Author: Casino Connection Staff

On April 15, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed a sports betting bill and expansion of tribal gaming that will be one of the most comprehensive in any state in decades.

The bill Ducey signed will allow for the expansion of tribal casinos and additional table games, including baccarat, roulette, craps, pai gow, and keno— balanced by off-reservation sports betting, fantasy sports and keno.

Part of the deal is a new 20-year compact Ducey negotiated with the tribes that will allow as many as 11 new tribal casinos. The total number of slot machines could rise from its current 15,600 to a maximum of 20,500.

The sports betting bill was passed despite an apparent logjam due to old fashioned political horse-trading.

The bill’s sponsor Senator T.J. Shope had to balance the interests of the state’s gaming tribes, the professional sports leagues and the racetracks, and even bars and restaurants that wanted a piece of the action. Eventually the bars and restaurants had to settle for nothing while the racetracks got the consolation prize of money for larger purses, but not what they had sought: historical racing machines.

At the end he commented: “It’s one of those things where everybody is happy in many respects and not in other respects. But at the end of the day, it helps Arizona.”

Senator Shope had to maneuver his bill against a competing sports betting bill that also included historical horseracing machines, which were a poison pill as far as the gaming tribes were concerned because they too closely resemble slot machines—for which the tribes have insisted on a monopoly. Any bill without the tribes was DOA.

Shope talked to the competing bill’s sponsor, who was also the chairman of the Senate appropriations committee, Dave Gowan. As Shope described it to CDC Gaming Reports: “The issue in the Senate was over historic horse racing, and while I knew the appropriations chairman was coming from a good place and was genuinely trying to help, he knew I had over 20 votes, which is over two-thirds of the membership.”

That closed door conversation led to Shope’s bill moving forward. “It was never a vote problem, the votes were always there to pass the thing. It became more of a turf battle between myself and the appropriations chair, and the racetracks and all the other entities that were at the table,” said Shope.

Eventually the tribes and the non-tribal interests such as professional sports, reached a compromise. “We were kind of boxed in, but the tribes wanted to go full Vegas-style with their casinos and had to change the compact anyway, so there was some teamwork that needed to be hatched,” said Shope.

The tribes needed to give in on a total monopoly on gaming because they wanted to expand the games they could offer to include roulette and craps, but more importantly, to expand off the reservation to build casinos in the metro Phoenix area. In return, they had to concede sports betting to the racetracks and professional sports teams. The racetracks (and fraternal organizations) also got betting on fantasy sports and Keno.

The racetracks didn’t make out so good because they and the tribes have a history. In 2002 when the tribes went to the ballot box to authorize casino gaming in the state, the racetracks put up a competing initiative. The tribes have not forgotten. In addition, the tribe had been negotiating with Governor Ducey for multiple years to update their 20-year compacts, whereas the racetracks were, so to speak, late out of the gate.

Shope added, “The racetracks weren’t the only ones who came in late. We got to a point where every bar in the state wanted a license of some sort.” They too were too late.

Shope also got the assistance of former Arizona Coyotes captain Shane Doan who stopped by the Senate and lobbied individual senators.

An opponent of the bill, Senator Sally Gonzales, who is also a member of the Yaqui Tribe, opposed the bill, while admitting, “The tribes do want it and they’ve asked our leaders to vote for it, but you know how they’re doing it. With their hands behind their backs. Because they need and want a new compact and the governor is holding this legislation to pass before he signs a new compact with them.”

Even before the governor signed the bill, DraftKings expanded on its deal with the PGA Tour by announcing it would open a retail sportsbook at the golf club TPC Scottsdale. DraftKings plans to create a “19^th hole” retail location at the club.

DraftKings Chief Business Officer Ezra Kucharz hailed the agreement: “This momentous effort to pursue a first-of-its-kind sportsbook with the PGA Tour is a testament to the vision of both organizations that we believe will ultimately benefit Arizona sports fans who want to legally bet on sports.”

DraftKings will also become the exclusive sportsbook partner of the Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament, which is played at TPC Scottsdale. The tribes got 10 sports betting licenses, with the professional sports teams such as the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Arizona Cardinals also getting 10.

The pro licenses are limited to stadiums that seat at least 10,000, which can include hosts of PGA golfing events or auto racing events, such as the Phoenix Raceway.

The tribal licenses will have to be shared out between the 16 tribes that operate 25 casinos in the state.

All 20 license holders will also be able to offer mobile sports betting. Bettors will be able to register remotely to use these sites.

The license holders are likely to work with national providers such as FanDuel and DraftKings, MGM’s BetMGM, William Hill, PointsBet, Penn Interactive (Barstool) and FOX Bet Sportsbook.

Also legalized by the bill is betting on fantasy sports, which will be limited to the racetracks and fraternal organizations such as the VFW. Fantasy sports may also be hosted by individuals if the contests aren’t open to the general public and are limited to 15 participants. These wagers will be taxed at 8 percent.

Sports betting is likely to start by the end of the year. The delay is imposed by the fact that the U.S. Department of the Interior must approve of the changes to the state tribal gaming compacts—which are separate from the enabling legislation.

It is unknown how much money the state will take in annually in new taxes on these legalized activities, but one sponsor claims it could be more than $100 million. Sports wagers will be taxed at 8 percent. Revenue from that is projected to be about $4.1 million.

However it is estimated that an estimated $3 billion a year is bet in the Arizona underground economy.

Friday, May 14 is the date set for the grand opening of the new $300 million Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana in Gary. But the 37-foot tall, 15-foot wide guitar that will welcome visitors is already up and illuminated.

The guitar is modeled on a 1965 Airline Town and Country guitar owned by onetime Gary resident Joe Jackson, patriarch of the Jackson 5. Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana President Matt Schuffert said, “This is the guitar that changed the world.”

Giovanni Taliaferro, director of memorabilia design for Hard Rock International, explained the back story of the guitar. “It was a prize possession of Joe’s and he had strict rules: No one was to touch his guitar. Well, the kids didn’t listen. Tito picked up the guitar and just started playing it, and he kept playing it, and he kept playing it. At the same time, Jermaine and Jackie stood up and started singing. And he’s like, ‘Wow, there’s something here.'”

Jackson’s actual guitar will have a place of honor inside the new 200,000-square-foot venue, plus other memorabilia from the Jacksons—including Michael Jackson’s iconic jacket from the “Beat It” video–and other musical performers and groups with ties to Gary, Northwest Indiana and Chicago. Taliaferro said, “This is THE guitar. I was just in Los Angeles and picked it up from Tito. And I want to thank the entire Jackson family for entrusting us with preserving and showcasing this precious artifact in their hometown of Gary, Indiana.”

From the outside, the Hard Rock looks as if it’s finished, but Schuffert said they’re down to the interior details. The facility will offer a casino with 1,650 slots and 80 table games, a sportsbook, five dining options, a Hard Rock Cafe, a Rock Shop and a 2,000-seat Hard Rock Live performance venue.

Several Jackson family members attended the groundbreaking in January 2020 for the casino, which will be the first land-based gaming facility in Northwest Indiana, replacing the Majestic Star Casino on Lake Michigan, which permanently closed April 18.

Under state law, Majestic Star employees are guaranteed jobs at the Hard Rock Casino. Schuffert commented, “As Majestic Star winds down their operations there, and really celebrates a great legacy over there, we’re looking forward to bringing that team over here and really putting together one big, great team.”

Schuffert said patrons used to visiting the Majestic Star or other Northwest Indiana casinos will be pleasantly surprised when they enter the Hard Rock for the first time. “It’s just a beautiful facility, it’s hard to put into words. I just can’t wait for people to see it for themselves,” he said.

Iowa-based Elite Casino Resorts will develop a $100 million casino complex at Fonner Park in Grand Island, Nebraska.

The budget includes $45 million for new construction and about $3.5 million for upgrades to the existing Fonner Park. Plans include a casino with 650 slot machines and 20 table games, VIP lounge, sportsbook, restaurants and show lounge, plus a 116-room boutique hotel with indoor and outdoor pools, spa and salon. Officials at Elite, operators of casinos in Iowa City, Davenport and Larchwood, Iowa, said the project would create 400 new jobs.

Fonner Park Chief Executive Officer Chris Kotulak said, “I had an image in my mind, both architecturally, operationally and a mindset of what I thought would be a good fit for Fonner Park and Grand Island. Elite Casino Resorts quickly rose to the top among our impressive list of candidates.” Nine companies submitted proposals to operate the casino, including “the biggest of the big” and “the smallest of the small,” Kotulak said, adding the selection process involved many meetings and “a lot of travel,” Kotulak said.

Elite Casino Resorts Chief Executive Officer Dan Kehl said the company will build a “big, beautiful resort with first-class amenities that should make Grand Island and Fonner Park proud.” He said the new casino resort will reimagine Fonner Park and reinvigorate the “iconic property,” built in 1954. “We have spent more than 30 years building a business in towns your size, and it’s in our wheelhouse. We’re so excited about this partnership with Fonner Park,” Kehl said.

Kehl said a temporary gaming facility will open in the Fonner Park concourse, then the hotel and casino will be constructed in a single 18-month phase. “The casino floor will have a seamless connection to the existing Fonner Park structure to guarantee guest flow between the casino, racing operations and the convention center,” he said.

Kehl stated the hotel will be “rich with amenities” and include luxury suites. He continued, “We will offer classy, fun and varied restaurant choices,” including a Grab & Go restaurant, a family dining establishment and a sports bar and grill, as well as the rooftop Ruthie’s Steak & Seafood, offering an expansive view of Grand Island.

Fonner Park’s casino is the third to be announced publicly since Nebraska voters last year approved casino gambling at the state’s horseracing tracks. In January, WarHorse Gaming, a subsidiary of the Winnebago Tribe’s Ho-Chunk Inc., unveiled plans for a $200 million casino resort at Lincoln Race Track. Expected to open next year, it will include 1,200 gaming stations, spa, restaurant, bars and conference and event space plus a 196-room hotel.

WarHorse also announced a $200 million casino at Horsemen’s Park in Omaha. It has yet to officially announce a casino at Atokad in South Sioux City.

On March 21, Jason Guyot, a nearly two-decade veteran of Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino, was officially instated as president and CEO. He had held the position on an interim basis for nearly a year.

The historic appointment made Guyot the first member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation to be elevated to the job. He replaced former CEO John James, who resigned in April 2020 after eight months on the job. James departed shortly after the resort closed, with thousands of workers furloughed. James, in turn, had replaced 65-year-old Felix Rappaport, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack in June 2018, four years after becoming president and CEO.

Speaking to GGB News about his new role, Guyot said, “It means everything to me.”

Though he took the reins at the start of the Covid-19 shutdown, Guyot said, “The timing was right. It was something I’d been working for my entire career. And it holds extra weight, because I don’t just head this tremendous enterprise, but the future of the tribe. It is of the utmost importance, because it’s all about the future of the tribal nation.”

One Road, Many Paths

Despite Guyot’s longevity with the tribal enterprise, it wasn’t always his goal to occupy the CEO’s chair.

“It was not,” he told GGB. “My first exposure to the enterprise was in the mid-1990s, as a bellhop. Then I started out my career at Foxwoods in 2003, as a manager of employment and diversity after graduating from college. I thought I was going to be in social services but ended up in employment services, and worked my way up from there.”

Guyot benefited from exposure to many aspects of the business. “I ended up in human resources and behavioral science, and continued to move my way up the organization. In 2007, I was offered the opportunity to move to operations and to oversee the opening of Fox Tower. I fell in love with operations.”

His position as senior VP of resort operations gave him “a wealth of experience. I tried to take advantage of everything that came my way, from overseeing property management to resorts sales and development. I’ve had a well-rounded experience in hospitality, thanks to the opportunity.”

Comeback Trail

As the U.S. gaming industry reopens after the Covid pandemic, Guyot is charting a path for Foxwoods to come back strong. “The pandemic in general has really been a challenging time for all businesses and all people, and coming out of it has been a lot of learning—learning what’s more efficient, what’s best for the guest.

“I took over in April 2020, in some of the most difficult times for this operation. We looked at every aspect to be more profitable and engage the workforce. We learned there were different ways to do things, and I think we’ll all benefit as we move into the future.”

That future includes sports betting and online gaming, thanks to a deal recently struck between Connecticut’s gaming tribes and Governor Ned Lamont.

“We’re thrilled to have that landmark agreement; it’s an historical moment for us as an organization and as a tribal nation,” said Guyot. “A lot of things need to happen to get it through the legislature, but we want to get sports betting up by fall, in time for the NFL season. That would be the goal.”

While some people believe the onset of iGaming could siphon business from the brick-and-mortar operation, Guyot isn’t unduly concerned. “What we’ve seen from other jurisdictions is that it’s an incremental thing; individuals still want to experience live entertainment and stay at hotels.”

New Frontiers

Other frontiers for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation lie outside the continental U.S. and abroad. In January, the Pequots announced a partnership with LionGrove LLC, a private equity firm, to reopen the El San Juan Casino in Puerto Rico at the old Fairmont Hotel (l.). The tribe will invest $12.5 million in the venture and rebrand the property as the Foxwoods El San Juan.

“That’s expected to open in November of this year,” Guyot said. “We have a team down there working hard to get it up and running. The hotel is already open; the casino will be open later this year.”

In addition to Puerto Rico, Foxwoods is looking at Japan, which legalized integrated resorts with gaming in 2016 and will license three IRs in the first round of liberalization.

“We continue to look into new opportunities outside the U.S. and domestically,” said Guyot. “We want to expand the brand. We’re the first tribal casino in the U.S. There was Las Vegas and Atlantic City and then Foxwoods. That still resonates. That’s still important to us and speaks to the iconic brand of Foxwoods.”

‘Right Leader, Right Vision’

Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler praised Guyot for steering the company through one of the most turbulent periods in its history, calling his appointment “a special milestone for Foxwoods as well as our tribal family. What Jason has done over the past 12 months has been remarkable, taking the helm of Foxwoods at the onset of the pandemic, building safety guidelines from the ground up to ensure guests feel safe, and championing a new kind of culture for our team members.

“Jason Guyot is the right leader with the right vision to drive Foxwoods through its next phase of evolution,” Butler said, “and we are equally proud that Jason is our first Pequot CEO.”

Meanwhile, business at the resort in Ledyard, Connecticut is gradually returning, and is currently at “60 to 65 percent capacity,” said Guyot. “We haven’t reopened the hotels completely, but we see a lot of pent-up demand for places where people can go and be safe. We’ve proven this is one of the safest places you can visit. We’re excited to get back to the new normal, hopefully by fall.”

Entertainment has also returned to Foxwoods’ Grand Theater. “We’ve booked four shows with Dave Chapelle at 90 percent capacity” for this summer, he said. “We’re mandating Covid rapid tests for entry. We’re definitely trying some new things so we can provide a safe experience for our guests.” Additional safety measures include enhanced contactless ticketing, mandatory face masks and a maximized ventilation system for fresh air flow.

Guyot said his new position is not “a pit stop” in his career. “I’ve been here for over 18 years. I live here. This is my home, and I’m completely invested in the success of this tribe.”

Asked his advice for young people who want to achieve at his level, Guyot said, “My goal is to offer tribal members the same opportunities I was afforded. A lot of the drive needs to come from inside, and if I can inspire that, I would feel well about the role I’ve played. You have to make a lot of sacrifices, but if you’re resilient, stay focused and expose yourself to uncomfortable situations, you’ll be more well-rounded. You’ll be comfortable leading anything at the drop of the hat.

“You never know how you’re going to be called upon,” Guyot said. “The more you challenge yourself, the better off you’ll be in general—and not just at this organization.”

A process leading to the eventual licensing of three casinos in the greater New York City region has made its way into the state’s budget for the upcoming year.

A key provision of the 2021-22 spending plan calls for creation of a community advisory board to examine locations and review prospective operators for a casino in Manhattan, which is considered the big prize in a downstate market extending from the lower Hudson Valley to Long Island and where legislation passed in 2013 provides for the licenses to be awarded beginning in 2023.

The board will consist of 20 unpaid members, five each appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. They would appoint the other five members.

Both Stewart-Cousins and Heastie represent districts in the region: Westchester and the Bronx, respectively.

“Such advisory board shall have representatives of the area where the facility is to be located and any other impacted areas, which shall include but not be limited to: representatives of city government, community boards, the borough president, the City Council, the Mayor’s Office and community stakeholders.

The plan immediately elicited jeers from city leaders, who’ve made no secret of the fact that they’re dead set against a gambling hall in the Big Apple.

“There’s a lot of opposition to opening a casino in Manhattan,” acknowledged Queens Senator Joseph Addabbo, a leader of the Legislature’s pro-gaming contingent and chairman of the Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering in the upper house.

“Cuomo is like a mad scientist in his lab drafting language for a new casino,” one city lawmaker said.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer blasted it as “a terrible idea, just awful.”

“I’m 100 percent, 1,000 percent against it. As are all of the Manhattan elected officials that I’ve been talking to about it. We’ve all been talking about how to prevent it from happening.”

Mayor Bill De Blasio, on the other hand, indicated a willingness to consider the possibility.

“I think the Legislature is being very smart about this,” he said during a recent press conference at City Hall. “They clearly value local land-use decision-making and the rights of localities to have a say.

“I’ve always been clear about the fact that I think there’s a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to casinos𑁋and we need to be very careful about how we approach things. But we’ll work with whatever the state legislation does.”

The licensing of the downstate casinos has become a pressing issue amid the battering the state’s finances have taken in the Covid crisis. Each is expected to be charged a $500 million up-front fee, and that’s before a single dollar in taxes and other possible payments are assessed.

The prospects are equally enticing to some of the biggest names in the industry, among them Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts International and Genting, all of which are pushing for licensing sooner than 2023.

MGM and Genting are believed to enjoy the pole position since both are already heavily invested in the market with massive racinos at Yonkers Raceway in the case of MGM and at Aqueduct in the case of Genting and converting them to full-scale casinos with live table games would be a relatively straightforward process.

Other locations being scouted include: Willets Point in Queens, where the New York Mets play at Citi Field; Belmont Park, also in Queens, home to Belmont Park racetrack and the stadium of the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League; and Staten Island’s St. George neighborhood, home to the Staten Island Ferry and the Empire Outlets retail complex.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently said she has some locations in mind for the city’s first casino. Proposals will be accepted later this month and the casino is expected to open by 2025. Lightfoot said she would hope to expedite that schedule by allowing a temporary location. Bloomberg reported the selected company could operate a temporary casino for up to 36 months.

Lightfoot said she wants the final spot selected for the casino to be more than just a gambling venue. “We need to create an entertainment district, so that we have good paying jobs not only on the front end, through the construction, but on the back end. We need a tourist destination for people all over the world to come see this latest attraction in the great city of Chicago,” Lightfoot stated.

The city’s single resort casino is expected to include gaming, a hotel, restaurants, entertainment and meeting and convention facilities. Operators considering forwarding a proposal will have to weigh the benefits of an essential monopoly for a single company partnering with the city against the 40 percent effective gaming tax rate—which was even higher until the state legislature reduced it last year.

In response to Chicago’s 17-page “request for information,” 11 companies, including four gaming operators, offered suggestions to questions about possible locations, the minimum and maximum number of hotel rooms, square footage for amenities, the effects of Covid-19 and temporary facilities.

The four casino operators were Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts Ltd. and MGM Resorts International, Florida’s Hard Rock International and Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming. Four real estate developers, a casino feasibility consultant and a casino financier (MGM’s affiliated MGM Growth Properties REIT) and a neighborhood organization also submitted answers to the city’s questions.

Wynn Resorts in a statement said, “When a city of significance decides to consider a gaming resort, we are always interested in exploring the opportunity.” The company’s Encore Boston Harbor illustrates its experience developing a casino resort in an urban area.

MGM also has developed casinos in downtown Detroit, downtown Springfield, Massachusetts and the Washington, D.C. area.

Hard Rock, owned by Florida’s Seminole Indian Tribe, operates hotels worldwide and casino resorts in Atlantic City and Biloxi, Mississippi.

Rush Street, headed by billionaire and Chicago resident Neil Bluhm, may have a hometown advantage because of its familiarity with the Chicago region. It has developed casino properties in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Des Plaines, Illinois and Schenectady, New York under the Rivers Casino brand.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. also has been suggested as a Chicago casino resort developer. It successfully operated properties in Las Vegas, Macao and Singapore. Most recently it has focused on Texas but could shift its attention to Chicago due to the political environment in Texas and fading prospects for gambling there.

Other names mentioned include Las Vegas’ newest casino operator, Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment, the Genting Group, Boyd Gaming, Penn National Gaming and Golden Nugget.

Las Vegas-based Union Gaming Analyst Grant Govertsen noted Caesars Entertainment probably wouldn’t be interested in Chicago. That’s because Caesars is well-established in Illinois and Indiana markets close to Chicago. Also it could face regulatory concerns about market saturation.

Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment won a key approval of its plan to build a Category 4 satellite casino in Cumberland County, in the south-central portion of Pennsylvania, when the Shippensburg Township Board of Supervisors voted 3-0 to approve Greenwood’s plan to develop a Parx-branded casino just off Interstate 81.

Category 4 casinos, limited to 750 slots and 30 table games (with 10 additional tables by petition), were created by Pennsylvania’s 2017 gaming expansion law to place gaming in underserved areas. The proposed 77,572-square-foot Parx Casino, linked to the license of the successful Parx casino in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, is planned for more than half of the space of a former Lowe’s store in the Shippen Towne Center, with the remainder of the space slated for retail development.

The Parx mini-casino is planned to open with 600 slot machines and a nationally branded restaurant and sports bar with seating for around 250. The facility will provide around 125 full-time and part-time jobs, with full-time position averaging more than $40,000 in salary plus benefits.

The casino is expected to boost tax revenue in a township where 65 percent of the land is occupied by Shippensburg University, which pays no local property tax.

“The dollars for us, if we can put this thing to bed with a casino, will be a real win,” Township Supervisor Steve Oldt told the Pennlive news site. “I can now fund the fire department. I can fund the EMS. I cannot worry about trying to go out there and figure out how much taxes we’ve got coming in. Because we’ll be able to benefit the community.”

The new Parx Casino is slated to open sometime in 2022.