“The men and women at the Taj are ready to fight to defend the kind of jobs that were promised when gaming was legalized—jobs with good pay and good benefits, in a workplace where everyone is treated fairly.”
—Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of UNITE HERE, the main hotel worker’s union in Atlantic City, after members authorized the union to call a strike if necessary to restore health and pension benefits removed by owner Carl Icahn
“There is this disconnect between the reality of saving water and the fantasy that we don’t have to. But frankly, that’s the job of Las Vegas, to feed our fantasy, isn’t it?”
—Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a California-based water research group, on Las Vegas Strip casinos’ use of water features that give the illusion that the four-year Western drought doesn’t exist
“Current planning and gambling laws are failing to protect our towns and high streets.”
—Sir Robin Wales, Newham, UK, on the proliferation of fixed-odds betting terminals
“We do not support Newham Council’s proposal as we have already acted by introducing stronger gambling controls to further protect players and promote responsible gambling, in April. This includes putting an end to unsupervised stakes above £50 on FOBTs and giving more powers to local authorities to stop new betting shops opening up in their areas.”
—UK government, on its refusal to reduce the stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals
“It’s good news for us, as Summit Ascent will own the unique advantage of being a forerunner in Northeast Asia for a longer time.”
—Eric Landheer, Summit Ascent Holdings, who says no gaming in Japan is good for Lawrence Ho’s Tigre de Cristal casino, about to open in Russia
“A reliable source has reported that central Chinese government officials firmly believe that Sands has permitted CIA/FBI agents to operate from within its facilities. These agents apparently ‘monitor mainland government officials’ who gamble in the casinos.”
—Excerpt released from the Vickers report, a collection of documents pertaining to a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Sands China CEO Steven Jacobs
“After politically motivated organizations made preposterous claims in an effort to obtain the so-called Vickers report, a copy has now been obtained through leak or court error. Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, what has emerged is a document that Steve Jacobs actually ordered for his own personal purposes and is simply a collection of meaningless speculation. In essence, it is much ado about nothing. As for the document’s narrative that Sands is a front for U.S. intelligence efforts, well that sounds like an idea for a movie script.”
—Ron Reese, Las Vegas Sands Corp., on excerpts released from the Vickers reports that purport the company was a front for U.S. government investigators
“The government announced in the middle of the night it will seek to liquidate Baha Mar. We urge the Bahamas not to seize private party assets and to allow the private parties, in what is after all a commercial enterprise, to come to an agreement that would allow for the completion and opening of Baha Mar as soon as possible, as the government has publically and explicitly urged.”
—Baha Mar Ltd., developer of the unfinished $3.5 billion Baha Mar resort in Nassau, on the recent government seizure of the project
“There should be a Bahamian solution to this Bahamian issue”.
—Perry Christie, prime minister of the Bahamas, on one reason he seized control of the Baha Mar resort project
“In our view no amount of control will adequately curb the harm that may be caused to South African citizens by online gambling, hence we reiterate that it must remain a banned activity.”
—South Africa Department of Trade and Industry, in a statement on the continued ban on all online games in the country
“They’ve just blown it out of the water and we’ve been very pleased with the turnout. The people that have been coming to the community, spending money in our stores in the township and in our restaurants, this is phenomenal.”
—Austintown Township, Ohio trustee Jim Davis, commenting on the effect that the Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course has had on the local economy since opening ten month ago
“We have to find an optimal mix of gamblers, gamblers in rooms, tourist foot traffic off Fremont Street, locals and out-of-market customers.”
—Jim Simms, CEO of Downtown Grand, on what his casino must due to find success in a difficult part of downtown Las Vegas
“The first interview I ever did as portfolio manager was a radio interview from Park City, Utah. A woman named Miriam told me and the host we were both going to hell.”
—Greg Sullivan, asset manager of the Vice Fund, on one of his more interesting moments on the job, and the sort of comments he receives in regards to his job
“We’re going to try and do more daily fantasy type stuff this season. We can’t call it ‘fantasy,’ but we can put a scoring system in place and take advantage of this era we’re in where so many are comfortable with that type of gambling.”
—Jay Rood, MGM VP of Race and Sports, letting it be known MGM is working on some form of fantasy sports for the near future
“So our focus is to not be gimmicky and to be honest and offer a real value to local gambling customers—and at the same time be a life-style oriented property.”
—Scott Kreeger, SLS president, speaking on what the SLS Las Vegas is doing in hopes of attracting more local customers
“I get asked all the time if this is my dream job, and I’m like, ‘No because when I was dreaming of jobs, this didn’t exist.’ Who thought you could make a living talking about fake sports?”
—Matthew Berry, ESPN fantasy football expert to the Las Vegas Sun at the inaugural Fantasy Football Combine at the Wynn in Las Vegas
“The tribes should be prepared to pay for traffic impacts and other development costs and, finally, businesses may feel left out of a potential business opportunity by having an exclusive, no-bid process.”
—Alan Feldman, MGM Resorts executive vice president of global government and industry affairs, criticizing legislation passed by Connecticut that gives the two gaming tribes there the right to develop a satellite casino to combat the MGM Springfield going up in neighboring Massachusetts
“You should start every conversation about gaming by saying that gaming is not something the federal government authorized you to do. It is your sovereign right and I don’t think people really understand that.”
—Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota
“There are number of challenges that make it impossible to control and combat illegal gambling in the country. One major challenge is that South Africa has no control over borderless activities of other countries. Our main task as policymakers is to come up with strategies that will make it easy for all stakeholders involved to fight these challenges.”
—MacDonald Netshitenzhe, chief director of policy and legislation, South African DTI, who says the fact that the country cannot stop illegal online gaming is no reason to legalize it
“They’re more than willing to leech on to you, bleed you dry of money when it’s convenient and then dump you—temporarily, anyways—when it starts to look bad.”
—Unnamed high roller, who says he was warned to keep away from an Echo Entertainment casino until its Brisbane license was secured, because he was part of an undesirable element that includes blacklisted gamblers and criminals
“If James Packer’s Crown Resorts somehow defies all the odds and wins, expect things to get grisly at Bekier’s. Heads (will) roll in a scene so bloody it would make Quentin Tarantino squirm. Not that we think that’s going to happen.”
—Australian Financial Review, in a column alleging that Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk backed Echo Entertainment over Crown Resorts for a $2 billion casino license in Brisbane
