“In any industry, if you’re not adaptive, if you’re not trying things, you’re going to miss opportunities. I’m pretty optimistic about skill-based gaming being a part of what we do.”
—Skyelar Perkins, senior director of slot operations at Choctaw Casinos & Resorts of Oklahoma, commenting on the opportunities offered by skill-based gaming during a panel at the Indian Gaming Tradeshow
“It appears now only five of the 10 mini-casino licenses available will be snatched up by existing operators. Could it be that the industry has finally taken a good look in the mirror and realized building more casinos only serves to splinter existing gambling revenues rather than increase them?”
—PlayUSA.com blog asserting that the Northeast gaming market is saturated, as evidenced by two auctions for new satellite casinos in Pennsylvania that went without bids from existing state operators
“Why is it that as many as 45 greyhound puppies are being reared at the track? As far as I know, none of them have reached racing age yet, so what is the point of breeding them?
—Albano Martins, Macau animal welfare activist, who is perplexed that breeding continues at the Canindrome greyhound track, due to close in July
“Our strategic plan is built on catering to this tremendously emerging more-affluent Chinese customer, a customer that’s looking for more experimental experiences, not just a selfie moment or a gaming table.”
—Jim Murren, CEO, MGM Resorts International, on the company’s goals for its newest resort, MGM Cotai in Macau
“Why do you go to Paris, London, Sydney? It’s not about gaming. All these cities have managed to rise for reasons like retail, shopping, culture. We still have work to do.”
—Professor Glenn McCartney, University of Macau, who says the city still falls short of the world’s top cities
“We want to tell the government and ruling coalition not to make a fool out of the Diet or the public.”
—Tetsuro Fukuyama, Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, on fallout from the shady land sale dogging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other politicians
“This is a 15- to 20-year project. The area is four times the size of Macau’s Cotai Strip.”
—Henry Tam, Hoi An South Development, the company developing Hoiana resort in Vietnam
“I wish them the best of luck. They’re going to need it.”
—Mark Parton, ACT Opposition gaming spokesman, on the tiff between the government and Aquis over the redevelopment of Casino Canberra
“We must be smarter than those we are seeking to regulate.”
—Josephine Teo, Singapore Ministry for Manpower and Home Affairs, on fine-tuning casino regulations in the face of new competition, industry disruption
“I’m saying this: when Indian tribes become successful, the rest of society will say ‘What happened to our Indians? The ones herding sheep and making jewelry? We have to control them before they take the United States back.”
—Russell Begaye, Navajo Nation president, calling for the diversification of Indian enterprises away from gaming, as a way of self-preservation
“It’s the members that provide the profits, it’s the members that win the awards for making the casino great and ultimately without us, this casino is dead in the water.”
—James Stewart, president of Unifor Local 444, calling on the management of the Caesars Windsor in Ontario, Canada to return to the bargaining table
“It’s so rare that we can step back and look at the effects of an industry in this kind of way.”
— Mark Melnik, co-investigator of the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) study that will look at positives and negatives of gaming in the state
