Trends, News & Interesting Reads

The popular casino-robbery movie Ocean's 11 notwithstanding, security at Vegas casinos is the toughest in the world. Since the earliest days of casino entertainment, the casinos have been on their toes in their efforts to keep their players’ funds safe and their own cash guarded. The brick-and-mortar casinos acknowledge that, in order to keep worried players from moving to the online casino, they have to be on top of the latest security innovations in order to make their patrons feel protected and secure in their gambling endeavors.

This year gaming developers have been putting a lot of energy into the development of new slot machines for land-based casino entertainment and online casino gambling. Slots are the most popular game at any casino and players now have access to dozens of new slot machines with many of the top slots offered at our very own Grande Vegas Casino. 

On May 14^th of this year the United States Supreme Court handed down its ruling that allowed for live sports betting and online casino sports betting in states that legislate for the activity. To date, Nevada, Delaware, Montana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Oregon have either passed recent sports betting enabling laws or have activated existing laws to allow sports betting in their locales.

Playing games has never been as popular as it is in 2018. Today, video console, live casino and online casino players have more options than ever with console video games, online casino gaming, sports betting, land-based casinos, smartphone games and much more. There are single-player games, multi-player games, virtual games and games that bring together competitors from around the world. Gaming conventions and shows highlight all the best in the gaming world. Some of the best 2018’s best gaming tradeshows include:

Now that casino gambling is set to be an irrevocable part of the Japanese landscape, the country is starting to come to grips with the nuts and bolts of how the industry will begin to integrate into Japan. Japan is seen as a lucrative market by international casino companies who believe that the three approved Integrated Resorts will succeed in pulling in foreign travelers as well as large numbers of locals. At this point the Japanese casinos will offer live casino entertainment but will not provide online casino gambling. 

A debate is brewing in Nevada over whether there’s enough oversight via existing federal harassment rules to prevent sexual harassment in the states’ casinos or whether additional regulations need to be created. It’s no secret that the live casinos have more than their fair share of harassment complaints (while no such issues exist with the online casino), both from staff being harassed by customers and by their own supervisors and by the customers who contend with harassment from other patrons.

The WV Lottery Commission is encouraged by the trend which shows the number and level of wagers rising from week to week. The majority of the action took place at West Virginia’s newest casino, the Hollywood Casino, located at the Charles Town Racetrack.  

The first week’s wagers totaled $457,788 and the amount rose to over $1 million in the 2^nd week and reached almost $2 during the 3^rd week. No data is available to indicate how the numbers break down between the sportsbooks or across individual sports.

The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that states can legislate online casino and live casino sports betting but that doesn’t mean that Congress is turning the field over the states’ legislators totally. In an attempt to place some kind of federal oversight on the new opportunities that sports wagering offers, the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigation is considering ways to limit the states’ independence on gambling issues.

Earnings reports for the second quarter of 2018 weren’t encouraging for Vegas-based online casino and live casino operators. Both MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment reported soft numbers for the period encompassing April, May and June and indications are that the third quarter won’t be much better.

Across Vegas, operators reported declines in their revenue per available room (RevPAR) profits. RevPAR is the most commonly-used metric to assess profitability of Vegas casinos. The second quarter RevPAR showed a 4% decrease in overall Strip occupancy, a 1% decrease in overall visitation and room occupancy and a 3% decrease in convention attendance – of particular concern since convention guests spend significantly more on dining and rooms, even though they tend to spend less time on the gaming floors than other guests. 

Gambling is permitted in all Canadian provinces. The provincial Gambling Corporations control the lotteries, land-based casinos and online casino gaming based on their individual province’s laws and regulations. The variety of casino offerings differs from one province to the next – some provinces offer brick-and-mortar casinos, lotteries, online casino activity, racetracks and other gaming organizations while others feature a more limited menu of gambling options.