Commentaries

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...]

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 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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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 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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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 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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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 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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

"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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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 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...]

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...]

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...]

Analysts have long credited mobile wagering with fueling Nevada’s sports betting market. Since 2010, the Silver State’s sportsbooks have seen an 81.5% increase in handle. The source for that analysis has, to this point, been largely anecdotal. Nevada gaming regulators have never tabulated how much sports bettors have wagered through a smartphone or a tablet PC, as compared to the money laid … [Read more...]

The war of words between Oklahoma’s Indian casino community and the state’s governor has caught the cursory interest of gaming equipment manufacturers. The companies, at least right now, believe the battle is just talk. They can’t imagine any disruption in the nation’s No. 2 Indian gaming state, which produces roughly 8% of total tribal casino revenue in the U.S. Oklahoma Governor Kevin … [Read more...]

Derek Stevens owned a small percentage in the Rat Pack-era Riviera Hotel-Casino when I first became acquainted with him more than a decade ago. He was considered an “activist investor” at the time, a businessman out of Michigan who was sharply critical of the aging Riviera's management and direction. The property was then squarely in the midst of a financial nightmare. The Riviera, which has … [Read more...]

The late comedian Robin Williams had a hilarious routine about trying to avoid Starbucks, except that he couldn't, because there always seemed to be one on every street corner. Often times, two on every block. “Oh my God, there’s another!” Williams would scream. Lately, we’re starting to feel the same way about sportsbook operator William Hill US. The Las Vegas-based company, a … [Read more...]

Literally two minutes after MGM Resorts International announced Monday that it had closed the $4.25 billion sale and leaseback of the Bellagio, the company sent out a second press release stating it would redeem more than $1.878 billion in debt that is due over the next two years. A portion of the proceeds from the Bellagio deal went right to a reduction of the $15.1 billion in long-term debt … [Read more...]

The non-descript Culinary Workers Local 226 complex tucked into the aging “Naked City” area of downtown Las Vegas is front and center for Democratic presidential candidates to lay bare their platforms. It’s become a right-of-passage every four years for candidates to hold a town hall event inside the second-floor meeting hall. The local represents more than 60,000 non-gaming workers in casinos … [Read more...]

Illinois caught the gaming industry’s attention in June when state lawmakers and the governor approved the nation’s largest gambling expansion to an existing market in more than a decade. The development also caught the interest of private equity giant TPG Capital. Through TPG Pace, the firm’s publicly traded acquisition company, the investment fund entered into a transaction agreement … [Read more...]