While the recession knocked the California Indian casino market down a few notches — as it also did in Nevada — signs are afoot the Golden State’s tribal gaming industry is once again firing up.
Inside Gaming
Richard N. Velotta’s Inside Gaming column appears Sunday and Wednesday in Business.
rvelotta@reviewjournal.com … @RickVelotta on Twitter. 702-477-3893
MGM Resorts International had a busy March. On March 24, MGM officials broke ground on the company’s $800 million hotel-casino development in Springfield, Mass. A day later, MGM leadership celebrated the hiring of the 1,000th construction worker for the $1.25 billion MGM National Harbor in Maryland.
A debate over religious freedom and gay rights was not what Indiana’s challenged gaming industry needed. The state’s 13 casinos experienced a 10 percent decline in gaming revenue in 2014 partly because of new competition.
On his first quarterly earnings conference call as CEO of Full House Resorts, Dan Lee compared himself to the boy who came downstairs one Christmas morning hoping to find a pony.
A policy address by Macau’s top government official this week wasn’t the uplifting and positive message the casino industry and the investment community were hoping to hear.
A year ago, the gaming investment community didn’t pay much attention to Global Cash Access. Then, Global Cash Access stole the best little slot machine manufacturer in Texas.
Caesars Entertainment Corp. can’t seem to catch a break. Next month, New Orleans will ban smoking in most public venues within Orleans Parish, including bars, hotels, sports stadiums and restaurants (where the activity has been curtailed since 2007).
If we didn’t know better, one might believe the Chinese government is trying to sabotage Macau’s already sinking gaming market. Nine straight months of casino revenue declines, including a record 49 percent drop in February, are attributable to a government imposed crackdown on corruption. Apparently, more government restrictions are on the way.
The brewing proxy fight at Wynn Resorts Ltd. might be more entertaining than “Steve Wynn’s ShowStoppers,” the production of Broadway and movie songs now playing in the Encore Theater.
By next year, at least three casino companies will have traveled the path into the real estate investment trust market. A fourth is exploring the idea, and MGM Resorts International may join them on the trail.
GTECH Holdings is paying $6.4 billion to acquire International Game Technology, but the Italy-based lottery giant is taking on more than just “Wheel of Fortune” and the company’s other slot machine titles and products. GTECH wants the name IGT.
Blackstone Group executive Jonathan Gray doesn’t consider himself a gambler. But the New York City-based private equity fund is wagering $1.73 billion it can make The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas a shining jewel on the Strip.
There is no debate that Station Casinos had a strong finish to 2014, giving analysts hope that recovery in the Las Vegas locals gaming market is underway. Now, the investment community may want a piece of the action.
Legalizing sports betting in the U.S. would be bad news for local street-corner bookies and the Internet’s unregulated off-shore gambling market.
If California’s Internet poker debate was an actual card game, PokerStars just doubled up. But the European online gaming giant is still short-stacked against two of the state’s largest tribal casino operators in the company’s effort to gain a piece of California’s potentially lucrative — albeit nascent — Internet poker market.