{"id":19931,"date":"2017-07-12T08:12:59","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T16:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=19931"},"modified":"2021-06-15T05:53:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T13:53:57","slug":"macao-takes-the-long-view-skill-based-slots-bomb-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/macao-takes-the-long-view-skill-based-slots-bomb-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Macao takes the long view; Skill-based slots bomb in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Macao<\/strong> gaming operators are off the hot seat as it appears increasingly inevitable that their casino concessions will be renewed rather than re-bid or nationalized. However, that may come at a price<\/a> — literally. The \"\"casino magnates aren’t completely out of the woods, as a series of public tenders must be held between 2025 and 2027. But near-term, five-year renewals look more and more like a given. Experts on the industry foresee either a one-time fee or a hike in the 39% tax rate as the quid-pro-quo for those five-year renewals. Also, Secretary for Economy & Finance\u00a0Lionel Leong<\/strong> has called for casino operators to address unspecified “shortcomings.”<\/p>\n

Further clouding the picture, concession renewal will fall into the tenure of whoever succeeds Fernando Chui<\/strong> as chief executive (he’s termed out from running again). At least all that speculation about the Macanese government allowing additional concessions appears to be dead and buried.<\/p>\n

* Skill-based slots continue to look like the Edsel<\/strong> of the casino industry, or at least are meeting with a firm “meh” from decision makers<\/a>. States one article, “It has been reported by Gambling Compliance<\/em> that European casino bosses have come to the conclusion that it\u2019s not economically viable to incorporate skill-based slots into their premises as they don\u2019t provide a sufficient return on investment.” Some European operators advise caution, but others reject the newfangled games outright.<\/p>\n

Said one operator, “we should be sticking to our core business. If you put skill-based elements into a bonus that you play next to your neighbour it can become a bit more exciting, but in general it\u2019s like putting table tennis …\u00a0into a casino.” Simon Thomas<\/strong>, CEO of London<\/strong>‘s Hippodrome Casino<\/strong> is equally emphatic about giving SBS games the boot. \u201cSkill-based slots are doomed to failure because they annoy gamers who don\u2019t see why they should play their favourite game in a slots version and they disappoint gamblers who want to play a straightforward slot game and feel they are at a disadvantage,” he told Casinopedia<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(Not all innovations are being rejected. Casinos Austria<\/strong> is moving ahead with e-sports. While Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> has temporarily pulled back from SBS at its Atlantic City<\/strong> casinos, both Borgata<\/strong> and Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong> are persisting\u00a0with them.)<\/p>\n

* Moving into the 21st century, the Indiana<\/strong> state government has repealed the admissions tax on casinos, an anachronism from the eras when riverboats had to cruise. It inflicted some collateral damage: Horseshoe Hammond<\/strong> was deterred from holding meetings because it \"\"had to pay for attendees as casino customers. Nobody will be happier than Boyd Gaming<\/strong>, whose Blue Chip<\/strong> paid the highest rate in the Hoosier State. As Blue Chip grew, so did the problems created by the admission fee<\/a> (which the company eats rather than passing on to consumers). Said company spokesman David Strow<\/strong>, “the admissions tax penalized us for the significant investments we\u2019ve made in nongaming amenities, such as hotel rooms and restaurants. We incur a separate admissions tax each time a customer moves between the casino and those amenities.” To add insult to injury, the admission tax had to be counted as revenue and be taxed as such.<\/p>\n

There will be some losers in the new arrangement, namely the counties and cities that host casinos. Gary<\/strong> will have to make up $480,000 somehow over the next four years and Blue Chip’s port of call, Michigan City<\/strong>, will be $590,000 out of pocket in that time. It’s not a painless solution but it removes an archaic practice of scaring up revenue.<\/p>\n

* Jack Cleveland<\/strong> has a problem which a change of name and \"\"management has failed to cure. When it opened under the Horseshoe<\/strong> banner in June 2012, it grossed $26 million. What followed were three straight years of decline, an uptick in June 2016, followed by another drop-off last month. It now grosses $15 million — a loss of over 25% of its business<\/a>. Cleveland<\/strong> ought to be Ohio<\/strong>‘s top casino market but instead it’s the black hole of Dan Gilbert<\/strong>‘s gaming aspirations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macao gaming operators are off the hot seat as it appears increasingly inevitable that their casino concessions will be renewed rather than re-bid or nationalized. However, that may come at a price — literally. The casino magnates aren’t completely out … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,154,166,7,68,22,62,11,71,33,25,31,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19931"}],"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=19931"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29709,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19931\/revisions\/29709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}