Back in 1996, when Michigan voters authorized three casinos in downtown Detroit, opponents said legal gambling would destroy the city. Detroit is now bankrupt.
Inside Gaming
Richard N. Velotta’s Inside Gaming column appears Sunday and Wednesday in Business.
rvelotta@reviewjournal.com … @RickVelotta on Twitter. 702-477-3893
They used to joke about being twins separated at birth. Gavin Isaacs and Ramesh Srinivasan held co-chief operating officer titles at slot machine giant Bally Technologies during the company’s stunning growth in the past decade. Isaacs oversaw slot machine development and sales. Srinivasan managed the systems division.
Casino developers — including MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. — will spend some $22 billion on massive new resorts and gambling complexes in Macau over the next four years.
The Empire put a hit on the Mafia and buried the farm. Two years after Caesars Entertainment Corp. perplexed Wall Street by acquiring social gaming operation Playtika, the casino giant has moved past rival Zynga Inc. to the top of the business model.
The locals gaming market has suffered enough. Gaming revenues produced by casinos in North Las Vegas, along the Boulder Strip, in Henderson and throughout unincorporated Clark County are down a collective 2.6 percent through April.
No one can say for certain how much New Jersey’s online gaming market will actually be worth.
Sheldon Adelson successfully chased those pesky Internet brats off his lawn.
Clearly, MGM Resorts International’s planned $2.5 billion development on Macau’s Cotai Strip has Wall Street excited.
Let’s halt one rumor before it gains traction. Scientific Games Corp.’s $1.5 billion acquisition of slot machine manufacturer WMS Industries doesn’t mean a statewide lottery is headed to Nevada.
Things are not all peaceful down on the farm. Social gaming giant Zynga Inc., which has a grand vision of converting its platform into a real money pay-to-play online gambling format in Nevada, slashed 18 percent of its workforce and closed multiple offices to cut costs this past week.
Sequels are never as good as the original. Just ask Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson. Apparently, he wants to star in his own version of “The Hangover Part III.”
Wall Street still isn’t sold on the efforts by Caesars Entertainment Corp. to get out from under more than $20 billion of long-term debt.
On a seasonably pleasant Friday afternoon in late April, Atlantic Club Chief Operating Officer Michael Frawley and PokerStars spokesman Eric Hollreiser acted like cozy business partners.
There are victory laps and then there are VICTORY LAPS.