The Florida Senate Regulated Industries Committee voted to ratify the proposed Seminole compact, which gives the tribe exclusivity to offer blackjack and add roulette and craps in return for $3 billion over seven years. But the bill contains certain amendments that observers said could jeopardize the bill and send negotiators back to the table. And it was revealed last week that the Alabama-based Poarch Band of Creek Indians originally asked Florida Governor Rick Scott (l.) in 2014 for a gambling compact to build a Las Vegas-style casino on a one-acre trust tract near Pensacola, with a $1 billion payoff...
New Jersey was back before an appellate court trying to argue that the state has the right to allow a self-regulated sports betting industry at its casinos and racetracks without violating a federal ban on state-sponsored sports betting. The state, represented by former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson (l.), made its arguments before the full Third Circuit Appellate Court in Philadelphia. Opponents of the state’s plan argued that allowing sports betting only at regulated casinos and racetracks was actually violating the ban because it would be unregulated.
Everi Holdings has ousted President and CEO Ram Chary, and board member Michael D. Rumbolz (l.) has been named interim CEO during an executive search. Gaming analysts and investors reacted cautiously, and with renewed hope that Everi will be able integrate its disparate cash access and slot games divisions.
Global Gaming Women last week announced it would launch as independent charitable organization to support and develop the next generation of female leaders in gaming. Nearly $1.5 million in committed funding has been secured for high impact education programs and events. Retiring Isle of Capri Casinos CEO Virginia McDowell (l.) will lead the organization.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (l.) is among many Israeli leaders who support building the nation’s first legal casino in Eilat, in order to improve the city’s sagging economy and keep more Israeli gambling dollars inside Israel. Initial plans would ban Israeli citizens from gambling at the casino, but that might change, if the casino ever is built.
Senior creditors of Caesars Entertainment’s bankrupt largest operating unit are threatening to tear up the restructuring plan they negotiated last year. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago gave the company one more extension from March 15 to July 15 to file an official plan. But that should be the final extension as time has run out.
A bill before the California legislature that would legalize online poker includes a bone for the racetracks: $60 million a year for them not to participate as operators. Steve Stallings (l.), chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, said the bill, introduced by Assemblyman Adam Gray, was a “good week” for Indian gaming.
The planned $6 billion BCN World project in Spain is in a holding pattern, but U.S.-based casino giant Hard Rock International continues to pitch its proposed $2.5 billion holiday resort at the 800-hectare (1,976-acre) resort on the Costa Daurada. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont (l.) says the project is still under review.
This week, the GGB Podcast features a discussion with Jay Sevigny, the president of VGT, on his company’s purchase by Aristocrat and how the synergies between the two companies are working.
Macau casino shares trended upward in early February, sparking renewed hope that the recession-battered territory is surfacing after an almost two-year slump. Visitation was up for the month, and so were the betting minimums.
Local players as well as those under 21 could be banned from playing in Goan casinos. Legislation that would prohibit residents and young people from entering a casino is now on the desk of Home Secretary Sanjiv Gadkar.
Macau gaming operator SJM Holdings Ltd. has renamed its upcoming resort project on the Cotai Strip. Once named the Lisboa Palace, the planned HKD30 billion (US$3.9 billion) resort has become the Grand Lisboa Palace.
A penalty levied against a unit of Leisure and Resorts World Corp. for trademark infringement has been thrown out by a U.S. judge. First Cayagan did not learn about the legal case filed by Sands China until seven days after it had cleared the court.
The government of Cambodia is looking for big investors from big-name jurisdictions to invest in the kingdom’s casino industry. The Khmer Times reports that lawmakers is planning to “open to market to direct investment” from Macau and Las Vegas.
The Russian Ministry of Finance has stunned the gaming industry with a proposed tax that is 10 times the current rate. The legislation, which also includes a 10 percent tax on online sports betting, could be in place by the end of 2016. Oracle (l.) in Krasnodar Krai is one of the few casinos that call Russia home today.
Speaking at ICE in London earlier this month, EU Commissioner Harrie Temmink (l.) said there will be no blanket regulations for online gaming across Europe, due to opposition from the majority of member states.
Melco International Development Ltd. has dropped a plan to develop a casino resort in Georgia in Eastern Europe. In a joint announcement, Melco and its MelcoLot Ltd. subsidiary said the terms were unsatisfactory to the Macau-based operator.
A study of the English cities of Manchester and London suggests that policymakers may be able to draw accurate maps of areas where problem gambling could be more common. The at-risk areas could include addiction treatment centers. And the National Health System in Great Britain launched a pilot program to give compulsive gamblers a drug typically prescribed for chronic alcoholics and heroin addicts.
The government of Jordan is considering casinos in Aqaba, on the Red Sea, and possibly along the shores of the Dead Sea. Gaming is currently illegal in Jordan, though a multimillion-dollar casino deal was secretly discussed—and later shelved—in 2007.
Australia’s Star Entertainment Group plans to build a third hotel at its Gold Coast Jupiters Casino. The 700-room tower will join a 17-story luxury tower now under development and an existing hotel, which is being refurbished.
Australian gaming leader Crown Resorts, majority-owned by billionaire James Packer, is fighting a multimillion-dollar tax assessment related to its North American assets. The government is demanding US$362 million in back taxes from 2009 until 2014.
Hotel casino operator Macau Legend Development Ltd. has officially begun construction of a planned $290 million casino resort on Cape Verde, off the northwest coast of Africa. Legend CEO says the expansion will soften its losses in Macau.
Largely thanks to public regulation of the gaming industry in British Columbia, B.C. Lions center Angus Reid was able to utilize casino-funded programs that helped him to overcome his gambling addiction, which had ruined his life and jeopardized his career when he sought help in 2007, and found it thanks to casino-funded programs.
Psychologists in New Zealand who frequently treat problem gamblers think that they should have special courts that cater to their particular problems. Having such courts, they say, could lead to a decline in gambling disorders.
Amaya Inc. will merge Full Tilt Poker into its PokerStars brand. The move will allow the company to focus on one combined platform, rather than two separate platforms. PokerStars is also reworking its heads-up cash poker game format by pulling heads-up tables and replacing them with a different format.
In a relatively quiet week for the daily fantasy sports industry, the Boston Globe reported that DraftKings has recently raised $70 million from investors, significantly less than in previous investment drives which netted a total of about $500 million last summer. Investors also did not set a value for the company. Meanwhile, DFS issues continued to play out in various state legislatures.
The retooled Italian online gaming market saw marked improvement in 2015, with revenues rising by almost one-third for the year. Sports betting was king among Italian players, and reached a total of €5.5 billion for an increase of 28 percent.
A report says better rates of return are driving Australian gamblers away from land-based poker machines to online games. Australians are the most avid players in the world, spending more per capita on gambling than any nationality.
Casino of Dreams, Broadway Gaming's online casino brand started in 2015, launched a new affiliate program with Income Access, to be powered by Income Access' award-winning affiliate management software. Casino of Dreams offers players classic and popular new online slots, plus table games including blackjack, roulette and online poker.
New Jersey lawmakers, including Atlantic City state Senator James Whelan (l.), are continuing to refine a legislative package that would see the state takeover much of Atlantic City’s government. The plan is now being called “a cooperative working agreement” but the state would still gain almost complete control over the city’s ailing finances, including a controversial plan to sell city assets, including its private Municipal Utilities Authority. Meanwhile, plans to build two new casinos in northern New Jersey remain on track.
After settling a bitter feud with Boston, Wynn Resorts is now facing off against Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone (l.) that claims traffic will be abysmal once the casino opens. Meanwhile, five years after the South End of Springfield, Massachusetts, was devastated by a freak tornado, city officials are pinning their hopes for an economic revival on the MGM Springfield casino resort.
Ho-Chunk Inc., the Winnebago Tribe's economic development arm, and Keep the Money in Nebraska are circulating three petitions to expand gambling in Nebraska. One would let voters decide to legalize casinos, another would officially allow casinos and the third proposes a $1 million state licensing fee and a 20 percent gaming tax. Governor Pete Ricketts (l.) is opposed.
With millennial-generation bettors indicating strong preferences for interactive, skills-based gaming, Las Vegas casinos are embracing the growing eSports phenomenon. The Mandalay Bay is hosting a North American league championship for the League of Legends in April, a new poker league is proposed, and other casinos are embracing interacting gaming and eSports as a way to keep millennial bettors coming back.
The D Las Vegas has partnered with two popular restaurants in the Fremont East commercial district to allow casino patrons to redeem their casino rewards dollars on meals, heralding the first such agreement between a casino and Fremont East eateries. The D Las Vegas also offered to let Kanye West (l.) keep all proceeds from a concert if he played at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center.
Las Vegas continues growing as a destination for NCAA and professional sports fans and competitors, with the inaugural Vegas 16 men’s NCAA basketball tournament slated at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in March, and a recent MLS scrimmage demonstrating an enthusiasm for professional soccer among Las Vegas locals, who might one day have an MLS franchise for which to root.
The voters of Antioch, California, will vote on whether to limit casinos in their city thanks to a petition that was largely funded by a competing casino in another city. The city council was reluctantly required to either adopt the measure proposed or put it on the June ballot, at a cost of $145,000.
The Department of Homeland Security recently awarded $2.9 million to improve safety along the Las Vegas Strip, after federal, state, and local officials joined forces with the American Gaming Association to emphasize the increased needed for improved security along the Las Vegas Strip, and to protect the tens of millions of visitors who come to Las Vegas each year.
Despite being denied a permit to protest, hundreds of Culinary Workers Union Local 226 members in Las Vegas were joined by members of the Bartenders Local 165 on February 12 to protest a lack of union representation for 5,000 non-gaming workers at Station Casinos’ properties in Nevada. Station Casinos said it would abide the results of a secret ballot vote overseen by federal regulators.
The Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas completed an $800,000 renovation that makes the only full-service spa and salon on Fremont Street even better, and made improvements to its popular outdoor pool and other casino amenities. Meanwhile, The Orleans Hotel and Casino (l.) continues its $30 million improvement with new dining options.
Existing casinos in Maine, the Hollywood Casino (l.) in Bangor and the Oxford Casino, once enemies, have formed an alliance to keep a third casino from opening in the state.
The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas has opened a new sports betting location on its first floor that is run by Cantor Gaming and offers an entirely new experience for sports and race bettors, plus a new bar with food service around the clock, lounge-like seating, an LED video wall, and a free, interactive gaming area.
Atlantic City’s casino revenue declined 3.8 percent in January compared to January 2015 despite a record win for online gambling. Officials blamed a major blizzard that hit the Northeast during January for much of the decline. Without online gambling, the casino’s monthly take was down 5.6 percent.
Nevada’s efforts to boost tourism from Chinese visitors proved successful, so state tourism officials now are targeting India as the next market from which it wants to boost tourism. Nevada inked a four-year deal with an Indian marketing firm to increase visits from India by more than 10 percent, with Internet marketing playing a large role.
A campaign is under way in Baton Rouge to ban smoking in casinos and bars. Smoke-Free East Baton Rouge, a coalition of health groups, is lobbying the city council to impose the ban, following New Orleans' example. Smoking is banned in public buildings and restaurants statewide, but bars and casinos have been exempt.
The Miss America Pageant will stay in Atlantic City for three more years under a new deal approved by the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. The deal increases authority subsidies to the pageant to $11.25 million for the three years in exchange for more promotion of the city on Dick Clark Productions shows broadcast on ABC, including “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” and the “Billboard Music Awards.”
Attorneys for Sheldon Adelson and Las Vegas Sands have renewed their efforts to remove a Clark County judge from presiding over a wrongful termination complaint filed by former Sands Macau President Steven Jacobs, who in 2010 claimed Adelson and Las Vegas Sands fired him for refusing to take part in illegal and corrupt activities to advance Las Vegas Sands’ business interests.
Although the casinos are small in Montana, there are a lot of them. And they are very competitive. A new one just opened in Billings: the Town Pump Casino.
Stockton University’s plan to build an Atlantic City campus is continuing after the school’s failed attempt to turn the former Showboat casino into a campus. The new plan puts the campus in Atlantic City’s Chelsea section.
Par-A-Dice Casino in East Peoria, Illinois recently cut 40 jobs due to the impact of video gambling machines, which now number 22,000 in bars and restaurants across the state. Since the games were legalized in 2012, Par-A-Dice revenues have declined by nearly $26 million and attendance has dropped by a quarter-million visitors, officials said.
The former restaurants at Atlantic City’s closed Revel casino are still battling with new owner Glen Straub over their future at the property. The latest twist is a fight over inventory—including $240,000 in liquor—left at the property.
The association of Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (l.) with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians is the reason why VictoryLand Casino in Macon County hasn't reopened, claimed Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford. The tribe, operators of three WindCreek Casinos, has made "$3 million or some amount" available for Strange's run for governor, Ford said.
A Connecticut tribe that would like a piece of the casino action that so far has been limited to the Mohegan and Pequot tribes has been told that a mistake by the Secretary of State’s office will NOT work in its favor. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation will not be able to build a casino, according to Secretary of State Denise Merrill (l.).
A tribe whose land sits smack dab under the University of California Irvine (l.) wants recognition that its land was taken away from it more than 100 years ago. The Acjachemen Native American tribe has been trying to get recognition from the federal government, so far unsuccessfully.
A Wyoming tribe, the East Shoshone, is doing a $30 renovation of the Shoshone Rose Casino in Fremont County. The tribe is building a hotel and expanding the casino floor.
A judge in Kitsap County, Washington does not buy that land owned by the Suquamish Tribe is immune from state law. The judge has shut down a fireworks stand on the land.
After waiting for 16 years to get their land in Washington state put in trust, the Cowlitz tribe celebrated their new status and the groundbreaking for their new casino—all on Valentine’s Day. Tribal Chairman Bill Iyall (l.) displays a rendering of the project on the site.
A tribe that lost its land and status in the 1950s, the Wilton Rancheria, proposals to return to its homeland in California’s Sacramento Valley and open a casino there. The only question is, in what community?
The $9 million Lagoon water park and upscale Wave Spa recently opened at Treasure Island Resort & Casino in Welch, Minnesota, owned and operated by the Prairie Island Indian Community. Tribal Council President Shelley Buck said, “The Lagoon water park and Wave Spa are key elements in the continued growth of Treasure Island."
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians said it's ready to develop an off-reservation casino complex, including a casino in an abandoned church plus social service offices, on two land parcels near the Detroit Metro Airport. The tribe is partnering with the former founder of the bankrupt and partially demolished Pinnacle Race Course.
The Seneca Nation said it plans to build and open a gas station on land the tribe owns within the city of Niagara Falls, and local officials and owners of gas stations and convenience stores in the city say the tribe is engaging in unfair competition. Meanwhile, officials in Schenectady say they don’t know who is supposed to pay for building and maintaining roads for a proposed local casino.
The Kialegee Tribal Town's unfinished Red Clay Casino is an unwelcome eyesore in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. A federal court ruled the tribe could not conduct gambling on the Indian allotment. But rumors are swirling that the tribe may be considering a new casino development in another location.
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians' plans for a $400 million casino in South Bend, Indiana could have been sidelined because of the northern long-eared bat, a threatened species with a dwindling population. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relaxed its rules regarding roosting trees.
U.K. lottery players want better odds, and they want them now. People who played the National Lottery this month were spurred on by a £28.6million (US$41 million) jackpot. They were furious about new rules that reduced the chances of a big win.
New Mexico doesn’t appear likely to alter the way its lottery is conducted—at least not during this legislative session. A bill that would have required the lottery to pay $41 million annually to college scholarships that passed the Senate appeared close to death in the House this week.
Former Sparks Nugget CEO Michonne Ascuaga resigned from the Nevada Gaming Commission on February 12, just two days after newspapers reported the federal government was investigating potential money laundering at the casino during the time when she was its CEO. Meanwhile, Marnell Gaming announced it plans to buy the casino for an undisclosed amount, pending regulatory approval.
Renato Hamel is out as head of the Chilean Gaming Control Board, reportedly due to controversy swirling around a long-stalled casino license for the city of Chillan.
Anthony Patrone, the CEO of Cypress Bayou Casino in Louisiana was arrested last week, along with CFO Monte Spivey for felony theft, computer fraud and obstruction of justice. The Chitimacha tribe has appointed an interim CEO and launched a search for permanent replacements.
Ainsworth Game Technology announced a new game development team in Australia, following the retirement of top game development manager Scott Clarebrough.
DEQ Systems Corporation, provider of table-game bonusing, loyalty and jackpot solutions worldwide, named Charles Meredith chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Meredith served as an assistant general counsel for Sands China Limited for 11 years in Macau and also was head of legal for the Ho Tram Project Company Limited in Southern Vietnam.
Carnival Cruise Line and International Game Technology will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Wheel of Fortune slot machine on board Carnival ships throughout 2016.
Genting Singapore Plc has opened a marketing and public relations office in Thailand. Genting International Services (Thailand) Ltd. will pitch its business to the leisure and hospitality sector, not individual customers.
Konami Gaming announced that new slot games in its Concerto platform will be highlighted at the National Indian Gaming Association trade show March 15-16.
Spectrum Gaming has announced top gaming industry CEOs as speakers for its 20th annual East Coast Gaming Congress & iGaming Institute. Bobby Soper (l.), head of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, will be one speaker.
