“Look, it’s a two-edged sword. If you go in there and spend a lot of money, then you may wake up one day and Governor Andrew Cuomo or whoever is governor or mayor of New York City will say, ‘Look, they’re taking all the New Yorkers’ money and they’re sucking it up in that casino in the Meadowlands. So we’ve got to open one up, and keep the money in New York.’”
—Sheldon Adelson at the Global Gaming Expo event in Las Vegas on the “very attractive” proposed casino site at New Jersey’s Meadowlands
“There’s no reason to believe we’ll ever get very much of it at all.”
—Nelson Dilg, to the Press of Atlantic City whose Egg Harbor City, N.J., kitchen-cleaning company is owed better than $200,000 by Atlantic City’s three casinos in bankruptcy
“In the wake of several casino closings in Atlantic City, gaming critics are out in force with, ‘I told you so—gaming can’t save an economy.’ Guess what? We agree. Instead of viewing gaming as a panacea to cure all economic ills, policymakers should view gaming as one piece of a multifaceted economic development strategy.”
?Geoff Freeman, president and CEO, American Gaming Association, in an op-ed piece in USA Today
“This will be the first time in my 30-year Las Vegas career that I will be performing for an all-gay audience. Finally, I can do pop-culture jokes that everyone will get.”
?Frank Marino, Strip Divas, who will perform for an all-gay audience at Evolve NYE, a three-day event for gay men in Las Vegas
“It is our position that the prohibition of wagers on single events is no longer necessary as it fails to deter Canadians, to a satisfactory extent, from engaging in this illegal form of gaming.. Elimination of the restriction will allow for the Province of Manitoba to engage in the necessary regulation of single sport-event wagers while realizing consequential economic benefits.”
?Steve Ashton, former Canadian minister responsible for gaming, in a 2012 statement supporting single-event wagers in the provinces. Two years later, the bill is still stalled in the Senate
“Does County Executive Picente understand what competition is all about? This is America, not Cuba. Competition is good for businesses and for customers. Even competition where one party—his party—gets a 10-county monopoly.”
?Robert Hayssen, Seneca County, NY, board of supervisors, on Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente’s war on a possible new casino being approved near the Turning Stone tribal gaming hall. The Oneida Nation actually has a nine-county monopoly on gaming in two counties; it recently ceded one county to another tribe, the Cayugas
“Of the three competitors in this region, we’re the only one who is going to have an on-site problem gambling resource center. We’ve also paired with Seneca County Mental Health, so if you have insurance, don’t have insurance, you can get help at our cost, if you have a problem. We’re not hiding from this issue.”
?Jimmy Wilmot, developer who is bidding for one of four Class III casino licenses in New York State
“The exciting part of this company is that it comes with 86 million customers. Not 86 million gamblers specifically; 86 million customers.”
—Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov, on his company’s acquisition of Rational Group Ltd., parent of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker
“It’s difficult to understand how a workout would take place and bind classes outside of bankruptcy. I don’t assign a high likelihood of success to an out-of-court outcome.”
—Janegail Orringer, a credit analyst who follows casino bonds at AllianceBernstein Holding LP, commenting to Bloomberg that it is unlikely Caesars Entertainment will be able to successfully negotiate with warring classes of bondholders to avoid bankruptcy
“The more voters hear about casino’s damaging effects, the more likely they are to support a Yes on 3. The industry and its puppets don’t want to have a debate on the merits of the bill, as was evidenced by their first TV advertisement. It’s deception.”
—John Ribeiro, chairman of Repeal the Casino Deal, which wants to repeal the Massachusetts gaming expansion law, commenting on the fact that no casino executives have said they will debate his group on the issue
“So why will I vote for a ballot measure that would return Massachusetts to casino prohibition? Because the state’s traditional ban on casinos, though unreasonable, is far less damaging than the 2011 law that modestly expanded gaming at the cost of drastically expanding government control.”
—Jeff Jacoby, writing in the Boston Globe for why he will vote for Question 3, which would repeal casinos in Massachusetts, although he supports casinos
“It’s a challenge but yeah, I do think that it’s theoretically possible to have a free-standing thoroughbred racetrack. Whether we can get there or not is a big question but it’s possible.”—Stephen Crosby, chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, responding to a question as to whether racing in the Bay State can be saved
“So why is Proposition 48 on the ballot? Because two local, competing tribal casinos and their Wall Street hedge-fund backers want to stop competition.”
—Editorial, Sacramento Bee, supporting Prop. 48, which would allow the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians to build an off-reservation casino in Madera County, California
