“We’re in the hunt. I wouldn’t want to overplay our hand and say what our opportunity might be. It’s a massive market, underserved by the current product. By any metric, that should be a massive market for us. The team is on the ground hoping to get a license.”
—Rob Goldstein, chairman and CEO, Las Vegas Sands Corp., on pursuing a gaming license in New York state
“I stay away from it all. I don’t talk about sports. I don’t read about sports. I don’t want to know about the teams in the Super Bowl. It’s a risk I’m not ready to take. I can lose everything.”
—Steven Delaney, New York trucker, on the power of his gambling addiction
“People still want to wager in person. You have sports betting operating right where the fans are.”
—Keith Wall, vice president of retail operations, FanDuel, on the company’s continuing interest in land-based sportsbooks, despite the dominance of mobile
“The expansion of legal U.S. sports betting has been accompanied by shockingly small funding increases for gambling treatment, which has long been a documented concern. The lack of funding leaves the existing infrastructure vulnerable.”
—John Holden, in a Legal Sports Report column advising the U.S. sports betting industry to invest more in problem gambling programs
“I picked up the phone, and she said, ‘This is the last call I am going to make. I am here in Maine, I have a severe gambling problem, I want to end it all, and I cannot get any help.’ Fortunately, I was able to get a crisis team to her house.”
—Keith Whyte, executive director, National Council on Problem Gambling, on the challenges some problem gamblers face in getting help during a crisis
“To make a brand statement in a town like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As somebody who loves this market, I have a strong desire to be here and lead this project, with the whole story and history.”
—Cliff Atkinson, newly appointed president of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a long-awaited Strip development interrupted by the Great Recession
“That influence has ceased permanently. It is extinct, not merely dormant.”
—Noel Hutley, attorney for Crown Resorts boss James Packer, arguing that Packer shouldn’t be forced to sell down his shares in Crown, since he no longer wields any influence
“It’s hard to be a national gaming company without a presence in Las Vegas.”
—Soo Kim, chairman, Bally’s Corp., on the company’s planned acquisition and re-branding of the Tropicana on the Vegas Strip
“Casino workers should have the same right to work in a safe and healthy environment as any other worker in our state.”
—Michael Testa, New Jersey state senator, who supports the eradication of smoking sections in casinos
