Congratulations to Tilman Fertitta, just named Gaming Executive of the Year by Casino Journal magazine. “Fertitta, owner of Golden Nugget casinos, has accomplished something few gaming executives can claim these days—founding and expanding a U.S.-based casino company in the midst of a recession and desperately slow economic recovery. He has accomplished this by taking the valuable lessons he learned establishing the Landry’s restaurant chain and applying them to gaming,” begins the accolade, in which Fertitta is as outspoken as ever.
Strategic Gaming Management‘s 870 slot machines make it the second-biggest slot route operator in Nevada. First-place Golden Gaming has 7,000-plus. And that was before Golden cut a deal to buy out Strategic. This doesn’t make Golden the only route operator in Nevada, but close enough. The regulatory process for this transaction will likely be another display of the Silver State’s high tolerance for monopolies.
Between Meadows Racetrack & Casino and nearby natural gas development, gambling has helped author an economic feel-good story for Washington County. The opening of the seventh hotel since the casino’s debut is the latest cause for celebration. Meadows has also given back, in the form of contributions to help fund highway improvements. A retail/residence development is in the works, as the economic effects continue to ripple outwards.
Could tribal casinos offer Class II gaming online? It looks that way. What’s more, Oklahoma‘s Arapaho & Cheyenne Tribes will be able to receive offshore play, with the Sooner State taking a cut of the proceeds. California‘s Alturas Indian Rancheria Tribe has a free-play site that it wants to turn into a real-money site for American gamblers. “Bettors are located on reservation property virtually, rather than physically,” through something called ‘proxy play,’ which could give the U.S. Department of Justice headaches. (Somewhere, Sheldon Adelson is saying, ‘Told ya so!’) Proxy players have to be of legal age and live in Class II-enabled states, which covers most of the country. Close behind is Wisconsin‘s Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, which operates a free-play site. The expansion of Internet gambling is fast outstripping the ability of Washington, D.C., to regulate it.
