“High rollers drop million, but they are very concerned about being overcharged for a coffee. For the Chinese it’s just as important they get a shark fin soup in a Chinese restaurant as it is a private jet turning up in Shanghai. They are not easy customers, but they are great customers. They lose a lot of money.”
—David Chiu, Far East Consortium, on Chinese high rollers’ fondness for perks
“Hopefully the crackdown will result in a better system for the longer term, which is better for the country. We’re heavily invested in China so we’re quite confident things will work out.
—Patrick Tsang, CEO, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, on the possible long-term benefits of stricter oversight of Macau’s gaming industry
“I feel like J. Robert Oppenheimer, having invented the atomic bomb. I meant it for peaceful purposes.”
—Dan Okrent, credited for coming up with the idea for rotisserie baseball which led to fantasy sports, to the Boston Globe
“Either we get the casino open, or it’s going to get shut down completely because the bondholders feel they have a money pit on their hands. They want it done as soon as possible.”
—Reggie Lewis, interim tribal council chairman of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians of Northern California, commenting on the willingness of bondholders to advance money to the tribe to reopen the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino
“That is not only more aesthetically pleasing but also has an economic development component to it. There are studies that show a correlation between cities that build up and the health of a local economy. They do better.”
—Orlando Ramos, Springfield, Massachusetts city council member, reacting to new proposed plans for the MGM Springfield casino
“Let’s be clear from the outset: The Strip casino of the future isn’t going to look like your child’s Xbox or PlayStation.”
—Howard Stutz,columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, writing that while manufacturers and operators are looking at skill games, the change to the floor will not be radical
“As we sit here and talk about how we chewed up Atlantic City’s casinos, that’s exactly what they’re going to do to us.”
—Pennsylvania state Rep. John Payne, chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, urging House members to approve new gaming, including iGaming, as a hedge against the competition coming from Maryland’s MGM Harbor, set to open in 2016
“There are some big sharks in play, but there are still a lot of small fish to capture.”
—Interblock Chairman Joc Pececnik, commenting to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that despite the size of merged behemoths like Scientific Games and IGT, there is still room for expansion and growth by small- and mid-sized suppliers
“As long as we get the jobs and the taxes and the amount of rooms, I support it”
— Clodo Concepcion, Springfield, Massachusetts council member, reacting to the new, less ambitious MGM Springfield plans
