Despite having added slot routes to the state’s gambling repertory, gaming-tax revenues are down 6% in Illinois. This occurred despite the continuing addition of slot routes. However, some 
gambling-tax junkies continue to deny the obvious proof of a saturated market. “I’m a believer in using the [casino] expansion to bring more dollars, to create more jobs for the state. But we do need to do this in a smart way. I do believe it would generate additional revenue,” said state Sen. Robert Rita (D), boating energetically down DeNile. He made this assertion in the face of a state-commissioned study which reported that “the state would have a large amount of gaming expansion with little new tax revenues to show for it.”
For a reality check, Illinois Casino Gaming Association Executive Director Tom Swoik said the Illinois Legislature’s report on the economic effects on casino expansion showed that cannibalization was at work. He said, “It’s just moving around the dollars. We’re not creating any more gamblers.” As always, the addition of adding five or six new casinos, plus racinos, is before the Lege. With Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) more tractable to expansion than his predecessor was, Swoik will need to be at his most persuasive in the coming months.
* The millennial demographic and how to market to it has become a topic of conversation in China now, too. A lengthy meditation on the phenomenon may not say much that U.S. readers don’t already know but it discloses that 17% of the Chinese population is comprised of millennials and their most-desired tourist destination is not Macao but Las Vegas. How might Chinese casinos cater to them, other than through skill-based games? One answer is to rethink convention casino-floor design, which is described as flirting with obsolescence.
YWS Design & Architecture was tasked with studying this problem and came to the following conclusions: “Gen Y is not looking to ‘get lost’ within a gaming environment: their objective is 
to seek out a specific type of experience which has already been vetted and validated via social proof within their online network of friends, family and trustworthy strangers. Environments that are confusing, difficult to navigate and/or create barriers to transparency and convenience are typically avoided by this consumer group … Existing facilities may wish to experiment with zones, lounges and other quarantined areas that can be redesigned to better attract Millennials.” Rather than jackpots, the report continued, Generation Y wants winnings that can be shared amongst the group. One thing that apparently will never go out of style are table games, which — thanks to their inherently cinematic qualities — continue to enjoy Hollywood glamour.
* It may be heresy but Howard Stutz suggests that the time has come for Nevada to consider banning smoking from casinos.
