“With the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL, the NCAA, they’re all making money off fantasy sports. They’re investing in it. They go to court and they try to stop us in New Jersey from legalizing what is happening every Sunday—illegal bookmakers in the mafia. They’d rather have them do it.”
—Chris Christie, New Jersey governor, in a radio interview on New Jersey’s failed attempts to allow sports betting at casinos and racetracks
“Casinos are built to keep business inside, not to benefit local businesses or the community. Rhode Islanders: Think twice about how you vote on Question One. Do we really need another taxpayer-backed mistake?”
—Amy Veri, a state senate candidate in Rhode Island who opposes the initiative that would allow a casino in Tiverton
“If you put a casino in the airport it’s gonna take away customers from Foxwoods, it’s gonna take away customers from Mohegan Sun, and it would take away customers from us.”
—Alan Feldman, MGM Resorts International executive vice president of global government and industry affairs, explains why MGM opposes the gaming tribes of Connecticut building a casino at the Bradley International Airport at Windsor Locks
“Opponents are now gaming the system by tying up the courts with multiple lawsuits adding another two to four years — which puts us about where we are here now in 2016.”
— Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe of the Enterprise Rancheria spokesman Charles Altekruse bewailing the many road blocks that have been erected to his tribe’s opening of its Fire Mountain Casino in Northern California
“Whether a casino will be built at Bradley International Airport remains to be seen, but already one thing is clear: The process of planning for such a venture needs to be far less secretive.”
—Jenna DeAngelis, writing for the Hartford Courant, commenting on the process by which the Connecticut Airport Authority is choosing to bid for the right to host a casino in Windsor Locks
“We asked our legal team to file a motion to intervene not because we do not have confidence in the process but to allow us to be more directly involved in defending our rights.”
— Mashpee Wampanoag Chairman Cedric Cromwell asking federal court to allow his tribe to be party to a lawsuit that challenges the status of its land in Taunton, Massachusetts as reservation land
“The lightning bolt was obviously meant for me and not for the other shareholders of PhilWeb numbering about 1,500, the employees of PhilWeb numbering 679 people, nor the 135 entities who operate 286 e-Games outlets throughout the country who employ an estimated 5,000 people. They are all innocent bystanders who, beginning midnight tonight, will be all out of job.”
—Roberto Ongpin, shareholder, PhilWeb, who offered to surrender half his shares to PAGCOR rather than see the company go out of business
“We had a tremendous, swollen abnormal VIP gaming revenue number in past years because of the junket activity. That has been reduced significantly. It is an adjustment in both directions: gaming revenue at the very top end goes down, and non-gaming revenue across the board goes up.”
—Steve Wynn, chairman, Wynn Resorts, on the “new Macau”
“I have been working with Tam for more than 10 years. I think he is a hard-working official. I am not assuming that Tam is using his power in an improper way and that he is capricious, just like a bad boy.”
—Fernando Chui Sai On, Macau chief executive, on Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam. Tam has been criticized for a decision to redevelop the Hotel Estoril, home of the city’s first casino
“We miss the general life events that the normal 9-to-5 people take for granted because they are free of an evening. I signed up knowing what I was getting into—this is the nature of shift work—but it can be quite damaging as far as relationships are concerned, and there needs to be a recognition of this personal impact.”
—Matt Poynter, Crown Melbourne dealer and union delegate, who joined other employees in protesting weekend shifts and spurning a 2.75 percent wage hike
