Talking Stick Resort may have only 752 slot machines and 51 blackjack tables but it’s powered an economic bonanza in the Scottsdale, Arizona desert. It’s the focal point of two baseball spring-training facilities (Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies), a 36-hole golf course and 1.1 million square feet of retail. The Las Vegas Review-Journal sent Howard Stutz down there recently for some recon and his reaction was that it “makes CityCenter look like a strip mall.”
In addition to Talking Stick, the Salt River-Pima Indian Community is also drawing gaming revenue from its Casino Arizona. The latter fields 911 slots and a 1,000-seat bingo hall. Arizona tribes’ tendency is not to concentrate their gaming capacity all in one spot but to pepper it around major metro areas (Phoenix, Tucson). The state seems ambivalent about the phenomenon. Arizona Department of Gaming Assistant Director Rick Medina says “we want the tribes to do what they can in terms of economic development” but, in the next breath he’s fretting about controlling the pace of gaming expansion: “As the money comes in, there is always pressure to expand and we have to deal with that. We want the gaming to be limited and we review the casinos in five-year increments.” Now that the tribes have had a taste of prosperity, good luck trying to take it away.
Robo-racing. Voters will be voting in November whether or not to have VLT-based “instant racing” at Nebraska parimutuels. By making it a constitutional question, solons avoid a replay of Gov. Dave Heineman‘s veto two years ago. The measure almost failed anyway, but state Sen. Rick Kolowski was persuaded that the voters should make the decision, not him, motivating him to switch his vote.
The amendment was crafted by state Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh and is aimed at preserving the state’s horse racing industry. “The Instant Racing terminals, produced by an Arkansas company, allow bettors to place wagers on previously run races after being provided the racing history of the horses and jockeys involved in the rebroadcast races. The identities of the horses and riders are changed to guard against bettors recalling the outcomes of old races,” reports the Omaha World-Herald.
Opponents trotted out a variety of arguments, ranging from rote opposition to gambling to the contention that this is just a prop for a dying industry. When election season rolls around we’ll see if this is a nag or a thoroughbred.
There’s a new player in the joust for casinos in Japan. It’s Yoji Sato, chairman of Dynam Japan Holdings Co., who’s seeking partners for an all-Asian venture. He’s already looked to Macao and dickered with Galaxy Entertainment and Melco Crown Entertainment. Sato is also floating the idea of raising money through an IPO. His 370 pachinko parlors confer something like favorite son status upon him.
Not unlike Caesars Entertainment, he would eschew the Tokyo and Osaka markets for the provincial Kyushu and Hokkaido areas. That’s similar to the thinking behind the strategy Sato has pursued with his pachinko parlors, which cater to the bargain-oriented player in outlying markets. With so many casino suitors focused only on the biggest Japanese markets, you have to like Sato’s chances for landing a second-tier berth.
