Development

Southern Exposure: Why gaming in the South is one of the last opportunities in the U.S.

Posted on August 16, 2020

The United States hosts a diverse set of gaming options from coast to coast. The gaming-rich Northeast continues to be dominated by strong regional destination casinos such as Encore Boston Harbor, Mohegan Sun, Borgata and Wind Creek Bethlehem. The Midwest remains the focus of the riverboat gaming. Tribal gaming also prevails across the country from North Carolina to Oklahoma and all along the West Coast.

The southern portion of the United States remains largely untouched when it comes to casino gaming. One of the many reasons for this over the years has been the long-held values and deep religious beliefs within these communities that have had an aversion to casino gaming.

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Strip Reset: COVID-19 is definitely challenging, but does the crisis present opportunities for a Vegas makeover?

Posted on May 16, 2020

Las Vegas soared until recent years, but we’ve reached the tipping point, where it’s necessary for the Strip to redefine itself again. Las Vegas is like no other place in the world. It’s the entertainment and sports capital of the world. It has the most amazing resorts. It just needs to remember our industry’s roots, redeliver on customer service, and provide value.

Covid-19 has devastated the industry and the greater Las Vegas economy. With the resulting industry shutdown, the city must take the opportunity to develop a strategy to reopen, reinvigorate and recapture its guests.

For the first time in well over a decade, both Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts, which between them operate 18 Las Vegas Strip resorts, have new leadership teams. These teams are comprised of seasoned casino industry professionals—not outsiders from professions other than hospitality—who have the ability to make these changes.

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Research Brief: Japan IR Timeline Update

Posted on June 4, 2019

Late last month, many stakeholders following the Japan Integrated Resort process believed they were thrown a curve ball, following reports stating that the process would be delayed by a year without the appointment of the Casino Management Commission and other cabinet and ministerial positions. However, the delay will likely not be as long as initially thought but would only be a minor delay in the marathon for integrated resorts in Japan.

First and foremost, this process is still in its infancy. While stalwarts of the process have been trying to get legislation passed for over twenty years, the race continues to move at a moderate pace as the government begins its official process to form the Commission and the 300-plus items that still need to be officially decided. It was thought that the Commission would likely be appointed before the end of the current regular session of the Diet. However, this part of the process has been delayed because of the upcoming elections that have been planned for the Upper House of the Diet. While it has not been confirmed that a double election would occur in July 2019, there is also the potential that a snap election in the Lower House could be held at the same time.

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Macau: The Future Beyond the VIP

Posted on May 28, 2019

Fifteen years ago, on May 18, 2004, Las Vegas Sands Corp. opened Sands Macao and changed the course of casino gaming in the region.

Macau was once considered a secondary gaming market that catered to a small base of customers from Hong Kong and Guangdong, China. However, Sands Macao and subsequent entrants demonstrated that by providing high-quality gaming, dining and lodging environments, markets will respond.

In the case of Macau, markets responded enthusiastically. In 2005, the city’s casinos generated $5.9 billion in gaming revenue, and by 2018, the industry had generated $37.9 billion.

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Crystal Ball Gazing

Posted on May 16, 2019

Predicting the future of any industry has always been an inexact science. It requires an examination of historical trends, possible changes in public policy, the application of a variety of macro-economic theories, the unlikely entry of a disruption industry that could emerge as a worthy competitor, and a substantial amount of guesswork.

The problem is, when it comes to Macau, more often than not the soothsayers have been unable to predict the future.

When predictions are made, word spreads quickly. The number of media outlets devoted to the casino industry has increased and amplified the distribution of news. Casinos are now part of
the 24-hour news cycle; the industry has its own forums, dedicated writers and avid readership.

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10 Trends – Rating the Rising Sun

Posted on November 25, 2018

Japan may look like it will be a sleeping giant in 2019, but the upcoming year may prove to be the most critical year in Japan’s march toward integrated resort development. Japan took a major step forward this year with the passage of the IR Implementation Bill and the Basic Bill on Gambling Addictions Countermeasures.

Next year will be one of the more critical years in the process as Japan contemplates the largest land-based gaming opportunity since Singapore in the mid-2000s. While outside observers may not see significant progress, a regulatory framework will be established in 2019 that will likely include more than 300 regulations. These regulations will determine the true market potential and scope of Japan’s three integrated resorts.

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New York State of Mind: What happened to the state’s casinos?

Posted on October 25, 2018

For decades, casino operators viewed the potential for casinos in the Catskills region of New York as the mother lode of gaming development.

The region’s proximity to the New York City metropolitan area and its history as a vacation destination made it a near ideal location for casino development. State legislators also saw casinos in upstate New York, a region that has had difficulty recovering from the loss of a host of manufacturing industries, not only as a tool for economic development, but tax revenue.

In 2013, the New York state legislature passed the Upstate New York Economic Development Act, which provided the legal framework for commercial casinos in the state. The act went into effect on January 1, 2014. When signing the bill, Governor Andrew Cuomo stated, “This new law will bring the state one step closer to establishing world-class destination gaming resorts that will attract tourists to upstate New York and support thousands of good-paying jobs as well as new revenue for local businesses. For too many years, gaming revenue has left New York for our neighboring states.”

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Vietnam’s Strip: The central coast of Vietnam is likely to become the next region with multiple destination casinos and integrated resorts

Posted on September 17, 2018

The Strip” has long been a popular term in the casino industry. Originally used to describe Las Vegas Boulevard from Sahara Avenue south to Russell Road, the term was adopted to describe clusters of casinos and hotels in other jurisdictions including the Cotai Strip in Macau and, most recently, for a proposed multi-property development called the Osaka Strip in Osaka, Japan.

While the latter development remains a possibility, a new strip of hotels, resorts and casinos is quickly emerging on the central coast of Vietnam, in and around Da Nang: the Central Coast Strip, stretching from Hoi An to Hue.

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