News

Josh Swissman quoted on GGBnews.com

California Voters Defeat Sports Betting Props By Wide Margins

The defeat of the dueling sports betting propositions 26 and 27 in California came as no surprise—pundits predicted as much. The pundits also predicted that Prop 26 would do less poorly than Prop 27, for what that’s worth. They were right about that one too.

Despite waging the most expensive effort in support of ballot props in the history of any California campaign— almost $600 million, according to the Associated Press—Californians said no deal.

Prop 27, the one which would allow FanDuel and other sportsbooks to offer online betting, drew a measly 16 percent support. Prop 26, which brought in-person sports betting to tribal casinos and race tracks, garnered less than 30 percent of the vote.

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Josh Swissman Quoted on GGBnews.com

Voters Prepare to End the California Sports Betting Debate

California’s proposition culture tries to shy away from competing resolutions. Too many potential problems. This year could be a case in point. Propositions 26 and 27 both ask for approval of sports betting, but from two different angles.

Prop 26 calls for sports betting to be limited to in-person wagering in tribal casinos and at the four race tracks throughout the state. It also allows tribal casinos to offer roulette and craps, just as an aside. According to Cal Matters, Prop 26 levies a 10 percent tax on sports bets placed at race tracks, and requires tribes to reimburse the state for the cost of regulating sports betting. After covering the cost of tax collection, the funds generated would go to the department of public health for problem gaming and mental health research, to the department of justice for enforcement of gaming rules, and to the state’s general fund.

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GMA quoted on Ice365.com

Asia doldrums stir EuroVegas prospects

by Muhammad Cohen

Bringing Vegas to Europe fired the imagination of Las Vegas Sands founder Sheldon Adelson a dozen years ago.

As Spain struggled with 20% plus unemployment amid a devastating global economic crisis, Adelson pledged billions to create EuroVegas outside Madrid, with a dozen hotels, six casinos, shopping, golf, conventions and tens of thousands of jobs, even while championing a Vegas Strip replica on Macau’s Cotai landfill.

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GMA quoted in The Nevada Independent

Analyst: Events will make 2022 bigger Las Vegas revenue year than 2021

by Howard Stutz

As the Las Vegas resort industry awaits the full return of its convention and meeting business, one gaming analyst said high-profile events tied to the National Fottball League will boost Southern Nevada visitation in the first half of the year, despite the recent national spike in COVID-19 cases.

Daniel Politzer, who follows the gaming industry for Wells Fargo Bank, had an opposing view from another analyst who believes the Strip’s gaming market will decline in 2022. Politzer said gaming and non-gaming revenues produced by Strip resort operators with multiple properties, such as MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, could jump as much as 20 percent over 2021 – a year that already portends to be a record-setting.

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GMA quoted in The Nevada Independent

Indy Gaming: Meruelo launches SaharaBets in Arizona.  What about Nevada?

by Howard Stutz

Alex Meruelo paid an undisclosed amount to purchase the former Sahara Hotel Casino in 2018 and announced a year later that he was spending more than $150 million to restore the Las Vegas Strip resort to its Rat Pack-era name after it suffered through a failed five-year run as the SLS.

So it makes sense that meruelo would utilize the name Sahara in other gaming ventures.

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Article by Clayton Peister published in Inside Asian Gaming

Factors Underpinning Casino Win Rates

by Clayton Peister and Nayah Patel

Casino win rates are the dark matter of the gaming world.  The current model of the universe only works if we assume that unobservable dark matter exists, and likewise the casino industry business model only works if win rates exist.  At least historically, some win rates we can observe indirectly like table hold; and some are unknowable like table win rate on turnover.

With the advent of bet tracking, more granular recording of electronic gaming behavior, and new data-sources like iGaming, we are getting better insights into the cloistered world of win rates.  Along with these insights we can distill the behavioral and mechanical factors which influence win rates and by extension revenues.

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GMA quoted on SportsHandle.com

NY Meets Target Of Launching By Super Bowl As Four Sportsbooks Get Green Light

by Matt Rybaltowski

Shortly after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul delivered her State of the State address earlier this week, the New York Gaming Commission confirmed Thursday that four mobile sports betting operators will be authorized to begin accepting wagers this week.

The four sportsbooks, Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Rush Street Interactive, have been approved to commence online sports wagering operations in New York as soon as 9 a.m. ET Saturday, the commission said in a statement.  Those four satisfied all statutory and regulatory requirements necessary to accept and process mobile sports wagering activity, the commission noted.

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GMA quoted on USBets.com

FanDuel, DraftKings, BetRivers, Caesars Can All Launch Saturday in New York

by Jill R. Dorson

Four major sports betting operators have received their licensing approval to go live with wagering in New York, the state gaming commission announced via press release Thursday. They could begin operating as soon as 9 a.m. ET Saturday.

FanDuel, Caesars, DraftKings, and Rush Street Interactive (BetRivers) are the four operators, and when the first goes live, it will make New York the biggest U.S. state by population to offer digital wagering.

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GMA quoted in the Las Vegas Review Journal

Analyst: Southern states most likely to approve gaming in 2022

by Richard N. Velotta

Alabama, Georgia and Florida are best positioned to approve legalized gambling this year, a Las Vegas-based analyst told Truist Securities investors on Thursday.

Brendan Bussmann, director of government affairs for Global Market Advisors, handicapped potential expansion for sports betting, internet gaming and land-based casinos in an hourlong webinar.

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GMA quoted in the Las Vegas Review Journal

Arizona sportsbooks debut with most wagers, revenue in first month

by Richard N. Velotta

Sportsbooks in Nevada’s southern neighbor debuted with the most bets taken and the most gross revenue of any state in its first month, the Arizona Department of Gaming announced.

Arizona opened with seven commercial sportsbooks in September and the department reported they took $291.2 million in wagers with gross gaming revenue of $32.3 million.

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