“It’s hard to justify having a hearing on Sheldon’s thing and not holding a hearing on a Supreme Court nominee.”
—Unnamed casino industry lobbyist to GamblingCompliance.com, on the chances the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up consideration of Restoration of America’s Wire Act, the bill promoted by Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson to ban internet gaming
“If the AGA continues its current position—based on placating some of its members who hold contrarian and unproven views—it will only serve to harm the trade group’s reputation when we look back at the role it played during this period.”—USPoker.com’s Steve Ruddock, criticizing an op-ed piece in the Las Vegas Review-Journal penned by American Gaming Association President Geoff Freeman, during which Freeman warned of the gray-area legal status of daily fantasy sports while the AGA has withdrawn is support for legal for-money online gaming
“This is absolutely the new medium. In 10 years, we’ll see broadcast matches on Twitch that rival traditional sports broadcasts. It’s only a matter of time.”
—Marcus Graham, director of programming for Twitch TV—a platform for egamers—to the Orange County Register on the growth of eSports
“This case laid bare the weaknesses of the system. What we get from all this is that there is no transparency in the system. What worries me more is his work as Prosecutor General. I am more worried about the allegations of influence peddling, precisely because nobody is investigating it; the prosecutor is the president of the Magistrates’ Council together with four others, which has created a corporatization of these departments. It is not enough for people to be honest—they must look honest too.”
—Jorge Neto Valente, president, Macau Lawyers Association, on the recent arrest of former Public Prosecutor General Ho Chio Meng, accused of bribery, fraud and forgery
“The reality is we need to have a lot more hotel competition, partners that have the capability to sell those rooms. We need people to build more hotels, more tourist attractions, more food and beverage options … We are working with the tourism industry to try and activate the sector so we can sell all of southeast Queensland, offering an authentic, unique proposition that allows us to compete with Melbourne, Macau and Singapore.”
—Matt Bekier, CEO, Star Entertainment, on need for growth in the hospitality sector in Queensland, Australia
“After the Chinese left, our business went down a lot, maybe 60 to 80 percent. We’ve faced losses, though we’re still running.”
—Rathanak Sambath, Golden Royal Hotel and Casino, Sihanoukville, on the loss of business after the arrests of 168 Chinese nationals in the Cambodian city; half of those arrested worked in Sambath’s casino
“Our plan calls for us to go well above and beyond typical remediation, like that which would be required to update a shopping center. We’re not saddling the taxpayers with any of this work. It’s something we all want to do.”
— Wynn Everett President Robert DeSalvio, explaining why he believes that the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, should withdraw its environmental appeal of Wynn’s casino project along the Mystic River
“The bottom line question is where does Connecticut get the best deal? The more comprehensive the study, the clearer the answer becomes. It is not in the Hartford region.”
—Alan Feldman, an executive with MGM, arguing that Connecticut’s two gaming tribes should consider a casino in the Bridgeport area, rather than near the border between Massachusetts and Connecticut, as it is currently doing
“The state has a long history of discriminating against the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation. Recently, the state fought our federal recognition, supposedly because they didn’t want another casino in Connecticut.”
— Schaghticoke Chief Richard Velky, explaining why his tribe is suing Connecticut to be allowed to open an Indian casino in the state
