Author: Casino Connection Staff

Unlicensed, unregulated so-called “skill games” in non-casino locations across Pennsylvania are hurting demand for casino slot machines, two casino executives told the state Gaming Control Board.

Two Mount Airy casino executives testified at a gaming board hearing that the unlicensed machines, estimated at more than 20,000 in Pennsylvania and located in pizza parlors, convenience stores and other non-casino locations, are a major reason Mount Airy has eliminated 130 older and less-used slot machines.

Mount Airy COO Frank Leone told the board the cost to casino slot revenues due to unregulated machines in the state “can range from $20,000 to $50,000 across the commonwealth,” according to the Play Pennsylvania website. “There’s no question in my mind it has a negative impact on land-based slot revenue.”

Mount Airy is one of four Pennsylvania casinos that have requested approval this year to remove machines from slot floors.

While there have been pledges from the legislature to ban the unregulated machines, no bill has been introduced. “There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes conversations; nothing is scheduled yet,” state Senator Wayne Fontana told Play Pennsylvania. “But the door is open. And the Republicans have their own battles (over how best to proceed with legislation). My impression though is the horse is out of the barn.”

Fontana said while there is a bipartisan consensus for “regulation and oversight” of the unlicensed games, he said regulation alone doesn’t address fairness. “I’m not sure that’s good enough. There’s a difference. I don’t know how you legalize the machines without matching the taxes.” Regulated casinos pay a total of 54 percent of slot revenues in state and local taxes.

Atlantic City’s Ocean Casino Resort has filed suit against Cordish Companies’ Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia over the promotional slogan, “Go for the win.”

Ocean is accusing Live! of engaging in unfair competition by introducing a campaign a month after Ocean launched its “Go for the Win” marketing campaign that uses a nearly identical tagline, “Let’s Go for the Win.”

According to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Camden, New Jersey, Ocean and its advertising agency spent $140,000 developing its “Go for the Win” marketing campaign, launched on June 22, and then spent more than $1.5 million to promote the campaign in the South Jersey/Philadelphia region. Less than a month later, Live! started its own campaign using the phrase.

“Indeed, Live! ran ‘Let’s Go For The Win’ on a digital sign on the Atlantic City Boardwalk just a few doors down from Ocean’s Casino Resort,” the lawsuit states, saying it did so “without the consent of Ocean as part of a deliberate plan to trade on Ocean’s Go For the Win service mark.”

Ocean is seeking a court order barring Live! from using the slogan and requiring the Philadelphia casino to destroy all marketing material carrying the slogan, as well as court costs and unspecified damages.

In other news, Ocean has added a new night spot. The $25 million Nola’s Bar & Lounge will be ready at some point in the fall.

“Over the last several months, Ocean has reinvested more than $15 million in our resort, team members and local community, including a completely reimagined gaming experience,” said Terry Glebocki, CEO of Ocean Casino Resort.

Occupying 2,800-square-feet off the casino floor, Nola’s will feature live entertainment, wooden walls, a 35-foot bar, brass and emerald touches and premium seating, according to Atlantic City Weekly.

“Nola’s will introduce a true Las Vegas-style lounge to Atlantic City,” said Warren Richards, Senior Vice President of Food & Beverage for Ocean Casino Resort. “It’s not just another bar or just another stage. Everything from the interior design to the curated entertainment lineup will make Nola’s an unmatched destination.”

Top executives of several of the largest gaming operators in the country presented optimistic outlooks for the gaming industry this year in remarks at the J.P. Morgan Gaming, Lodging Restaurant and Leisure Management Access Forum in Las Vegas last week.

Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg arrived at the conference on Tuesday, September 14, stating that pent-up demand for hospitality remains high and ample consumer savings should boost the gaming industry into next year.

Joseph Greff, gaming analyst with J.P. Morgan, reported on Reeg’s remarks in an investor note.

“Caesars expects to run 50 percent-plus (adjusted earning) margins in Las Vegas and 40 percent-plus in regionals, driving 40 percent-plus consolidated margins through the foreseeable future,” Greff said.

“Helping the Las Vegas Strip segment is the ramp-up of Caesars Forum and high-margin midweek business, which pre-Covid was a significant (adjusted margin) generator. If viewed as a single property, it was one of the largest in the portfolio.”

Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith and CFO Josh Hirsberg at the conference the same day , with similar optimism “Boyd described the regional gaming consumer as resilient and ‘amazingly consistent,’ with minimal impact seen from mask mandates and higher Covid-19 new-case trends,” Greff said. Downtown Las Vegas, however, has been a bit more challenging, given the segment’s reliance on Hawaii travel, he added.

Similar to other casino operators, Boyd management said it is seeing spend-per-customer tracking above 2019. “The database today is intentionally different from pre-Covid, with no marketing to the lower end of the database,” Greff said. “From a demographic standpoint, the 55-plus core customer is coming back, though still has room to grow toward 2019 levels.”

Two other speakers Tuesday were Gaming & Leisure Properties CEO Peter Carlino and CIO Matthew Demchyk. GLPI will sell Tropicana Las Vegas to Bally’s Corp. for $308 million in a deal expected to close by early 2022 at the latest.

“The company sees ample white space with its existing tenant base in regional markets, noting that its newest tenant, Bally’s, remains very active,” Greff said. “The key driver of deals for GLPI is the spread to its cost of capital, so this could resemble both single-asset and portfolio transactions. While the market for gaming real estate is at the highest point ever, this still resembles a discount to traditional REIT assets.”

Meanwhile, rumor has it that MGM Resorts International may be interested in two big acquisitions: of the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas and sports betting and gaming giant Entain. But CEO Bill Hornbuckle isn’t talking… about the rumors, that is.

Speaking to analyst Joseph Greff September 13 at the JPMorgan Gaming, Lodging, Restaurant & Leisure Management Access Forum, and without specifically naming the Cosmopolitan, Hornbuckle said, “There are probably some synergies to be had there, for sure, that only we could probably unlock. I don’t want to comment on it any further than that. I do want to diversify. We have a lot of Las Vegas to begin with, but it’s a compelling asset. But time will tell.”

Cosmopolitan owner Blackstone is said to be seeking a buyer willing to ante up at least $5 billion, a figure sure to reduce the number of suitors. MGM, with a growing cash stockpile and existing relationships with Blackstone has fueled speculation that the two might make a deal.

Blackstone tried to sell the 3,000-room casino hotel in 2019 for $4 billion, but ultimately was unsuccessful. According to Bloomberg, this time around, Apollo Global is also among the interested suitors exploring a deal to purchase the Cosmopolitan. MGM operates the properties on either side of the resort, Bellagio and CityCenter.

Talk also turned to Entain, MGM’s 50/50 partner with BetMGM. Earlier this year, Entain rebuffed an $11 billion takeover offer from MGM. However, the growth of sports betting in the U.S. has led to speculation MGM will come back with another offer.

“The reality is we’re number two in the marketplace today,” Hornbuckle told Greff. “When you add it all up, we are, because we got there so quickly. And so as much as we bang ourselves in the head why we gave away half of our business, the reason we did is so that we could be in these markets, and it’s clearly been proven first to market, it has one.”

Hornbuckle did venture about other U.S. markets as far as expansion. Texas and Georgia. He scratched off Florida because the Seminoles dominate. He called Chicago complicated.

“I don’t know that you can win in Chicago based on the set of rules that we understand today,” he said.

The proposal for a Category 4 mini-casino in College Township near Pennsylvania State University has received local approval. College Township Council last week unanimously approved a land development plan for what is tentatively called Nittany Casino, at the Nittany Mall in Centre County, near State College and the Penn State campus.

The proposed casino still awaits licensing by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The casino license was won by Penn State alumnus Ira Lubert and his SC Gaming, LLC, at the first auction open to bidders outside of current casino licensees. Category 4 casinos, limited to 750 slots and 40 table games, were originally available only as satellites to current Category 1 (racino) and Category 2 (stand-alone casino) licensees. Lubert has reached a deal with Bally’s Corp. to build and operate the casino.

The casino is planned for a 94,000-square-foot building that formerly housed a Macy’s anchor store at the mall. It would include a casino, a sportsbook, a sports-themed restaurant and bar with live entertainment, and a multi-outlet food court. The construction budget is $123 million.

Under the current township ordinance for new development, 365 linear feet of new sidewalks would be required for the new property. The developer proposed 215, but also plans to add more than 1,000 feet of other pedestrian pathways as well as ADA ramps, Councilman Rich Francke noted at the approval hearing.

Caesars Entertainment recently revealed plans for its $500 million casino resort, Caesars Virginia, in Danville. Ground is expected to be broken by the end of the year with an anticipated opening in late 2023.

Caesars Entertainment President and Chief Operating Officer Anthony Carano said, “Caesars Virginia will be an economic driver for the region, both as a tourist and entertainment draw and through the more than 1,000 good-paying jobs the resort will create. The people of Danville have entrusted us to build a world-class resort, and we look forward to proving that trust was well founded with an incredible resort worthy of the iconic Caesars brand.”

Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones added, “Over the course of the last two years, myself, city council and staff have taken great care to develop plans, alongside residents and Caesars Entertainment, to create a resort that will positively impact the community through new tax revenue, jobs, partnership opportunities with local businesses and tourism dollars. We are confident that Caesars Virginia will honor the old Dan River Mills’ Schoolfield site and become a pillar of pride for Danville and its people.”

Plans for Caesars Virginia include a gaming floor with more than 1,400 slots and table games, 18-story, 500-room hotel, Caesars Sportsbook, spa, pool and fitness center, the 25-table World Series of Poker live poker room, 40,000 square feet of meeting and convention space, 2,500-seat entertainment venue, a celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay restaurant and a 4-story parking garage.

Officials said the project will create 900 construction jobs and 1,300 permanent jobs.

The three 220-foot brick smokestacks, known as the Three Sisters, remaining from the original Dan Rivers plant have been preserved, said Dave Howryla, president of architecture at architects Marnell Companies. “The Three Sisters are the best element on the site, and everything is based on them. They will be cleaned up and they will be the focal point,” he said.

In a referendum in 2020, Danville voters overwhelmingly voted to allow casino gambling in five cities. Voters also passed referendums in Bristol, partnering with Hard Rock International; Portsmouth, partnering with Rush Street Gaming; and Norfolk, partnering with the Pamunkey Indian Tribe. A referendum has yet to be held in Richmond.

The Iowa Greyhound Park in Dubuque has announced plans for a final, shortened season in 2022.

General Manager and Director of Racing Brian Carpenter said the season would last 30 to 60 days compared to 112 racing days this year. But even that may not be possible, he stated, because dogs that raced in Dubuque also competed at tracks in Florida; however, in 2018, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment to end greyhound racing at the end of the 2020 season. That upset the industry and has led to a dramatic decrease in greyhound breeding, Carpenter said. “We don’t know if we will get enough dogs,” he commented.

In addition, Iowa Greyhound Park has been able to survive thanks to subsidies going back to 2014, when Dubuque’s Mystique Casino & Resort, now Q Casino and Hotel, and the casino in Council Bluffs reached a settlement allowing the casinos to sever ties with the greyhound industry. Under this deal, Council Bluffs agreed to pay an annual subsidy of $4.6 million to Iowa Greyhound Park through 2022 and Q Casino agreed to pay a yearly subsidy of $500,000 through 2021.

Carpenter said these subsidies have allowed the park, which opened in 1985, to operate in the black. “We never did make it to a point where we could survive on our own. We were heading in the right direction. Every year we were going up. But we were not where we needed to be. We just ran out of time. We lasted longer than most people expected we would,” Carpenter stated.

In a 33-page motion, attorneys for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Julie Brown recently argued U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor should dismiss a lawsuit filed by two parimutuels challenging the new 30-year Seminole Compact. Tribal attorneys filed court documents seeking dismissal of the case on the same day.

Owners of the parimutuels Magic City Casino in Miami-Dade County and Bonita Springs Poker Room in Southwest Florida filed the lawsuit in July. Under the compact, the Seminole Tribe can operate sports betting, with wagers run through servers on tribal property and bettors located anywhere in the state. The tribe would contract with parimutuels to help market sports betting, which would generate some revenue for the parimutuels, DeSantis administration attorneys said.

In their motion to dismiss, DeSantis administration attorneys noted parimutuels do not have legal standing to challenge the compact because they have not shown that they would be harmed. The motion stated, “To satisfy the fundamental requirements of standing, plaintiffs must allege a concrete and particularized injury caused by the defendants−one which affects each plaintiff in an individual way and which is real, and not abstract, hypothetical or speculative. Plaintiffs acknowledge that they have the option to participate in the online sports betting component by marketing the tribe’s sportsbook and receiving 60 percent of the profit.”

However, in an amended version of the lawsuit filed in August, the parimutuels noted, “The 2021 compact will significantly harm plaintiffs’ businesses by introducing online gaming into Florida and granting the tribe the exclusive right to engage in it. As a result, anyone physically located in Florida, including plaintiffs’ customers, will be able to engage in sports betting online with the tribe from their home or from any Florida location where they have access to an internet connection. This approval will therefore have a significant and potentially devastating competitive impact on plaintiffs and the brick-and-mortar businesses who depend for their profits on individuals coming into their businesses to engage in gaming activities.”

The lawsuit also alleges the sports-betting portion of the compact violates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act because bets would be placed by people off tribal lands. The lawsuit stated, “The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act restricts tribal gaming to ‘Indian lands,’ which are either Indian reservations or lands held in trust by the United States for the benefit of a federally recognized Indian tribe. Importantly, the IGRA does not authorize tribal gaming outside of Indian lands unless there is an applicable exception. No exception applies here.”

The DeSantis administration attorneys disagreed with that interpretation of the IGRA. In their motion, they wrote, “Plaintiffs contend that Indian tribes are never permitted to offer gaming activities to patrons who are physically located off their Indian lands. This is not so.” They noted the U.S. Department of the Interior approved the Seminole Compact in August. The parimutuel owners filed a separate lawsuit in Washington, D.C., against the Interior Department and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

Under the 30-year deal, the Seminoles will pay Florida about $20 billion, including $2.5 billion over the first five years. The compact also allows the tribe to offer roulette and craps at their casinos.

The longstanding feud between a powerful Nevada casino company and an influential casino workers’ union shows no signs of abatement after more than 20 years.

According to the Nevada Independent, tension continues to simmer between the Culinary Workers Local 226 and locals casino company Red Rock Resorts, which operates Station Casinos.

In recent elections, a number of Democratic candidates wooed the Culinary Union, including presidential candidate Joe Biden, who told union members, “Folks, I promise you one thing. If I end up being your president you will never ever, ever have in American history someone who is more pro-labor in the White House than Joe Biden.” California Senator Kamala Harris, then seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, also came out in support of the union, and said she wrote a letter to Red Rock CEO Frank Fertitta III saying she wouldn’t support a bill to give Red Rock a tax break. Harris also said the company should sign a collective bargaining agreement with the unions for about 13,000 non-gaming hospitality and restaurant employees at 10 Southern Nevada properties.

“What they’ve been doing at Station Casinos is wrong. I applaud your leadership,” Harris told the union members. Others who stood in line for union support were Senator Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. Ultimately the union did not throw its support to any candidate.

At issue is Culinary’s inability, with its affiliated Bartenders Local 165, to negotiate a contract with Station Casinos, even though the union won six of seven elections at Station properties between 2016 and 2019.

Per the Independent, in July a federal judge in Las Vegas ruled Station Casinos management interfered with a vote at the Red Rock Casino in Summerlin on a new incentives and benefits package for employees. The judge ordered the company to negotiate a union contract covering more than 1,350 non-gaming employees.

In a statement to the newspaper, Red Rock said it “respectfully disagrees with the district court’s decision granting a temporary injunction and has appealed the ruling. The decision, which negates the clear vote of the Red Rock team members rejecting the Culinary Union, appears to have been based on a misunderstanding of the procedural background and, worse, appears to have accepted the argument that Red Rock team members and the Red Rock property should be punished because Station Casinos treated its team members too well.

“Station Casinos does not believe it is correct or consistent with the purpose and stated mission of the National Labor Relations Act to punish Station Casinos and its team members for providing best-in-class benefits to team members based on a dubious theory that doing so ‘undermines’ the union,” the company added.

In April, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) shot down 2020 union decertification efforts at Palace Station and Boulder Station, saying the company unlawfully encouraged employees to circulate and sign petitions seeking to end union representation.

As part of that case, an administrative law judge in August said CEO Frank Fertitta III and his brother, company Vice Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta, would have to answer questions about allegations that Station Casinos tried to “undercut labor organizing efforts.” The company is also appealing the order.

“Station Casinos believes that the attempts to depose Frank Fertitta and Lorenzo Fertitta are just another chapter in the Culinary Union’s decades-long campaign of harassment of Station Casinos and its principals, this time with the willing assistance of Region 28 of the NLRB,” the company said.

Earlier this year, Red Rock came out against the so-called “Right to Return” bill, which guarantees that casino workers laid off during the pandemic the right to return to their jobs.

Most casinos have reopened, but Red Rock has kept four of its properties closed: the Fiesta Henderson, the Fiesta North Las Vegas, Texas Station in and the Palms. The latter is being sold to Southern California’s San Manuel Indian Tribe for $650 million. Currently, Red Rock is pursuing a new casino development in southwest Las Vegas—a plan the Culinary Union hopes to quash “To approve another casino when three are still closed after a year is ludicrous,” said union representative D. Taylor.

“What’s the endgame? One side gives up,” said Bill Werner, an associate professor at UNLV’s Harrah College of Hospitality and a former casino industry in-house counsel.

“For Station Casinos, the end game is the union goes away and their employees don’t want a union anymore,” Werner said. “I don’t see that happening because the Culinary is very good at maintaining its momentum.” Labor law scholars say they are not surprised the hostilities have dragged on for more than 20 years.

The Culinary has shown it won’t back down, having taken part in the nation’s longest-ever workers strike over a contract dispute, from September 1991 until February 1998 at the Frontier Hotel on the Strip.

“One thing this union has shown is staying power,” said Ruben Garcia, a professor at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law. “The law favors a lot of processes and favors a lot of time. Legally, both sides are required to bargain in good faith. But the sides can also appeal. That is what is going on now. … They could just do this forever.”

Endeavor Properties, an investor group led by Roy Arnold, former president of Arlington International Racecourse, bid more than $120 million to purchase the 326-acre racetrack property in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

But Arnold said he hasn’t heard from Churchill Downs, the track’s owner, in more than a month. Endeavor is one of three finalists interested in buying the track.

Arnold said he believes Churchill Downs may choose another bidder, possibly the Chicago Bears, meaning racing at Arlington would come to an end. “My only conclusion is that they are motivated by the desire to limit competition. This is about protecting Rivers Casino,” Arnold stated.

Observers said Churchill Down’s ownership in Rivers Casino in Des Plaines is the reason why it’s shutting down Arlington Park, which will commemorate its last race with a huge fireworks show on September 25, officials said. The Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association even has asked Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office to investigate potential anti-competitive or antitrust violations by Churchill Downs.

The company refused to seek a casino gambling license for the track, after years of lobbying lawmakers to allow a casino at the track. It also did not get authorization to hold racing at Arlington next year. ITHA President Mike Campbell said those actions clearly were meant to stop any future owner from operating horseracing or gambling at the track, to avoid competition with Rivers Casino.

In 2018, Churchill Downs became majority owner of Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, located 20 minutes from the racetrack. Afterwards, Churchill Downs said it would not operate gambling at Arlington because it could make more money from Rivers casino gambling and not have to fund purses for the horseraces.

Following the Bears’ June announcement that it had submitted a bid to buy the racetrack, Rivers Casino announced it reached an exclusive deal to partner with the team on casino gaming and sports betting. Observers thought that suggested the Bears’ bid could be the winner to buy the racetrack.

Arnold said his team’s proposal would include an ice hockey arena, potentially for a minor league team, plus senior housing, condominiums and apartments, an entertainment district with retail and restaurants. Other bidders include Chicago real estate developer Glenstar Properties and UrbanStreet Group in Schaumburg, which also would build a mixed-use development.

Churchill Downs officials issued a statement: “There was strong interest by many qualified bidders to purchase the property, and our team continues to work through the sale process. In order to preserve the integrity of that process, we have executed confidentiality agreements with each bidder, and we intend to uphold our obligations under those agreements. As such, we will not comment on any negotiations or speculation by others. CDI will provide an update on the sale process at the appropriate time.”

In early June, Churchill Downs said it would announce the winning bidder within a few weeks. However, no announcement has been made yet.

The Indiana Gaming Commission recently released figures showing the Hard Rock Northern Indiana in Gary, opened May 14, once again moved ahead of Horseshoe Casino in table game play for the second consecutive month in August. Horseshoe, however, held onto its top statewide position for total win.

According to the IGC, in August Hard Rock gamblers played $42.3 million on table games−more than any other Indiana casino and just slightly below the combined table games drop at the five southern Indiana casinos located on the Ohio River. Players wagered $23.4 million on baccarat, or 55 percent of table game play

Matt Schuffert, president at Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, said, “We are very happy with our August results. Despite August typically being a slower month than July, we surpassed $30 million in gaming revenue and have clearly become the overall table-games leader in the state of Indiana, led by our strong baccarat play.”

The IGC said Horseshoe, located in Hammond, collected $8.4 million in August table-game win, including $2.8 million in blackjack win on $11 million in blackjack play, which led the state. Hard Rock’s blackjack win was $1.9 million on play of $9.1 million.

Horseshoe also surpassed Hard Rock in slot machine play and win in August, although Hard Rock had 11.5 percent more win per slot machine compared to Horseshoe, IGC records show. In August, Horseshoe gamblers played $248.2 million in the casino’s 1,974 slots, generating $24.9 million in win for the casino.

Meanwhile, Hard Rock came in third in the state for August slot play with $209.1 million and win of $20.9 million on its 1,448 machines. Second-place went to Indiana Grand with $221.5 million in play on 1,595 slot machines and win of $23.5 million.

In total, in August, the four Northwest Indiana casinos produced 46.4 percent of the state’s $209.3 million combined win from its 12 casinos, with Horseshoe in the lead with $33.3 million, Hard Rock at $30.2 million, East Chicago’s Ameristar Casino with $21.5 million and the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City at $12.1 million.

Also in August, Indiana casino sportsbooks reported $215.6 million in total sports wagers, mostly on baseball and multiple sport parlay bets. That was a 10.9 increase compared to July sports betting handle of $194.5 million and a 27.6 percent rise in wagers on Indiana professional and collegiate sports.

Downtown Las Vegas casinos experienced increased foot traffic in August, bucking a national trend of less foot traffic due to the lingering Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report from Jeffries Equities Research.

According to the report, national foot traffic in casinos and casino districts was down 18 percent in August, as compared to July. Foot traffic on the Las Vegas Strip was down 24 percent compared to July, and 26 percent compared to July 2019, mirroring the national foot traffic dip. In Downtown Las Vegas, though, foot traffic volume was up 10 percent compared to July, and 10 percent over August 2019.

Downtown Las Vegas registered $71.2 million in gaming revenue in July, down from $79 million in June when an all-time record was set. The July numbers, however, were 35.5 percent higher than 2019. Analysts speculate the opening of the Circa Resort in October boosted the district’s overall numbers.

Two new Missouri gambling-related laws, affecting the state lottery and riverboat casinos, took effect Sunday, September 5.

Missouri lottery winners now will be able to remain anonymous. Until now, the lottery posted the names of large prize winners on its website. The new law prohibits the State Lottery Commission, any lottery employee and any organization working with the lottery from publishing any identifying information about a lottery winner without his or her consent. The legislation moved through the Senate and House this spring with no dissenting votes.

The law is designed to protect prize winners from harassment, since over the years several winners have had strangers contact them in an attempt to get money. State Senator Angela Molsey said, “Individuals should have the choice to disclose their identity as they navigate this life-changing event and tackle the unexpected challenges they may encounter.” She sponsored the measure along with her husband, state Rep. Jay Mosley.

Future lottery winners may applaud the move but Missouri Lottery Director May Scheve said not publicizing them could affect sales. She said, “To talk about winners is a great way to advertise. It takes a tool out of our toolbox. Scheve noted Missouri now is the only state to criminalize the publication of a winner’s name. “It is one of the most stringent pieces of legislation passed in the country by making it a Class A misdemeanor.” She added, “Integrity is everything to the Missouri Lottery. We feel that, in the players’ eyes, we’ll lose that transparency.”

The Missouri Press Association agreed. In testimony, Doug Crews, former executive director of the organization said, “Keeping names of lottery winners open promotes transparency and a feeling of fairness in the operation of the Missouri Lottery. Publishing the winners’ names is good for the entire lottery system. Revealing lottery winners’ names builds trust and excitement, which drives ticket sales.”

In other gambling law, Missouri casinos may now become non-floating, with certain stipulations. They must be located within 1,000 feet of either the Missouri or Mississippi River. Also, according to Missouri Gaming Commission Chairman Mike Leara, “Now, they still have to maintain 2,000 gallons of Mississippi or Missouri river water in or about on the facility. So not necessarily under the gaming floor, which makes it much easier for these facilities to maintain their gaming floor.”

This could allow casinos to expand in size, however, under law the total number of licenses granted by the state remains at the current 13. Leara noted, “Lake of the Ozarks or Springfield, Missouri, something like that, I just don’t see that viable without a change in the constitution, or at a minimum, statutes expanding the number of licenses.”

After scratching the live event last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 World Series of Poker tournament and $10,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em World Championship return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for live games.

But all attendees will need to show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus. The tournament runs from September 30 to November 23.

“This is not a decision we have taken lightly—it is made with no agenda beyond protecting player eligibility and the operations of a unique televised gaming event,” said Ty Stewart, WSOP executive director. “We want players to be excited for their return to the WSOP, while offering the greatest level of protection and limiting complications during the tournament this fall.”

The WSOP will also provide the ability to verify alternate documents including physical vaccination cards, and state or country-specific health passes. Players must receive their final vaccine no later than 14 days before the tournament begins.

In addition, attendees and employees have to wear masks. If exposed to someone who tested positive, an attendee must quarantine before leaving the venue.