“I’d rather own a casino that makes $50 million than 50 restaurants that each make $1 million. In the years to come, you’ll see us more as a gaming company.”
—Tilman Fertitta, billionaire owner of Golden Nugget casinos, on his growing gaming empire
“The handle will still be through the roof. It’s too good a matchup. It doesn’t get much better than Brady versus Mahomes.”
—Nick Bogdanovich, director, William Hill, who expected big but not record-breaking handle for Sunday’s Super Bowl due to the coronavirus
“The retail handle will definitely be down because of Covid. But still, it’s a terrific matchup, and it will still be a heavily bet Super Bowl.”
—Joe Asher, CEO, William Hill US
“Half a billion dollars or more bet on one game seems almost unfathomable, but considering the direction of the U.S. market, that handle is easily within reach.”
—Dustin Gouker, PlayUSA, predicting a landslide of bets on the Bucs-Chiefs game
“When this thing was sold to the community, what where the promises made? Let’s start with $7 billion. Look where we’re at today. Listen to the public comments that we heard today. If your heart wasn’t touched or hurt by those comments, I don’t even know if we can call ourselves compassionate or human.”
—Rep. Edwin K. Propst, Saipan lawmaker, on Imperial Pacific International’s failure to maintain payroll or pay promised revenues to the local government
“What we have developed instead is reminiscent quite frankly of an abusive relationship—this constant cycle of egregious violations of trust, followed by conflict, stern warnings, promises of change, promises of compliance, even some gaslighting and reinventing of history, laws and facts.”
—Rep. Christina Sablan, Saipan’s Commonwealth Casino Commission, on Imperial Pacific International’s history of broken promises and missed deadlines
“The money that would go to groceries goes to gambling. The money that would go to rent or to a college education goes to gambling. The biggest threat I see in the United States today is what happens to our kids. They don’t need one more thing thrown at them.”
—Tom Osborne, former Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach, who opposes legislation that would bring collegiate sports betting to the state
“We’ve already missed the boat on getting out in front of our U.S. counterparts and now with an election on the horizon here, it doesn’t look like they really want this passed at all.”
—Brian Masse, Canadian MP, on the continued failure of the market to allow single-game betting
“It’s going to lead to citizens losing billions of dollars more money than they’re already losing.”
—Les Bernal, national director, Stop Predatory Gambling, on a proposal to permit futures trading on sporting events
