“Our thesis of all roads lead to Macau is very much intact, given steady, sequentially growing recovery that is still in its relatively early innings.”
— Joseph Greff, gaming analyst, on rising fortunes in Macau. The Chinese gaming hub has bounced back to profitability since the city reopened in January.
“Osaka has approximately 30 million people within a three-hour transit of our site in Yumeshima. Our site is also expected to drive international tourism to Japan, given its proximity to other major Asian countries.”
— Bill Hornbuckle, president and CEO, MGM Resorts International, who has high hopes for the company’s planned integrated resort in Osaka, Japan.
“I don’t force or lure anybody to play casino. They play out of their own interest. Why should I stop them? … What’s wrong in it? Whatever I am doing is completely legal and open.”
— Chikoti Praveen Kumar, operator of a casino boat in Goa, India, recently arrested for running an illegal back-room casino in Thailand.
“The group will continue to offload assets to aid survival by focusing on the most profitable business segments only.”
— LET Group, formerly Suncity Group, which is selling properties in Japan in hopes of moving past recent legal woes, including the conviction of CEO Alvin Chau and the shutdown of its Macau junket business.
“I know we’ve had to wait a long time for this and I know it’s not going to please everyone. There will be people who aren’t happy that they haven’t got what they wanted, but it seems to me to be a pretty coherent, sensible response from the government.”
— Dan Waugh, a partner with the gaming advisory firm Regulus Partners, commenting on the release of the U.K. white paper on updating the Gambling Act of 2005.
“We think it’s a pretty stable business. We haven’t been through a full year, so I don’t think we fully understand the seasonality of that business. But we haven’t seen any true seasonality in the eight months it’s been open.”
— Boyd Smith, CEO of Boyd Gaming, speaking of the first months since Boyd opened the $500 million Sky River Casino for the Wilton Rancheria in Elk Grove, California.
“From the beginning, it was intended to be a competitive market where people could maybe take their first shot at it and that’s what many did.”
— Dan Hartman, recently retired head of Colorado’s Department of Revenue, on why Colorado has attracted so many operators.
“Kiosks allow non-casinos and retail businesses the ability to have a slice of the sports betting pie.”
— Andrew Westmeyer, CEO of UBetOhio, talking about the reason his company is all in, even without huge profits yet.
