown: Tip your hat to indefatigable Circa’s Derek Stevens By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • September 30, 2020 The history of the casino industry is full of confident characters, people who would have given P.T. Barnum a run for his money in the self-esteem department. In Las Vegas, a generation of men and women sold gambling to the masses as a time the activity was illegal in most of the nation. That alone takes a level of chutzpah not found in most people. For many years they led a parade by … [Read more...]
For Caesars Executive Chairman Gary Carano, gaming is a family business By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • September 29, 2020 The name Eldorado Resorts has been relegated to gaming’s history books. However, the operating culture established by the founding Carano family remains active within Caesars Entertainment, the successor corporation that operates 55 gaming properties in 16 states. Gary Carano, Caesars’ executive chairman who directed Eldorado through five casino company acquisitions in the last six years, … [Read more...]
Determining the value of a gambling business in an uncertain world By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • September 29, 2020 UK betting operator William Hill was always a bridesmaid and never a bride — until last week. William Hill is finally in play, with offers from the gambling behemoth, Caesars Entertainment, and private equity firm, Apollo, although Caesars appears to be the frontrunner. The offers are around £2.9 billion (US$3.7 billion), 272p per share, about a 50% markup on the pre-COVID price per share, but … [Read more...]
The game that shows how the game is changing By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • September 27, 2020 Monday Night Football has been an institution now for fifty years. For football fans, it is almost sacred: few things are more important on Monday night than watching The Game, no matter the matchup. Bars across the country - in pre-pandemic times, at least – schedule all sorts of promotions and specials around MNF: drink specials, meal deals, trivia contests, you name it. For players and teams … [Read more...]
Penn National stock sale ‘a necessary strategic decision’ and reflects company’s value By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • September 26, 2020 Remember when Penn National Gaming stock was trading at $3.75 per share? That’s ancient history, even though it was just six months ago. On Thursday, the regional casino operator sold 14 million shares of the company’s stock for $61 per share on the Nasdaq, raising $854 million – which could jump to $982.1 million if underwriters exercise their 30-day option to acquire another 2.1 million … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: Wave of U.S. igaming regulation by no means guaranteed By Jake Pollard, CDC Gaming Reports • September 25, 2020 The coronavirus health crisis has shown that a strong consumer appetite for igaming across the U.S. With social-distancing measures likely to be with us for some time and land-based casinos and racetracks coping with either significantly reduced footfall or full closures, the case for regulated interactive gambling seems clear-cut. The past six months have demonstrated that consumers are … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: Classic slots triumph in burgeoning US igaming markets By Hannah Gannagé-Stewart, CDC Gaming Reports • September 25, 2020 The success of a raft of new online slots, which replicate popular elements of land-based games, indicates that operators don’t have to reinvent the casino to make it work online. Games supplier Everi has seen consistent success with its slots in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with several ranking in the top ten or even top five of operators’ most popular slots. Everi’s EVP of sales, marketing … [Read more...]
Crown the triple, triple the Crown By Bernard Kroviak, CDC Gaming Reports • September 24, 2020 As I watched the Kentucky Derby on television this past Saturday, September 5th, I was struck by how weird it was that it was being run in September, instead of the traditional first Saturday in May. So much about what was going on was unusual that it was hard for me to grasp that this race was any different from the other big races contested earlier this year. And yet the stark contrast … [Read more...]
In Nevada, the political heavyweights are slugging it out in 2020 election By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • September 23, 2020 Campaign 2020 has me feeling a little out of breath. It’s not just the coronavirus pandemic blues, or the nation crossing the awful threshold of 200,000 COVID-19-related deaths. It’s the daily slugfest taking place in the presidential race, and the role casino giants and related industry-dependent entities are playing that have me sprinting to keep up. It’s no secret that Nevada is a … [Read more...]
Barstool’s entry increases the sports betting competition By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • September 22, 2020 Pennsylvania has become a microcosm in the growing nationwide competition for the sports gambling consumer. Penn National Gaming launched its highly anticipated sports betting app in partnership with sports media giant Barstool Sports in the state on Friday. By Sunday, according to SensorTower – a mobile-app intelligence service – the Barstool app had roughly 63,000 downloads. Morgan Stanley … [Read more...]
Déjà vu for fun and profit: betting on recycled horse races By Martin Owens, Attorney At Law, Special to CDC Gaming Reports • September 22, 2020 “The racetrack is the only place where the windows clean the people.” Joe E. Lucas Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Clancy and Shaughnessy went to the movies one weekend. It was an action thriller, and at a crucial point it looks like the hero is about to be ambushed by the villains. So Shaughnessy says, “bet you $10 that the bad guys lose the fight.” Clancy takes him up on it, and … [Read more...]
Doing the impossible: Trying to predict the future of the stock market By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • September 20, 2020 Trying to understand the ups and downs of the stock market, or any individual stock, is never easy. The explanations that analysts offer to attempt to explain the fluctuations in the market are always after the fact, and although some market soothsayers do attempt to predict the future, no one can successfully and consistently predict what the market will do tomorrow or next year. There are long … [Read more...]
New UNR president brings his gaming experience from the political realm to the academic setting By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • September 19, 2020 As Nevada governor, Brian Sandoval entered the office with more hands-on Nevada gaming experience than any previous chief executive, having served as both chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission and the state’s Attorney General. That was a decade ago. So it’s safe to say that Sandoval, who left a 15-month-old job as President of Global Gaming Development for MGM Resorts International to … [Read more...]
Gaming issues down on the list but remain relevant for president and vice president candidates By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • September 16, 2020 In the grand scheme of the Nov. 3 presidential election, gaming is far down on the list of issues voters will consider when choosing between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Coronavirus. The environment. The economy. Social justice. A myriad of headline-grabbing concerns pushes gaming far down the register. In a handful of states, gaming issues will help increase … [Read more...]
It’s long past time for more fresh air inside casinos By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • September 15, 2020 The Mirage made history when it opened in 1989 and set a new standard for style and design on the Las Vegas Strip. Journalists offered breathless rave reviews. Visitors packed the place to overflowing. Stars and business tycoons surrounded casino impresario Steve Wynn even as financial analysts and a few spoilsport columnists (me included) wondered aloud whether it could pay what looked like … [Read more...]
As the pandemic resurges, will gambling businesses survive local lockdowns? By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • September 15, 2020 The Pandemic Resurges Sadly, countries that were doing well in controlling the spread of the virus, such as Czechia, Austria and Slovenia, are now seeing a record number of new cases. Whilst these appear to represent a younger cohort than that seen in March and April, there is concern this is temporary and that younger people may spread the virus to older age groups, where mortality rates are … [Read more...]
Betting on the Bulls in number 23’s house By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • September 13, 2020 Basketball legend Michael Jordan has been in the news recently, you might have heard. It started in April, with the premiere of the first episode of a documentary on his basketball career, The Last Dance. Jordan played basketball for the Chicago Bulls in the 1980s and 90s and, as any sports fan knows, wore jersey number 23, except for a brief period just after his return in 1995 when he wore 45. … [Read more...]
Lack of enthusiasm from NFL fans? Not according to the sports betting industry By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • September 12, 2020 Don’t tell Bob Scucci there is a lack of enthusiasm among National Football League fans. Scucci, vice president of race and sports operations for Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming, isn’t expecting a drop-off in wagering at the company’s regional sportsbooks near or in NFL cities. For example, Diamond Jo Worth Casino in Northwood, Iowa – roughly 75 miles south of Minneapolis – is a second home for … [Read more...]
Remembering an attempt to organize a Las Vegas dealers union By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • September 9, 2020 Mike O’Callaghan had been the Governor of Nevada just a few months in May 1971 when he faced a crisis in his administration. Namely, what to do with New York attorney Wilfred “Bill” Davis. At a time when the presence of the enigmatic Howard Hughes was supposed to have brought the gaming industry out of the long shadow of the mob, a pipedream as it turned out, casino dealers in Las Vegas found … [Read more...]
Labor Day weekend was not a good look for Las Vegas in the COVID-19 era By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • September 8, 2020 Ahead of the Labor Day weekend holiday, Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairwoman Sandra Douglass Morgan had a simple directive for casino operators. It was “imperative,” she said, to “adhere to each aspect” of the agency’s health, safety, cleaning, and social distancing protocols “to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.” I’m not sure everyone heard the message. It’s one thing to require customers … [Read more...]
Michael Jordan, Wrigley Field: It’s all about DraftKings winning Illinois’ competitive market By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • September 5, 2020 After two moves this week, sports betting operator DraftKings has firmly planted its company’s flag in Illinois. In a span of 24 hours, DraftKings brought Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan – and his six NBA championship rings – on as a special advisor to the Boston-based company’s board, and then announced an agreement with the Chicago Cubs to develop a sportsbook at Wrigley Field, one of … [Read more...]
A Question of Balance By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • September 3, 2020 After I posted a link to my last article on LinkedIn, one of my contacts asked for my thoughts on whether a more relaxed approach to gambling was a good thing. Do the benefits of a liberal regime outweigh the negative consequences? Should governments “encourage” people to gamble or perhaps more accurately, not disincentivise them from doing so? Should they promote investment in gambling … [Read more...]
MGM layoffs a reminder of the scale of the industry – and the pandemic By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • September 2, 2020 The numbers are overwhelming. MGM Resorts International’s announcement this week that it was laying off 18,000 workers companywide due to the ongoing economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic sent a chill through the gaming industry. It’s not so much that the layoffs were unexpected. The reeling company furloughed approximately 62,000 employees in March in reaction to a shuttered economy. … [Read more...]
Analyst: It might be 2023 before the Las Vegas Strip is back to pre-COVID-19 figures By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • September 1, 2020 After covering the Las Vegas Strip’s gaming and tourism results for July, I’m reminded of the line uttered by Jack Nicholson’s cranky, bigoted, obsessive-compulsive writer Melvin Udall in the 1997 Oscar-winning film of the same name. “What if this is ‘As Good as it Gets?’” seems to neatly sum up 2020, the year of COVID-19. At least one gaming analyst believes that statement might be the … [Read more...]
Focus on Asia: Japan, we have a problem By Ben Blaschke, Managing Editor, Inside Asian Gaming • September 1, 2020 Two years ago, when Japan’s upper house passed the long-awaited IR Implementation Bill into law, the global gaming industry celebrated a milestone almost 20 years in the making. At that time, it seemed that development of the country’s casino and integrated resort industry was finally certain after so many false starts along the way. Fast forward two years and no longer can we look forward … [Read more...]
Focus on Asia: The emergence of regional market travel bubbles By Andrew Klebanow, Principal, Klebanow Consulting • September 1, 2020 When governments across the globe closed down their borders earlier this year in order to halt the spread of the Covid-19 virus, international tourism came to an abrupt halt. Casinos throughout Asia were forced to close and some only recently began to re-open with new health and safety protocols in place. Those that did re-open are now awaiting the resumption of international travel, … [Read more...]
One step forward, two steps back: Japan’s casino waltz By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • August 30, 2020 Japan has been the land of possible opportunity for expansion in the casino industry for roughly six years now. The prospect of developing a casino - the nation's first - in the Land of Rising Sun has attracted and excited virtually all of the leading international gaming companies. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been a driving force in setting the stage for potential casino resorts in Japan; if … [Read more...]
A crashed riverboat casino epitomizes the gaming industry’s year in 2020 By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • August 29, 2020 Hurricane Laura roared across western Louisiana with the strength to knock the Isle of Capri Lake Charles casino off its moorings. The storm sent the three-level riverboat across the lake, crashing into pillars supporting the Interstate 10 overpass. The highway connects the gaming community with Houston, its largest customer base 134 miles to the west. As the boat sat, a chlorine gas fire raged … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: Wave of U.S. igaming listings set to continue By Jake Pollard, CDC Gaming Reports • August 27, 2020 The trend of igaming companies listing in the U.S. via special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) shows that investor appetite is strong as the nascent sports betting industry gets going stateside. DraftKings has transitioned from daily fantasy sports to fixed-odds bookmaking with great success, merging with sports betting solutions provider SBTech and going live on the stock market with a … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: New trails for Indian gaming? Online considerations for the post-pandemic world. By Martin Owens, Attorney At Law, Special to CDC Gaming Reports • August 27, 2020 “Sovereignty is not given. It is taken.” - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Nobody thought it would get this big. In 1988, the Reagan administration backed congressional efforts to allow Indian tribes, nations, and bands to license gambling operations on their Federally designated lands. The aim was not to liberate gambling so much as it was to bolster the status of tribal governments, giving them access … [Read more...]
Sports betting media competition growing, but VSiN enjoys the company By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • August 25, 2020 It’s getting a little crowded in the sports betting media neighborhood. But VSiN CEO Brian Musburger isn’t complaining. The Las Vegas-based sports wagering network, launched in 2017 from a casino floor studio adjacent to the South Point’s sportsbook, is preparing to unveil 16 hours of daily live content next month. On Monday, Musburger announced a new line-up of programming and additions to … [Read more...]
The Vegas thing: Hitman Cullotta was right about old mob in the gaming business By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • August 24, 2020 Retired Chicago Outfit gangster Frank Cullotta wasn’t a “deeze and dozer,” but I’m not sure anyone would have called him a clever conversationalist. He still managed to utter one of the most prescient lines in the history of the Las Vegas casino industry. “It should have been so sweet,” Cullotta said at the conclusion of Nicholas Pileggi’s Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. “Everything was … [Read more...]
The Great Guessing Game By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • August 23, 2020 Trying to guess the future is an old game, albeit updated in 2020 with some pandemic twists. It is a great game to play, but very hard to handicap. These days, everyone is playing it in some fashion, trying to figure out what they need to protect them from the next disaster. Some are saving money; some continue to hoard toilet paper. Businesses are cutting expenses to be leaner and more efficient … [Read more...]
Casino operators large and small battle insurance firms over COVID-19 interruption claims By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • August 22, 2020 The San Diego Indian Tribe that operates the small Jamul Casino might want to give billionaire Phil Ruffin a call. The owner of Circus Circus and Treasure Island on the Las Vegas Strip could be a source of information. The Jamul Indian Village is suing a wholly-owned subsidiary of American International Group (AIG) over the denial of coverage for the east San Diego County casino’s losses from … [Read more...]
21 casinos. 9 states. 107 days. This player’s journey of staying COVID-19 free. By Brian Christopher, BC Slots • August 20, 2020 I’d like to take a gamble that I have visited more casinos in the U.S. since they re-opened post COVID-19 than anyone else. Since attending the first major casino re-opening by Coeur D’Alene Casino in Idaho the first week of May, I have visited a total of 21 casinos across nine states. I have done so with the utmost care and precaution, while ensuring to follow all state guidelines. Having been … [Read more...]
Having friends: It will be a long haul By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • August 19, 2020 Britain’s casinos have finally been allowed to reopen. The government gave the green light to nearly all the casinos, except those in areas still in lockdown where the incidence of new cases of COVID-19 is considered high. What has changed since the government drastically rescinded its permission at the eleventh hour at the end of July? Not much, really. If anything, the number of new cases of … [Read more...]
Questions surround DraftKings deal with Caesars as William Hill looms large By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • August 18, 2020 The rapidly expanding legal sports wagering landscape has led to some unusual partnerships. For example, how many “official sports betting partners” do the Denver Broncos require? On June 15, the NFL team announced FanDuel as the team’s official sports betting partner. A little more than three weeks later, the Broncos struck a similar deal with BetMGM. The same question could also be … [Read more...]
After spat, Adelson makes it known he’ll shower Trump campaign with gold By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • August 17, 2020 The tabloid-tinged squabble between President Donald Trump and his biggest donor, Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson, didn’t last long. That’s a good thing for a president mired in multiple scandals and flagging in the polls. From the horrendous response to the coronavirus pandemic to the stripping of the United States Postal Service in a campaign year that finds COVID-19-wracked … [Read more...]
That ticking sound is worrying more people than just Captain Hook By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • August 16, 2020 A modern version of Captain Hook in the crocodile’s belly is currently playing out in Macau. For a variety of reasons, Macau is now back in the news. Business is not better there just yet, but hope lurks, with a bit of luck, somewhere just over the horizon. China has announced a return of the normal visa process for its citizens to visit Macau. Residents of some cities in Guangdong Province … [Read more...]
Enigma of Steve Wynn continues to lurk in Nevada gaming regulatory matters By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • August 15, 2020 The simple transfer of ownership interest in a small Nevada company is often a perfunctory and routine matter for state gaming regulators. Last week, the Gaming Control Board took all of 10 minutes to approve the transfer of longtime casino executive Marc Schorr’s small stake in a tavern operation to his son. But it wasn’t that simple. The matter had been more than a year in the … [Read more...]
Trump call with mega-donor Adelson blows up, now heats up By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • August 12, 2020 When it comes to politics, Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson usually makes news by writing big checks. His millions fueled the rise of Donald Trump and have aided GOP causes for years. Now, the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands is making even bigger news for checks he didn’t write. Politico’s Alex Isenstadt first reported last week that a recent call between Adelson and President Trump … [Read more...]
Relief for Nevada’s restricted gaming operators wasn’t a perfect solution By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • August 11, 2020 Someone visiting a Nevada tavern lately might assume the place had been burglarized. In many locations, bar tops now have gaping holes where slot machines once sat. Last month, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced a directive that shut down standalone bars and bar top areas inside taverns and restaurants as part of the COVID-19 mitigation effort. Positive coronavirus tests had surged, and the … [Read more...]
Is it cheaper to keep some Las Vegas resorts closed during the pandemic? By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • August 8, 2020 Those resorts that haven’t reopened in Las Vegas in the weeks since Nevada lifted the 79-day gaming industry shutdown imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic attracted some unusual attention from the investment community this week. Maybe it’s the oddity of the situation. Beginning June 4, reopened casino-hotels were subject to protocols covering health, safety, cleaning, and social … [Read more...]
It’s the right thing to do, but casino closures batter the heart of Indian Country By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • August 5, 2020 GALLUP, N.M. – On a normal weekend, the parking lots of the Firerock Navajo Casino just off Interstate 40 is crammed to capacity with the cars, pickups, and long-haul big rigs of customers seeking a good time. But, of course, these days there are no normal weekends. And so the casino, officially located outside Gallup in Church Rock on old Interstate 66, is shuttered due to the coronavirus … [Read more...]
VICI Properties holds the cards – and 50 acres – in future Las Vegas Strip development By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • August 4, 2020 The real estate investment trust VICI Properties will have a loud voice in the post-pandemic recovery of the Las Vegas Strip. Ahead of the official closing of Eldorado Resorts’ $17.3 billion acquisition of Caesars Entertainment last month, VICI provided the newly combined company – now simply called Caesars – $400 million through a five-year mortgage loan on the Caesars Forum Convention Center. … [Read more...]
Focus on Asia: The industry reopens into its ‘new normal’ By Ben Blaschke, Managing Editor, Inside Asian Gaming • August 4, 2020 We’re barely weeks into the first stages of reopening the global land-based gaming industry and already we are seeing instances of what is inevitably going to be our “new normal” for the foreseeable future. In Australia, it took just three days after The Star Sydney reopened on 1 July to find its name in the media after it was confirmed a patron who later tested positive to COVID-19 had visited … [Read more...]
Focus on Asia: Japan’s other casino industry By Andrew Klebanow, Principal, Klebanow Consulting • August 4, 2020 The process to bring integrated casino resorts to Japan continues to evolve, albeit at a very slow pace. With the government’s introduction of numerous regulations over the last twelve months, several notable casino developers have decided to opt out of the forthcoming bidding process. A 30% tax on gaming revenue, a requirement that casino operators withhold taxes from gambling winnings from … [Read more...]
Operating Casinos in the Czech Republic during COVID-19 By Anna Všetečková • August 4, 2020 Casinos in the Czech Republic are slowly starting to recover after their compulsory shutdown for almost two months due to measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The casinos have been fully open since the middle of May; however, some health and safety measures still have to be followed. According to the newest resolutions of the Ministry of Health, a prohibition on events taking place in … [Read more...]
To sell or not to sell? The answer has to be no. By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • August 4, 2020 In the last few weeks, I have been approached by owners to find buyers for a casino group and a supplier to the industry. The owners of these businesses, whilst not forced to sell, decided that they no longer want to be in a land-based, public-facing leisure business or one that supplies this type of business. Their motivation to sell was due to the uncertainty that the future holds for these … [Read more...]
The Awful Awful: a horror story in real time By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • August 2, 2020 Recently, the Reno Gazette-Journal posted a short video clip on Facebook that showed a long line of people waiting to get into the restaurant of the Little Nugget in downtown Reno. They all wanted one thing: an Awful Awful burger. The name is said to stem from the fact that it is awfully big - two patties topped with a plethora of vegetables and a secret sauce, the recipe for which is a closely … [Read more...]
Absence of international visitation will prolong the Las Vegas COVID-19 recovery By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • August 1, 2020 Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport, the nation’s ninth-busiest travel hub, recorded just 70 total arriving and departing international passengers during June. All of them were coming from, or going to, Las Vegas and Calgary, Alberta, Canada on Calgary-based WestJet Airlines. Granted, compared to April and May - when the total combined number of McCarran’s international passengers was … [Read more...]
Thrills, no thrills, or big thrills? By Bernard Kroviak, CDC Gaming Reports • July 30, 2020 The first Saturday in May has come and gone with no Kentucky Derby, and, thus, no big thrills for racing fans. The Belmont Stakes, usually the last of the Triple Crown races, was run this year in June as the first, and proved to be a decent race, but, again, with no real thrills, probably due to there being no fans in the stands. NBC produced a virtual race for Derby Day, instead, called the … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: No online betting in California bill leaves a big unregulated hole By Jake Pollard, CDC Gaming Reports • July 30, 2020 As California’s 18-strong coalition of Native American tribes seeks to garner enough signatories to get the California Sports Wagering Regulation and Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act onto the 2022 ballot, the long and winding road that could see the biggest state economy in the U.S. regulate sports betting might be approaching (something like) its final stages. First announced in November … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: Keeping the black market at bay By Hannah Gannagé-Stewart, CDC Gaming Reports • July 30, 2020 The struggle between the regulated and unregulated gambling markets is much debated by policymakers and regulators all over the world. How do you balance essential consumer protection with the knowledge that legislating too harshly may push gamblers to unscrupulous offshore providers? The black market is not going to shut down overnight because an alternative legal market has been established, … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: Not ready for prime time – American igaming needs regulatory progress By Martin Owens, Attorney At Law, Special to CDC Gaming Reports • July 30, 2020 “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” - Peter Drucker The full impact of the COVID plague will not be known for years, but there are some obvious trends. In the world of Internet and interactive gaming, vast opportunities are unfolding. Especially since the main competition, brick-and-mortar operations, are still for the most part literally locked up. Even where land-based … [Read more...]
Eldorado-Caesars merger leads to unusual decision by NJ regulators By Dan Heneghan, Special to CDC Gaming Reports • July 29, 2020 The New Jersey Casino Control Commission, which is supposed to “encourage and preserve competition,” opted instead to further suppress it when it approved the recent merger of Eldorado Resorts and Caesars Entertainment. Let me stress at the outset, it was a good deal that deserved to be approved. But to properly apply the Casino Control Act, the commission should have required the merged … [Read more...]
Governor: ‘Unpredictability hasn’t been easy’ as gaming deals with COVID-19 fallout By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • July 28, 2020 Nevada’s governor had two messages for the state’s gaming industry Monday. He clearly doesn’t want to order casinos to close for the second time this year. He also offered a muted apology to restricted gaming operators, many of which had their slot machines turned off July 10. “I know the past five months have been rough on businesses and residents throughout our country, and Nevada is no … [Read more...]
Is this the time to ban smoking in casinos? By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • July 27, 2020 Among the many things that the coronavirus has done, it has reopened the old debate on smoking in casinos. The traditional belief held that smokers gamble and gamblers smoke; in that reality, banning smoking in casinos was unthinkable. But in the time of the pandemic, the unthinkable has become thinkable. In the first few years of the 21st century, there was a concentrated, national effort to ban … [Read more...]
Frankness from a top Sands executive: Las Vegas casinos are in a ‘world of hurt’ By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • July 25, 2020 Give Las Vegas Sands President Rob Goldstein credit for his candor is discussing the current operating environment in Las Vegas. Just don’t expect to hear those remarks on the next tourism advertisement promoting the Strip. Goldstein, during the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call, didn’t sugarcoat his assessment of the nation’s largest gaming market, which is trying to rebound … [Read more...]
Stardust Memories: Ex-Strip casino name attached to Boyd Gaming social app By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • July 21, 2020 Boyd Gaming’s new Stardust Social Casino app likely won’t stay a social app for very long. The Las Vegas-based regional casino operator has relaunched the bulk of its operations following some three months of closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. But during the shutdown, the company couldn’t miss the iGaming results coming out of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where Boyd operates the Valley … [Read more...]
Can the industry speak with one voice about gambling addiction? By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • July 21, 2020 The UK has now had three recent reports into reducing the harm from gambling. The recommendations in these reports run from the sensible to the ridiculous and nearly all, if implemented, will have a negative impact on the immediate financial viability of both online and the offline sectors. When faced with a common threat, the industry responded by forming a single industry group, the Betting and … [Read more...]
Casinos are reopening — and we all need to do our part By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • July 21, 2020 Casinos in England received approval to reopen their doors from August 1, though most casinos in the rest of Europe have been allowed to reopen for a few weeks now. However, the green light was not before Genting UK, which operate 42 casinos in the UK, announced they were laying off over 1,600 people from the UK group, an average of almost 40 per casino. No one, apart from the UK Government, knows … [Read more...]
Oh, no, not G2E, too? By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • July 19, 2020 Unless you have been living under a rock or you’ve just arrived on a spaceship from a distant planet (and if you did, you might want to think about hopping back on that spaceship before you get too settled) you know the world is currently in the throes of a pandemic. Likely not since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 has the world seen an event like this – and, as was the case with the Black Death … [Read more...]
Vegas sees a coronavirus spike; could a temporary casino smoking ban be an answer? By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • July 18, 2020 A week ago, I turned down a news radio station's request to come on and discuss rumors of Las Vegas casinos closing once again due to a surge of coronavirus cases in Nevada. A few days later, Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered bars and bar top areas in restaurants and taverns closed in the state’s most populous counties, which eliminated a large portion of Nevada’s slots-only restricted gaming … [Read more...]
One Nevada tavern operator finds a loophole as competition sees slot machines silenced By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • July 14, 2020 Legislating in the midst of a nationwide pandemic can lead to unintended consequences. That might be one explanation why Nevada’s governor did a favor for a gaming company he was at loggerheads with during his time as chairman of the Clark County Commission. A large segment of Nevada’s restricted gaming industry was sidelined last weekend when Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered stand-alone bars and … [Read more...]
G2E will return in 2021, but the gaming industry conference will be reimagined By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • July 11, 2020 The cancellation of the Global Gaming Expo wasn’t a surprise. One could read the signs. Nevada’s cases of COVID-19 surged over the past three weeks, including Friday’s 1,004 new cases that was the second-highest single-day figure since the pandemic began. Las Vegas hotel-casinos are still operating at 50% capacity, have reduced restaurant and dining options, still can’t have more than 50 … [Read more...]
Strip resorts yet to reopen may sit vacant for several more months By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • July 7, 2020 The opening of The Mirage in 1989 – the Las Vegas Strip’s first all-new resort in nearly 15 years – proclaimed the start of an unprecedented building boom that changed the skyline of the city and brought some two dozen new properties to the boulevard over the next several decades. Maybe its eventual reopening will provide Las Vegas with a new beacon of hope. The Mirage closed on March 18 … [Read more...]
Focus on Asia: Macau’s seventh heaven? By Ben Blaschke, Managing Editor, Inside Asian Gaming • July 7, 2020 This commentary appears in the Premier Issue of Focus on Asia, published July 7, 2020. If there is one silver lining to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic for the new Macau government, it’s the reprieve it has granted them on questions about the re-tendering process for Macau gaming licenses. The reprieve won’t last long. With the licenses of all six concessions and sub-concessions due to expire … [Read more...]
Focus on Asia: The Problem With POGOs By Andrew Klebanow, Principal, Klebanow Consulting • July 7, 2020 This commentary appears in the Premier Issue of Focus on Asia, published July 7, 2020. The worldwide closure of casinos in the first half of 2020 has sparked renewed interest in online gambling. European countries have long offered a variety of online gaming products, primarily computer-generated forms of table games and slot machines. A different type of online wagering, called E-Casinos, … [Read more...]
Opening Up for Business By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • July 7, 2020 European countries are emerging from lockdown and gambling businesses are reopening. No one knows what to expect, other than business is likely to be down compared to before the pandemic struck. It appears that every country is allowing casinos to reopen, with the exception of the UK. This may have something to do with the UK government’s late response to the growing threat from the … [Read more...]
Dancing with the Dragon By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • July 5, 2020 Keeping an eye on China and Macau from seven thousand miles away is never easy, but it can be very entertaining watching foreigners dance with the dragon. Between May 21st and May 27th, the Chinese Communist Party held two meetings: the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Conference. “Representatives of the Chinese people gather to chart the … [Read more...]
Culinary lawsuit spells bad news for gaming companies trying to put on a happy face By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • July 1, 2020 You could see it coming for weeks. Like an approaching storm, representatives of UNITE-HERE and its behemoth Las Vegas Local 226 have voiced their concerns about service worker health and safety almost from the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, as many organized labor watchers have predicted for weeks, the union made good on its threat to take action if its demands for increased … [Read more...]
FTC dissenting commissioner: Eldorado-Caesars merger ‘risky for everyone involved’ By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • June 30, 2020 Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra went scorched-earth in his dissenting opinion in the Eldorado Resorts-Caesars Entertainment merger. No one was spared. In his four-page opposition, Chopra said there were “no noteworthy benefits to customers, workers, suppliers, or competition” from the $17.3 billion buyout of Caesars by Eldorado. “The transaction is risky for everyone … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: U.S. and EU sectors hope for sustainable restarts By Jake Pollard, CDC Gaming Reports • June 29, 2020 The return of top-level soccer across most European leagues and the National Basketball Association’s restart scheduled for July are hugely welcome. As suppliers and sportsbooks focus on user experience and adhering to the highest responsibility commitments, they are also hoping the reopenings across the U.S. and Europe can be sustained. All major European soccer leagues, apart from France’s, … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: Changing sensibilities By Hannah Gannagé-Stewart, CDC Gaming Reports • June 29, 2020 This commentary appears in the Igaming Focus Issue #4, published June 29, 2020. As igaming gains traction in the U.S., the famously liberal UK seems to be adopting an increasingly cautious attitude to online gambling. In a report from the UK’s Gambling Related Harm All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) last week, it was recommended that new controls should be applied to the industry. These … [Read more...]
The Biggest Little City becomes the Best Small City By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • June 28, 2020 Reno has just experienced an unusual event: its past met its future in the third week of June. The death of Harrah’s Reno has meant that Reno is now the Best Small City in the land. In a moment of extreme sadness for many in Reno, on June 5, Harrah’s Reno officially ceased to exist. The building itself remains, but not the name or the casino, named by its founder after his family. Tired of … [Read more...]
California’s latest effort to legalize sports betting resembles state’s failure at Internet poker By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • June 27, 2020 At this rate, Utah – one of two states still without any form of regulated gaming – will have legal sports betting before California. Two competing efforts to provide voters at least one, if not two, sports betting ballot initiatives in November ended unceremoniously last week. Lawmakers pulled a constitutional change measure from consideration after being faced with the Herculean task of … [Read more...]
Adams Analysis Q2 2020: Influencers and A New Spectator Sport By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • June 26, 2020 Originally sent out on June 16, 2020 to CDC Premium Subscribers, we have made this quarter's Adams Analysis free to all readers. A new category of influencers has emerged recently: YouTube slot players. The host of a YouTube video goes to a casino and plays slot machines while making a videocast of the action. Followers and subscribers sit at home and watch the action. If they like what they … [Read more...]
New normal acknowledged: In Nevada, Gov. Sisolak directs masks for locals, visitors By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • June 24, 2020 Las Vegas is the party capital of just about everywhere, but how do you celebrate in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic? Very carefully, my friend, very carefully. But that doesn’t mean hope is lost or business can’t be conducted (if not as usual). The challenge is getting it right, and Nevada’s Gov. Steve Sisolak finds himself frustrated by that calculus as many states in the region loosen … [Read more...]
More than ‘one bite’ at a time when Barstool’s Portnoy defends deal with Penn National By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • June 23, 2020 Here’s what the gaming investment community learned during June: David Portnoy, founder and self-proclaimed “El Presidente” of the Barstool Sports media platform, doesn’t have a filter. He is willing to fiercely defend the stock price of Penn National Gaming, his company’s business partner, via wave after wave of profanity-laced rants on his various social media channels, each of which draw … [Read more...]
News alert: Golden Nugget defeats Borgata in cyberspace By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • June 21, 2020 Casinos began to open again in May after being closed for half of March and all of April. Even the states that did open, however, will only have revenue for a few days. Louisiana is the only state that has reported so far, gaming revenue from the state’s 14 casinos and 3 racinos was down 69% to $70 million. VLTs on the Bayou reported $23.9 million in win. Casinos in Mississippi, Missouri and South … [Read more...]
The quiet death of Harrah’s Reno; it deserved a better departure By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • June 20, 2020 Sadly, one of the Nevada gaming industry’s historic landmarks won’t have a proper send-off. To be fair, the announcement Wednesday that Harrah’s Reno is now permanently closed was not a surprise. The property had been shuttered since mid-March because of the coronavirus-related shutdown of Nevada’s casino industry. But the days became numbered for Harrah’s Reno back on January 15 - … [Read more...]
In Las Vegas, convention authority board member’s racial controversies heat up By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • June 17, 2020 At a time Las Vegas has been aching for a little good news as it gradually reopens its doors to visitors, it depends more than ever on its ability to communicate an attractive brand message to a world buffeted by a coronavirus pandemic and massive racial justice demonstrations. That’s why some people are bound to start wondering whether controversial Las Vegas Las Vegas City Councilwoman … [Read more...]
Advice: Make mask wearing inside casinos mandatory for everyone By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • June 16, 2020 Comments Monday from Nevada’s governor and the state’s top gaming regulator stopped short of ordering casino visitors to wear facial masks when they are inside a resort property. For now. Nevada recorded its highest spike in positive tests for COVID-19 on Tuesday – 11 days after the state’s casino industry reopened under reduced capacity guidelines and health and safety protocols. Obviously, … [Read more...]
The Covid-19 pandemic will be over by September 5 By Bernard Kroviak, CDC Gaming Reports • June 15, 2020 That headline, unfortunately, is far from fact; it’s simply the hope of the over 150,000 horse racing fans who had been planning to watch the 2020 Kentucky Derby live and in person. Traditionally scheduled for the first Saturday in May, the Derby is annually America's most lavishly attended horse race of the year. This year, the Run for the Roses has been rescheduled for the first Saturday in … [Read more...]
Sports betting could become a hot ticket item for the stock market players By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • June 13, 2020 With casinos reopening across the U.S. in the COVID-19 environment, legal sports betting is drawing renewed attention as the gaming industry recovers from its nationwide shutdown. The interest, however, comes from a different type of wagering. Gaming analysts and investors are beginning to view the sports betting universe beyond point spreads and future lines. Analysts see sports betting as … [Read more...]
Can visitors resist throwing caution to the wind in Las Vegas? By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • June 10, 2020 I hit the Las Vegas Strip during Thursday’s reopening at several mega-resort casinos as part of CDC Gaming Reports’ team coverage. It was an intriguing blend of the familiar and the foreign. Most of the visitors I interviewed said they felt similarly – anxious and yet anticipating – but to a person, they all related the same message: They’ve really missed their Vegas. And they said they were … [Read more...]
Nothing nefarious: Actions by Nevada congresswoman helped small gaming businesses nationwide By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • June 9, 2020 It’s not as if Nevada Congresswoman Susie Lee sat through a confidential briefing on the coronavirus outbreak and then profited by selling off millions of dollars from her personal stock portfolio shortly afterward, directly ahead of an epic market collapse that coincided with the spreading pandemic. That would be what Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia … [Read more...]
The gaming industry will soon begin comparisons to the ‘pre-COVID-19’ era By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • June 6, 2020 Olympic marathon champion Frank Shorter said one reason he enjoyed long-distance running was his willingness “to move forward and find out what happens next.” That might be an appropriate description for the nation’s gaming industry as it moves forward in a post-pandemic era. As of Friday, 519 commercial and tribal casinos had reopened in 25 states, according to figures compiled by the … [Read more...]
No amount of plexiglass will keep COVID-19 out of a casino By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • June 2, 2020 My initial thought walking through Bellagio on Monday morning – my first time inside the Strip resort since mid-March, when the spreading coronavirus pandemic shut down gaming across the U.S. – was that right now is a good time to be in the plexiglass business. The use of the clear acrylic material – in an effort by casino operators throughout the county to meet post-COVID-19 social distancing … [Read more...]
Too many eggs in the same basket By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • May 31, 2020 In the modern world, for better or worse, the economy is all. If the economy fails, society itself is at risk. Now, of course, we are living in a time when the economy did not fail on its own but was closed down by the government. To protect people from the COVID-19 pandemic, all non-essential activities have been restricted by gubernatorial edict. The crisis has led to many conflicts and … [Read more...]
Opinion: Nevada casinos cannot voluntarily go smoke-free, especially now By Jeffrey Compton, CDC Gaming Reports • May 30, 2020 I have never smoked. I don’t allow smoking in my home or my car. As a frequent single diner, I prefer eating a meal at a bar over sitting alone at a table, but I avoid bars that permit smoking. I’ve lost many people close to me to smoking-related illnesses, including my only sibling, Bill Compton, in 2007. I dislike smoking intensely! But I do know that Nevada casinos cannot voluntarily go … [Read more...]
The Strip returns from a 78-day hiatus, but what toll did the pandemic take? By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • May 30, 2020 We know Nevada’s casino industry is reopening shortly after midnight Thursday following an unprecedented 78-day closure in response to the coronavirus pandemic. What shape the market resembles is a tough question to answer. Roughly half of the Strip resorts will remain on the sidelines next week, barring last-minute reopening plans. The resorts that are welcoming back customers face a 50% … [Read more...]
Casinos need to take one more step to protect customers, employees By Mark Gruetze, CDC Gaming Reports • May 28, 2020 Casinos about to reopen have an unprecedented opportunity to improve their safety for customers and employees. Along with the deep cleanings, disinfection procedures, and social distancing standards to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, this is the perfect time for casinos to add one more element to protect against another significant threat to public health. They should reopen … [Read more...]
Thinking small as Nevada casinos get the green light to reopen By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • May 27, 2020 With a smile on his face and a calculator between the ears, Jackie Gaughan was proud of his El Cortez whether it came to the craps odds or prime rib special. He loved to walk the floor of his place in a loud sports coat and greeted employees and customers by name. He could be forgiven for noting that his joint netted more profit than flashier operations on Fremont Street and parts of the … [Read more...]
Casinos return, but it will be a slow road back for gaming equipment providers By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • May 27, 2020 The restart of the nation’s casino industry isn’t the automatic elixir that will revive gaming equipment manufacturers after COVID-19 put a financial beat down on the sector over the last two months. For slot machine makers, recovery is going to require additional time. More than a dozen states and tribal governments are allowing casinos – closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: Sports restart lifts the gloom as igaming shows its value By Jake Pollard, CDC Gaming Reports • May 27, 2020 As sports make a most welcome return, fears that the coronavirus could mark a terminal point for the igaming industry have not materialised. If anything, the online vertical has proved its worth during COVID-19. It is not difficult to imagine the relief that must have swept through the offices of the world’s online sportsbooks when German referees blew their whistles on 16 May to mark the … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: UK Gambling Commission observes gambling behaviour during lockdown By Hannah Gannagé-Stewart, CDC Gaming Reports • May 27, 2020 Another month, another post-apocalyptic column. Just six months ago, it would have seemed absurd to ponder the effect of a global pandemic on the gambling industry, a most esoteric public-health study, but here we are. It’s tempting to believe, as we all search for silver linings, that something good may come out of the way the industry handled COVID-19. Regulators were quick to strengthen the … [Read more...]
Reevaluating old practices and assumptions By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • May 25, 2020 The Reopening of 2020 has begun. and with it, a rethinking of previous business models and assumptions is underway. The first commercial jurisdiction to open was South Dakota; casinos in Deadwood began to reopen May 9. Two weeks later, regulators in Louisiana and Mississippi allowed casinos to reopen after two months of closure due to COVID-19. Other states are expected to follow in June and July, … [Read more...]
Recovering from a global pandemic requires gaming to write a whole new playbook By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • May 23, 2020 Biloxi, Mississippi wrote the playbook 15 years ago on how a casino community recovers from a cataclysmic event after Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped out the Gulf Coast gaming market. Granted, there isn’t a script for dealing with the economic and emotional damage the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted on the nation’s entire gaming business over the past two months. No one plans for an entire … [Read more...]
Now is a great time for gaming and culinary union leaders to have a show of solidarity By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • May 20, 2020 Call me naive, just about everyone does. Say I’m daydreaming if it suits you. But with major casinos in Las Vegas and elsewhere slowly returning to life amid the grave challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, now would be an ideal time for industry leaders and Culinary Union officials to stand together in a genuine show of solidarity for a common goal. You know, their mutual survival. To … [Read more...]
Casino reopenings begin, but some properties will remain permanently closed By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • May 19, 2020 Commercial and tribal casinos in more than a dozen states have slowly begun the process of reopening after being closed for more than two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. There are some casinos, however, that may not ever reopen. In heavily competitive markets, gaming companies may choose to permanently close under-performing casinos, in the hopes that the location can either be sold … [Read more...]
Pent-up demand after the Great Lockdown By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • May 17, 2020 It has been two months since the Great Lockdown began, taking the casino industry into a dark cave with all the other “non-essential” businesses in the country. By the 16th of March, every casino in the United States was closed. In state after state, the governor declared a crisis due to what we now call COVID-19. Not all states followed the same guidelines, but in general non-essential businesses … [Read more...]
As casinos reopen the business model ‘requires reimagining’ for health and safety By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • May 16, 2020 The limited casino reopenings announced last week by states and tribal governments took place so quickly that gaming operators responded in real-time. For example, during Caesars Entertainment’s quarterly conference call Monday afternoon, CEO Tony Rodio discussed the planned health and safety measures for casinos in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Atlantic City, and Council Bluffs, Iowa. In the … [Read more...]
Siegfried & Roy connected with several eras of Las Vegas entertainment By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • May 13, 2020 Siegfried & Roy were as Vegas old school as dinner shows, coin-in slot machines, and the $1.99 all-you-can-eat buffet. But Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn were also a connection from the aging Strip showrooms of the 1970s to the elaborate multimillion-dollar theaters that make up the modern Las Vegas resort industry. Their career in Las Vegas touched parts of five decades … [Read more...]
Penn National remains positive on Barstool Sports deal in a post-pandemic world By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • May 9, 2020 Even without real sports for the past eight weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s been a banner two months for media platform Barstool Sports. The company, which is 36% owned by regional casino operator Penn National Gaming, saw blog traffic jump 20% during April while social media views across Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and other accounts are up 50%. What does that mean for Penn … [Read more...]
Long-serving Black Book member lived in the shadows of notoriety By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • May 6, 2020 As notorious characters go, Louis Tom Dragna didn’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of the hoodlum element. Throughout much of his long life – he died in 2012 at age 92 -- he appeared to spend much of his time living up to – or was it down to? – his family’s reputation. His uncle Jack Dragna was the violent boss of the Los Angeles mob from the 1930s until he dropped dead of a heart attack in … [Read more...]
Stock investors betting on DraftKings with additional sports wagering expansion coming By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • May 5, 2020 Sports betting and daily fantasy website DraftKings launched as a public company two weeks ago with extraordinarily little to wager on. That is, unless you have intimate knowledge of soccer from Belarus or Russian table tennis. That fact didn’t deter investors. Shares of DraftKings rose more than 10% on the Nasdaq on the first day of trading, and the pace hasn’t slowed. On Tuesday, the … [Read more...]
Are they casinos or hospitals? Gaming leaders increase hygiene and cleaning measures By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • May 2, 2020 We’re starting to get an idea of what casinos will look like once they are allowed to reopen in the era of COVID-19. In some cases, the protocols for hygiene, sanitation, disinfecting, and cleaning on gaming floors are going to rival hospitals. No, a doctor won’t be able to perform open-heart surgery at a blackjack table. But casino operators don’t want their guests worried about contracting … [Read more...]
Most LV gaming, political leaders singing in tune on post-pandemic reopening By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • April 29, 2020 Las Vegas Boulevard is still quiet and will remain so for now. But a lot is happening in preparation for a slow-rolling reopening at the appropriate time. That runs contrary to the damaging and nonsensical blather of Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and the Astroturf reopening protests that have been taking place on the Strip and throughout the country. Goodman has been shouting about throwing … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: How will the igaming sector counter the critics when all this is over? By Jake Pollard, CDC Gaming Reports • April 29, 2020 This commentary is a part of the April 2020 issue of Igaming Focus. Jake Pollard is an experienced freelance gaming journalist. He is based in London, UK, and covers all business and regulatory topics relevant to online gaming and betting companies. Campaigning by politicians and pressure groups against the igaming sector will continue after COVID-19 is over. Operators must have the data to … [Read more...]
Igaming Focus: Flutter and Stars Group tie the knot in uncertain times By Hannah Gannagé-Stewart, CDC Gaming Reports • April 29, 2020 This commentary is a part of the April 2020 issue of Igaming Focus. Amid the unrelenting COVID-19 news, a mega-merger has been brewing between The Stars Group (TSG) and Flutter Entertainment. The two industry behemoths, probably as of late May, will become the world’s biggest business-to-consumer (B2C) online gambling business. The acquisition of TSG by Flutter was first mooted in October … [Read more...]
No slots, no problem: Social gaming steps in to fill the empty space By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • April 28, 2020 Slot machines around the country are silenced. But slot players are still in the game - albeit trying now to win non-cash awards, rather than life-changing jackpots. With nearly 1,000 casinos closed throughout the U.S., social gaming has filled the void. Research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming noted this month that social gaming revenues were roughly $5.7 billion in the last 12 months. In … [Read more...]
Post-virus, Macau creeps back to life By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • April 26, 2020 Americans are currently debating the proper time and manner by which to end the coronavirus lockdowns and open non-essential businesses, including casinos. As each state makes its plans, there are few precedents to consider. Biloxi, Mississippi is probably the best candidate; its casinos have been closed before by hurricanes, so, while it's far from a perfect parallel, Mississippi's operators are … [Read more...]
Put on a medical facemask if you want to go back to a casino By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • April 25, 2020 A reporter from MSNBC covering the shutdown of the Las Vegas Strip because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic asked me this week about smoking inside casinos once they reopen. Nevada gaming operators have maintained a longstanding opposition to any casino smoking prohibition despite efforts by anti-smoking organizations and health activists, and notwithstanding casino smoking bans in nearly … [Read more...]
Wynn Resorts offers a thoughtful way forward amid pandemic noise By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • April 22, 2020 These are strange and challenging days for the gaming industry, and not merely because its high-rises, marquees and casinos are dark in the midst of a deadly worldwide coronavirus pandemic. It’s been a little over a month. An unprecedented shutdown has put many thousands out of work and sent stocks plummeting. Some are being kept on salary, but many are not. The heartache at home is … [Read more...]
Willie Davis: A Hall of Famer on the football field and in the MGM board room By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • April 21, 2020 Willie Davis was a giant, both on the football field and in the board room. Davis, who died last week at age 85 of kidney failure, had a well-documented Hall of Fame football career as a defensive lineman with the Green Bay Packers during the era of Vince Lombardi, winning five NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls with the team. His business career following his NFL retirement was equally … [Read more...]
What will the new normal be and what will it mean for the land-based gambling industry? By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • April 20, 2020 The question on everybody’s lips is, when will we come out of lockdown? As I have stated before, this is a difficult question to answer. Due to the lockdown, measured infection and death rates are declining, but the novel coronavirus is still in our communities. We still do not know enough about it or the real rate of infection to say with any accuracy what will happen when we do open our doors … [Read more...]
And the first one bites the dust By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • April 19, 2020 It did not take long - a month, give or take a day - before the first casino in Nevada closed permanently, a victim of the coronavirus pandemic. The Lakeside Inn and Casino, on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe, announced on April 14 that it would not reopen after the coronavirus crisis has passed. It is not certain right now when any casino in Nevada will open - probably not before the second week of … [Read more...]
Without the NFL Draft, the shuttered Las Vegas Strip seems even emptier By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • April 18, 2020 This week was the week that Las Vegas was going to be the center of the football universe. But now, the legions of boisterous NFL fans that would have otherwise wandered the Strip wearing the caps and jerseys of their favorite teams have been replaced by silence. The three-day 2020 NFL Draft was expected to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to Las Vegas starting this Thursday. But when … [Read more...]
Time to get Nevada back to work (and play): An open letter to Governor Steve Sisolak By Jeffrey Compton, CDC Gaming Reports • April 15, 2020 Let me begin, Governor Sisolak, by applauding your past decisions about the COVID-19 pandemic. Though your orders seriously affected almost every business in Nevada, including CDC Gaming Reports, they also saved lives, sharply slowing the spread of the disease and preventing what could have been a severe strain on our state’s healthcare system. Based on the New York Times Coronavirus in the … [Read more...]
RIP XFL, but will its acceptance of sports betting live on in other leagues? By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • April 14, 2020 The upstart XFL this week became the first professional sports league to fall victim to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. But unlike the NBA, NHL and major league baseball, which suspended play, the XFL filed for bankruptcy and has no plans to attempt a return in 2021. For the sports betting community, the loss of the XFL was a blip on the parlay card compared to the cancellation of the NCAA’s … [Read more...]
Looking for a recovery model By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • April 13, 2020 The COVID-19 coronavirus crisis is far from over. People in every walk of life are trying to adjust to living small and staying away from other people as much as possible. In their isolation, people are inventing fascinating ways to entertain themselves and their friends. But underneath the creativity and humor is anxiety. Regardless of what you do for a living, your employment, your income has … [Read more...]
Culinary leader rips casino industry for not stepping up during pandemic By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • April 12, 2020 The head of the nation’s largest service employees union on Thursday blasted MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment for not “stepping up” and doing more to help thousands of the companies’ hotel-casino workers put off the job during the novel coronavirus pandemic. “In every community, the casino industry has come to, they have always proclaimed a few things,” said D. Taylor, … [Read more...]
It’s only been a month, and we have a long road ahead of us By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • April 11, 2020 It was a mid-March afternoon – Friday the 13th, as fate would have it – when gaming regulators closed Illinois’ 10 riverboat casinos, making it the first state to order a shutdown due to the spreading COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Illinois soon wouldn’t be alone. The next 48 hours developed into a vortex as more than a dozen states followed Illinois’ lead. I exchanged text messages throughout … [Read more...]
On the lighter side: a quick trip to the Fair Grounds By Bernard Kroviak, CDC Gaming Reports • April 9, 2020 In this time of world crisis, it hardly seems my place to say anything more about the trials and tribulations of our society. So I thought this time, instead, I’d simply share a light, hopefully enjoyable story about another one of our sojourns. Our friendly band of handicappers usually numbered anywhere between 3 and 10, depending on the destination and time of year. For this particular trip, we … [Read more...]
Is it time to create a new in-house health care system for mega-resorts? By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • April 8, 2020 You would have liked Dr. Joseph Fink. I suppose just about everyone did. The good doctor, locally famous as the house physician at Caesars Palace, died in December 2011 after nearly 50 years as a Las Vegas resident. Fink was smart and funny, and did he ever make “house calls.” The fact he made those calls at what was then the grandest hotel-casino this side of Monte Carlo only made his duty … [Read more...]
‘Open for Business?’ Don’t expect busy gaming floors when the casino industry restarts By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • April 7, 2020 Even if the gaming industry were to receive the all-clear tomorrow to reopen casinos and resorts closed by the coronavirus pandemic, there wouldn’t be throngs of customers waiting at the entrances. The cloud of COVID-19 will be hovering above the surface. It may remain that way well into the summer months. While professional sports leagues are debating restarting their suspended seasons … [Read more...]
If you have to bet on ‘Tiger King,’ you have a gambling problem By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • April 4, 2020 The expansion of regulated sports betting in the U.S. over the past two years was considered a knife through the heart of the multi-billion-dollar illegal sports betting market. But the closure of the nation’s casino industry in an effort to slow the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has given the illegal offshore betting markets new life. Closed casinos also led to silenced retail … [Read more...]
Baffert speaks and beleaguered thoroughbred industry should listen By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • April 1, 2020 Bob Baffert knows all about high stakes. And the stakes couldn’t be higher in his beloved thoroughbred racing industry these days. The trainer famous for his Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify and a long list of other major victories are easy to find on race day. He’s the man with the shock of white hair standing in the winner’s circle. Now he’s standing up for federal reform … [Read more...]
‘Unprecedented’ Las Vegas Strip casino closure is one for the history books By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • March 31, 2020 Historians don’t like to use the word unprecedented. “We try to avoid it,” said Michael Green, a history professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has authored several books on the gaming capital, including 2005's Las Vegas: A Centennial History. However, Green has found himself forced to use the usually verboten term in the past few weeks. The shutdown of the Las Vegas Strip … [Read more...]
UK gambling must respond positively to coronavirus crisis By Jake Pollard, CDC Gaming Reports • March 31, 2020 Jake Pollard is an experienced freelance gaming journalist. He is based in London, UK, and covers all business and regulatory topics relevant to online gaming and betting companies. The coronavirus pandemic has unleashed a series of events on the gambling industry that no one could have foreseen as recently as three weeks ago. In the UK, it is easy to forget that as we approached mid-March, … [Read more...]
Drawing the curtain on Black Friday By Hannah Gannagé-Stewart, CDC Gaming Reports • March 31, 2020 Last week saw the culmination of a ten-year campaign by the U.S. justice system to bring Isai Scheinberg, the founder of Internet-gambling giant PokerStars, before a federal court. Scheinberg was already in Europe when the U.S. government turned out the lights on three major online poker operators that continued to run ostensibly above-board businesses despite various legislation challenging … [Read more...]
Is proxy gambling ready for a comeback? By Andrew Klebanow, Klebanow Consulting • March 31, 2020 In May 2016, Macau’s gaming regulatory body, known as the DICJ, banned the use of mobile phones by players sitting at gaming tables in the city’s casinos. The ban’s intent was to put an end to proxy gambling, a form of wagering that allows punters to enjoy casino gaming without actually being present in the casino. Prior to that ban, it was estimated that proxy gambling accounted for nearly 10% of … [Read more...]
Finally, gaming has a seat at the table By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • March 31, 2020 It took a crisis of epic proportions, but gaming’s inclusion in last week’s Covid-19 relief package indicates that the industry has finally achieved full citizenship in the national business state. For most of its history, gaming has been viewed as something of a pariah or an untouchable - except, of course, by the tax collectors. Even as various gaming options have been legalized, it seemed to be … [Read more...]
The ‘Let’s Make A Deal’ Problem Explained By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • March 31, 2020 In the last issue of The Tottenham Report, I discussed how little many of us understand numbers and to demonstrate this, I posed a probability problem and promised to explain the counterintuitive answer in this issue. To recap. You are on the TV game show, “Let’s Make A Deal.” You’re given three doors to choose from. Behind two of the doors are goats and behind one of the doors is … [Read more...]
Thoughts about COVID-19 and its impact on the industry By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • March 31, 2020 Most of Europe is in lockdown. The whole United States will probably follow suit in the next few days or so, as the virus spreads across the country and its devastating impact becomes widely known. There is about a month’s lag between infection and death, less if health services are overwhelmed. It must be remembered that the picture that the number of dead paints was painted three or four weeks … [Read more...]
Applying for an online gambling licence in the Netherlands By Lisette den Butter and Tessa van den Ende, Bird & Bird's Commercial Group • March 31, 2020 The Remote Gambling Decree, the extended cooling-off period and the decision not to ban advertising for online gambling. Recently, the Remote Gambling Decree was submitted to the Dutch Parliament, accompanied by two letters answering questions raised in the previous parliamentary debates relating to the plans to extend the cooling-off period by six months and to ban advertisements for (online) … [Read more...]
Tilman Fertitta’s ‘Texas Monthly’ interview: Straight talk or Texas-style bluster? By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • March 28, 2020 Tilman Fertitta has turned himself into a brand as the uber-successful Texas billionaire. His ownership of five Golden Nugget casinos, the NBA’s Houston Rockets; countless restaurant chains, and Kemah Boardwalk, led to his CNBC reality television series as the “Billionaire Buyer,” where he advises small businesses. He is plain-speaking, blunt, and you always know where he stands. That is, … [Read more...]
Responsible gaming in a time of coronavirus By Alan Feldman, Special to CDC Gaming Reports • March 26, 2020 The online gambling industry has developed around the world and provided customers an enjoyable form of entertainment. As with almost any activity, so long as the product is used in appropriate moderation, it causes no harm and provides the benefits of any number of forms of leisure activities. In normal operations, operators should be keeping a watch for players playing for excessive amounts of … [Read more...]
Offering a ‘luxury quarantine package’ would send precisely the wrong message By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • March 25, 2020 If ever there was a wrong way to promote a hotel stay in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a luxury quarantine package including a $500 coronavirus test provides the definition. As first reported by Bloomberg, USA Today and The Washington Post, Le Bijou Hotel & Resort in Zurich, Switzerland is advertising “quarantine apartments” on its COVID-19 service page. The 14-day package … [Read more...]
Could America see an expansion in online gaming as a result of the coronavirus shutdowns? By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • March 24, 2020 Once the coronavirus pandemic has subsided and the gaming industry begins what portends to be a slow recovery, we may finally start to hear serious discussions surrounding legalized online wagering. According to the American Gaming Association, 973 casinos – commercial and tribal – are closed in some 40 states and are expected to stay that way well into April. Two states with legal online … [Read more...]
Looking for the end of a nightmare, and a ray of hope By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • March 22, 2020 Recently, we all woke up to find ourselves in a nightmare, the world changed beyond recognition. Things are shutting down all around us, on what seems like an hourly basis, and gaming is very much a part of the nightmare. As every person in the country now knows, official reactions to the coronavirus are happening too quickly to keep up with - or, really, to process. Take Atlantic City as an … [Read more...]
Coronavirus: Just one story topic dominated the headlines this week By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • March 21, 2020 At the 2005 Global Gaming Expo, just weeks after Hurricane Katrina wiped out the Mississippi Gulf Coast casino market, the-American Gaming Association CEO Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., described the devastation as “the worst disaster to ever hit our industry.” I went back to the Las Vegas Review-Journal newsroom and told my editor we needed to see the destruction for ourselves. Photographer John Locher … [Read more...]
Troubles in America, horse racing, and life By Bernard Kroviak, CDC Gaming Reports • March 19, 2020 What’s happening today in America is, most probably, unlike anything most Americans have ever experienced. I won’t try and compare it with turn of the century epidemics, wars I’m too young to recall, or the Great Depression. I will only note that those were all terrible times for people around the globe, as well. But I must also note that America survived those tragedies - maybe not unscathed, but … [Read more...]
In Nevada: It took an arm twist, but gaming industry gets the message By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • March 18, 2020 Call it a coincidence if you’d like, but the timing of articles from major news outlets pointing out the fact Las Vegas Sands’ sparkling Strip casinos The Venetian and Palazzo were still open after other gaming giants had already shut their doors turned out to be as prescient as they were politically prickly. The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News joined CDC Gaming Reports in reporting the … [Read more...]
Coronavirus does what 9/11 didn’t; U.S. casino industry is shut down By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • March 17, 2020 Many pundits and gaming industry observers have lately been comparing the coronavirus’s impact on the casino industry with the consequences the gaming community felt from the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. They are not the same. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is worse. Far worse. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, airline traffic … [Read more...]
Do we really understand numbers? By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • March 17, 2020 In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, I thought I would write about numbers. Most people think they understand numbers and how they work. As children, we are taught to add, subtract multiply and divide. Some go on to study more advanced mathematics, but as a whole, humans are not very good about understanding numbers. Certainly, we know that ten is double five and a piece of wood five … [Read more...]
COVID-19: Analysing its impact on the gambling sector By Richard Williams, Partner, Keystone Law • March 17, 2020 It’s difficult to write an article assessing the potential impact of COVID-19 on the gambling sector when international events are moving at such a rapid pace. Only last week, 251,684 race goers attended Cheltenham Festival for the National Hunt Festival. The Festival was a commercial success, though attendance was down by 5.5% from the record attendance in 2019. The risk of contracting … [Read more...]
Publisher’s Note: CDC Gaming Reports coronavirus coverage By Jeffrey Compton, CDC Gaming Reports • March 16, 2020 On any normal weekend, the CDC Gaming Reports website gets 6,500 page views. Last weekend we had over 50,000 page views. Our daily newsletters are also seen dramatically increased open and click-through rates as well. We take no joy in this as the worldwide casino industry has been hit by one of the most serious disasters in recent years. It does, however, remind the entire CDC Gaming … [Read more...]
Fear, panic and confusion abound in the land By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • March 15, 2020 It has been difficult to think or talk about anything but the COVID-19 coronavirus lately. The stock market has been acting like a roller coaster on steroids; the Dow Jones index has been up and down by thousands of points from one day to the next. The Dow dropped 15 percent between March 4 and March 13. Gaming stocks have reflected this drop, except gaming stocks are down by 30 percent for the … [Read more...]
Black Book Blues: Meet ‘Company’ boss casinos didn’t want to keep By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • March 11, 2020 "One in an occasional series profiling a member of Nevada’s List of Excluded Persons, often referred to as "The Black Book." Las Vegas has been known for more than a generation as “The Ninth Island” to Hawaiians who love to vacation there. Islanders like to party and play in every casino, but they have a special attachment to the California Hotel downtown in a tradition that began in the … [Read more...]
No simple answers as coronavirus fears send gaming stocks on a wild ride By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • March 10, 2020 Analysts have all but given up trying to explain the past week’s gaming stock declines, which seem largely reflective of investor concern over possible repercussions from the Covid-19 coronavirus on the economy. How else do you rationalize International Game Technology, one of the industry’s three largest slot machine companies, with a market capitalization of $1.5 billion, watching its stock … [Read more...]
Hamilton’s entertaining memoir explores life as a Las Vegas comic’s wife By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • March 4, 2020 My career as a standup comic was mercifully brief. It consisted of participating in a celebrity roast in 2012 at the South Point Hotel and Casino showroom of legendary Las Vegas comedian Cork Proctor on the occasion of his 80th birthday and the publication of his hilarious memoir, My Mind is an Open Mouth. That’s right. I actually opened for Cork Proctor; the man affectionately dubbed “The Oral … [Read more...]
Gaming equipment providers can’t escape addressing coronavirus concerns By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • March 3, 2020 Everi Holdings CEO Mike Rumbolz said the company had not experienced “any discernable impact to date” from worldwide concerns surrounding COVID-19, the name now given to coronavirus. International Game Technology CEO Marco Sala, whose corporate headquarters are in Rome, a country that has seen more than 2,000 confirmed cases of the viral outbreak, couldn’t make the same claim. During … [Read more...]
2019, a mixed bag for the UK gambling industry By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • March 3, 2020 Once a year, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) publishes a report on the gambling activity and attitudes toward gambling of the adult population of Great Britain. The report is based on quarterly telephone and online surveys carried out the during the year. The 2019 report, which can be accessed here, contains both good news and bad news for the UK’s gambling industry. Let’s start with some of … [Read more...]
Dominating the market: a golden goose, or a false promise? By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • March 1, 2020 In September 2015, I was visiting my sister in Illinois. She had recently become a football fan via a sports pool among her friends, coworkers and some other family members. Every week, she eagerly filled out her entry and would then watch a game or two. Even though it was not generally part of our relationship, we watched that week’s Monday Night Football game between the Minnesota Vikings and … [Read more...]
Mostly sunny: Las Vegas and Nevada shine in the national political spotlight By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • February 26, 2020 Chris Matthews played Vegas last week. Lester Holt did, too. During the Democratic Party presidential caucus in the Silver State, you couldn’t flip a TV channel or punch into a news website without journalists and commentators of every strip and station writing and talking about the political scene in Las Vegas and Nevada generally. The political world was fully focused on the state with a … [Read more...]
San Manuel’s $9M donation to UNLV furthers Indian gaming education and tribal presence By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • February 26, 2020 Minutes after I posted news of the $9 million donation to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas by California’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, a gaming insider texted me about the significance of the financial gift. “Classy move. Further unites the commercial and tribal sectors.” UNLV is interspersed with buildings and facilities connected to gaming industry donations. The positive … [Read more...]
Why change in the gaming industry should never surprise anyone By David Schwartz, CDC Gaming Reports • February 24, 2020 There has been a great deal of change in the news lately for the gaming world. After more than a decade as head of MGM Resorts, Jim Murren is stepping down. The Chinese coronavirus outbreak has sent Macau gaming revenues into a tailspin. On a happier note, a big brand name is returning to a Las Vegas casino, with the announcement that Hilton will be operating three hotels as part of the Genting … [Read more...]
A Texan who made Reno his home, and a better place in the process By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • February 23, 2020 Bob Cashell - former lieutenant governor of Nevada, mayor of Reno, president of the University of Nevada Board of Regents, chairman of the Nevada Commission on Tourism, casino owner, and involved community activist - died on February 11. Bob was from Texas, but you’re forgiven if you didn’t know that. He and his wife moved to Reno in 1964 and almost immediately plunged themselves into the life of … [Read more...]
The story of a casino vendor By Rick Mitchell, V.P. of Sales, Shreveport Communication Service • February 22, 2020 Publisher’s Note: Rick Mitchell of Shreveport, Louisiana submitted this commentary in response to Gaming: an economic driver beyond the bright lights by Bill Miller, President, American Gaming Association - JC On April 18, 1994 Harrah’s casino opened their doors in Shreveport, Louisiana. Weeks later, the Isle of Capri opened across the river in Bossier City. As the sales manager of a locally … [Read more...]
A hot time in Hot Springs, or on the road to real excitement By Bernard Kroviak, CDC Gaming Reports • February 21, 2020 I wrote about racehorse names in my last article, but I sadly neglected to mention one of the most interesting horse names of all time, Pollard's Vision. Red Pollard was a jockey in the 1940's, probably most notable today for riding the great Seabiscuit. He was also, as it happens, blind in one eye. So, when owner David Moore bought a yearling in 2002 with vision in only one eye due to a birth … [Read more...]
Gaming: an economic driver beyond the bright lights By Bill Miller, President, American Gaming Association • February 19, 2020 To the candidates and their campaigns, let me be the first to welcome you to the gaming industry’s hometown and introduce you to an industry that’s more than bright neon lights. Wednesday's Democratic primary debate presented an opportunity for you to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the casino gaming industry, an economic juggernaut in Nevada and increasingly across the … [Read more...]
Unregulated slots do damage to the industry; AGEM and AGA call for a halt to the proliferation By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • February 19, 2020 In Missouri, gaming authorities estimate some 14,000 unregulated gambling machines are currently operating in the state - despite the simultaneous presence of some 19,000 regulated slot machines inside the Show-Me State's 13 licensed riverboat casinos. Missouri is not an outlier. In Pennsylvania, lawmakers were told roughly 40,000 unregulated slot machine-like games cost the state $95 … [Read more...]
MONEYVAL finds Cyprus’ AML efforts wanting By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • February 19, 2020 MONEYVAL, or more formally the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism, is the monitoring entity of the Council of Europe that assesses compliance with the main international standards to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The Committee has issued a report based on its months-long visit to Cyprus. The purpose … [Read more...]
Germany’s new online gambling regime: a mixed bag with significant potential By Jeroen Laemers, Gaming in Holland • February 19, 2020 Recently, the sixteen German federal states agreed in principle on a treaty that will allow country-wide online gambling – including poker and virtual slots – in the future. The news created a veritable buzz at the recent ICE trade show, resulting in much excitement as well as a packed meeting on the topic of German gambling regulation. Industry associations, such as EGBA and DSWV, responded in a … [Read more...]
Flu Season and the Sugar Daddy By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • February 18, 2020 An animal virus somehow jumped to humans in China in December. It has since spread across the world. As of February 13, the number of coronavirus cases was approaching 60,000 worldwide, and the virus, now called Covid-19, has been responsible for more than 1300 deaths; roughly 6000 patients are reported to have recovered. There have been 41 cases reported in Europe, 18 in North America and 15 in … [Read more...]
Jim Murren: The leader the gaming industry needed By Geoff Freeman, Special to CDC Gaming Reports • February 16, 2020 It’s one thing to lead a company - it’s a different challenge to lead an industry. Jim Murren leaves a legacy of doing both extremely well. As CEO of the American Gaming Association, I had the opportunity to work side-by-side with Jim. Chairing an industry organization - as Jim did for four years - requires a different set of skills than company leadership. Chairmanship of an industry requires … [Read more...]
An ovation for Gary Platt, the man who helped casino customers take a seat By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • February 12, 2020 Pull up a chair and take a seat. There’s someone I want you to meet. His name is Gary Platt. He retired nine years ago at age 85 after working more than half a century in the casino business. By anyone’s measure, the 94-year-old has earned the right to relax. Platt began his career selling stacking chairs to California card clubs for L&B Manufacturing and T.R. King at a time the gambling … [Read more...]
Red Rock Resorts has survived worse catastrophes than the Palms fiasco By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • February 11, 2020 Red Rock Resorts will survive the massive cash drain the Palms Casino-Resort’s $690 million renovation had on the Las Vegas-based company’s bottom line. Still, the almost $34 million in one-time charges and payments the company was forced to make over the last few months of last year to shut down the debacle surrounding the appropriately named KAOS nightclub was a bitter pill for investors to … [Read more...]
From the Floor: What I loved, liked and disliked at ICE London 2020 By Jeffrey Compton, CDC Gaming Reports • February 8, 2020 As I wait at London Heathrow Airport for my flight back home to Las Vegas (via Seattle) it’s time for my day-after major trade show tradition: what I liked, loved and disliked about the conference I just attended. There was a lot to love at this year’s ICE London 2020, especially ICE VOX the seminar program. Several other factors made the last week a very enjoyable experience. Love ICE … [Read more...]
Super Bowl snapshot from New Mexico: Sports betting making presence felt By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • February 5, 2020 SANTA FE, N.M. – Roaming through the Buffalo Thunder Resort Casino on Super Bowl Sunday, there was a moment I could tell I wasn’t in Las Vegas anymore. It wasn’t the size of the casino floor, a more than respectable 61,000 square feet filled with 1,200 slot machines, 18 table games, a poker room – and a new feature on the New Mexico gambling scene, a race and sports book. Nor was it the hotel … [Read more...]
Hawaii may be ready to say ‘aloha’ to legal sports betting By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • February 4, 2020 Legislatures in 14 states are considering proposals to legalize sports betting this year. That’s not surprising; fourteen other states currently offer regulated sports betting, and six more states, along with Washington D.C., have approved sports betting laws and are expected to launch sometime in 2020. More than $17 billion has been legally wagered on sports in the U.S. during the 20 months … [Read more...]
Listening to Brian Sandoval’s sage advice By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • February 2, 2020 There is almost always a disconnect between expertise and action, between the knower and the doer. The science of a thing is more advanced than the real-world aspect; the experts are rarely the practitioners, lawmakers or regulators. Gaming is no exception. Lawmakers and regulators are not, on the whole, well-versed in the operations of gaming. This gap can create serious problems for the … [Read more...]
What a remarkable run: Harrah’s Reno on its way out By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • January 29, 2020 RENO – Harrah’s Reno is still very much alive, but as I walk through it, I can’t help but feel the presence of ghosts. Not just the spirit of the property’s legendary namesake, so important to the development of the gaming industry and now more than four decades deceased. In the evolution of American gaming culture, Bill Harrah represented the appearance of Modern Casino Man. The name is … [Read more...]
‘Fear of failure’ drives developer as he looks to revive a shuttered Las Vegas Strip project By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • January 28, 2020 For more than a decade, the unfinished Fontainebleau was viewed as a hulking eyesore on the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip and a stark reminder of the Great Recession that crippled Southern Nevada’s tourism community. Steven Witkoff, however, only sees opportunity in the 67-story tower, which is now speckled with pockmarks where windowpanes from the bluish glass facade disappeared over … [Read more...]
It is the Year of the Rat, and the rat virus By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • January 26, 2020 Xi Nian Kuai Le: Happy New Year! It is Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rat. This year, the celebration runs from January 25 through February 4. It is said to be the largest migration of people on the planet. Typically, hundreds of millions Chinese travel as part of the Spring Festival and the beginning of a new year; they visit relatives, eat traditional foods, give gifts and visit important … [Read more...]
Heads keep spinning as the NFL becomes Las Vegas’ biggest fan By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • January 22, 2020 Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Longtime locals can remember when the National Football League shunned Las Vegas at every turn. These days the league’s crush on the city borders on obsession. The celebrated list of connections between the league and Las Vegas continues to grow. In addition to the 2020 kickoff of the Las Vegas Raiders at a sparkling new, $2 billion stadium and the … [Read more...]
State lawmakers hear concerns about in-play sports betting from NCAA, pro leagues By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • January 21, 2020 SAN DIEGO – Naima Stevenson Starks offered up a slight smile when I asked her if the NCAA was no longer concerned about the nationwide expansion of legal sports betting. Of course the college sports governing organization, which spent years fighting an ultimately losing battle against New Jersey’s efforts to overturn the Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act, wishes the activity would go … [Read more...]
Filling the shoes Bill Harrah wore By Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports • January 20, 2020 The unthinkable is happening: Harrah’s, a Reno icon and the heart of the downtown casino core, will close. Caesars Entertainment and VICI Properties announced the sale of Harrah’s Reno on January 15th, and the buyer, CAI Investments, plans to close the casino and the hotel and create a mixed used housing, office and retail complex on the site called Reno City Center. In a fitting tribute to the … [Read more...]
MGM Resort’s ‘asset-light’ strategy is good for the company, but what about other casino operators By Howard Stutz, Executive Editor, CDC Gaming Reports • January 15, 2020 Before the year is out, it’s possible MGM Resorts International won’t own any of the casinos the company operates in the U.S. Following 12 months of intense internal discussion and activity, culminating with Tuesday’s sale/leaseback of MGM Grand Las Vegas to a new real estate investment trust joint venture, MGM’s ownership portfolio includes MGM Springfield in Massachusetts, a 50% stake in the … [Read more...]
Even these experts can’t precisely describe the legalized sports betting galaxy By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • January 15, 2020 No matter how hard I try, I keep underestimating the ever-expanding universe of legalized sports betting in America. I need the ghost of Carl Sagan as my bookmaker just to discuss the “billions and billions” of dollars expected to be in play in the coming years as one jurisdiction after the next opens sports books. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s repeal of the 2018 repeal of the Professional and … [Read more...]
The UK Gambling Act 2005 — Fit for Purpose? By Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director, Tottenham & Co • January 15, 2020 The UK Gambling Act 2005 has come under a lot of fire recently from politicians of all persuasions, as well as the UK press, which is not known for its restraint or reliance on facts. Opponents of gambling argue that the 2005 Gambling Act is too lenient, did not foresee the application of new technology and is therefore not fit for purpose and the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has not been … [Read more...]
Perception is reality By Paul Sculpher, Special to CDC Gaming Reports • January 15, 2020 How important is it to know exactly how your target market perceives your industry? We can all name any number of new casino projects in our respective jurisdictions which have failed miserably, and there are plenty of reasons why this can happen. Some of the more spectacular failures in the UK have involved companies from overseas investing gigantic amounts of money in larger sites — … [Read more...]
Sustainable luxury By Muhammad Cohen, Inside Asian Gaming • January 9, 2020 Casinos going green means much more than taking bets in US dollars. Integrated resorts, long regarded as bastions of extravagance, even profligacy, increasingly focus on environmental sustainability, commonly defined as meeting current needs without sacrificing the ability to meet similar needs in the future. Macau IR operators are perched at the leading edge of the sustainability … [Read more...]
Will the exercised clout of the Culinary Union be Nevada’s biggest political story? By John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports • January 8, 2020 You don’t have to search far to find what Culinary Union Local 226 is up to today in Nevada. The organized labor behemoth with its 60,000 members in the Silver State for months has been courted at every turn by Democratic Party presidential hopefuls. It continues to ratchet-up organizing pressure on locals gaming powerhouse Station Casinos, itself no bit political player. D Taylor, … [Read more...]
