Gaming industry gets mixed notices

American Gaming Association data on the health of the casino
industry continues to be parceled out. Today we learned that Louisiana has 2.2X as many casino employees as Ohio but they make 2.7X as much. ohio_plate_08Mind you, the Buckeye State’s industry is still growing (the report does not account for a racino that opened during the survey) and there’s a learning curve: “casino and racino officials have said employees quit because they can’t adjust to working in a business that never closes, [while] other employees have been promoted or moved to properties in other states.” Louisiana ranks fourth in wages paid, while Ohio comes in at 12th place, right in the middle of the pack. The state will probably move still further up the totem pole when racinos in Dayton and Youngstown open later this year.

* New York State‘s casino-siting board has until Labor Day to practice its happy faces. A new report by Fitch Ratings questions the efficacy of casinos as an economic stimulant. The agency “cited several reasons for its bearish outlook on casino gambling, including saturation across regional markets, stagnant wages among the lower tier players, re-prioritization of disposable income, proliferation of online/social gaming, potentially lower propensity to gamble among younger generations and lowered preparedness for retirement by baby boomers.”

Online social gaming was cited as a particular threat, due to a “meaningful overlap” between its players and those who patronize regional casinos. In other words, the people who are playing International Game Technology‘s DoubleDown Casino online aren’t sitting at an IGT slot machine right now.

* But does DoubleDown fall among the 110 online-gambling sites banned by Turkey? Having outlawed casinos way back in 1997, Turkey has more recently turned its wrath to Internet gambling. The Turkish National Lottery has demanded that 440 Web sites be blocked but TIB, the national telecommunications authority has only acted against a fourth of that number.

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