“It’s ironic and almost unbelievable that a company that has traded in other jurisdictions for almost 30 years did not have adequate measures in place. This is not a start-up we’re dealing with. … Our inquiry only went back six or seven years, and there was enough (bad) behavior there for a lifetime.”
—Philip Crawford, New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, on fallout from the Bergin Report, which found patterns of misconduct and noncompliance by Crown Resorts, Australia’s biggest casino operator
“Have we built $2 billion facilities? The answer is no. I would argue that some of those facilities (built by other companies) may not have been the best return of capital to shareholders. We’re like a pound-for-pound prizefighter. We’ve done a great job building our facilities.”
—Soo Kim, chairman, Bally’s Corp., on the company’s bid to build an integrated resort in Richmond, Virginia
“Pete Rose, you might recall, is banned from baseball because he bet on games, and now we have MLB producing a daily show running down lines and purporting to offer bettors an edge. That’s quite a shift.”
—Jay Rigdon, sports columnist, on the debut of a new sports betting show, “Bettor’s Eye,” produced and streamed by Major League Baseball
“In banking, I don’t know if anybody worries about having too much money. But gaming has certain social consequences if it’s not done responsibly. Especially when you’re in an online environment, it presents a whole different set of challenges for an operator to be able to gauge a player’s ability to be able to afford the gambling they’re doing, or to be self-excluded because they’re a problem gambler.”
—Glen Goldstein, TransUnion
“I’ve already banned body-shaming advertisements and advertisements for foods high in fat, salt and sugar on the (Transport for London) network because of their impact on the health of Londoners. Given the devastating way gambling addiction can destroy lives and families, I’ll instruct TfL to bring forward plans to extend the ban to harmful gambling advertisements on the network.”
—Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, who has pledged to ban gambling ads on the London Underground ahead of the upcoming mayoral elections even though the ads kick in about 40 percent of the city’s outdoor advertising income
“Until we get more people vaccinated for Covid-19 and move closer to herd immunity, the numbers of new cases are going to fluctuate each day. It’s very important that we not be discouraged when we have slightly higher numbers reported. Instead, we should be motivated to do better.”
—Jonathan Nez, president, Navajo Nation, on ebbs and flows in Covid infections
“We had just under 150,000 customers come through the doors in March. That is by far the most we have had, and this has been a consistent ramp-up of business. Our weekdays now look like our weekends last fall.”
—Carlton Saffa, chief market officer, Saracen Casino Resort in Arkansas, on the slow but steady return of patronage
“The fact that this brand is launching at the storied Meadowlands Racetrack is just icing on the cake.”
—Josh Swissman, founding partner of the Strategy Organization, speaking about SuperBook’s decision to bring a mobile sportsbook to the Meadowlands.
“It will be the most comfortable sports book in town with over thirty TVs, a bar, and VIP area.”
—Ed Weisel, assistant general manager of The Lodge Casino, on the advantage of bringing a retail SuperBook to Black Hawk, Colorado.
“UFC and Professional Bull Riders were two of the first sports organizations to responsibly return last spring, and we followed in the summer by hosting the WNBA’s season at IMG Academy.”
—Ariel Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor Group Holdings, speaking about the success of their brands.
“We had a different vision of what mobile sports betting could look like. But if both sides dug in their heels, we wouldn’t have this agreement.”
—New York Senator Joseph Addabbo on a compromise with Governor Andrew Cuomo that will limit remote sports betting in the state to two operators
“At a time when Las Vegas is experiencing the second-highest unemployment rate of any large metro area in the country, forcing sportsbooks to pay an additional tax on each employee makes it harder to bring about economic recovery.”
—Rep. Dina Titus, a Nevada member of Congress arguing for an end to the federal excise tax on sports betting
“We have asked the government to consider a different policy because what they are doing is cutting clubs’ ability to generate revenue and therefore reducing our competitiveness with the rest of Europe.”
—Javier Tebas, La Liga soccer league president, asking the government of Spain to not impose regulations banning advertising of sports betting
“It is 2021. The internet does not stop at the border. Now online gambling is unregulated, nobody is supervising it. Through regulations you can keep it in check and ensure a safe environment.”
— René Jansen, chairman of the Netherlands Gambling Authority on the impending opening of online gaming in the country
