“This really amounts to greed, corporate greed, and the fact that some people in town feel that the quickest way to lower their taxes would be to stimulate business, which is certainly one route, but not at the expense of our natural resources. You cannot replace natural resources. So this is also to serve as a wakeup call to the town that we’re not going to be silenced.”
?Bridget Morris, Tuxedo, NY, part of a group that is threatening to sue to stop a proposed Genting casino near the Sterling State Forest
“What happens in Vegas will not stay in Vegas, not if we have anything to do with it. We intend to blow the roof off the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.”
?Gene Simmons, KISS, on the rock band’s November residency at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas
“Caesars is like the Roman Empire. They conquered everything, now they can’t feed their armies.”
?Showboat Atlantic City employee, on the looming closure of the Boardwalk resort
“Using a different lawyer every time, AAEC (Asian American) has repeatedly filed lawsuits trying to take credit for that which they didn’t do. U.S. courts have consistently rejected those efforts. Las Vegas Sands will respond to this latest version of the same meritless lawsuit in court.”
—Statement from Las Vegas Sands Corp. in response to a lawsuit from former Macau business partner Asian American which alleges that LVS misappropriated trade secrets
“We absolutely expect the acquisition of VGT to be transformational for our business. Clearly, VGT is a leader in Class II tribal gaming, which is a very important segment of the overall market in the U.S.”
—Aristocrat Leisure CEO and Managing Director Jamie Odell, speaking to Yogonet on his company’s acquisition of Tennessee-based Video Game Technologies
“I must say that this year, for the first time, I’m willing to say that I see Las Vegas getting a footing that it hasn’t had quite as clearly in the past.”
—Wynn Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn, expressing optimism for the Las Vegas casino market this year
“When state-sponsored and promoted gambling grows to the third largest source of state revenue, the gambling companies are going to get about everything they want from the Smith Hill gang.”
—Scott MacKay, commenting on the relationship between Rhode Island’s two slots parlors and the legislature, which just put a measure on the ballot to allow table games at the Newport Grand and voted to allow casinos to extend up to $50,000 in credit to players
“With the Bay State on the verge of installing two of its three proposed casinos and one slots parlor near the Ocean State, upgrading Newport’s facility makes the same good sense that it made to upgrade the Lincoln facility, Twin River.”
—Editorial, the Providence Journal, commenting on an initiative on the November ballot that would add table games to slots parlors and increase the state’s revenues
“It’s unfortunate we’re in this situation, the commission forced our hand, tied our hands every step of the way, I felt like, from the beginning.”
—Martin J. Walsh, mayor of Boston, announcing that the city has pulled out of surrounding community agreement negotiations with Steve Wynn over his proposed casino in Everett, on Boston’s border, and blaming the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for putting Boston in that position
“The Gaming Commission is making the rules up along the way.”
—Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, criticizing the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, with which he has clashed several times over the last seven months.
“We’ll get some revenue from casinos, but they’ll cannibalize the lottery — they’ll take money away from the lottery by a substantial amount — hundreds of millions of dollars.”
—Donald Berwick, candidate for governor in Massachusetts, commenting on a ballot initiative that would repeal the state’s gaming expansion law
“I feel badly, but Atlantic City is a different place now. What’s happening in Atlantic City is happening all over the country. The United States is becoming one big casino. Atlantic City is getting clobbered. Seventy-five percent of the casinos in Atlantic City are bankrupt or going through bankruptcy. The other 25 percent are on respirator. This is going to happen in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, too, you watch. The whole country is going this way. There are too many casinos.”
—Donald Trump to Philly.com on the potential closing of Trump Plaza in Atlantic City
“As casino gaming expanded across the United States, New Jersey was slow to react. Other communities should learn from their mistake and rapidly adopt policies that empower gaming companies to innovate, retain and attract new customers and operate efficiently. The ‘tax-and-torture’ model adopted by many gaming communities is unsustainable. Gaming companies seek further partnerships with forward-looking policymakers who realize that punitive regulations and taxes are counter-productive and, with the right policies, casinos can be one component of a successful economic development strategy.”
—Geoff Freeman, president and CEO, American Gaming Association in a press release on casino closings in Atlantic City
“Discussions are still under way, but, I think, this document will be passed this year. Afterwards, we will begin to implement its provisions in practice. One should work on setting up a state-run portal in the Republic of Belarus. It could be used to organize gambling on the internet.”
—Uladzimer Paluyan, Minister of Taxation for Belarus on plans to create a state-run online gambling portal
“We’re excited to join in this new venture and bring even more gaming options to guests of the property. By combining the online accessibility of Ultimate Poker with the classic Vegas feel of the El Cortez we’re giving new and existing players a different way to experience the game of poker.”
—Alexandra Epstein, executive vice president of the El Cortez in Las Vegas announcing that Ultimate Poker will now run the online poker room for the casino
