Latvian gambling regulator’s representative, Janis Laganovskis will speak at Mare Balticum Gaming Summit 2018. The inaugural Mare Balticum Gaming Summit is slowly becoming the main event of the gambling industry in the Baltics. The organizers are delighted to announce the 4 regulators will be present at the event to give briefings and official numbers about the Latvia, Estonia, Lithuanian and ...
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The Ameristar Casino is set to begin a top-to-bottom renovation to improve player experience today.
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Costa Rica is preparing to get a new casino. The $400-million Casino City Caribe will be built in Moín on the country’s Caribbean coast, with construction beginning early next year, The Costa Rica Star reported. There will be several phases of construction before the entire project is complete in 2027.
The project will offer three different casinos and three hotels with a total of 264 rooms. There will also be 219 apartments, two convention centers, a business center, a spa and wellness center and additional recreational facilities. It will have access to the beach, as well as a marina and a heliport.
Casino City Caribe is still in development, but has acquired the necessary support needed to proceed. The project was designed by the architecture firm Patti Rao Project out of Vancouver, Canada. It has reportedly already received approval by the Ministry of Environment, the Costa Rica Tourism Board (CRTB) and the municipality of Matina, where Moín is located.
The first phase of the project is expected to generate about 150 new jobs for the region. When construction is complete and all facilities are open, it will reportedly provide employment to around 1,500 people. There was no indication of how long each phase would take to complete.
Moín, lies close to the Caribbean port city of Limón, a multicultural community composed of individuals of mostly Italian, Chinese and Jamaican origin who were brought in to work on the country’s railroad project in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Until 1948, Costa Rica didn’t recognize Afro-Caribbean people as citizens and they were not allowed to leave the province of Limón.
Both Moín and Limón have port terminals and are responsible for the bulk of the transoceanic trade in and out of the country. Combined, they account for 80% of Costa Rica’s import and export traffic.
Almost 3 million tourists visited Costa Rica in 2017, according to the CRTB, with just under 50% coming from North America. Already in 2018, tourist numbers look to be improving, as there was an increase of 6% in tourism during the first quarter of the year compared to the first quarter of 2017. North American tourism to the country increased by 11.4%, while European tourism jumped by 14.2%.
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Casino operator Wynn Resorts is renaming its half-finished Massachusetts casino project to further distance itself from its former chairman’s sexual harassment allegations.
On Friday, Wynn CEO Steve Maddox met with members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) to discuss removing Wynn Resorts founder Steve Wynn’s name from the gaming license of the $2.4b Wynn Boston Harbor resort casino project in Everett, just north of Boston, which is scheduled to open in June 2019.
Wynn Resorts suggested in March that a rebrand of the property was likely. At Friday’s hearing, Maddox announced that the property would now be known as Encore Boston Harbor. Encore is the name of a resort property that opened in 2008 as the second phase of the Wynn Las Vegas resort.
Maddox told the MGC members that while “the Wynn brand is strong,’ he also understood “the cultural sensitivity” surrounding the numerous harassment allegations brought against Steve Wynn this year by female staff members.
Steve resigned in February and has sold off his entire holdings in the casino company. Maddox told the MGC that the company now had “no business association with Steve Wynn,” yet this separation, whether in terms of business and branding, may not be enough to ensure the company retains control over the Everett project.
The MGC hope to make a ruling on removing Steve’s name from the gaming license next week, but that’s a separate issue from the ongoing probe the MGC is conducting into how much Wynn’s senior management knew about the allegations against their former leader. Should the MGC not like what its probe uncovers, it could declare Wynn Resorts unsuitable to operate gaming in Massachusetts.
Should that worst-case scenario play out, it’s unknown who might take over the unfinished Everett project. On Thursday, rival MGM Resorts, which is opening its own Massachusetts casino this August, played down reports that it was planning on swapping projects, insisting it was committed to its own MGM Springfield project.
The Mohegan Tribe, whose casino properties include the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and which unsuccessfully vied for the sole Boston-area casino license that Wynn received, told The Day that it remained interested in setting up shop in Boston, should that sole license go back on the market.
However, the MMCT Joint Venture between the Mohegans and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation that is building a casino in northern Connecticut close to MGM Springfield, shot down media reports that it would be interested in taking over the Springfield property should MGM take over the Everett project. An MMCT spokesperson called such reports “rumor mill trash.”
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UK’s Century Casino Bath is expected to open its doors to the public on Friday, May 25th.
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Betsoft Gaming launches a brand new Reels of Wealth slot. The bew game is a multi-layered 5×3 slot game continuing Betsoft’s tradition of innovation. Reels of Wealth slot takes the proprietary ‘Trail System’ to the next level – providing a sense of progression as players hop into a hoard of different bonus features and begin collecting symbols. Designed to match ...
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Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City has been mum about its grand opening (rumored to be June 28, the same day as Hard Rock AC), but the former Revel recently announced it's bringing Topgolf to AC this summer.
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A special session to rewrite Florida’s gambling laws is off the cards.
The Miami Herald reported that Florida lawmakers have decided to give the proposed special session on gambling a pass after weeks of behind-the-scenes talks.
The breakdown of negotiations came a week after Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced that the state had extended its casino revenue sharing agreement with the Seminoles through May 2019.
Sen. Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) and Rep. Jose Oliva (R-Miami) had been trying since Easter to convince their colleagues in the state legislature’s upper and lower chambers to resurrect a dead gambling bill in a special session. The two negotiators wanted the gambling laws sorted out and resolved ahead of the November ballot, when Florida residents will face a ballot question on whether to amend the state constitution so that future gambling expansion would require 60% voter approval via a statewide referendum.
Florida’s House of Representatives has traditionally shown less enthusiasm about gambling expansion. The Senate wanted a broad gambling measure that would allow daily fantasy sports operations as well as slots at greyhound and horseracing tracks in eight counties, among other options.
There were couple of factors behind Galvano and Oliva’s decision to shelve the idea of holding a special session: budget unpredictability, uncertainty as to the effect of the proposed constitutional amendment, and potential challenges in limiting the scope of the special session.
For many political observers, the decision wasn’t really surprising given that this was the third consecutive year that lawmakers failed to resolve their gambling issues.
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Yggdrasil is proud to launch its first co-produced, White Label Studios slot, Royal Family. The game has been launched exclusively on LeoVegas. The five-reel, four-row, 25-payline Royal Family offers collectable Feature Prizes, a Royal Chest and a Free Spin mode with sticky wilds, with a choice of 12 bonus features. The game will be marketed as part of the LeoVegas ...
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The state gaming commission approved the casino’s plans to move its riverboat casino inland.
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Leading online operator Mr Green adds Pragmatic Play content to their offering. As Mr Green adds Pragmatic Play content, the multi-award-winning casino games developer Pragmatic Play’s games will go live with Mr Green. The fact that Mr Green adds Pragmatic Play content is yet another significant operator integration. From now on Pragmatic Play games including Wolf Gold, Diamond Strike, Gold Rush and Hot Safari are now available ...
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India’s only publicly listed company in the casino gaming industry, Delta, had an impressive run in the last quarter of 2017. Its revenue climbed by 11%, while its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) rose a modest 5%. Net revenue year on year was up by 64% and its EBITDA ticked up 6%.
As reported by Union Gaming Asia, Delta’s casino operations, which are composed of Goa riverboat casinos, contributed the most to the increase in revenue. Online gaming and hospitality ventures assisted, but not to the levels of the riverboats.
Due to a strict political environment in the country, India’s gaming industry is much smaller than what is found in other countries. However, it’s a growing market that is expected to see rapid growth in the near term. Already in the first quarter of 2018, the industry as a whole saw an increase in revenue of 73%.
Although it has experienced growth in the past year, Delta is limited from large-scale expansion due to the riverboats. The confined spaces don’t allow for additional offerings, and Delta will need to move onshore if it wants to continue growing, according to Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen. Nonetheless, Delta’s casino revenue growth is expected to grow by 29% in the next fiscal year (FY) and 22% in FY2020. Delta could launch land-based casinos as early as FY2022 once integrated resorts begin to be offered in the country.
After Delta acquired one of India’s premier online gaming operators last year, revenue for online gaming, comprised almost exclusively of poker, grew 18% across the final three quarters of the fiscal year. The hospitality segment saw an increase of 20% year on year, fueled primarily to increased tourism to the country and, in particular, Goa.
Delta shares took a hit following the announcement by the Goa government that it planned on quadrupling the licensing fees for casinos in the area. The entire casino industry is now working together to try to force either a complete or a partial rollback. That struggle is still ongoing, with no substantiating information for or against the move.
Union Gaming expects Delta to “come out on the other side in better shape” whether or not the fee increase goes forward, and based its analysis on the fees being intact. The company feels that, should the fees remain, Delta competitors will have to exit the game, and Delta will stay ahead. If the fees are reduced, Delta obviously wins.
“We continue to view Delta as a transformational story with the eventual move to land-based casinos in Goa, in addition to the go-ahead for casino gaming at its existing resort in Daman,” Govertsen said in a note.
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Australian MP Andrew Wilkie has found what he described as “potentially very hard and indisputable evidence” to pin casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd. to pokies tampering.
Wilkie announced on Tuesday that he is in possession of Crown-branded ‘picks’ that were allegedly used by a former high-roller to jam poker machine buttons in order for gamblers to have uninterrupted games, according to The Guardian report.
Copies of the supposed Crown picks, as well as punter loyalty cards, have been submitted to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) to help the state regulator with its ongoing investigation, according to Wilkie.
Wilkie also informed Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Aston about the tampering claims through a letter.
“It certainly raised a couple of eyebrows this morning at the VCGLR when I showed them the picks, when I showed them the multiple loyalty cards. This is potentially very hard and indisputable evidence,” Wilkie said, according to the news outlet.
According to Wilkie, the pieces of evidence were given to him by a female high-roller who wished to remain anonymous.
The woman revealed that she loses up to AUD30,000 (US$22,824) every time she goes to Crown Casino. Instead of stopping her, the woman alleged that she was given multiple loyalty cards so that she could play several pokies at once.
For Wilkie, the testimony of the unnamed former gambler corroborated the stories of three Crown staffers who previously came forward to accuse the casino operator of allowing the tampering of video poker machines.
The whistleblowers claimed that casino managers ordered Crown Melbourne staff to tamper with the machines, including disabling lower bet provisions and modifying buttons to allow prohibited autoplay—acts that could increase gambling losses.
They made other allegations against Crown, such as tolerating the misuse of identity documents that helped certain high-value customers avoid the scrutiny of financial watchdogs Austrac and allowing certain customers to smoke marijuana on the premises.
“Obviously if they’re true, Crown Casino will have some very serious matters to answer, some very serious charges to answer because it is a crime in Victoria to illegally modify poker machines,” Wilkie said, according to the ABC Online News report. “It is a crime in Victoria to provide a patron with some sort of device to allow the machine to continuously play.”
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If all goes well, NJ online poker players at WSOP NJ and 888 Poker NJ will be able to compete against others in Nevada and Delaware when the first interstate games launch May 1.
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Yggdrasil Gaming deals with Stanleybet, a major operator to supply its extensive range of gaming content in Italy. As Yggdrasil Gaming deals with Stanleybet, the operator will also receive Yggdrasil’s range of complementary in-game promotional tools, BOOST™, and social sharing tool, BRAG™. Stanleybet is one of the leaders in retail betting and is now attracting its extensive customer base online, ...
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Despite being against sports betting and litigants in the NJ sports betting case (Murphy vs NCAA), the NBA and MLB have reportedly met with NJ lawmakers ahead of a SCOTUS decision to help frame sports betting regulations.
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Galaxy Entertainment Group’s Philippine partner has acquired land on the island of Boracay.
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Macau-based casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) is not backing out from its integrated resort project in the Philippine holiday island of Boracay anytime soon.
The Philippine Star reported that GEG’s local partner, Philippine-listed gambling operator Leisure & Resorts World Corp., bought more properties on the island—a sign that the casino operator was staying, according to a local government official.
GEG and LRWC, through its subsidiary Boracay Philippines Resort and Leisure Corporation (BPRLC), initially acquired a 23-hectare property for the $500 million integrated resort project.
According to Boracay Affairs Municipal Executive Assistant Rowen Aguirre, LRWC remained in negotiations with several other property owners for additional land acquisition. He said that government officials in the island didn’t object to the acquisition of land in Boracay because the area remained underdeveloped and that the area where GEG planned to put up its land-based casino was mostly residential.
The letter of no objection from the island official has been one of the important documents that GEG and LWRC submitted to state regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to secure a provisional casino license.
There had been confusion about the fate of GEG’s project in Boracay after a Philippine tourism official claimed the Macau-based operator has started looking for another venue for its multi-million dollar resort.
LRWC quickly shot down the statement by saying that they have not yet abandoned the Boracay project.
PAGCOR chair Andrea Domingo, for her part, belied reports that GEG is pulling out from its Boracay casino project, saying that there was no formal communication between them about the matter.
Belle Corp sees net income up 10% to $16.4M
In other Philippine casino news, Belle Corp. reported slower growth in net income during the first quarter of 2018 as revenue share from the gaming operations of City of Dreams Manila fell 8 percent.
Belle announced before the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday that its net income grew 9.6 percent to nearly PHP857.5 million (US$16.4 million) in the first three months of 2018 compared to the 90 percent increase it posted in 2017.
The company’s net income slowdown was attributed to the smaller income share in the gaming operations of City of Dreams Manila, according to Belle.
Through its 78.7%-owned subsidiary, Premium Leisure Corporation (PLC), Belle’s gaming revenue share fell to just over PHP664.3 million ($12.7 million) in January-March 2018 period from PHP721.9 million ($13.8 million) during the same quarter in 2017.
But the property developer’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from its income share rose to PHP 474 million ($9.06 million) for the first quarter of 2018 from PHP 439 million ($8.39 million) for the 2017 period.
Belle is a property developer focusing on the leisure market. Its principal assets include land and buildings at the PAGCOR Entertainment City in Parañaque City, which are being leased on a long-term basis to Melco Crown Entertainment Philippines. It also owns significant real estate assets in and around Tagaytay City.
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Mare Balticum Gaming Summit 2018 is a must attend event for companies that are operating or looking to operate in the Baltics or Scandinavian region. The “Mare Balticum” title of the event is inspired by local event titles which gather the locals from the Baltic Sea region. This is also main focus of the event, gathering the local industry and ...
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Despite rumours, PAGCOR assured that Galaxy Entertainment hasn’t abandoned its plans to develop an integrated resort in Boracay.
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GameArt entered Romania and Italy for the first time, starting with a launch on NetBet. GameArt entered Romania and Italy with iSoftBet‘s help. iSoftBet is a market-leading online and mobile casino content provider. iSoftBet and GameArt have a longstanding partnership, with the developer’s games available through its Game Aggregation Platform (GAP). GAP boasts more than 1,500 slots from 35+ suppliers ...
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Sun Dreams SA, born out of a partnership between South African casino company Sun International and Chile’s Dreams SA, is now officially the proud owner of four casinos in Peru. Thunderbird Resorts Incorporated handed over the keys in a deal that was first announced last October, G3Newsire reported. While certainly not the most expensive casino deal ever recorded, not many would balk at the chance to pick up $26 million in cash, which Thunderbird received for the sale.
The four casinos include the Luxor Casino Lima, Fiesta Hotel and Casino Lima, Mystic Slots Cusco and Luxor Casino Tacna. The deal was initially expected to be finalized in January, but was delayed over regulatory hurdles and “transactional conditions.” In a statement provided to the Chilean Financial Markets committee, Sun Dreams’ General Manager Jaime Wilhelm said, “The purchase is part of Sun Dreams SA’s international expansion plans and is expected to have a positive impact on the company’s results, due to the incorporation of assets that generated revenues in the last 12 months of approximately US$19.6 million and the extension of the average duration of the company’s gaming licenses as a result of a regulatory framework that delivers continuously renewable gaming licenses.”
Thunderbird was founded as International Thunderbird Gaming Corporation in 1994, and started by providing equipment and expertise to the Native American casino markets. It opened its first casino in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1997 and followed that up the following with a 20-year contract to operate four casinos in Panama. Over the years, it expanded to other Central and South America countries and subsequently changed its name in 2005 to Thunderbird Resorts.
Thunderbird isn’t exiting the gambling business completely. It still operates other casinos in various Latin American countries, as well as a mixed-use, 19-story tower in Lima, Peru. That building houses a hotel with 66 suites, 58,125 square feet of leasable office space and 158 underground parking spaces. Thunderbird plans on releasing its 2017 Annual Report by the end of this month, in which it will detail what it plans for its remaining assets. It is traded on the Euronext Amsterdam under the trading symbol TBIRD.
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In another change for Atlantic City's casinos, Carl Icahn has sold Tropicana Atlantic City hotel and casino as part of a larger deal that gives Tropicana Entertainment Inc. new owners.
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Four nor'easters lumbered through New Jersey in March, resulting in a decrease of year-on-year revenue for Atlantic City's seven casinos. But with summer comes Hard Rock Atlantic City and Ocean Resort Casino.
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Las Vegas-based casino operator Wynn Resorts is giving women more opportunity to be heard in the company in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal involving its founder and former CEO Steve Wynn.
The Nasdaq-listed firm announced that that it has expanded the composition of its board to 11 members in order to appoint three “highly-qualified” women as independent directors.
Wynn Resorts said the appointments of Betsy Atkins, Dee Dee Myers and Wendy Webb signifies “a turning point” for the casino operator, which is still reeling from the scandal tied to its former leader. The announcement comes a day after Elaine Wynn, currently Wynn Resorts’ largest single shareholder, requested an overhaul of the entire board to “fully restore” the company’s reputation.
The appointment of Atkins, Myers, and Webb makes Wynn’s board 36 percent female, catapulting the casino operator into the top 40 S&P 500 companies in terms of female board representation.
Wynn chairman D. Boone Wayson said the company intends to add a few more new directors in the coming months.
“To be clear, this is the first step in our effort to refresh the board,” Wayson said in a statement.
Atkins, author of Behind Boardroom Doors: Lessons of a Corporate Director, is recognized as an expert in corporate governance and digital transformation, consumer experience and technology.
Meanwhile, Myers is known in the political circle as the ex-spokesman of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the first woman to serve as the White House press secretary. She is currently the executive vice president for Worldwide Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Finally, Webb is currently a director of ABM Industries, where she serves on the Audit Committee and Strategy and Risk Committee, and is on the board of 9 Spokes, a software company.
Aside from the appointments of the three women, Wynn Resorts noted significant actions to improve the workplace environment in response to the allegations regarding its former CEO. The company said it created a new department focusing on gender equality, diversity, fair treatment and female leadership and launched new employee benefits, such as paid parental leave.
Steve Wynn has sold his stock in the company, including 8 million shares to two long-term institutional investors, as part of the casino operator’s sweeping reforms.
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Florida’s state government has reached a new gaming deal with the Seminole Tribe, but a special legislative session on gaming issues appears to still be in the works.
On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced that the state had extended its casino revenue sharing agreement with the Seminoles through May 2019. The agreement, which was signed in 2017, calls for the tribe to provide the state with around $300m per year in exchange for exclusive rights to certain gaming products.
Scott said the agreement “ensures the Tribe’s current commitment remains intact” but Scott stressed that Wednesday’s deal “does not make any changes to state gaming law or expand current gaming operations in Florida in any way.”
The 2017 agreement was itself a stopgap deal due to the inability of state legislators to approve a new gaming compact with the tribe, which operates the Hard Rock International family of casinos. Gov. Scott and the tribe agreed on a new gaming compact in 2015 but it was never ratified by the legislature, where competing factions have prevented forward progress on pretty much any subject related to gaming.
Florida has been wrestling with whether to allow the state’s cardrooms to continue to offer so-called designated player games, which the Seminoles maintain violate their exclusivity over house-banked card games. Also up for grabs is whether to authorize slot machines at certain racetracks and jai-alai frontons.
The state’s latest gaming expansion effort came up short in March but legislators have been pressing for a special legislative session to address unresolved issues. Legislators are keenly aware that the state’s voters will face a ballot question this November that proposes amending the state constitution to make future gambling expansion plans subject to securing the approval of 60% of registered voters.
Following Wednesday’s deal announcement, Florida Politics’ Jim Rosica quoted a source who claimed leaders in both the state Senate and House were “fully engaged” in ensuring legislators get one last crack at approving gaming expansion before the November ballot.
Speaking of, the division of Walt Disney Corporation that has been financially supporting a ‘yes’ vote in November continues to put its money where it’s mouth is. Financial disclosure forms filed by the Voters in Charge political action committee showed Disney Worldwide Services Inc contributed $4.7m to the cause, representing roughly 70% of the group’s total financing.
Disney has been funding anti-gambling expansion campaigns in Florida for years, based on its apparent belief that commercial casinos would taint its family-friendly DisneyWorld theme park in Orlando. To be fair, it isn’t just Florida where Disney has an anti-gambling bent. The company has also forced slot machine developers to scrap titles based on Disney’s intellectual property.
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A recent report revealed that New Jersey has spent $8.6 million in legal fees during its yearslong fight to legalize sports betting, but the NJ sports betting case is coming to a close with the Supreme Court deciding its fate soon.
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To build or not to build? That is the $500-million Boracay casino question.
The Philippine government and the local partner of Macau-based casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) gave conflicting statements on Tuesday regarding the fate of a planned multi-million dollar integrated resort on the island of Boracay.
It all started with the pronouncement of Philippine Tourism Assistant Secretary Frederick Alegre that GEG had given in to government pressure and would look for another venue for its planned 23-hectare integrated resort.
Rappler reported that Alegre gave a press conference in Boracay to announce that GEG and its local partner, Leisure & Resorts World Corp. (LRWC), will have to “repeat” the process to secure a license to build a Philippine casino.
“They just have to go through the process of accreditation, and securing again a new PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) provisional authority. The whole process will be repeated,” Alegre said, according to the news outlet.
However, LRWC immediately shot down Alegre’s claims and insisted that they have not yet abandoned their planned casino project on the island.
“Following protocol, no change in plans or project location would be made without prior consultation and agreement with PAGCOR. Contrary to claims that Galaxy has ‘abandoned’ its planned Boracay project, no such announcement has been made nor communicated with Pagcor,” LWRC said in a statement.
Even PAGCOR chief Andrea Domingo denied Alegre’s statement that GEG and LRWC are already looking at other places for their casino project.
“I have not received any information about that,” Domingo told CalvinAyre.com.
In March, PAGCOR approved the construction of GEG’s integrated resort on Boracay after granting the group a provisional gaming license. GEG planned to start the construction of its multi-million dollar casino resort by 2019, expecting it to be completed in three years’ time.
PAGCOR has repeatedly defended its decision to grant the provisional license to GEG and LRWC, through their subsidiary Boracay Philippines Resort and Leisure Corporation (BPRLC).
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Eldorado Resorts entered into a definitive agreement to buy the casino for US$327.5 million.
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The former king of Las Vegas Steve Wynn and his ex-wife Elaine Wynn have finally decided to put an end to a bitter chapter of their lives.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. announced on Monday that its embattled former CEO has agreed to settle his ex-wife’s remaining legal claims and put all of the personal unpleasantness of the last few years behind them.
The “unpleasantness” that the casino operator was referring to was the 2010 stockholders’ agreement involving them and Aruze USA Inc. concerning the control of each party’s respective shares of Wynn Resorts.
It would be recalled that the controversial agreement barred any of the subscribers, including Wynn, Elaine Wynn, Wynn Resorts, and Aruze from selling their shares of Wynn Resorts without the consent of the other signatories.
The settlement also marked the conclusion of Elaine Wynn’s claims against the casino operator and its general counsel, Kim Sinatra, according to Wynn Resorts. In return, Wynn Resorts and Sinatra also dropped their claims against the former Mrs. Wynn.
Wynn Resorts noted that neither the company nor Sinatra made payments to Elaine Wynn under the agreed terms of the settlement. However, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that Steve Wynn paid an undisclosed sum of money to his ex-wife.
“I am pleased this litigation has now been resolved,” Elaine Wynn said, according to the news outlet.
Wynn Resorts bid goodbye to its former CEO in February following news of his alleged sexual harrassment of his female employees. Steve Wynn recently disposed the rest of his stake in the company that he founded.
The casino operator wanted to settle all disputes so it can focus on mitigating the impact of the sexual misconduct scandal involving its founder.
In March, Wynn Resorts announced that it had settled a stock redemption dispute with Universal and its unit, Aruze USA Inc., which stemmed from former Universal boss Kazuo Okada’s ouster from Wynn Resorts in 2012. Wynn Resorts paid Universal a sum of $2.4 billion, which was lower than the market’s expectations.
Wynn Resorts also decided to bury the hatchet with Okada, dropping all legal claims it had filed against the businessman.
Okada, who invested $260 million when Wynn Resorts was still in its infancy, welcomed the legal developments in Nevada, saying that “the world knows what I have known all along—I am innocent.”
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Having missed the Asian casino boom, Caesars Entertainment is betting on non-gaming hotels for international growth.
On Sunday, Caesars announced that it had inked a letter of intent with Dubai-based Meraas Holdings LLC to manage two luxury hotels and a beach club at Meraas’ man-made Bluewaters Island development. The five-star properties will be branded as Caesars Palace Bluewaters Dubai and Caesars Bluewaters Dubai.
The hotels, which are expected to open in Q4 2018, are part of Caesars non-gaming international expansion plans. Caesars hired a new executive team last summer to help guide its non-gaming ambitions and “unlock new growth channels,” according to CEO Mark Frissora.
Dubai is the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, a Muslim country with decidedly harsh views on the issue of gambling. On the plus side, consumption of alcohol by non-Muslims is permitted in licensed venues at upscale hotels, so gamblers attracted by the Caesars Palace signage will at least be able to drown their disappointment at the hotels’ 12 restaurants and bars.
In 2011, Caesars attempted to establish a non-gaming footprint by announcing a hotel project in China’s Hainan province, but the project fell by the wayside as Caesars’ financial problems mounted.
Closer to home, Caesars announced last week that it would be bringing its Harrah’s gaming brand to Northern California after inking a definitive agreement with the Buena Vista Gaming Authority, an entity of the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California.
Construction of the $168m, 71k-square-foot Harrah’s Northern California Casino broke ground last week and is expected to open to the public in 2019. Once complete, the property – located 32 miles southeast of Sacramento – will boast 950 slot machines, 20 gaming tables, a full-service restaurant and other amenities.
The casino will be developed, owned and operated by the tribe, while Caesars will provide brand licensing and consulting services. Caesars’ Frissora said the deal would generate “incremental revenue” for the company “without significant capital investment.”
Speaking of significant capital, Caesars recently disclosed its senior management compensation packages, which saw Frissora collect a total $29.4m in 2017, the year that Caesars’ main unit finally emerged from its multi-year Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.
While $16.5m of Frissora’s payday came via restricted stock, the company missed its most recent quarterly revenue targets and its earnings are still being outstripped by the interest on its debt. But hey, these are public companies, where remuneration meetings are formally known as ‘everybody gets a trophy day,’ so whatcha gonna do?
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