Congratulations are in order twice over for Caesars Entertainment. The company is towering over its competitors in the social-gaming sphere, 
according to Eilers Research. While Zynga still rules Facebook and DoubleDown Casino has thrown a lifeline to International Game Technology, it’s the guy in the toga who comes out on top, with a 21% market share. DoubleDown is way back, at 11% and Zynga is close behind it at 9%, nearly followed by Big Fish Games at 8%.
It wasn’t that long ago (July of last year) that Zynga was tops and Caesars pushed past it to be Numero Uno. It’s not even the online World Series of Poker that’s driving the numbers but Slotomania, twice as popular on Facebook. Only 5% of Caesars Interactive‘s business is for-money play, with social gaming far outstripping it. Even so, the lines between the two types of play seem to be blurring: “Social casino gaming doesn’t involve depositing and cashing out real money, but players can purchase in-game add-ons and other enhancements, in addition to extra funds to play with, typically after losing the amount one gets for free.”
* In the environmental realm, Caesars won its first-ever LEED Gold certification for Horseshoe Casino Baltimore. Awards for energy efficiency don’t come much higher. Among the features for which Horseshoe was cited was its water-recycling system, which capitalizes on stored rainwater for irrigation, the use of repurposed building materials (a quarter of the entire complex) and low reliance on landfills. Kudos to Caesars and Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. for a job well and conscientiously done.
* The first three quarters of 2014 haven’t been great for Detroit casinos. Their relative market shares have remained pretty much the same — 42% for MGM 
Grand Detroit, 32% for MotorCity and 26% for Greektown. However, MotorCity has done the best job of hanging onto revenue, slipping only 1% while its competitors both dropped 5%. Last month, Greektown actually pulled an upset and rose 5%, while MotorCity was off 7% and MGM down 4%. Of course, the tax revenues the city so desperately craves in order to stay in business was incrementally lower. Detractors of urban gambling — or of any gambling — might ponder how much worse off it would be for Detroit without its three casinos spinning money.
* I’m not sure the world is ready for — let alone needs — a Pitbull slot machine. But that’s not going to stop Bally Technologies from giving us one.
