“When the government of Macau sent me out to Cotai, I frankly thought they were exiling me because the big activity, the resorts and the gaming, was on the peninsula. So I went back and said, ‘Where’s the land?’ And they said, ‘Well, it’s under the water.’ And I said, ‘Do I need a helicopter or something to pick it up?’ And they said no, you’ve got to reclaim the land.’ We had to bring in barge after barge of sand to reclaim the land.”
—Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Sands Corp., on his first impressions of the land that has become the Cotai Strip in Macau
“We do not consider it necessary to intervene to prevent some players using technology advantages such as faster connectivity speeds to gain a competitive edge provided it is clear to all players that this can be done. We will continue to monitor in-play betting for fairness and openness as part of our overall betting compliance program and take its particular characteristics into account in our wider work on integrity in sports betting and gambling-related harm.”
—UK Gambling Commission, in a position paper on in-play sports betting
“We are continuing to study and gauge the social impacts of letting Vietnamese punters into casinos. We want to report to the higher-ups about the ramifications this could have, such as organized crime, gambling addictions, money laundering and other illicit activities.”
—Senior official, Vietnam Finance Ministry, who spoke anonymously about the concerns driving an ongoing ban on locals gaming in the country
“We tried it, it didn’t work, it’s not the end of the world.“
—Itai Frieberger, CEO, 888 Holdings, on a £3.4 billion bid by 888 and the Rank Group to buy William Hill
“It’s sad for a lot of people, people who have worked here or knew somebody here or grew up around the area.”
—John Vitale, formerly the “voice” of Rockingham Park, New Hampshire, commenting on its closing last week
“In reality, the opponents do not want the competition—the Chukchansi tribe has a casino that has been closed for a couple of years—the tribe board had a gun fight inside the casino, money questions and ownership arose and they can not afford to work in the free market.”
—Stephen Frank greeting a federal judge’s ruling that the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians in California can move forward with a casino despite opposition by the Chukchansi tribe
“If we weren’t in a position today to actually move forward with this project, we wouldn’t have come to the city of Ridgecrest. We wouldn’t be here today to offer you guys this opportunity that is going to benefit the tribe and the city.
—Eleanor Jackson, a member of the Timbisha Shoshone tribe of California, speaking to the Ridgecrest city council prior to its vote to sell land to her tribe for a casino
“The fact that regulation is being driven by individual states rather than the federal government is probably the main reason it’s only progressing relatively gradually. Many states seem to be adopting a wait-and-see approach. The signs have been encouraging–New Jersey’s iGaming revenue hit a record high for July–and so other states like Pennsylvania, New York and California are currently considering legislation.”
—Income Access Managing Director Nicky Senyard, whose company has just been acquired by Paysafe, on why it’s taken so long for iGaming to spread in the U.S.
“From an ROI perspective, revenue-wise, we think we’ll reach the break-even point in Q4. We are also confident that the impact of live dealer on player’s acquisition will more than pay back our investment, especially as we are the only operator offering live dealer in New Jersey for the foreseeable future.”
—Thomas Winter, Golden Nugget Atlantic City vice president of online gaming to OnlinePokerReport on the casinos live dealer offerings, the first offered in New Jersey’s online gaming market
