A last-minute desperation attempt to keep the sports betting argument alive connected last week as an appeal of a court decision upholding the national ban on the wager was overturned. A request from the administration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (l.) for the full Appeals Court to hear the arguments was successful, so there is a better chance that the suit might be successful.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board last week shut down unlicensed websites that offer daily fantasy sports within the state borders. Chairman AG Burnett (l.) called their services “sports betting.” Meanwhile, reports have surfaced that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice have begun investigating the daily fantasy sports industry in the wake of an insider information scandal. A federal Grand Jury is also investigating DFS sites in Florida, adding to several other states looking into the industry.
Tioga Downs was awarded the fourth and final casino license designated for upstate New York locations. The first round of bidding had awarded three of the four licenses, but pressure was brought on the state gaming commission to issue the final license in the Southern Tier. Tioga Downs owner Jeff Gural (l.) was elated at the choice.
As Pennsylvania lawmakers try to pass a budget after 100 days of partial shutdown, the chances are increasing that internet gaming legalization will be considered. House Majority Leader Dave Reed (l.) says iGaming would be preferable to a tax increase.
Lawrence Ho’s Summit Ascent Holdings opened its Tigre de Cristal casino in Russia’s Primorye zone October 8. The first phase of the deluxe resort includes a 119-room hotel and casino with 800 slots and 25 VIP tables.
As Studio City’s opening nears, Macau is speculating on the number of tables that will be allotted for the resort. Galaxy Entertainment won permission to add just 150 new-to-market tables at its Cotai property. But Melco may be better at playing the game.
Privately owned Station Casinos, and its two majority shareholders, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III (l.), announced it has filed the necessary federal forms for a proposed public offering of an undisclosed number of shares for an undetermined price. The move comes eight years after the casino chain went private and four years after it emerged from a bankruptcy reorganization begun in 2009.
A renewed gaming compact between Florida and the Seminole Tribe has a "better than 50 percent chance" of happening, said state Senator Rob Bradley (l.), Regulated Industries Committee chairman. Observers said a new compact could grant the Seminoles exclusive rights to blackjack, plus craps and roulette, in return for $3 billion over seven years.
This week, the GGB Podcast travels to Sioux City where we interview Todd Moyer, the general manager of the property, on how the casino has fit into the community in the year since it opened.
Macau’s Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam Chong Weng (l.) says he will unveil the local government’s plan to help the territory and its chief industry, gaming, at an upcoming address to the legislative assembly.
Typhoon Mujigae discouraged some Mainland Chinese tourists from streaming into Macau during the annual Golden Week celebration. Mujigae made landfall Sunday, October 4, halfway through the national holiday.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley analysts have revised their GGR forecast for the Philippines for 2016. The new number for the market is $1.6 billion versus the prior estimate of $1.7 billion, even without counting the recently opened City of Dreams Manila (l.).
The Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra government and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (l.) to implement or trash a 40-year-old law that legalized casinos in the state. A law student discovered the statute, which passed in 1976 but was never enacted.
A U.S. congressional commission has called for “increased support for democratic reforms in Macau,” particularly human rights reforms. The MSAR responded that the U.S. is “ignoring facts” and has made “groundless accusations.”
Macau and Hong Kong will soon collaborate on a free-trade agreement that will “establish a new, common platform to advance further liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment in the ‘Greater China’ region.”
Chinese officials arrested 13 representatives of several casinos located on South Korea’s Jeju Island and accuses them of illegally advertising and luring Chinese gamblers to the offshore casinos. Chinese officials say gamblers were promised free stays, tours, and sexual services, when they bought qualifying amounts of casino chips.
Melco International has cut loose from its Spanish partner and will seek to obtain a gaming license for Barcelona on its own. In 2014, the company helmed by Lawrence Ho submitted two bids to build in BCN World.
Ladbrokes has completed its 1.35 billion pound financing for a merger with Coral. The company also announced that Kristof Fahy will join the business as chief marketing officer.
Liberal Democrats and anti-gaming activists in the small English town of Bedford are seeking more local control over a rise in what they claim are addictive fixed-odds betting terminals.
Tourism in Israel may benefit from new casinos planned for southern Cyprus—and vice versa. Five casino operators have taken the first steps to bid on gaming licenses in the Greek-controlled republic.
A month after breaking ground on a casino in the UK city of Bath, developers have announced the proposed opening date. The Sawclose casino will be completed by May 2017, investors say.
The three major stakeholders in the stalled Baha Mar resort project in the Bahamas have begun talks aimed at completing the project. Bahamas Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson (l.) is directing the talks.
The government of Paraguay is preparing to announce the winners of two 10-year gaming licenses in Asunción. Each developer must pledge to invest at least $10 million, and will have about three years to get up and running. Javier Balbuena (l.), president of Conajzar, will reveal the winning bids.
An undisclosed, tentative deal has been reached between locked-out members of Unifor and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. The OLG locked out the workers last month after reaching an impasse on retirement benefits negotiations for unionized workers at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto (l.), Casino Brantford, and Sudbury Downs in Chelmsford, Ontario.
The developers of Brisbane’s Queen’s Wharf development project are counting on Asian high rollers to butter their bread. Echo Entertainment will build the $2 billion waterfront resort, designed to cater to Asian VIP players, especially from China.
Toronto police are cracking down in illegal gambling in the city and recently raided 30 locations, including three illegal casinos and nine illegal gambling houses, resulting in charges against more than 30 people. The police say the illegal operations cause a spike in violent crime as operators and patrons are targeted by other criminals.
With the Restoration of America’s Wire Act, backed by LVS head Sheldon Adelson (l.), stalled in Congress, supporters of an online gambling ban have been pushing for a “study” of online gambling, which would include a two-year moratorium on any new states adding online gambling. That effort, however, seems to also be stalled as there continues to be opposition to the ban.
Australia is reviewing its 2001 Interactive Gambling Act, considered by many to be outdated. Recommendations from a panel headed by former New South Wales premier Barry O’Farrell (l.) could lead to new online betting laws and regulations. Meanwhile, another office is concerned that the growth of sports betting promotions in all media could lead to more gambling and associated problems.
BorgataPoker.com and partner PartyPoker are holding their third annual Garden State Super Series for online poker in New Jersey. The opening events exceeded prize pool guarantees.
Greentube Pro has announced it will be the exclusive social casino platform for Connecticut’s Foxwoods Casino Resort. The move will give Foxwood’s players a uniform choice of game brand and access to Greentube’s library of games.
Evolution Gaming, makers of Live Casino, has signed a partnership agreement with online casino Casumo.com. Evolution will supply the site with a complete line-up of its Live Casino games. Gamesys also announced that Evolution Gaming has launched a new Live Casino service at virgingames.com.
Romania’s online gaming regulators have blacklisted bwin.party brands for violating Romanian gambling policies. Bwin allegedly promoted their sites to Romanian customers, while regulators were reviewing the country’s online gaming laws.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Nick Kotik (l.) has written a draft bill to legalize sports betting in the state’s casinos, along the lines of the New Jersey legalization bill currently before the courts.
Despite previously declaring he would not take a stance on gaming, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal (l.) now says he will actively oppose gambling legislation that could allow Georgia voters to consider a constitutional amendment to legalize casino gambling as early as 2016. Observers think Sheldon Adelson's unannounced visit to Georgia somehow triggered Deal's new position.
Steve Wynn (l.), who wants to build a mega-casino in Everett, Mass., has struck back at tormentors who would prevent that by suing an as yet unnamed person who leaked details of a subpoena to the media. The subpoena contained defamatory material, according to a lawsuit Wynn filed last week.
Milton McGregor (l.), owner of VictoryLand Casino in Shorter, Alabama, said he soon will reopen the casino following Circuit Judge William Shashy's order that the state return the 1,615 electronic bingo machines and $263,000 in cash seized in a raid. State Attorney General Luther Strange filed a motion to stay the order.
Keep the Money in Nebraska launched a petition drive that would allow voters to determine if they want casino gambling at the state's racetracks. Ho-Chunk Inc., owner of the former Atokad Park (l.) racetrack in South Sioux City, has donated $226,146 to the cause so far.
Border casino in Rhode Island would include a small hotel, a casino, and would be designed similar to the town library. Final details will be presented to the Tiverton town council in early November.
The former Riviera Casino will be completely demolished and a new exhibition site in place for the March 2017 Conexpo-Con/Agg trade show and exhibition. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority agreed to pay contractor Cordell $184 million to tear down the former casino’s 13 structures, and asbestos contamination and other issues slowed the process.
The Tucumcari City and Quay County, New Mexico commissions asked Governor Susana Martinez (l.) to urge the New Mexico Gaming Commission to issue the state's sixth license for horse racing. Studies show the sixth license would create 1,284 new jobs and generate $79 million in gross receipts its first year.
The Mohegan tribe of Connecticut can invest in online gambling in New Jersey and can own up to 10 percent of Resorts Atlantic City under a new management agreement approved by New Jersey regulators. The tribe operates Resorts.
Adding non-gaming attractions has helped Las Vegas casinos to boost visitation among locals and helped to stabilize the local gaming market, as locals increasingly choose to visit the area’s casinos, including Boyd Gaming’s Sam’s Town (l.), Morgan Stanley Investment Analyst Thomas Allen reported during the recent Global Gaming Expo held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The first casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi, DiamondJacks Casino, which opened as Isle of Capri in 1993, will be purchased by Foundation Gaming Group of Gulfport for an undisclosed sum. The property will continue to operate as DiamondJacks and will keep its workforce of 300 employees.
A study by the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission indicated Asians and Pacific Islanders comprise 19 percent of the 1,107 people who placed themselves on the self-exclusion list between January 2010 and August
2015, although they represent just 2.9 percent of the state's population.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and the Korea International Trade Association signed a memorandum of understanding to mutually assist one another on trade initiatives and help to promote Las Vegas as a business destination among South Korea’s many business organizations. South Korea is the only Asian nation with nonstop flights to Las Vegas and ranks among its top international visitors.
After Stockton University completes its sale of the former Atlantic City Showboat casino, it will have cost the school $26 million, according to a report in Philly.com. The school is selling the property for $22 million.
Former UNLV President Don Snyder (l.) is leading a push to build a new stadium for the university and wants to package another stadium proposal with a potential UNLV stadium and Las Vegas Convention Center improvements to lure funding support from a new state committee charged with developing tourism infrastructure in southern Nevada.
Historic horse racing terminals will remain shut down until they are brought into compliance with Wyoming state law, which bans slot machines. Parimutuel operators blasted the Pari-Mutuel Commission's decision, claiming historic horse racing makes up 90 percent of their gross revenue and stopping it—even temporarily--could end live horse racing.
Atlantic City’s city council has introduced a draft lease for its former municipal airport Bader Field, one of the largest undeveloped tracts of land in the resort. The lease with Bader Field Sports LLC would see the development of a sports complex, athletic field and other amenities.
The planned 2016 opening of the yet-to-be-named Las Vegas Arena on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip could pose enough of a parking challenge to cause casinos to start charging for parking at their properties.
The Atlantic City Sewerage Co. has gone to court to stop service to the former Revel casino in Atlantic City. The company wants a court order barring thee site from discharging sewage and wastewater into the local sewer system.
The tribes that operate Connecticut’s two casino, Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun, last week issued requests for proposals from communities interested in hosting a third casino, a satellite intended to slow the hemorrhaging of the state’s gaming money to Massachusetts. Communities have until November 8 to respond. Prospective Hartford mayor, Luke Bronin (l.), doesn’t want it in his city.
Indian gaming has proven “critical” to both economic development and assisting state programs and services according to Navajo National President Russell Begaye (l.). He was speaking at the annual Arizona Indian Gaming Association Tribal Leaders Meeting.
Patrick Lambert (l.), the new principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, began his term by transferring or firing several employees, including former Principal Chief Michell Hicks. Lambert, who received 71 percent of the vote, said, "I got elected to make change happen and that is what I fully intend to do."
It has been a year since an armed incursion by one of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians’ feuding factions led to the closing of the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in northern California.
The town council of Windsor, California last week declined to put a deal that it has struck with the Lytton tribe on the ballot. Instead the council called on the tribe to circulate a petition to put the government-to-government agreement on the ballot.
Arizona’s top gaming office, Daniel Bergin, has sued the Tohono O’odham Nation in federal court to stop its $200 million casino from opening near Glendale in December. This is the latest of multiple attempts by the state to stop the casino.
Southern California’s Viejas Casino & Resort has opened a new gaming floor with 1,000 slot machines and 15,000 square feet of additional space, plus a hotel tower with 128 rooms. The tribe celebrated with a ribbon cutting attended by several thousand.
The Mille Lacs Band debuted the renovated InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront hotel (l.), formerly the landmark Crowne Plaza. The tribe also owns the Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley, as well as diverse businesses including other hotels, a cinema, grocery store, gas/convenience stores, golf course, wastewater treatment plant and print shop.
Effective October 1, poker players at Seminole Hard Rock Casinos in Hollywood, Tampa, Coconut Creek and Immokalee, Florida now receive Comp Dollars, just like slot and table games players. As a result, players with both gaming and poker accounts will have one main account that consolidates all comp earnings at the Seminole casinos.
Ground recently was broken on the Otoe-Missouria Tribe's 7 Clans Perry Casino in Perry, Oklahoma. The tribe's fifth casino will open in spring 2016 on trust property in a residential area. The 4,500 square foot facility will offer more than 100 slots, blackjack and poker tables, plus a drive-through smoke shop, cafe and bar.
The Otter Tail County, Minnesota board recently heard details about the White Earth Nation's Star Lake Casino to be built on trust land with 5,500 feet of lake frontage. Opening in 2017 with 500 employees, the property also will include a gaming floor, 110-room hotel, RV park, restaurants, event center, swimming pools and observation tower.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs held a public hearing on an environmental review for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians' proposed $180 million, off-reservation casino in Muskegon, Michigan. With widespread public
support, the project primarily is opposed by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, which operates a casino 100 miles away.
The 207-member Pamunkey Indians, who claim Pocahontas as an ancestor, became Virginia's first federally recognized tribe last year. But a last-minute effort to block that status recently was filed by a one-person, California-based group that formerly was allied with MGM Resorts, which plans to open its $1.3 billion MGM National Harbor Casino in Maryland.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to consider an appeals court's ruling that Wisconsin must criminalize video poker games at the Ho-Chunk Nation's casino in Madison before the state can prohibit them. As a result, the casino may continue to offer video poker games.
Moody's Investor Service gave the Cowlitz Tribal Gaming Authority a B3 rating on its $485 million casino-resort near La Center, Washington. Moody's noted the rating—indicating a speculative obligation--is typical for new casino construction and considers “risks common to Native American gaming issuers." Site preparation has begun on the tribe's new 152-acre reservation.
A unified Netherlands Lottery operator and product will result from the recently approved merger of Staatsloterij and Sichting Nationale Sporttotlisator by the Netherlands' Council of Ministers. Both operators recently had experienced a drop in ticket sales. Revenue generated by the merger will benefit the state, sports and charities.
Sports fans in Ontario can participate in a new fantasy sports lottery game in which ticket buyers automatically are assigned fantasy team rosters among respective sports and have equal chances of winning.
Bob Griffin has retired as CEO of Trump Entertainment Resorts as the company is in the process of transferring its last casino to billionaire Carl Icahn.
The Secretary of the Interior has proposed Sequoyah Simermeyer to serve on the three-seat National Indian Gaming Commission. He comes to the job from being counsel to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
Ian Chuter, a 25-year gaming industry expert and winner of the 2010 Bookmaker of the Year and Operator of the Year awards, has joined Playtech as a strategic advisor focused on gaming, sports betting, and M&A. Chuter formerly worked for Betfair, William Hill, and the Rank Group and negotiated William Hills online gaming agreement with Playtech.
Scientific Games has centralized its European headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, which will now be the supplier’s hub for sales and service in the EMEA region. Marco Herrera (l.), managing director of gaming, EMEA, says the plan will leverage combined knowledge of the company.
South Dakota’s Tin Lizzie Gaming Resort will implement a full suite of Bally Systems solutions, including the Elite Bonusing Suite and iVIEW Display Manager.
Boyd Gaming inked a deal with NRT Technology to provide ATM, cash advance, and ticket-redemption machines at all 22 Boyd Gaming casinos located across the United States. NRT Technology becomes Boyd Gaming’s exclusive provider of automated cash services and will roll out its new encryption and tokenization system as part of the agreement.
The cost of a potential $956 million power generation plant in Nevada has Las Vegas casino operators demanding a list of alternative energy sources. NV Energy wants to build the power plant by 2020, but would offset costs by passing a significant portion onto its customers, including Las Vegas Casinos that already want to end their relationship with the utility.
Having suffered at least one know hacker attack in recent years, the Las Vegas Sands recently had a cybersecurity expert and former FBI agent address employees on the best methods to prevent hacker attacks and the theft of customers’ personal and financial information. Much of the problem, the expert says, arises from carelessness and decades-old infrastructure.
The Hakkasan Group plans to open a fancy and intimate nightclub in the Aria where the former Haze nightclub once operated. The new multilevel club, called Jewel, is planned to open by spring and will be smaller than recent massive club openings on the Las Vegas Strip and come with many high-tech features, including a two-sided video wall.
More than 25,000 attendees are expected to attend the International Casino Exhibition, February 2-4 in London, the world's largest international gathering of gaming entrepreneurs. Visitors will "Enter the Gaming Technopolis" to see the newest gaming innovations and solutions from 500-plus vendors.
