“Yes, Adam Silver gets it. And it’s time leaders of the other major sports do the same.”
—Columnist Tim Dahlberg in an Associated Press piece calling for major sports leagues to follow the lead of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in supporting the legalization of sports betting in the U.S.
“The REIT would effectively shelter a considerable portion of the casinos’ profits, thus functioning as a taxpayer-funded subsidy to one of the largest casino companies in the U.S. and its private equity owners.”
—Letter from 15 U.S. Congress members to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, urging Lew to deny Caesars Entertainment Corp. a favorable tax ruling related to the operator’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy with its properties in a real-estate investment trust
“We have to put more teeth in our laws so we could stop criminal elements from exploiting the deficiencies in our existing laws. There are gaping holes in our law. We have to include casino as covered entities.”
—Emmanuel Dooc, Philippines’ Anti-Money Laundering Council, on a recent multimillion-dollar cyberheist in which money was laundered in casinos. The country exempts casinos from AML laws
“It’s not hard to imagine why those guys chose Manila (casinos) to clean their money.”
—Ben Lee, analyst, IGamiX, on the recent cyber-heist that used casinos to launder $81 million stolen from a Bangladesh bank
“At present, we see further cost mitigation efforts as more challenging and with new supply and flattish revenue, we expect the recent year-on-year margin improvements to inflect negative again in the 2H16.”
—Deutsche Bank, saying, in other words, that things still stink in Macau
“The reality is that the gears of government always grind very slowly and these things take time. We hope that eventually they get to the right outcome.”
—Grant Govertsen, Union Gaming, on Vietnam’s seeming inability to jumpstart its gaming industry
“Regulation of the internet is very difficult but it’s required, since the government loses out and legitimate investors also. There’s no environment for proper investments to be made because when you’re being required to invest significant sums in a sector and there’s no protection from grey markets then it might not be the correct investment.”
—Chris Tio, former head of marketing for PAGCOR, the Philippine gaming regulator
“People compare Brazil’s legislature to the (Netflix drama) ‘House of Cards,’ but I disagree. ‘House of Cards’ is actually more believable.
—Timothy Power, Brazil expert, Oxford University, on the economic crisis in Brazil, which has lawmakers considering 35 casinos as a remedy
“From the era of Governor Deval Patrick to that of Governor Charlie Baker, decisions by assorted state regulators, as well as by the courts, helped pave the way for Steve Wynn’s casino dream to become reality. No one’s about to stop him now.”
— Joan Vennochi, columnist for the Boston Globe, commenting on the appeal by Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone to the environmental permit granted to the Wynn Boston Harbor by the state of Massachusetts
“In no other case has a court had to confront a sovereign tribe, put into immediate possession of trust lands, starting to construct a casino before any judicial review has occurred,”
—David Tennant, an attorney for opponents of the casino the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is building in Taunton, Massachusetts, and who sued in federal court and seek a temporary injunction to stop construction
“This is my best chance for working at a casino. You get all the excitement of playing without the risk of losing.”
–Ryan Krach, a Nashville man who moved to Maryland with his life savings in order to take a dealers class to have a chance to work at the MGM National Harbor, which will open later this year
