“We feel comfortable that we’re part of the community. This area was designated the entertainment district, and it fits right in, the casino, with the entertainment district, we fit right into the community.”
— Treena Parvello, spokesman for the Tohono O’Odham tribe of Arizona, commenting on the tribe’s planned December opening of the Desert Diamond Casino West Valley
“We’re back to where we’ve been for six years, millions of dollars, the Tohono O’odham tribe continues to win in court. Now the only avenue left to opponents of the casino is for Congress to overturn the law . . .”
—Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, commenting on efforts to prevent the Tohono O’Odham tribe of Arizona from opening its casino near Glendale
“The problem is they’re so below the water mark of where they were expected to be, that even as they grow they’re still going to be viewed as under-performing.”
—Gregg Klein, senior vice president of Imperial Capital LLC in New York, offering the opinion that Ohio, which has four casino resorts and seven racinos, has too many gaming establishments
“The Philippines is not Macau. Its gaming revenue here is still growing. Investors treat gaming issues or the gaming industry as a whole. If we’re out of favor, they are all out of favor. That is something we cannot do anything about.”
—Enrique Razon, chairman and CEO, Bloomberry Resorts Corp., on broad-brush reports that the slump in Macau has spread to the Philippines
“Nongaming will be profitable in the future. I don’t care if it’s not that profitable now. It’s part of the bargain with the government, part of the contract. It’s part of being in a privileged market. The local and central government could not be more clear.”
—Jim Murren, chairman and CEO, MGM Resorts International, who towed the Chinese party line when the firm topped off its Cotai resort
“The Macau market is small, so we can never be like Hong Kong, Beijing or Shanghai in terms of developing long-haul flights. We have not given up on the idea. We’ve been studying that for years. But under the economic adjustment phase, with customer sources decreasing, we are putting more focus on our Southeast Asian routes.”
—Zheng Yan, chairman, Air Macau, on low demand for long-haul flights to and from the city
“We’ve seen the worst in Macau—it’s really a matter of when the real recovery starts.”
—Lawrence Ho,chairman, Melco Crown Entertainment, on extended sluggishness in the Macanese gaming market
“As of last Friday, 68 percent of phone calls into my office (have been) for iGaming, so if the intent of the ads was to deter or change my opinion, they have done the opposite.”
—Pennsylvania Rep. John Payne, chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee and sponsor of a bill to legalize online gaming, commenting to Gaming Compliance on attack ads aimed at him that were sponsored by Sheldon Adelson’s Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling
“For many years, poker was discriminated against because it was associated with illegal gambling, closed-space meetings and heavy alcohol and tobacco consumption. However, the entire world is accepting poker as a mind sport, and I hope this will in the future make poker more popular than baccarat in Macau.”
—Former football star Ronaldo Nazário de Lima, during a visit to Macau to promote a poker tournament, to Macau Business Daily
