A study by Union Gaming Group has concluded that a Chicago casino, recently approved by the state legislature, would be so unprofitable, it would likely not attract any serious bidders. The study, commissioned by the city of Chicago, should send legislators back to the drawing board to determine how they can make a Chicago casino one of the most profitable in the country, according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot (l.).
China has warned the government of the Philippines that it will not turn a blind eye to illegal online gaming that targets mainland Chinese players by Philippines online gaming sites or POGOs (l.). It also called for an end to alleged inhumane treatment of Chinese online gaming workers in Manila.
Call it the Boston behemoth. Wynn Resort’s $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor (l.) has taken a sizable chunk of business from rival casinos in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Investors have gone into sell mode. But experts say a closer look is warranted and it’s only one month and not time to panic.
A bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives would allow the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo and Alabama-Coushatta tribes of Texas to establish Class II gaming at their facilities. The Naskila Entertainment Center (l.) owned by the Alabama-Coushatta could have been forced to close without the bill.
Crown Resorts is reeling from media reports in Australia accusing its VIP operations of dealings with foreign crime groups. The damage has now spread to New South Wales, where regulators are investigating Melco’s plan to buy a 20 percent stake in the company. Melco Chairman Lawrence Ho (l.) is cooperating fully with all investigations.
Officials in Pope County have voted to back a $225 million gaming complex, the Legends Resort & Casino Arkansas (l.), proposed by a joint venture that includes the business arm of the Oklahoma Indian tribe. Plans call for a 200-room hotel, a 50,000-square-foot casino, a pool and spa, meetings space and outdoor attractions.
Eight Iowa casinos opened their sportsbooks at noon last Thursday, the first day of legal sports wagers in the state. Of that group, seven are expected to offer mobile wagering. Brian Ohorilko of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission expects the rest of the 18 casinos that applied for sports betting licenses to be operational by NFL season. The William Hill sportsbook at Prairie Meadows was busy on the first day of operation (l.).
Weeks of civil unrest in the Asian financial center is taking its toll on travel to neighboring Macau, and the city’s casinos are feeling the pinch. July’s gaming revenue was down worse than expected, and analysts say declines could stretch into the fall. Protesters occupied the Hong Kong airport (l.) cancelling hundreds of flights over several days.
The Department of Justice last week said it would appeal the decision of a New Hampshire judge that the federal Wire Act does not apply to lotteries or iGaming and only applies to sports betting. The suit challenged a 2018 DOJ memo that reversed the 2011 memo that permitted online lottery sales and iGaming to proceed.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt last week issued another letter to tribes calling for negotiations on the renewal of tribal compacts to begin in September. This letter did not insist that the compacts would expire at the end of the year. He appointed Attorney General Mike Hunter (l.) to lead the talks.
On August 7, in an ongoing effort to increase safety preparedness in Washington State’s tribal casino community, Snoqualmie Casino in the Seattle area hosted an active-shooter preparedness and mass-casualty response course. The free program was open to all regional tribal casino operators and security teams, as well as local business leaders.
The disturbing report on the viability of a Chicago casino by Union Gaming Group demonstrates the flaws in the legislation that approved it. But it’s not too late to fix. In an open letter to the leaders of the Illinois and Chicago, Frank Fantini outlines the path forward.
This week brings a very special guest to the GGB Podcast, Bob DeSalvio, president of Encore Boston Harbor, to discuss the long and complicated process to open the new Wynn Resorts property outside of Boston.
Goan Chief Minister Pramod Sawant (l.) informed the legislative assembly on August 7 that Goans will soon be barred from entering casinos in the Indian state. A date for the ban has yet to be announced.
Asian American Entertainment claims the gaming giant jilted it for Galaxy Entertainment back in 2002 once it appeared that Galaxy would win a Macau casino concession. It’s seeking compensation for 15 years of lost profits at the Sands China properties (Venetian Macau at left), a sum totaling more than $11 billion.
Vietnamese law enforcement has busted a gambling ring that reportedly generated VND1.6 trillion (US$69 million) in wagers via a multilingual website on an overseas server. Thirteen people were arrested in the July 30 sting, and assets were seized including $240,000 in cash.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (l.) says he plans to bring gambling back to five-star hotels in the country. According to the president, the reintroduction of casinos will “stimulate the development of the region's tourism cluster near the Black Sea.”
A recent report found that a record 8,266 complaints against gambling companies were made in the UK in 2018, representing an almost 5,000 percent increase in five years. Many of the complaints come from problem gamblers who say gambling companies continue to solicit their business even after they put themselves on self-exclusion lists. The UK Gambling Commission says it is aggressively investigating the complaints.
Almost six years after the Westside Mall terrorist attack that forced its closure, the Millionaires Casino (l.) is set to return to Kenya. The gaming hall, which promises a “Las Vegas experience,” will reopen August 31.
The New York Gaming Commission is ordering a market study of online gaming, which could impact efforts to bring legal online poker and other forms of gambling to the state. The study will go beyond sports betting and asks for an analysis of the entire gaming industry in the state. The commission is expected to select a company to conduct the study this week.
Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony (Playstation at left) will require publishers making video games for their systems to reveal the odds of getting individual in-game items through loot boxes. The boxes can be sold or traded and contain random game items which have varying value to players. The use of the loot boxes to bring in revenue has been criticized as an unregulated form of gambling.
The proposed Gaming and Lotteries Bill 2019 in the Irish legislature has moved to the committee stage. The bill would substantially overhaul the country’s 60-year-old gambling laws. The law would impose an age limit of 18 and over for gambling and set stake limits across all gaming machines at €10.
The New Zealand government has launched a public consultation on regulating online gambling in the country. The government wants to focus on ways to reduce gambling harm, says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin (l.). The country allows its citizens to play online at offshore sites.
The National Football League made a move to embrace the rise of sports betting in the U.S. by signing an exclusive league data deal with content provider Sportradar. The league joins MLB and the NBA in partnering with Sportradar. The NFL also announced a new casino sponsor partnership with Gateway Casinos & Entertainment in Canada which will also be a presenting sponsor of the NFL Fantasy App in the country.
The slow rollout of mobile sports betting in West Virginia has led to criticism from one of the state officials who pushed for the state’s sports betting bill. State Delegate Shawn Fluharty (l.) charged that the state’s lottery is purposely dragging its feet on mobile sports betting and is not acting with urgency to have mobile up and running in time for the NFL season.
Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pennsylvania unveiled its new $10 million sportsbook, which follows a $58.5 million expansion project completed over the past two years. And Presque Isle Downs near Erie, Pennsylvania, launched its BetAmerica Sportsbook on August 8, featuring 50 sports wagering kiosks near the Hub center bar, Bar 90 and the High-Limit Room.
Stadium Casino LLC, a unit of the Cordish Companies, last week won a big victory in its plan to develop a casino resort in South Philadelphia, home of the city’s four professional sports leagues. Cordish, which originally agreed to build an Interstate-76 on-ramp near the stadium district, now will only have to kick in $3 million for the construction. And the company also won a license for a mini-casino (l.) near Pittsburgh.
Atlantic City’s casinos saw a 7.8 percent increase in casino revenue for July while sports betting revenue rose 8 percent statewide for the month. The July figures are the first to compare a nine-casino market in Atlantic City year to year and a full month of sports betting at casinos and racetracks in the state. Ocean and Hard Rock Atlantic City (l.) opened in late June 2018.
Rick Heidner (l. and the proposed racino site), owner of Gold Rush Gaming, has applied to bring horse racing to Tinley Illinois, which could mean an eventual racino will be built at the site. Playing in the Park LLC has applied with the Illinois Racing Board to offer harness racing three nights a week on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays in December 2020 on the site of the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center.
New Jersey regulators have granted interim authorization to a New York based hedge fund as owners of Atlantic City’s Ocean Casino Resort (l.) and approved a trustee for the property. Luxor Capital Group was granted interim casino authorization by the state Casino Control Commission.
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno (l.) of Springfield, Massachusetts has ordered the city’s Casino Advisory Committee to conduct its first meeting by September 30. The committee was supposed to have convened a year ago, when MGM Springfield first opened its doors. But it has never met.
Rivers Casino Pittsburgh (l.) broke ground last week on its $60 million, 219-room hotel in a ceremony hosted by Greg Carlin, CEO of parent Rush Street Gaming. The company is aiming to create a 4-star hotel.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has launched a self-exclusion program allowing players of video gaming terminals at truck stops to choose one-year, five-year or lifetime bans.
The Maryland Lottery and the state’s six casinos set new records in revenue to the state for fiscal year 2019, contributing a total of $1.311 billion in gaming taxes. Maryland Lottery and Gaming Director Gordon Medenica (l.) says it’s vital revenue for the state.
George Papanier, the CEO of Twin River Holdings, gives a positive assessment of prospects for the company’s new acquisition, Dover Downs Hotel & Casino (l.) in Delaware.
Officials in East Windsor, Connecticut planned last week to issue a letter to Governor Ned Lamont expressing their support of the Tribal Winds casino (l.) proposed for the community by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes, jointly known as MMCT Venture.
The Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico was the site for a policy meeting organized by the National Indian Gaming Association to discuss tribal sovereignty and sports betting in the 21st century. Tribes want to ensure that entering the sports betting market doesn’t impact their ability to operate as sovereign nations.
The California Costal Commission has approved the addition of a five-story, 100-room hotel at the Trinidad Rancheria casino, pending proof of a reliable water source.
Janika Gauselmann has been named to the supervisory board of Gauselmann AG, an appointment that became effective July 1. She is the granddaughter of company founder Paul Gauselmann and succeeds Max Walberer, who died in the spring after serving on the board for 28 years.
Australia-listed Donaco International Ltd. has appointed two new non-executive directors, Leo Chan Yan Ho and Kurkye Wong. Chan and Wong are representatives of Argyle Street Management Ltd., an institutional investor.
Grand Traverse Resort & Casinos has selected Konami’s Synkros casino management system for its Turtle Creek and Leelanau Sands casino properties in northern Michigan.
SiGMA Group and Clarion Gaming have joined forces to stage ICE Asia in Manila, Philippines, with the inaugural event set for June 8-9, 2020 at the SMX Convention Center and Conrad Conference facility. The announcement sets up a showdown between G2E Asia, held in Macau just three weeks earlier.
The first Japan IR Expo in Hokkaido has been scheduled for December 11-12. The event, organized by Innovent, will showcase Japan’s northernmost prefecture as a potential integrated resort site.
