Boyd Gaming has agreed to pay $230 million to buy the Cannery Hotel in North Las Vegas and the Eastside Cannery Casino and Hotel (above, Cannery founders Bill Wortman and Bill Paulos) on the Boulder Strip in Las Vegas, adding to the $380 million it agreed to pay for the Aliante in North Las Vegas. The proposed deals would give Boyd Gaming a larger share of the Las Vegas locals market. But the deal also spells the end of the presence of Australia’s Crown Resorts in Las Vegas for the time being.
Online poker in California has now advanced in the legislature further than ever before in the 10-year history of trying to pass such a bill. Last week a key Assembly committee voted to forward an iPoker bill to the full Assembly. Sponsored by Assemblyman Adam Gray (l.), the bill was not opposed (but also not supported) by a group of tribes traditionally against the legalization of iPoker.
The attempt to site a casino resort on the Brockton Fairgrounds was ended by a 4-1 vote of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission last week. Now the Mashpee Wampanoag’s First Light Casino & Resort will have the southeastern region all to itself. Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby (l.) said the Brockton design was a “disappointment.”
First-quarter revenues were down more than 13 percent year-on-year in the world’s premier gaming destination, but Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen (l.) was heartened by the third consecutive quarter, in which mass revenue accounted for more than half the total numbers.
Charles Lightbody (l.) and two other Massachusetts men accused of trying to defraud Wynn Resorts and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission were found not guilty as a trial against them ended last week. The trial surrounded the alleged participation by a convicted felon (Lightbody) in the sale of the land that eventually become the site of the proposed Wynn Boston Harbor casino in Everett, and the decision casts doubt upon the commission’s approval process.
The battle continues between local UK councilors and high street betting shops. A new survey indicates more than 70 percent of MPs agree tighter regulations are needed for fixed-odds betting terminals (l.), which offer single bets of up to £100.
Slow and steady usually wins the race, but Boyd Gaming’s stunning moves over the past two weeks immediately puts the company into a dominant position in the Las Vegas locals market.
This week the GGB Podcast sits down with : Joe Bertolone, president and CEO of DEQ, on how he and his team has revived the fortunes of a little known table game company.
With the threat of oversupply in the Philippines gaming market, one gaming operator is asking the government to limit gaming to the Entertainment City complex in Manila. Belle Corp. Vice Chairman Willy Ocier (L.) says a proliferation of smaller gaming halls could threaten the big integrated resorts.
In its quest for “sound strategic and tactical advice,” Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd. has named two well-known U.S. political figures, including former New York Governor David Paterson (l.) to a new advisory board, as well as recruiting the former director of the FBI, Louis Freeh.
The majority Liberal government of Canada said it will oppose Bill C-221, which would allow single-game sports betting. The "Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act" would amend Canada's criminal code to let provinces and territories accept single-event sports bets in their jurisdictions.
The British Columbia Lottery Corp. has not disclosed the rationale behind its push for a second casino in Greater Victoria, local media report. That’s raising concerns about transparency in the development process.
CrownBet agreed to pay more than $20,000 in fines and legal costs for offering illegal inducements to gamble on sports to NSW residents. The Liquor and Gaming NSW charged CrownBet with five counts of violating advertising regulations by offering reward bonus points for wagering on AFL, NBA, and Melbourne Cup contests.
The Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians has entered the eSports market by forming a strategic partnership with the Canadian League of Gamers. The deal creates the first of its kind North American eSports League
The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma recently received approval from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma to move forward with its online poker site, pokertribe.com. When it launches later this year, it will be the sole website offering online poker to the international market from within the U.S.
New Jersey gaming regulators have clarified the state’s position on licensing operators that accept bets in so called “grey markets,” but acknowledge that the determinations are challenging for the state. Regulators issued an advisory saying they will not block licensing to sites operating in grey areas unless another jurisdiction has taken action against the site. DGE Director David Rebuck (l.) said New Jersey would be imprudent to try and determine the legality or illegality of these markets on its own.
Betfair is preparing to launch exchange wagering at New Jersey’s Monmouth Park Racetrack May 10. Exchange wagering allows players to take fixed odds by proposing or matching anonymous trades with each other through an exchange platform.
Tennessee becomes the third state to legalize daily fantasy sports as Governor Bill Haslam (l.) has signed the state’s new DFS regulations. Indiana and Virginia have also approved DFS regulations. The Tennessee bill is notable because the state’s attorney general had ruled the games illegal under previous state law.
The gambling industry has reported 48 suspicious tennis matches to the Tennis Integrity Unit, according to reports so far in 2016. Of the 48 matches under investigation, the TIU said one occurred at the Australian Open (l.) and one on the WTA Tour, while the rest took place at Challengers or Futures tournaments.
A Korean police report has provided details about the StarCraft eSports match-fixing scandal and a betting industry that is growing up around professional video gaming.
Saying that 2015 was a “momentous year, GVC Holdings announced a 10 percent increase in net gaming revenues for the year. The company also completed its acquisition of bwin.party.
New Jersey’s TropicanaCasino.com online casino has introduced content from Sweden’s NetEnt to its offerings, as NetEnt has received a provisional license. The company has also released the Jimi Hendrix online slot game.
Inspired Gaming will provide its Virtual Sports content to the Italian market through Novomatic Italia, offering 2,000 events per day through both online and retail channels.
With the purchase of the sportsman media holding GmbH, one of Europe's leading sports media rights, marketing and platform companies, Sportradar AG will become one of the largest single providers of audiovisual sports offering, including premium content in football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, ice hockey and more.
The Budapest, Hungary-based Las Vegas Casino Diamond has formed a partnership with Play'n GO to provide its full suite of mobile and desktop content. Players will have access to Play'n GO's award-winning games including Gemix, Eye of the Kraken and Cloud Quest. The partnership is the casino's third this year.
As a coalition to oppose expanding casinos in New Jersey outside of Atlantic City begins to take shape, organizers said they expect they will receive support from casinos in other states. A referendum in November will ask New Jersey voters to approve construction of two new casinos in the northern part of the state, including one in Jersey City (l.). Atlantic City supporters oppose the move saying it will further devastate the resort’s casinos.
The UNITE HERE Local 1 union asked the circuit court for a stay or preliminary injunction against Pinnacle Entertainment's plan to sell Ameristar Casino in East Chicago (l.) to a real estate trust, then lease it back through a subsidiary. The union said the lease payments would use money that could increase salaries and benefits.
Would an amendment to the Florida constitution allow expanded gambling after it's approved? Would it ban certain games already being offered? A panel of economists from the state legislature and executive branch recently met to discuss the proposed amendment targeted for the 2018 ballot.
With another week of no movement in the New Jersey Legislature on plans to bail out financially strapped Atlantic City, resort Mayor Don Guardian (l.) said the city is considering missing a bond payment due May 1. It would be the first default by a New Jersey municipality since the Depression. The mayor’s office said the decision will come down to how much the city has collected in quarterly tax payments by May 1.
Florida state Senator Maria Sachs (l.) has urged her colleagues to support a gaming commission four out of the past five years. Sachs is fearful the courts will decide gambling issues—which already is happening to some extent. She said, "Let’s get gambling out of the hands of politicians and into the hands of professionals."
Rochester, New York, Mayor Lovely Warren (l.) is assessing potential support for a gaming casino and entertainment complex in downtown Rochester. The mayor of Buffalo says she should expect strong opposition, but to keep an open mind about the economic possibilities, while the developer says he wants the Seneca Nation to proceed with building and running the casino.
West Virginia state lottery revenues are declining but the Greenbrier Resort (l.) in White Sulphur Springs posted $442,000 in casino revenue for March 2016, a 48 percent hike over 2015. Video lottery rose 89 percent, to $329,426, compared to March 2015. Acting Lottery Director John Myers credits Roy Corby, named vice president for casino operations last December.
NFL Oakland Raiders team owner Mark Davis (l.) met with the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee on April 28 to tell its members he would move the Raiders to Las Vegas if a proposed $1.3 billion domed stadium with 65,000 seats were built on the UNLV campus, Sports Illustrated reported. The move would require approval of 24 NFL team owners.
Union workers staged a protest in Las Vegas outside the Trump International Hotel (l.). The protest by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 called for a union contract at the hotel. Workers there have voted to unionize, but the hotel is challenging the vote.
Members of the New York Gaming Commission are touring three under-construction casino sites after recently enacting several new regulatory measures establishing hours of operations, revenue sharing amounts, and other operational rules for three casinos under construction in Upstate New York. A fourth casino awaits regulatory approval and could get underway soon at Tioga Downs in Nichols.
Current owner American Casino & Entertainment has many special deals in place to celebrate the Stratosphere’s 20th anniversary on May 1. Discount pricing on buffet meals and special attractions are designed to raise awareness of the casino’s two decades in business on the North End of the Las Vegas Strip, and no improvement plans are in the works.
Despite efforts to avoid New Orleans' smoking ban, Harrah's is striving to become "the best smoke-free casino in the region," an official said. Since the ban began one year ago, Harrah's revenue has dropped nine out of 11 months, but that could be a reflection of national trends.
No re-vote will occur in Sedgwick County, Kansas to see if voters there want slots at the shuttered Wichita Greyhound Park. They voted against slots there in 2007, after which the racetrack closed. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt (l.) ruled a re-vote would breach the Kansas Lottery's contract with the Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane.
Keep the Money in Nebraska is close to raising $1 million and gathering enough signatures in an effort to allow casino gambling in state-licensed horse racetracks. The group said Nebraska could gain an additional $120 million in tax revenue and help the state's horse racing industry if casino gambling were legalized.
Nevada and South Dakota have the most casinos and gaming machines per capita in the United States, and they have the most gambling addicts per capita, according to a new study by WalletHub. Utah, which has no legal gambling, ranked last. Minnesota and Mississippi, topped the nation in total residents diagnosed with a gambling disorder.
The Nevada Gaming Commission in April gave its approval for Marnell Gaming to by the Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nevada, although revenues shares for one investor must be placed in escrow. Marnell Gaming and partner MG Investors are scheduled to complete the purchase of the casino for an undisclosed sum on May 6.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has issued fines to three casinos for violating state gaming laws, including two instances of violating self-exclusion rules.
Construction and permanent jobs are being created as riverboat casinos move ashore in Iowa. In Davenport, Rhythm City Casino is providing 250 construction jobs and training dealers in advance of its July opening. Isle Casino Bettendorf, scheduled to open in 2017, will require construction and permanent workers once construction begins.
Deadwood, South Dakota commissioners recently voted against an open-container ordinance allowing people to carry drinks in the downtown area year-round. Gunslingers Saloon owner Lacey Kirwan suggested the proposal, stating it would help bring more tourists. However, Police Chief Kelly Fuller said the ordinance “opens up a plethora of issues for us.”
Atlantic City’s casino jobs are rebounding slightly from a disastrous 2014 and should be adding 2.400 jobs this summer including 900 permanent jobs, according to the chairman of New Jersey’s Casino Control Commission. Meanwhile, the city is preparing for a busy summer of events and conventions despite negative publicity from the city government’s financial problems.
Six hundred jobs need to be filled at the family friendly Margaritaville Resort Biloxi with a June opening expected. Amenities will include a zipline, roller coaster, volcano climbing wall, 5 o'Clock Somewhere Bar and a 373-room hotel—but no casino.
The state board that oversees all of the airports in Connecticut is being criticized for keeping all of the details about its proposed casino. The casino proposal would be in Windsor Locks at Bradley International Airport (l.), one of the locations being considered by the state’s two gaming tribes for a third satellite casino.
An Indian tribe in San Diego’s East County has reached a memorandum of understand with the Board of Supervisors. Under the MOU the Jamul Indian Village could pay $90 million over the next 20 years to the County for its $400 million Hollywood Casino Jamul-San Diego. Erica Pinto (l.), chairwoman of the tribe, says they want to be good neighbors.
The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of Baraga, Michigan recently asked Governor Rick Snyder (l.) to reconsider his 2013 rejection of moving the Ojibwa Casino II in Chocolay Township to the former Marquette County Airport. The Interior Department approved the plan in 2011. If Snyder still says no, the tribe will renovate the existing facility.
The Fond du Lac Band has learned the Bureau of Indian Affairs will take into federal trust the Carter Hotel the tribe bought in 2010 to add on to its Fond du Luth casino in downtown Duluth, Minnesota. The city fought the trust designation since the building will be removed from property tax rolls.
Forced into mediation by a federal court, the state of California and the Enterprise Rancheria will see one of two proposed tribal state gamin compacts imposed for a proposed Yuba County casino.
The Chippewas of Rama, owners of Casino Rama (l.) in Orillia, Ontario, said new casinos allowed by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation have hurt revenue and job numbers. Meanwhile, ground recently was broken at Shorelines Casino Belleville, developed by OLG-designate Great Canadian Gaming Corporation.
Now that the opponents of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s Desert Diamond West Valley Casino have apparently exhausted all of their legal challenges to the casino they are putting all their resources behind a bill in Congress. This final battle appears to be a war of lobbyist money.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota is the first tribe in the state to be approved for a Class III gaming compact following voters approval of constitutional amendment in November 2014, permitting non-Indian casinos to offer craps, keno and roulette. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows tribes to offer the same games.
The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations has received conditional approval to build its seventh casino in the province, in Lloydminster. The venue would offer up to five table games and 250 slots. FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron said construction would begin immediately after the municipal government grants permission.
Last year the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians of Michigan invested more than $81 million from its Four Winds Casinos, beyond annual payments required by the state-tribe compact and including more than $67.1 million with 3,287 vendors in Michigan and Indiana. Three tribal revenue sharing boards operate in Dowagiac, New Buffalo and Hartford.
The chief executive officer of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ Chumash Enterprises in Southern California, Holly Gagnon (l.) has been named Executive of the Year by the Native American Finance Officers Association.
Governor Brian Sandoval has appointed Debbie Fuetsch to the Nevada Gaming Commission. Fuetsch will replace Michonne Ascuaga, who resigned in February after a federal money laundering investigation was launched against her formerly family owned property in Sparks.
Mike Goodrich recently resigned as general manager at the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino in Milwaukee after 14 years. No reason was given. He has been replaced by Hartford Shegnoee, who has been named general manager and chief executive officer, and has worked at the property since it opened as a bingo hall in 1991.
Governor Kate Brown of Oregon has fired Lottery Director Jack Roberts. She didn’t specify any reasons, but the director’s agency has been under increasing criticism lately.
IGT and Paradise Entertainment have signed an electronic table games patent and technology assignment agreement, giving IGT exclusive rights to Paradise intellectual property. IGT executive Victor Duarte (l.) calls the deal a “pivotal expansion of our product portfolio.”
More details were released about the proposed water park at Wynn Las Vegas. Miami-based Crystal Lagoons announced it is teaming with Wynn Resorts to make its proposed 38-acre Paradise Park water attraction a reality. Steve Wynn wants to convert the resort’s aging golf course into a giant events area where locals and visitors alike can relax on a white sand beach before going to a club.
The Mexican form of bingo called Loteria has proven popular enough for a second month at the Texas Station and Boulder Station casinos in Las Vegas, and could continue beyond May. Station Casinos started Loteria weekends in April at its two casinos that draw mostly Hispanic clientele, and say it has crossover appeal.
The new Casino Magdeburg in Germany has opened with 100 percent Interblock solutions in the product offering of automated roulette, including Diamond Roulette (l.).
The National Harbor mega-resort, to open later this year in Maryland, announced four new dining concepts in its roster of restaurants, including one operated by celebrity chef Michael Voltaggio (l.).
GAN has signed a deal to provide its Simulated Gaming social casino product to one of the largest Native American casino operators in the U.S. Southwest.
Grosvenor Casinos will deploy the Neon casino management system from Playtech Retail, adding to extensive current placements of the Playtech system in the U.K.
