{"id":16895,"date":"2015-09-30T09:28:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T17:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16895"},"modified":"2023-08-23T05:22:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T13:22:58","slug":"crime-and-plentitude-at-g2e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/crime-and-plentitude-at-g2e\/","title":{"rendered":"Crime and plentitude at G2E"},"content":{"rendered":"

Internet<\/strong> gambling having been temporarily moved to a back burner, thanks to Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, the American Gaming Association<\/strong> has turned its attention at Global Gaming Expo<\/strong> \"images\"<\/a>to organized crime, which continues to be a shadowy partner to gambling, at least in those jurisdictions where gambling is illegal. Reported Casino Journal<\/em>, “in 2014 alone, 80 operators in 23 states were convicted of running illegal gambling businesses.” As AGA\u00a0President Geoff Freeman<\/strong> said, “Illegal gambling siphons critical tax revenue from communities and is void of any of the consumer protections provided by regulated gaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although extortion and racketeering are a far cry from today’s casino industry, money laundering has raised its ugly head of late, underscoring the need for vigilance. Freeman estimated that the illegal-gambling industry was as much as three times the size of the regulated one. The AGA has also lent guidance to legitimate casinos, in the form of a ‘best practices’ treatise with regard to money laundering.<\/p>\n

* Freeman’s ‘big tent’ approach to AGA membership has brought it a powerful, new, tribal member: Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority<\/strong>. Also newly on board is Neil Bluhm<\/strong>‘s Rush Street Gaming<\/strong>, a significant up-and-comer in the industry. Freeman’s no dummy and recognizes there’s more to be gamed by having tribal and private-sector gaming working the same side of the street.<\/p>\n

* Among those chatting up operators and manufacturers at G2E was J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong>, who found “an abundance of caution” toward Macao<\/strong> and “general optimism” regarding revenue growth on the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>. What a \"Resorts<\/a>turnaround. Seven years ago, who would have thought MGM Resorts International<\/strong> would be lauded for its heavy Strip presence and limited Macanese exposure? Quite the opposite. Resorts World Las Vegas<\/strong>, by the way, may not open until 2019 — unsurprising, given its\u00a0lack of activity. Amongst manufacturers, Greff thought Scientific Games<\/strong>‘ product offerings to be outstanding. Predicting low single-digit growth in 2016, Greff concluded that he “would characterize sentiment as cautiously optimistic as the larger manufacturers look to dispel integration concerns\/hiccups and regain confidence from casino operators.”<\/p>\n

As for the (over)anticipation of skill-based games — remember, they have only just been approved in Nevada<\/strong> — Greff wrote, “While the time will eventually come for a skill-based product, the industry is not there yet as the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> promulgates rules; we believe testing of skill-based products won\u2019t commence until 6-8 months after the rules are clarified.” He thought the important slot enhancements he saw at G2E were more in the nature of 3-D and hand-motion sensors.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Penn National Gaming<\/strong> gave Greff a tour of the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong>, which he found to be “in better shape than we thought.” (Guess he doesn’t get out here too much.) Penn \"TROPICANA<\/a>currently makes less from the Trop than from its Maine<\/strong> racino — less competition up there, mind you — and hopes to capture 15% of Vegas visitors’ gambling wallet in the future. The relative paucity of restaurants (four) may also be a handicap. However, Penn “wants to further learn the intricacies of the LV market\/property” before\u00a0making a substantial capex investment in the Trop.<\/p>\n

Half the Trop’s current guest base is derived from the likes of Orbitz<\/strong>, and Penn would like to oust those customers in favor of \"Plainridge\"<\/a>ones already enrolled in its loyalty program. Elsewhere, Plainridge Park<\/strong> has ditched its controversial electronic table games in favor of more video poker and high-limit product. The latter is a strategic addition as the average Plainridge player makes an average of $100,000 a year … 20% higher than other Penn properties. I don’t think it’s too early to call Penn’s Massachusetts<\/strong> venture a home run.<\/p>\n

* It’s been a good G2E for MGM, which won\u00a0three awards from Gambling Insider<\/em> magazine, more than any other company<\/a> and including an exacta on “Best Land-Based Operator,” where MGM won the top spot and joint venture Borgata<\/strong> was runner-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Internet gambling having been temporarily moved to a back burner, thanks to Sheldon Adelson, the American Gaming Association has turned its attention at Global Gaming Expo to organized crime, which continues to be a shadowy partner to gambling, at least … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,60,104,120,174,37,62,147,112,11,167,91,69,160,12,8,87,9,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16895"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16895"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32871,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16895\/revisions\/32871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}