“We will make every effort to maximize the financial performance of our gaming entertainment businesses and to repay debt on our balance sheet, with the goal of having our company on its best financial footing at the time of the closing of the transaction with Penn National.”
—Pinnacle Gaming CEO Anthony Sanfilippo, pledging to hand over a healthy company to Penn National Gaming when Penn’s acquisition of Pinnacle closes
“The elimination of weaker operators has nothing to do with regulations. It is the competition. I encourage competition in the market.”
—Tsang Ka Hung, CFO of junket operator Tak Chun, who says Macau’s VIP gaming market is back to 2013-14 levels
“It’s a very sensitive issue for the general public. I haven’t seen any recent poll, but still there are some negative opinions on the casino industry, so it wouldn’t be easy for the government to liberalize the regulation on casino industry.”
—Attorney, speaking anonymously to USA Today on the restrictions on local gamblers in South Korea, where just one of 23 casinos is open to residents
“These figures have shocked casino industry veterans, given Macau’s status as a hub for large-scale money laundering. Eight casino executives and analysts interviewed for the story said they could see no way such figures could be generated legitimately.”
—Bloomberg News, in its story on extraordinarily high gaming revenues reported at Imperial Pacific Resort on Saipan Island
“It hurts my feelings; it breaks my heart. We are not corrupt.”
—Juan Sablan, casino commissioner, on a Bloomberg article hinting that Saipan lawmakers are in the pocket of casino operator Imperial Pacific International
“When things are good, Xi is willing to listen. But that’s not the only Xi Jinping. The other Xi Jinping is this focused individual who cares enormously about power and is the biggest obstacle to economic reform.”
—Barry Naughton, economist, University of California San Diego, on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push for an extended term of office
“I was seeing people, everybody, running from the inside to the outside. I didn’t know what’s happening.”
—Witness to the aftermath of a bomb scare at Crown Casino Melbourne where an unidentified Malayian national was taken into custody
“Using the ‘normalized’ results—a fiction that VIP gambling win never deviates from a fixed percentage—the company’s earnings improved. Also in a normalized world, Crown boss James Packer can gorge on all the ice cream he wants and never gain weight. Just saying.”
—CalvinAyre.com, unraveling reports of increased VIP turnover at Crown Resorts where high rollers won too much for Crown to turn a profit
“I think the government has been very clever in not giving too much away because it makes all of us work harder, do more and be more effective in delivering the strategic transformation the government has set out for us.”
—Grant Bowie, CEO, MGM China, on the Macau government’s closemouthed stance on upcoming license renewals
“One of things we believe in at MGM is that, if you have a diverse applicant pool, you’ll get great employees, and the diversity will be reflected in the hires. So, our focus has always been on making sure we’re getting great people in front of us before we make decisions.”
— Mike Mathis, MGM Springfield vice president and chief operating officer on how the casino has achieved diversity in hiring.
“Somebody can come in … and promise everyone the moon and the fence around it, but I just don’t trust it. And when you come after my district specifically, I get a little offended.”
—Tim Larson, Connecticut state senator representing East Windsor, on an MGM Resorts-backed bill that would strip East Windsor of the right to host a third, Indian satellite casino
“Make no mistake about it, this bill is going to cost thousands of people their jobs and the state hundreds of millions in revenue.”
—Andrew Doba, spokesman for MMCT Venture, the Connecticut tribal casino venture, commenting on a new bill that would open the state to competitive casino bidding
