Category: Casino News

Conventional wisdom in the casino industry (sometimes known as ‘wishful thinking’) held that the fourth quarter of 2025 would see a big turnaround on the Las Vegas Strip. The reality? Nothing of the sort. Strip casinos came off a soft November into a poor December, down 6% to close out 2025. Meanwhile, Lady Luck smiled on the locals casinos, up 6%.

Arrogance is usually the corollary of idiocy. And Santa Anita racetrack was surely arrogant in thinking it could put one over on the state of California … or on the ever-vigilant Native American tribes in the Golden State. Without getting approval or indeed, it seems, without telling anyone, Santa Anita installed 24 ‘historical horse racing machines’ (HRMs for short) at the track. Two days later, they were gone, somebody having put Attorney General Rob Bonta onto this cutesy ploy.

Reality has set in at Bally’s Chicago. The $1.7 billion megaresort has long looked as though it would miss its projected September 2026 opening date. Construction hiccups have ensured as much, plus this is terra incognita for Bally’s Corp., which has never built a megaresort nor operated one. Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. execs were under no illusions that the project would stretch into 2027 and have budgeted accordingly. Anyway, Bally’s made it official by appealing to the Lege for a year-long extension of its Medinah Temple temporary casino.

For the second time in a month, we have a major civic leader diving under the table instead of making a firm decision. After dithering for seven months, Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) opted to let LD 1164 become law without her signature. Not exactly Profiles in Courage stuff. Why is this bill important? Because it opens up the Pine Tree State to iGaming, via the four tribes of the Wabanaki Nation. Three of them are aligned with Caesars Entertainment and one with DraftKings. Pouting on the sidelines are a variety of interested parties, including FanDuel, BetMGM and Fanatics, all of whom find themselves on the outside looking in.

Tourism to Las Vegas fell 5% in November and flattened Las Vegas Strip gambling revenues along with with it. Casinos should be grateful that the fewer players they’re getting are spending more. Strip gambling houses grossed $784 million the month before last. (The Nevada Gaming Control Board snuck the numbers out on New Year’s Eve.) Although miscellaneous Clark County casinos were flat, most everybody else prospered. Downtown dens were up 10% to $87 million, the Boulder Strip saw a 20% leap to $79.5 million and North Las Vegas was up 4.5% to $25.5 million. Along the borders, Laughlin jumped 11.5% to $38 million, Mesquite climbed 10.5% to $18 million, while Wendover was 4.5% to $24 million.