{"id":9923,"date":"2012-10-24T11:04:22","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T19:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=9923"},"modified":"2022-02-27T09:33:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-27T17:33:02","slug":"he-shoots-he-scores-zynga-zinged-hill-puts-leg-before-wicket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/he-shoots-he-scores-zynga-zinged-hill-puts-leg-before-wicket\/","title":{"rendered":"He shoots, he scores!; Zynga zinged; Hill puts leg before wicket"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Monday’s interview with Interblock<\/strong> global sales supremo Tom O’Brien<\/strong> (right<\/em>) yielded some passing observations that are probably too peripheral for my upcoming Casino Life<\/em> piece … but perfect for S&G<\/em>. Interblock maintains field offices in Las Vegas<\/strong> (soon to become the de facto<\/em> headquarters) in Australia<\/strong>, Macao<\/strong> and Nova Scotia<\/strong>. In order to staff these, O’Brien takes a ‘horses for courses’ approach: “For instance, you don\u2019t put an American in Macao<\/strong> who\u2019s never run that market before. He needs to study it. Australia, the same thing. You can\u2019t run an American over to Australia and say, \u2018Go ahead and run this market. It\u2019s gonna be great for you.\u2019 You have to find an Australian operator or vendor who\u2019s got that kind of background<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Ouch! Sounds like a bank-shot reference to the abortive tenure<\/a> of former Borgata<\/strong> president Larry Mullin<\/strong> (right<\/em>) at Australian Echo Entertainment<\/strong>, as James Packer<\/strong> (currently on a roll<\/a>) and Genting<\/strong> jockey for position. The latter, naturally, has been taking the “move along, nothing to see here” stance. Then there’s the following zinger from ex-IGT<\/strong> exec in re<\/em> diversification …<\/p>\n

“One of things I\u2019ve found out with other companies over the years is they buy into other products so they can diversify. The products don\u2019t match well with the company itself, so they just shelve it or sell it back<\/em>.” (Are you taking this down, Howard Stutz<\/strong>?)<\/p>\n

\"\"Buh-ZING!<\/em>, as Stewie Griffin<\/strong>\u00a0would say. That obliquely aimed dart seems destined to land in the posterior of IGT CEO Patti Hart<\/strong> (left<\/em>), whose $500 million purchase of Double Down Interactive<\/strong> (“the best investment we ever made”) will almost certainly prove her undoing … to say nothing of the $115 million writeoff that was Entraction<\/strong>. One also thinks of wannabe Internet-gambling<\/a> “playa” Zynga<\/strong>, whose Katyusha<\/strong> rocket launcher<\/a> of e-mail blasts has ceased fire now that the company has entered a massive retrenchment. My instant-crackpot analysis is that Zynga’s Pied Piper, CEO Mark Pincus<\/strong> will make a last-ditch stand<\/a> around Internet<\/strong> wagering. Partnering with a major gaming firm is no sure bet, as Double Down has proven, but going it alone<\/a> with no prior online-gambling experience is definitely a fool’s errand.<\/p>\n

If you feel like “having a fiddle”<\/strong> on the current U.S. presidential race, William Hill PLC<\/strong> has odds for you. But forget about putting down a bet in Nevada<\/strong>: Hill neglected to get the necessary permission to take this sort of “action” in the Silver State. Epic fail, old boy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday’s interview with Interblock global sales supremo Tom O’Brien (right) yielded some passing observations that are probably too peripheral for my upcoming Casino Life piece … but perfect for S&G. Interblock maintains field offices in Las Vegas (soon to become … 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":[103,60,28,26,120,29,22,37,96,62,25,108,8,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923"}],"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=9923"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30784,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923\/revisions\/30784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}