“That’s right, it is going to become easier to do something entertaining and potentially damaging. This hasn’t happened since the government decided it was OK for men to have long hair (although that’s neither damaging nor entertaining).”
—Malay Mail, in an opinion on relaxed online gaming rules in Singapore
“Hundreds of millions of Asian middle-class of all nationalities aren’t looked after properly in Macau. We intend to make sure we make them happy closer to home and give them an amazing experience without spending billions of dollars to do so.”
—Tim Shepherd, president, business development and marketing, Silver Heritage Group Ltd., on the 2017 opening of the firm’s Tiger Palace Resort in Nepal
“Councils have long called for a review into gaming machine stakes, so this is a significant step in the right direction. Councils up and down the country are worried about the number of high-stakes FOBTs and betting shops on our high streets. Someone playing on a machine can lose £100 in a matter of seconds in a single play on an FOBT. This is money many people can’t afford to lose.”
—Simon Blackburn, Local Government Association’s Safer and Stronger Communities board, on a long-awaited review of fixed-odds betting terminals under way by the UK government
“When the Chinese government sends agents to scrutinize the behavior of its citizens in its own country, it is called ‘scrutinizing its citizens.’ When the Chinese government send agents to a foreign country to scrutinize the behavior of its citizens, it is called spying.”
—Andrew Klebanow, Global Market Advisors, on Beijing’s attempts to keep Chinese citizens from gambling abroad
“A lot of people think that we’re wasting our time, that no matter what we turn in the state is going reject it. Every ounce of energy and effort that we’ve put into this since January is to avoid a state takeover.”
—Atlantic City Council President Marty Small, on whether its plans to avoid bankruptcy, such as early-retirement incentives and sale of the city’s former airport, will stave off state intervention in the city’s finances
“This is an issue we’ve been polling on for years, and there has never been broad and deep support for allowing casinos to expand beyond Atlantic City It’s no surprise, then, that backers of the amendment are having a hard time selling the idea to voters.”
—Krista Jenkins, political science professor and director of the PublicMind polling operation at Farleigh Dickinson University, on a new poll showing only 24 percent of New Jersey citizens favor adding casinos in North Jersey
“All we need is a vote from the commission. God knows the state needs the money.”
—George Carney, owner of the Brockton Fairgrounds, to the Enterprise urging the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to reopen the issue of a casino on the property, which it rejected in April
“We have made our forecast, and our strategy is to build up our amenities. We have no concerns about filling the rooms.”
—Bobby Soper, president and chief executive officer of the Mohegan Sun, on the upcoming opening of the Mohegan Sun’s new 400-room Earth Tower
“We independently arrived at the same conclusion which is why we write as one voice today: We support the proposed casino and hotel and feel confident we can—we will—meet any new safety challenges that may arise.”
— James McGuiness-Rossi, president of the Tiverton police union, and Craig R. Committo, president of the Tiverton firefighters’ union, supporting the Tiverton, Rhode Island, casino vote on November 8
“I think the better way to look at this is why are gamers as an audience important to casinos? The answer is simple. Pretty much everyone in this day and age has grown up playing video games starting at a very early age. They continue to play games throughout their lives, and they are embedded in this culture where they love instant gratification, competition, and recognition. Casinos are meccas for entertainment. Unfortunately the type of entertainment they offer today with regards to gambling just doesn’t interest this audience.”
—Rahul Sood, CEO and founder of Unikrn, a Seattle-based gaming and eSports company to Yogonet.com on the future of eSports gaming in casinos
“With the regulated space we’re in, we’re quite confident with the games we offer … and that the integrity issues aren’t that really big. We also have visibility of the liquidity of the markets. Integrity in e-sports is a combined effort between the bookmakers, publishers and the players. I think a big part is education. I feel that many of players sometimes don’t understand the implications of their actions on a betting market.”
—Moritz Maurer, whose company Genius Sports provides e-sports betting information products to European sports books, media and leagues, on regulating eSports at a recent Las Vegas conference on eSports
