Some Georgia developers have proposed casino resorts as a way to attract tourists already traveling through. One potential location: Atlanta Motor Speedway (rendering l.)
In this special edition of the GGB Podcast, Editor Frank Legato interviews Joe Billhimer, the executive vice president and leader of the Pennsylvania properties for the Cordish Companies, about the recent openings in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
You wouldn’t think that the federal Commodities and Futures Trade Commission would have anything to do with sports betting, but it will soon decide an issue that could be crucial to the success of the industry. Gaming executive and inventor Bruce Merati (l.) explains.
Nebraska horsemen are taking a new approach to keep their industry going, says industry leader Robert Moser (l.): nonprofit ownership of tracks in partnership with a casino operator. Gaming revenues will be funneled back to purses.
The long-awaited Bergin Report has deemed Crown Resorts “unsuitable” to operate its VIP casino in Sydney, Australia. That may change if the gaming giant shows regulators in New South Wales that it’s cleaned house. Crown Chairwoman Helen Coonan (l.) pledged to work closely with regulators to accomplish that goal.
Sands China offered the first phase of its newest themed resort the Londoner, formerly Cotai Central, to a Macau market still reeling from the Covid crisis. The company, which has yet to score a miss in the casino hub, is confident it will succeed.
The matchup of Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady (l.) at Super Bowl LV generated a landslide of sports bets—so many that some mobile betting apps intermittently crashed.
Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, Chinese authorities drove home the message that anyone involved in gambling inside the mainland and anyone who recruits Chinese citizens to gamble abroad will be punished. Most junkets operate VIP rooms (l.) at the Macau casinos, and it’s unclear what this means for them.
The long-dormant building that was going to first be the Fontainebleau and later the Drew was sold last week to the real estate arm of Koch Industries, and the original developers are back in the picture.
Australian racetrack regulators are closely following several groups interested in merging with Tabcorp Holdings in order to acquire its gaming assets. Such a deal could alter Australia’s racing landscape.
The Tulalip Tribes of Washington have opened their new $125 million Quil Ceda Creek Casino in Snohomish. The facility, which has 1,500 slots, replaces the old “Q” that first opened in 1983 as a bingo hall.
Lawmakers in the Lone Star State are showing a renewed interest in gaming expansion, including sports betting. Is it enough to pass a bill? Not according to Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (l.).
A U.K. lawmaker says that proposed strict “affordability checks” for gamblers would have a “devastating effect” on the country’s horseracing industry—and possibly be harmful for the gamblers themselves.
Bally’s Corp. has acquired SportCaller, a leading global B2B free-to-play game and sports provider. SportCaller complements Bally’s recently announced acquisitions of Bet.Works and Monkey Knife Fight.
In the near term and looking several years out, there are reasons for optimism and also for caution. During this interlude, two vastly different companies are raising money, to their long-term benefit.
This week the GGB Podcast features a discussion with Anna Sainsbury, the co-founder and chairwoman of GeoComply, and a trustee for Conscious Gaming, a non-profit organization she helped to found that is dedicated to supporting responsible gaming across the land-based and online gaming industries.
A fifth bidder for an integrated resort in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan has been identified: it’s a consortium comprising the Niki of Japan and Chyau Fwu (Parkview) Group.
In Macau, an initial shipment of 100,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine are being administered to healthcare workers and others in high-risk occupations. Another 300,000 doses are slated to arrive in the weeks ahead.
Independent Smartkarma analyst Howard J. Klein (l.) has issued a “buy” recommendation on the stock of Cambodian operator NagaCorp, citing superior performance through the pandemic.
The director of the Primorsky Territory Tourism Department in Russia says taxes from the state’s two existing casinos, including the Shambala at left, have already covered the government’s infrastructure investment.
A probe of British Columbia casinos and allegations of past money laundering continued last week, with testimony about the push to bring in Chinese VIPs.
Australia’s Star Entertainment Group and partners will raise their current investments in Southeast Queensland to almost $4.5 billion after breaking ground on a new five-star hotel and apartments.
Unlike in other jurisdictions, the iGaming market in Lithuania did little to offset losses caused by the Covid-19 shutdowns last year, though the sector grew more than 47 percent.
Ukraine’s Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries has issued its first iGaming license without reaching conclusions about the technical certification of the law.
Nova Scotia has approved the Atlantic Lottery Corp.’s plan to establish online gaming sites in the Canadian province, part of a plan to expand to all five of the provinces in which ALC operates.
A white paper compiled by Online Casino Ground predicts that the online gaming market in the Netherlands, pegged to begin this year, could become one of the largest iGaming markets in Europe.
Sports betting in Washington, DC, hasn’t been the bonanza some expected. “Our gambling income is below where we thought it would be because of the economy," said DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.
A bill allowing sports wagers to be placed on-site at licensed gambling establishments in Deadwood (l.) starting July 1 passed the South Dakota Senate in a 32-2 vote.
The United Keetoowah Band of Oklahoma is preparing to build a casino on two acres in Cherokee County, even though the land has not yet been taken into trust. An appeals court will make the final decision.
Maverick Gaming’s CEO Eric Persson says he won’t give up on trying to persuade Washington lawmakers to let him and his 19 card rooms offer sports betting. He will persist, he says, “until we bust down that door.” Meanwhile, he is moving the company’s headquarters to the state.
Parliamentarians in Canada are debating several bills that would lift the federal ban on sports betting. Supporters don’t want the provinces to miss another Super Bowl without the ability to place a bet on the outcome. And one MP wants the wager to benefit the struggling Canadian Football League.
Caesars Entertainment is asking lawmakers in Missouri, where the company operates three casinos including Lumiere Place (l.) in St. Louis, to restrict sports betting to in-person registration at the outset, to compete with online-only sportsbook operators.
WynnBET, the sports betting app of Wynn Resorts, has received conditional approval to go live with online sports betting in Tennessee. WynnBET is currently available in New Jersey, Colorado and Michigan.
Brazil is moving towards the legalization of sports betting. It has issued a Request for Information for consultants to help it develop the framework that would allow private sportsbook companies to operate.
Despite golfers’ misgivings, pro events may now be accompanied by live betting commentary. The Phoenix Open in Arizona was the first PGA tournament to feature a live-betting companion show.
NFL legend and former Detroit Lions great Barry Sanders (l.) has signed a multi-year agreement to become the celebrity brand ambassador for the BetMGM sportsbook following a record-setting debut of the BetMGM app in Michigan.
The sports betting authority in Germany is seeking help from the federal government after canceled sporting events and closures of most betting shops due to Covid-19 hit the industry hard.
A major gaming resort across the Hudson River from New York City at the Meadowlands Sports Complex (l.) in New Jersey could do serious damage to Gotham’s prospective casino market. So says a new report, which says now’s the time to head off the threat.
A bill in the Hawaii legislature that would have authorized a casino in Kapolei (l.) appears dead. But several other gaming bills, including one that creates a state lottery, are still alive in a state that currently allows no form of gaming at all.
Full House Resorts, spurred by the approval of a Colorado amendment that allows for no-limit gaming and new games, plans to spend $180 million on its Bronco Billy’s Casino (l.) in Cripple Creek.
Under state Senator Del Marsh’s (l.) proposal, Alabama could have a statewide lottery and casino gambling at four existing dog racetracks, plus a fifth new casino operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
The Kentucky Senate has passed a bill legalizing historical horseracing machines (l). Earlier, the state Supreme Court had ruled that some types of the machines were not parimutuel.
Atlanta-based developer Rick Lackey (l.) wants to build casino resorts in Columbus, Midway and Lavonia, Georgia. State Rep. Ron Stephens has proposed legislation that could make Lackey’s vision a reality.
The Illinois Gaming Board has granted “preliminary suitability” status to developers of the $310 million Hard Rock Casino in Rockford. Among the investors: wife of Rockford native Rick Nielsen (l.), Cheap Trick guitarist.
Peninsula Pacific Entertainment of Los Angeles want to move its gaming license from the shuttered DiamondJacks Casino in Bossier City, Louisiana to a proposed $250 million casino resort in Slidell.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says progress in distributing Covid-19 vaccines in the state increase the likelihood that at least outdoor events, such as the annual Air Show (l.), will return to Atlantic City this summer.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (l.) has submitted a budget that revives A 2020 proposal to divert $199 million from the horse racing fund to pay for educational assistance.
Rush Street Gaming has chosen Ballard-Yates, a joint venture of Virginia’s S.B. Ballard Construction Co. and Mississippi-based Yates Construction, to build its new casino (l.) in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Wynn Resorts hopes to raise almost $860 million with the sale of Nasdaq-listed shares, available at $115 per share. The proceeds are slated for “general corporate purposes,” Wynn Resorts said.
Resorts World Catskills wants to bring VLTs to a former department store (l.) in Orange County, about 60 miles north of New York City. The machines once were on the gaming floor at Monticello Raceway.
A former owner of the Cheers poker room (l.) in Salem, New Hampshire is suing the town and a former competitor. He claims fraud, conspiracy, racketeering, discrimination, unfair competitive manipulation and public corruption.
Red Rock Casinos, the giant of the Las Vegas neighborhood market, says business declines amid the Covid crisis don’t justify putting the properties, which include the off-Strip Palms (l.), back on line.
Casino M8trix, one of two casinos in San Jose, California, is suing the city over a tax measure passed by the voters. It wants to get out from under the measure’s tax requirements.
A bill that would have allowed New Mexico racetracks to offer sports betting and table games has died in a House committee. The bill would have benefited the Lottery Scholarship Fund.
Several Connecticut legislators would like to direct funds from a new gaming expansion bill to a state program that helps fund tuitions for students. Funding for the program is in jeopardy.
Casinos in Iowa are exempt from a 2008 law banning smoking in public places. Tribal casinos temporarily banned smoking due to Covid-19, and now the American Heart Association seeks to prohibit it in all casinos.
The onetime Trump Plaza Casino on the Atlantic City Boardwalk is set to be imploded at 9 a.m. Wednesday, February 17. The demolition site, at the foot of a major highway into the city, should be cleared before summer.
The Arizona legislature is discussing new gaming compacts negotiated by the state’s tribes and Governor Doug Ducey. State Rep. Mark Finchem (l.) says Ducey didn’t have the authority to make the deals.
Former Louisiana Gaming Control Board Chairman Ronnie Jones (l.) has been named an advisor to the British firm Entain, which is partnering with MGM Resorts International to expand a sports betting venture.
Paul Omohundro has joined Galaxy Gaming Inc. as vice president of business development. Omohundro will help expand Galaxy into new markets and discover new product and service lines for clients.
Las Vegas interior design startup Campbell House recently announced that Jennie Bowman has joined the company as chief marketing officer. Bowman will play a key role in the firm’s strategic development.
Sports betting operator Entain and the University of Nevada Las Vegas have launched the Women’s Innovation Igniter, a program to advance women's roles in gaming. It's headed by Jan Jones Blackhurst (l.), gaming industry leader and former Las Vegas mayor.
Casino marketing will be at the center of an online marketing boot camp to take place March 1-3 from New Orleans. Founder Julia Carcamo (l.) says the program is open to up to 16 virtual participants.
The SBC Summit North America, formerly Betting on Sports America, will take place November 3-December 2 at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The event’s new name reflects the industry’s increasing emphasis on iGaming.
The British Columbia Lottery Corp. will hold its ninth annual New Horizons in Responsible Gambling Conference in a virtual format March 9-10, 2021. The theme: “Player Health Reboot: Resetting the Future.”
