“There is a real concern local government is powerless to prevent the increase in the number of betting shops as the betting industry seeks to maximize revenue. We heard about one community in Glasgow where there are three bookmakers in one parade of shops, each of those bookmakers having four fixed-odds betting terminals.”
—Kevin Stewart, Scottish lawmaker, on the proliferation of fixed-odds betting terminals in high streets across the UK
“In these discussions it has become clear that while most have placed their proxy in favor of the resolutions, they have huge sympathy with the points we raised and are voting for the Coral transaction out of a sense of frustration and resignation with the current board and management. I share their frustration, but not their resignation.”
—Dermot Desmond, Irish billionaire and Ladbrokes investor, who has promised to fight the merger of Ladbrokes and Gala Coral, approved last week
“It was big hair, it was big fun, it was just very flash. It brought a new sense of razzle-dazzle to the Gold Coast, so it was a lot of fun.”
—Ken Licence, Day 1 employee of Jupiters, Queensland’s first casino, which opened in 1985 and just marked its 30th year
“Take the Grand Prix as an example, it is still being held after over 60 years and continues to attract tourists. The greyhound racing may not be a major international event, but I believe it also offers some attraction for tourists.”
—Angela Leong On Kei, acting chairwoman, Yat Yuen Canidrome racetrack in Macau. Leong hopes for a multiyear extension of the greyhound racing concession, a plan opposed by animal rights activists
“Look at markets like Australia, with 200,000 machines, and North America, with 900,000 machines. (Macau) is not going to grow overnight to those sorts of numbers… But there is steady growth, and there has been steady growth in the slot revenue numbers as well.”
—Scientific Games Asia VP Ken Jolly, commenting on the potential for expansion of the slot market in Macau, to GGRAsia
“It’s time for eSports to embrace regulated betting and gaming, to shut down these questionable operations or to force them to regulate themselves in the same way as traditional gambling operators, or it risks losing its shirt.”
—eSports specialist and CSGO Betting founder Luke Cotton, in a column for CalvinAyre.com urging regulation of eSports
“We can hope that the economy continues to improve, boosting discretionary spending and thus casino revenues, and that all of this intense competition will make the casinos give its patrons a better gamble. But as many bettors will tell you, the odds don’t give a damn about hope.”
—Editorial, the Lowell Sun, commenting on the declining revenues of Massachusetts’s only casino, Plainridge Park, and what that may mean for the state’s gaming industry
“Approval would endorse a troubling pattern of tribes developing off-reservation casinos. It may also compromise the agreement tribes have with the state and each other to share gambling proceeds.”
—Editorial, Seattle Times, urging Washington Governor Jay Inslee to reject an attempt by the Spokane Tribe to build an off-reservation casino near the Fairchild Air Force Base, an instance where the governor has a veto power
“That doesn’t change the obvious conclusion that Montville isn’t getting even a sliver of what it could be getting from the casino. We doubt the tribe has any desire to reopen a good-faith deal dating back decades—and they have no obligation to do so—but the large discrepancy must be noted for the record.”
—Editorial, the Norwich Bulletin, noting the difference between the $500,000 annually that the Mohegan Sun pays the host town of Montville, Connecticut and the $25 million it was willing to pay the city of Revere, Massachusetts for the same privilege
“After all, we are not ‘kinda’ sovereign, sometimes sovereign, sovereign out of political expediency or only during Native American month. We either are or we are not sovereign.”
—Aaron Payment, chairman of Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, supporting the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act now before Congress, which would remove the National Labor Relations Board from having jurisdiction over tribes
