“People ask me all the time, ‘What do you think about the proliferation of sports betting around the country?’ And I’ve been saying this for two years: I think it’s terrific. … What it’s done is taken sports betting out from under a kind of negative cloud. Now it’s out in the open.”
—Derek Stevens, owner, Circa Sports at the Golden Gate Casino in Las Vegas
“You need to only look at Chinese New Year to remind yourself of the power of that market and the pent-up demand for visitation. As we have seen before, when Macau is more accessible, demand snaps right back.”
—Craig Billings, CEO, Wynn Resorts, on encouraging signs among direct-VIP and premium mass players during CNY in Macau
“You want to make the barrier of entry not super-difficult, because you want as many of those operators to come in and get a license as possible. You want to make sure you’re keeping the barrier of entry low enough that everyone can come in and get a license.”
—Amanda Brewer, Canadian manager of the Kindred Group, praising the iGaming and sports betting model adopted by Ontario, which goes live April 4
“I have filed that bill because Texans love to gamble, and I’m very confident if we were to put this before the voters it would pass overwhelmingly.”
—Carol Alvarado, Texas senator, who has fought for more than 10 years to legalize casinos in the Lone Star State
“I made sure to raise a red flag. I don’t want the legislature to come back to me in a year and say, ‘Why didn’t you tell us it was so bad?’”
—Diana Goode, Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, on the spike in helpline calls since the state added iGaming and sports betting
“I think in two years from now, we’re going to say it was a super-cheap price. There are no other bidders around, and Packer’s got his back against the wall.”
—Unidentified financial analyst, on Blackstone Group’s $6.4 billion bid to take over Crown Resorts in Australia, majority owned by James Packer
“There’s currently a gold rush in the U.S. sports betting market.”
—Mikael Hansson, founder, Enteractive, which provides loyalty and engagement services for the online gambling industry
“Sports gambling is the crack cocaine for young males between the ages of 14 and 35.”
—Declan Hill, author of The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime, on gambling harms among young males
“The Cinderella slipper finally fell off.”
—Chuck Esposito, sportsbook director, Red Rock Resort Las Vegas, on the Cincinnati Bengals’ last-minute Super Bowl loss
