“Every time you put a gaming bill up in the Florida legislature it’s like throwing a side of beef into a shark tank.”
—Florida Republican state Senator Tom Lee on the failure of a bill to expand gaming in the state and grant a compact to the Seminole tribe
“While I have truly mixed emotions toward expanded sports betting, if Geoff Freeman and company were to announce a similar effort to legalize election wagering, they would have every personal and professional resource I could offer at their command.”
—Industry consultant Jeffrey Compton, suggesting that the American Gaming Organization’s current efforts to expand sports betting should extend to election-based wagering
“It’s not a bad result for an amateur!”
—92-year-old industry legend Len Ainsworth to the Sydney Morning Herald on the $500 million he will receive from Austria’s Novomatic for his majority stake in Ainsworth Game Technology, which he founded in 1995
“What they’re trying to do is say the tribe must get a permit from the county, and there couldn’t be anything further from the truth. There is no county ordinance that applies to this. They cannot issue permits on the reservation.”
—Chairman Bill Iyall of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe of Washington reacting to a Stop Work Order by Clark County on a reservation site where the tribe plans to build a casino
“It’s a black hole, and that’s by design. The design is not to energize the neighborhood. It’s to get everybody to your casino.”
—Brett Pelletier, city councilman for Tiverton, Rhode Island, who opposes a casino being built in his town, which is just across the state border from Fall River, Massachusetts
“No amount of political theater and public harassment from Wynn will keep me as the mayor of Somerville from doing my job in advocating for the health and well-being of the residents of our community.”
—Somerville, Massachusetts Mayor Joe Curtatone vowing not to bow to pressure of those wanting him to drop his environmental appeal of the Wynn Everett casino, an appeal that the developer says could add a year to the project
“We expect the industry will learn the lessons from this case—it is their duty to keep crime out of gambling and protect vulnerable people from harm. If operators don’t implement processes and policies aimed at doing this then they risk losing their operating license. Paddy Power failed in its dealing with three customers and is now facing the consequences of these actions in a very public way.”
—Richard Watson, U.K. Gambling Commission, on Paddy Power’s failure to stop a problem gambler from playing and its lax oversight on possible money laundering
“Crimes in the cyberspace like email spoofing, financial fraud, online gambling, match fixing, cyber-defamation and cyber-stalking call for an ingenuous and proactive response from the law providers. It is a challenge to bring all new age offenses with its intricacies within the ambit of the criminal law.”
—Pranab Mukherjee, president of India, on the possibility that cyber-crimes will be listed under the Indian Penal Code
“It’s scary that Macau’s gross gaming revenue has seen declines for 20 months, but I have confidence the drop could end in February.”
—Wilfred Wong Ying Wai, president and COO, Sands China, on his expectations for the troubled jurisdiction; Wong was right—February saw a decline of just 1 percent
