Quote of the Day

“The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse: You cannot post ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ and ‘Thou shalt not lie’ in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment.”—George Carlin

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State of 888

Recently we sat down with Yaniv Sherman, senior vice president for business development at 888.com. The following are some outtakes from our conversation.

How is your sponsorship of the New York Jets doing and will we see similar partnerships in the near future?

It’s been going great. It’s the second year. We’ve been growing that as well. There’s a great match there between two organizations that are innovators in blue-chip brands that are interconnected. We were the first and only pure digital operator that partnered with an NFL team. We’re sort of a case study there and it’s been going great. We are now heading into Monday Night Football. [The game, held Oct. 21, was a wipeout, with the New England Patriots crushing the Jets 33-0.]

This Monday, 888 will be the official game sponsor. So we’ll be in the pre- and postgame shows, and we’re also visible through the games. We’ve been very focused on using the assets and creating a lot of online presence around this partnership. It’s an important step. It also gave us a great invitation to the U.S. sports organizations, the NFL being the leading one. About 60 percent of all sports bets are NFL bets, so it’s important at several levels and we’re definitely looking to additional sponsorships. The fact that we partnered with the Jets put us on the radar for almost every sports organization you can think of and we’re in almost constant contact with a variety of them, and as the business grows we will be seeing additional deals. We are unique in that space because we are looking to monetize these assets and not just Continue reading

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This just in …

Somebody just drove their RV through the front doors of the Cannery. We don’t know if this was a demand for 3/2 blackjack or simply an accident. Judging by a photo of the scene, the doorway was insufficiently barricaded against rogue motorists. According to KTNV-TV, one Cannery customer suffered “serious injuries” and the female driver of the RV has been taken into custody. We should hope so.

Posted in Boyd Gaming, Current | 1 Comment

Quote of the Day

“Unlike the corrupt practices referenced by those diplomats in Sofia, the actual result of a sports game has become semantic to cyber-criminals. There is no need to fix a game, when you can dupe a gambler in to betting with your site. If the gambler makes a losing bet, he loses what he wagered. That’s gambling. But if he wins the bet, cyber-criminals don’t care. They can charge an extortionate percentage of the win to make the pay-out, or refuse to pay-out completely. Match-fixing becomes irrelevant when the criminal just takes your winnings anyway.”—attorney Nick Wooldridge, on match-fixing in Eastern Europe.

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Louisiana gets soaked; Surrender flag waved

Boyd Gaming warned us that Deep South results would be weak, following two hurricanes, and they didn’t exaggerate. Flood-affected Louisiana casino receipts plummeted 11% in September. Boyd casinos got the worst of it, down 10.5%. New Orleans was flat but Lake Charles took a bashing, plunging 18%. Baton Rouge‘s mere 3.5% decline looks like a triumph. Golden Nugget slid 23.5% to $21 million, as L’Auberge du Lac squeaked past with $22 million, down 10%. Isle Grand Palais shed 15% ($7 million gross) and Delta Downs was 21% off the pace with $12 million. L’Auberge Baton Rouge actually gained 5%, clocking in with $12 million, while Casino Rouge dropped 9% to $4 million. That was far better than Belle of Baton Rouge, a sorry $2 million and 29% freefall.

Land-based casinos bested riverboats in New Orleans, with Harrah’s New Orleans grossing Continue reading

Posted in Boyd Gaming, Caesars Entertainment, China, Churchill Downs, Crown Resorts, Economy, Eldorado Resorts, GLPI, Illinois, Isle of Capri, Japan, Las Vegas Sands, Louisiana, Macau, MGM Resorts International, Money laundering, Penn National, Regulation, Resort fees, Sheldon Adelson, Singapore, The Mob, The Strip, Tilman Fertitta, Wall Street | Comments Off on Louisiana gets soaked; Surrender flag waved

Cosmo does it again; Georgia ponders casinos

It happened again. Smoke billowed over the Las Vegas Strip from an electrical fire at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas last night. No one was injured, thank God, and the damage appears to be minor. But it’s the second fire at the Cosmo, something which is always concerning.

Speaking of the Cosmo, it suffered a PR blow when Hard Rock International CEO Jim Allen said he wasn’t interested in buying it. Snap! However, he did express his interest in Bally’s and Planet Hollywood. It’s unclear whether Allen realizes that if you buy Bally’s you have to take Paris-Las Vegas along with it. Both properties share the same physical plant, which is why Arthur Goldberg was able to build it for a relative bargain back in 1998, when everybody else was passing the billion-dollar mark (pocket change now). Vici Properties has right of first refusal on any two property sales, so Eldorado Resorts may find it more difficult to reduce its Strip exposure than it thought.

As for Allen and that collapsed New Orleans hotel, he said he was “hopeful” that it would go forward pending an investigation but added, “First thing, our prayers go out to the families and those that were injured and also the supporting businesses around the site. That is really where our focus is right now.”

* “I have never seen so much energy and so much enthusiasm about this issue. I think there is a momentum to Continue reading

Posted in Atlantic City, Baseball, Caesars Entertainment, Churchill Downs, Cosmopolitan, Eldorado Resorts, Election, Foxwoods, Georgia, Greenwood Racing, Hard Rock International, Horseracing, IGT, Illinois, International, Lotteries, Louisiana, MGM Resorts International, Mississippi, Politics, Scientific Games, Sports betting, Taxes, The Strip, Transportation | 1 Comment

Quote of the Day

“A world where news outlets categorically refuse to contact certain kinds of sources—a world where news outlets let third-party groups dictate the terms of their coverage—is a less informed, less accurate, and ultimately less democratic world.”—the editors of the Harvard Crimson, defending getting both sides of the story in their coverage of an ICE protest on campus.

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Big Brother challenged in Joliet

If rampant facial recognition is such a good thing, how come music festivals like Coachella and SXSW are banning it? The casino industry could take a hint from this, especially as the rejection seems to be coming from much-coveted Millennials. As BuzzFeed puts it, “If we accept ubiquitous biometric monitoring, and normalize the idea of getting our faces scanned to get on a plane or pick up our kids from school, the experiment works and our fate is sealed. But if we organize—if we refuse to be lab rats in a digital panopticon—we can avert a future where all human movements and associations are tracked by artificial intelligence algorithms trained to look for and punish deviations from authoritarian norms.”

Some are already fighting back. Two Harrah’s Joliet customers are suing the casino for Continue reading

Posted in Caesars Entertainment, Hard Rock Hotel, Hard Rock International, Horseracing, Illinois, Japan, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Penn National, Racinos, Regulation, Technology, Tribal, Warner Gaming, Wynn Resorts | 1 Comment

Scientific rebuffed in R.I.; Golden, Boyd deliver

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) doubled down on her commitment to International Game Technology to run the state’s lottery by rebuffing an offer from Scientific Games, in tandem with Twin River Casinos. The Scientific proposal promised 1,100 jobs or $100 million if the job-creation number wasn’t met. It provided a useful distraction from Raimondo, whose sweetheart contract with IGT is being queried by the state Senate Finance Committee. Taking a potshot at IGT’s British leadership, Twin River characterized Scientific as “the only full-service lottery company headquartered in Continue reading

Posted in Boyd Gaming, Conventions, Downtown, Environment, Golden Gaming, Hawaii, IGT, Lotteries, North Las Vegas, Palms, Rhode Island, Scientific Games, Sports, The Strip, Wall Street | Comments Off on Scientific rebuffed in R.I.; Golden, Boyd deliver

Quote of the Day

“There are bright people who work there, but they are not equipped to do deep-dive investigations. This is one small example. Put that on steroids. It won’t be just people from Illinois. They’ll be coming from Ukraine. They’ll be coming from Macao. You see private equity companies and funds being set up to take advantage of gaming. If the people and sources of funds are known on Day One, those people and sources of funds could change on Day 30.”—former U.S. Attorney Jeff Cramer, on the Rick Heidner scandal and its ramifications.

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Oklahoma, tribes ready to talk; Don’t geofence me in

Oct. 28 is the date appointed for Oklahoma gaming tribes to meet with Attorney General Mike Hunter and find out just what Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) wants from them. As one chief put it, “We’re anxiously awaiting what their proposal is.” Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton called himself “cautiously optimistic” about the talks. The two sides’ positions are well-rehearsed: Stitt wants tribes to pay more—a lot more; tribes say the compacts automatically renew Jan. 1 and their taxes are in line with national averages. “I’m hoping it’s just a simple misunderstanding,” said Greg Chilcoat, chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, though that seems awfully optimistic in light of Stitt’s pugnacious rhetoric. The tribes are negotiating through the media, mainly via a high-profile ad campaign. Hunter, meanwhile, is bringing in a pricey Michigan law firm to help do the talking.

One suggested negotiating point for the tribes: They should threaten to pull back their unilateral infrastructure investments if Continue reading

Posted in Caesars Entertainment, Colorado, Dan Lee, DFS, Election, Full House Resorts, G2E, Genting, history, Indiana, Las Vegas Sands, Marketing, MGM Resorts International, Oklahoma, Oregon, Regulation, Sexual misconduct, Singapore, Sports betting, Steve Wynn, Taxes, The Strip, Tribal, Wynn Resorts | 1 Comment

Quote of the Day

“We can no longer defend the shares in light of the latest discoveries, discoveries which significantly increase the risk profile for investors.”—Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingarn, who called recent disclosures, such as the revelation that a pilot involved with the certification of the Boeing 737 drew attention to the defective feature that has led to fatal crashes, “indefensible.” Boeing stock plunged.

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$6 million man; Tribal troubles

Las Vegas Sands can’t stay out of court. Marina Bay Sands is being sued by a Chinese gambler who says $6.6 million of his money was moved out of his account and disbursed to other individuals he didn’t know in a series of 22 transactions. Such a pattern of activity, if true, would strongly suggest that somebody was acting on the sly and trying very hard not to get caught. For its part, Sands says it has authorization letters. Wang Xi, the plaintiff, counters that the letters are forgeries and the originals have been destroyed. “Marina Bay Sands failed to verify whether the Disputed Authorization Letters were in fact signed by the plaintiff before effecting the disputed transactions,” reads Xi’s lawsuit. Sands has been caught Continue reading

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Quote of the Day

“The opportunity to own 102 acres on the Las Vegas Strip was very interesting. From a strategic standpoint, Circus Circus is the most recognizable name on the North Strip. Treasure Island is the crown jewel in my portfolio, and Circus Circus adds another layer of gaming customer to my holdings.”—Phil Ruffin, describing his Circus Circus purchase with exquisite diplomacy.

Posted in MGM Resorts International, Phil Ruffin, The Strip | 1 Comment

Biden lobbies Station; Important victory for Flynt, casinos

George GOP donor Frank Fertitta III is unlikely to put missives from Joe Biden at the top of his in-box. Thus it was more of a theatrical gesture than a substantive negotiation when Biden wrote to the Fertitta, in an open letter, that Station Casinos needs to “join employees from Boulder Station and Palace Station in negotiating for health care, benefits, job security, fair scheduling, fair seniority rules, and a fair grievance process … As a lifelong champion for working families and unions,” Biden wrote that he was “troubled” that Station was ignoring the outcome of unionization votes at the Palms, Sunset Station, Green Valley Ranch, Fiesta Rancho, and Fiesta Henderson. Despite its previous insistence that it would honor secret-ballot elections, Station has Continue reading

Posted in Caesars Entertainment, California, Cretins, Culinary Union, Dining, Election, Entertainment, Konami, Lake Tahoe, Law enforcement, Maryland, Massachusetts, Palms, Pennsylvania, Rush Street Gaming, Sports, Sports betting, Station Casinos, Technology, The Mob, Wynn Resorts | 1 Comment

Cornyn checkmates tribes; Crown steps in it again

In this corner, two Native American tribes. In that one, Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R). They say he’s playing politics with their casino aspirations. He says they’re trying to make an end run—by way of the U.S. Senate—of their obligation to negotiate compacts with the Lone Star State. “Under Texas law, most forms of gambling are prohibited, including on Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and Alabama-Coushatta tribal lands,” said the senator. Cornyn’s stance puts him at odds with fellow Republican Rep. Brian Babin, who authored the clunkily named Ysleta del Sur Pueblo & Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas Equal & Fair Opportunity Settlement Act. It passed out of the House in July but, as with so many other bills, lost traction in the upper house. Cornyn has requested that the legislation be put on hold—a long hold—until the tribes have negotiated compacts with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), which would render the bill moot.

The Alabama-Coushatta, meanwhile, are working under the shadow of a $12.5 million fine from Continue reading

Posted in Australia, China, Crown Resorts, Environment, Golden Gaming, Hard Rock International, Hooters, Illinois, Laughlin, Law enforcement, Louisiana, Mohegan Sun, Money laundering, Penn National, Pennsylvania, Philippines, Politics, Slot routes, Texas, The Mob, The Strip, Tribal | Comments Off on Cornyn checkmates tribes; Crown steps in it again

Quote of the Day

Boston will not invest in companies led by people who treat women like commodities. Reports of Ken Fisher’s comments and poor judgment are incredibly disturbing.”—Boston Mayor Martin Walsh (D), yanking $248 million in pension funds from Fisher Investments, due to Ken Fisher’s sexual crudities. Fisher Investments still controls $112 billion.

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Scandal in Illinois (Where else?); Screwup in Florida

With no private developer willing to step up to the plate for a Chicago casino, Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) is now pitching a city/state partnership. Why not? There won’t be any profits to divide. State Rep. Greg Harris (D), for one, isn’t buying it. He points out that the usurious 72% tax rate on the Windy City casino is baked deep into the omnibus gaming package that the Lege passed last session.

That mobbed-up Rosemont casino that never happened continues to haunt Illinois politics. Video-gambling operator Rick Heidner‘s ties to some of the same principals cost him a piece of land he needed to build a racetrack and racino at Tinley Park. After Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) vetoed the transaction, Heidner “swore that Continue reading

Posted in DFS, Florida, Illinois, Politics, Racinos, Regulation, Seminole Tribe, Slot routes, Sports betting, Taxes, The Mob | Comments Off on Scandal in Illinois (Where else?); Screwup in Florida

Macao economy flounders; Massachusetts bonanza illusory

Macao got a double-barreled blast of bad news. First off, China‘s gross domestic product has slowed to growth rates not seen in almost 30 years. In fact, the R-word (“recession”) was invoked. Slow investment growth was blamed, as was the trade war with the U.S. “China’s economy is grappling with both external and internal headwinds,” economics researcher Frederic Neumann told Bloomberg. At least the jobless rate remains low, at 5%.

Secondly, passenger traffic into Hong Kong continues to fall. One carrier, Cathay Pacific, was moved to cut earnings forecasts. “Our expectation is that rest of 2019 will remain incredibly challenging for the airline,” said its chief customer and commercial officer, Ronald Lam. “The mainland China market has been hit especially hard. Intense competition together with an increasing reliance on transit passengers over the short term has continued to apply additional pressure on yield.“ The airline is also Continue reading

Posted in Caesars Entertainment, California, Charity, China, Downtown, Economy, Foxwoods, Las Vegas Raiders, Law enforcement, Macau, Marketing, Massachusetts, MGM Resorts International, Mohegan Sun, Penn National, Politics, Technology, The Strip, Tourism, Transportation, Tribal, Wynn Resorts | Comments Off on Macao economy flounders; Massachusetts bonanza illusory

Quote of the Day

“Our children are the living messages we send to a future we will never see. The question is how will we send them into that future.”—Rep. Elijah Cummings (D), 1951-2019

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