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Last week the Nevada Gaming Control Board reported that the amount of money won by Nevada casinos in March fell by almost 40% compared to the same period last year. Gaming revenue for the state was $618 million in March. That’s a decrease of 39.57% from March 2019 when casinos won $1.022 billion.

The reason for the huge decrease in gaming revenue for Nevada is the closure of all casinos in the state on March 17 to help slow the spread of coronavirus.

Different drops for different regions

Nevada casinos in different parts of the state have different types of customers. In fact, even casinos in the Las Vegas area have various gambling guests. High rollers and large casino corporations dominate the Vegas Strip. Downtown Las Vegas and the suburban casinos cater to a variety of tourists and residents.

Not only are there different casino operators, but the guests play varying games and have varying budgets. Casinos on the Vegas Strip won $299.9 million from gaming customers in March. That’s a decrease of 45.67% from last year.

Meanwhile, casinos in downtown Las Vegas weren’t hit as hard on a percentage basis. These casinos won $43 million. That’s only a decrease of 25.92% from the previous year.

Nevada sports betting demolished

The amount of money won by Nevada sportsbooks was crushed before casinos were even closed. The NBA suspended its season five days before casinos were told to close their doors. Other major sports, including the NCAA basketball tournament, aka March Madness, followed the NBA’s lead.

March is chock full of college basketball games for bettors. Between the large volume of college basketball conference tournament games and the 63 games (plus play-in games) during March Madness, Nevada sportsbooks lost one of the largest cash generators of the year. For comparison, the entire NCAA basketball tournament typically sees as much money wagered as the Super Bowl.

Nevada sportsbooks saw a massive 76.3% decrease in its sports betting handle compared to last March. It was the lowest monthly handle for Nevada since 1993. March Madness typically draws less-experienced sports bettors, which means that sportsbooks typically win more of the wagers placed.

Without March Madness, Nevada sportsbooks only won $1.5 million from $141 million wagered in March — a 95.5% drop from a year ago.

April gaming revenue will be much worse

April’s gaming revenue in Nevada will be much worse. While casinos were closed in the middle of March, they’ve remained closed for the entire month of April. Additionally, video poker and slot machines in bars, taverns, supermarkets and gas stations have also been turned off.

The only gaming revenue in Nevada for the month will come from one of the following sports wagering apps that remained open for the month:

• BetMGM
• Caesars
• Circa Sports
• William Hill

These four sportsbooks were only available to current customers. Players must visit a brick-and-mortar casino first to set up a new sports wagering account. Since casinos were closed, no new accounts could be opened and funded.

Nevada doesn’t have full online casinos like New Jersey or Pennsylvania, but it does have an online poker website. WSOP.com was also operational, while brick-and-mortar casinos were closed in April.

Nevada casinos reopening

Nevada casinos won’t reopen on until mid to late May at the earliest. Gov. Steve Sisolak says casinos will be able to open again during the third or fourth phase of his reopening plan.

Regardless of the opening date for brick-and-mortar casinos, the four sportsbook apps will have some company. A Westgate SuperBook representative says the app will be turned on again on May 7.

When casinos do open for business again, don’t expect to see a return to normal business right away. During its first-quarter earnings call, MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle said the company would open properties in phases. Bellagio and New York-New York will be MGM Resorts’ first two Las Vegas casinos to reopen. There could be another casino opening depending on demand.

While MGM Resorts doesn’t have a health and safety plan for reopening yet, the company will have one in the next two weeks. They say that casino floors will have to be reconfigured to allow proper spacing. This should mean fewer table games and machines will be available right away. As a result, gaming revenue should be lower even after the casinos open.

The post Nevada Casino Gaming Revenue Plummets Down 40% In March appeared first on Play USA.

It’s an unprecedented time in the world of online poker – at least since before Black Friday. Live poker may be paused, Vegas closed down, and numerous tournament series shuttered, but online poker has sprung to heights not seen since the 2000s.

That has included the regulated US poker market, including sweepstakes sites like Global Poker and ClubWPT. International operators like PokerStars, partypoker, 888poker, and GGPoker are also reporting massive fields with so many players online.

Chip Chatter once again brings all the recent news in the world of poker. From online poker and charitable endeavors to sponsorships, the WSOP, and more – USPoker has it covered.

PokerStars SCOOP scores in NJ, PA; Numbers continue growing online

As poker players continue to shelter in place, many have moved to playing online. The recent PokerStars Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) in New Jersey and Pennsylvania can serve as examples.

NJ SCOOP wrapped up on Monday and produced the biggest numbers in the history of the series. The $1.2 million guarantee was smashed with almost $1.8 million awarded in the series.

Pennsylvania saw similar success. The series awarded $3.2 million In the 100 events offered. That topped the $2 million guarantee in the site’s first-ever PASCOOP.

Internationally, other sites are reporting major fields as well. A recent Forbes article noted that 888poker has seen a 60% increase in activity in the US. A similar number may be seen for its interstate compact partner WSOP.com.

“We are seeing similar trends on our global poker network, a testament of a recreational destination that people are enjoying while sheltering in place,” 888 Holdings head of commercial development Yaniv Sherman noted.

That’s a trend around the online poker world. Even US-facing sweepstakes poker sites have seen big numbers. Global Poker reached record heights in its Home Series with the largest event in its history playing out on Sunday.

The SC540 Main Event featured a guarantee of SC500,000. With almost 1,300 players, the event actually produced a prize pool of SC643,000.

The World Poker Tour also recently refocused on its ClubWPT sweepstakes poker site. The tour notes that “new registrations for ClubWPT are up 39% year-over-year in Q1 in 2020 and billed subscribers increased by 8.3% over the same period.”

Caesars online casino opens in PA, WSOP.com still unavailable

PokerStars remains the only traditional legal real-money platform in Pennsylvania after launching in November 2019. Could a change be on the horizon?

In April, Caesars Entertainment launched its online casino in the Keystone State through its Harrah’s Philadelphia property. Unfortunately that didn’t include WSOP.com.

But could a launch be around the corner? WSOP officials are staying tight lipped even as US online poker is seeing record player and prize pools.

The site offers the nation’s only shared liquidity among Nevada, New Jersey, and in Delaware with its software partner 888poker. However, PA online poker couldn’t be part of that as of now.

“WSOP/888’s biggest advantage over its competitors is that it’s currently the only operator able to share liquidity between multiple states,” Online Poker Report notes. “Until the Gaming Control Board loosens the leash, however, Pennsylvania won’t be able to join the shared player pool with New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware.”

WSOP speculation continues after postponement

After weeks of speculation, the WSOP in Las Vegas has officially been postponed until the fall. The question now is: what can players and fans expect?

A fall WSOP puts the series in the middle of the NFL season. How would that affect ESPN’s live broadcasts of the Main Event that players and fans have become accustomed to? The series could also face several competing tournaments from the WPT and other series.

A fall series may also include a shortened schedule. Organizers may have to find a nice mix of lower buy-in events to maximize traffic and player pools. That could also include a limited number of the big buy-in championship events as well.

Online players will be in luck this summer however. The WSOP announced that expanded online events will be played out this summer.

The could include bracelet events as well as more international events with other partners. The WSOP has already partnered with GGPoker for the Super Circuit Online Series, which kicks off this weekend with 595 events and a $100 million guarantee.

Getting any kind of schedule together won’t be easy. Las Vegas casinos are all closed down at the moment. What would a major poker festival look like in the immediate aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic?

It’s a unique time in the world of poker and it will be interesting to see how things shake out. One thing is certain, cool Las Vegas fall temperatures will be much more pleasant than those 110-plus degree summers.

ElkY, Boris Becker sign on with GGPoker

GGPoker has earned some big headlines in recent weeks. The site is now home to Daniel Negreanu and a new deal with the WSOP.

The site also made some news in April by adding some brand ambassadors. Popular French pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier becomes the latest player to join Team GGPoker.

Grospellier has more than $14.5 million in live tournament winnings and numerous major titles. That record includes WSOP, WPT, and EPT titles. 

“I am excited to join GGPoker, the most ambitious poker site,” he said in a news release. “With clear focus on software and making poker fun again, there has never been a better place to play online poker.”

The site added a champion of a different sort as well. Six-time tennis major winner Boris Becker will represent the brand and King’s Casino while playing online including the Super Series. A long-time poker player, Becker has lifetime live tournament earnings of more than $100,000.

GG continues to experience massive growth and is making a splash in the online poker market. It regularly rates as one of the top five platforms in the world in PokerScout.com traffic report.

Players lend a hand to media during pandemic

Poker players are a charitable lot and that continues during the Coronavirus pandemic. Poker Central, Global Poker, and the RunGood Poker Series have teamed up for the “Keep The Lights On” initiative.

As part of the campaign, a series of poker games will be streamed featuring poker personalities Jamie Kerstetter, Jeff Platt, and Brian “TheGoldenBlazer” Frenzel.

The three will play to raise money to support freelance poker media members affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Donations will be made in the form of pledges collected through the Keep the Lines On support site.

Streamers will play in 10 tournaments a day and pledges collected based on number of cashes. As of Friday, the site reported pledges of $26,000.

“Poker Central is built on celebrating and elevating every single aspect of the game of poker, and in order to do that, we rely on the poker industry media to keep us all informed and tell the impactful stories that shape our industry,” Poker Central chief business officer JR McCabe said.

“Our goal with this fund is to provide as much support as possible to those who have tirelessly supported when Las Vegas and the rest of the poker world was shining bright.”

All events will be played on the Global Poker site, which has seen record traffic during the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Giving back to those who cover our industry and keep poker thriving is essential in our eyes, which is why we are happy to provide the platform to this initiative” Global Poker general manager David Lyons said.

Frenzel is no stranger to raising money for the cause on Global. A 24-hour streaming effort in April helped raise almost $2,300.

Phil Hellmuth misses out on Netflix but helps to keep the lights on

Speaking of funds, 15-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and his agent Brian Balsbaugh reflected recently onTwitter about an opportunity missed. In 2004 or 2005, Balsbaugh negotiated an appearance for Phil Hellmuth at a Netflix event in New York City.

The company offered to pay in stock but Hellmuth and Balsbaugh took $25,000. At the time, Netflix was finding success renting DVDs by mail. Streaming movies and television shows wasn’t even part of the business at that point.

In ‘04 and ‘05, a share of Netflix went for around $3 to $5 (and even went below $2 at times). At $5 that would have meant 5,000 shares of the stock for that $25,000, depending on negotiations.

With Netflix closing at $420 a share on Thursday, that stock would have now been worth $2.1 million today. It may have been a missed opportunity, but Hellmuth certainly has done pretty well for himself either way.

The Poker Brat spread some good vibes last week. He added some of his own funds and promotional push to the Keep the Lights On initiative.

I’m pledging $5,000 dollars to this #POSITIVITY

Donate to “Keep The Lights On: Team PokerGO – https://t.co/PvLB3EurCR https://t.co/IQ0l6FkQpp

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) April 24, 2020

The post CHIP CHATTER: PokerStars PA/NJ, WSOP, GG Snags ElkY, Poker Charity, a Phil Hellmuth Netflix Story, and Much More appeared first on .

With most of the key hurdles behind them, the two international gambling giants expect their $6 billion union to close next week.

The post Save The Date: Stars Group, Flutter To Become One On May 5 appeared first on Online Poker Report.

A few major events came to a close over the last week, but some big tournaments remain for US-based online poker players. That includes the WSOP Spring Online Championships, new events from partypoker, and a freeroll to kick off another big series for Global Poker.

Here’s your guide for weekend events with a complete daily tournament schedule for May 1-3.

• Global Poker – Social media sweepstakes poker available throughout the US. Players can redeem Sweeps Coin winnings for real cash. The Home Series is over but the Rattlesnake Open III kicks off on Sunday with a SC15,000 freeroll.
• WSOP.com – Available in Nevada and New Jersey through a shred liquidity pool including 888poker in Delaware. Look for the Main Event on Sunday in the Spring Online Championships. The Player Appreciation tournament on Sunday includes an extra $6,000 in added prizes and a $100,000 guarantee.
• PokerStars – Available in NJ and PA. The site offers numerous daily events this weekend.
• Partypoker – Available in New Jersey including the BetMGM and BorgataPoker skins. The $10K Daily runs all weekend and a new $100,000 Phased Tournament and $35,000 Sunday event have been added.
• 888poker – Available in New Jersey and Delaware. Offers shared liquidity with WSOP.com.

US Weekend Poker Events May 1-3, 2020

The post US ONLINE POKER TOURNAMENT GUIDE: Weekend of May 1-3, 2020 appeared first on .

US casinos will likely begin to reopen before a vaccine is developed, creating the need for real solutions to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The post Six Ways Casinos Will Try To Reduce The Risk Of Contagion When They Reopen appeared first on Online Poker Report.

Playing in unregulated poker markets made news this week with glitches reported at Americas Cardroom (ACR). A firestorm erupted on social media as players complained of missing cards and other errors.

Poker sites are no stranger to player complaints, but actual gameplay errors are pretty rare. Poker pro Tony Ruberto posted a hand on April 26 where a river card was never dealt. Well technically the card was dealt, but not actually visible to players at the table.

Really tough to bluff this river @WPN_CEO @ACR_POKER . Your site is complete dog shit pic.twitter.com/xc4FCVdt9o

— Tony ruberto (@TonyImrunninout) April 26, 2020

A two-time WPT champion with more than $3.6 million in live tournament winnings, Ruberto has had similar problems several times. He’s frustrated with the site. 

“What kinda BS site is this?” he told USPoker. “But as we’re all locked down, options are limited. I guess my experience is less than optimal due to these issues.”

Numerous hand and poker gameplay errors reported

Ruberto isn’t alone. Other issues have come to light over the last week. Some wonder if the offshore site had been prepared for an onslaught of players during the Coronavirus pandemic.

ACR serves US players despite online poker being licensed and regulated on a state-by-state basis since Black Friday. Ruberto’s hand was just one of many game discrepancies posted in the last week.

“Bro you have to solve the riddle on the back of the card,” one Twitter user noted about the missing river card. “Why do you think you have a time bank?”

While there were plenty of funny comments, the issues reflect possible problems with overseas sites serving US players. Other recent ACR complaints have included:

• Players not getting dealt cards at all during a tournament, yet still making it in the money.
• Receiving only one card in Texas Hold’em.
• A hand labeled a “misdeal” – a rarity in online poker.
• Incorrect pot splits awarding a losing player in Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo.
• Bots and players with no screen names.
• Tournament suspensions at random.

Others have reported slow response times from customer service. Here’s a quick visual of just some of the hand complaints over the last few days.

Congratulations to on making the $$$ in this ACR main event with only a couple big blinds!!

Not being dealt in has helped him to stay alive as he attempts to climb the ladder further. We will cheer you on from afar.

The first time I’ve ever seen this.@p10jos pic.twitter.com/ccFdxNaTlu

— Joey Ingram #passion (@Joeingram1) April 27, 2020

This guy came to the table with less than a bb and never received a hand… I should be credited with 5th place money pic.twitter.com/WMLVn0WpWP

— Jen (@jensets) April 26, 2020

No lack of players, ACR attempting fixes

Despite these complaints, including slow payouts, many players continue to play at offshore sites. On April 26, three ACR tournaments were affected by players not receiving cards.

For its part, ACR has attempted to refund player funds and offer some information via social media. It also offers insight at a forum devoted to issues and complaints.

“The technical issues affecting the game have now been resolved,” the site noted on Twitter. “Our apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.”

ACR scheduled software updates for April 29. The current issues come after the operator gained some media attention in recent weeks after hosting a major charity tournament.

The event raised $1 million for Feeding America and featured celebrities like Tom Brady, Ben Affleck, Adam Sandler, and Matt Damon. But as Online Poker Report notes, “it also raised awareness for ACR, a site based in Costa Rica that does not serve customers in the US legally.”

The site has now made some news for other reasons and it remains to be seen how the issues will affect player pools. Complaints continued this week about glitches.

ACR needs to hire new developers – how can this happen so often ? https://t.co/gJqMUe8jUT

— Joey Ingram #passion (@Joeingram1) April 22, 2020

Painting a negative picture for the industry?

Situations like the problems at ACR may be specific to the platform, but exemplify the risk players may take offshore. US-facing sites in legal jurisdictions like Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania undergo scrutiny from state gaming regulators.

Legal online operators face similar laws as land-based casinos. However, some argue that the type of issues faced by players on ACR can go beyond simply getting correct payouts and missing cards. A lack of fair play and transparency can paint a negative picture of the legal, regulated online market in the process.

More… https://t.co/ZiJkiBrX3Z

— Cracking Aces (@CrackingAAces) April 27, 2020

Katie Stone and her husband Joe Cappuccio play online poker for a living in New Jersey. An ambassador for Borgata, she believes negative attention from sites like ACR hurt industry efforts at legalization in other states.

“The last thing we need to be doing right now is showcasing the downfalls of unregulated poker to a wide audience of regulators and consumers,” she told USPoker. “This results in constantly having to re-educate everyone on the differences between regulated and unregulated poker which delays progress and is detrimental to the industry overall.

“Regulated gaming solves the issues that are most important for the players: software functionality, game security, bots, prohibited software, etc. The desire for short term growth in the unregulated market can impede the growth of the industry worldwide.”

Legalized online poker in the US

The ACR issues come as the US industry has seen some momentum in recent years. West Virginia and Michigan both legalized online gaming in 2019 – including poker. That brings the number of legalized states to six.

The Coronavirus pandemic has also put the legal online market in the spotlight again. Operators have been reporting record player pools in recent weeks.

With sports betting also gaining so much traction recently, many hope online poker will benefit from loosening state gaming laws. In the US, the only legal regulated sites are:

• PokerStars – Pennsylvania and New Jersey
• WSOP.com – Nevada and New Jersey
• partypoker – New Jersey with the additional skins of BorgataPoker.com and BetMGM
• 888poker – New Jersey and Delaware

WSOP.com offers the only shared liquidity pool at the moment with NewJersey, Nevada, and with its partner 888 in Delaware and NJ. Other options for Americans include sweepstakes poker sites like ClubWPT and Global Poker.

But when it comes to offshore sites not regulated in the US, Stone offers some advice – avoid them.

The post ERROR MESSAGE: Offshore Online Poker Site Americas Cardroom Plagued By Week of Glitches appeared first on .

The future of the American sports betting industry remains promising, perhaps even record-setting next year, said gaming industry analyst and SpringOwl Asset Management CEO Jason Ader.

This year, though, amid a COVID-19 pandemic that has shut down sports with cascading detriment to sportsbooks and sports networks, is about mitigating damage and learning lessons on how to safeguard that future. This applies to sports leagues, broadcasters, gaming companies and state legislators.

Among the means is for states without legalized online gaming and casinos and online poker to get it immediately, says Ader in an expansive PlayUSA interview,

The industry will come back, he said. That includes Las Vegas, which will be priced to move, he said, whenever coronavirus allows.

Q: How is the sports betting and gambling industry doing to respond and maintain itself during the COVID-19 shutdown?

JASON ADER: I think it’s been very tough. I mean, the world has much bigger problems than gambling. The whole sports and broadcast industry has been turned upside down. And from that perspective, there’s just no sports, so there’s just no sports betting at all. And you can see, there’s been some effort to find obscure sports and even eSports, the NBA obviously doing eSports with some of the top players, but the lack of sports betting has been pretty devastating for the online gambling companies.

I don’t know what more I can say about the land-based companies. I mean, they’re closed. I think it’s pretty staggering and I think this number may be low, but I do think that the unemployment rate in Las Vegas was pretty close to 50%. They’re the people who work in the casinos, the people who service the casino, the limo drivers and the companies that do the linen washing. It’s just all completely out of work and just devastating to the economy and obviously devastating for the state. [Gaming] is a source of tax revenue which is important without a state income tax [in Nevada].

The gaming industry has been a pretty good partner to the municipalities that have legalized it.

I think just about every state that has some form of gaming, it’s a top-five – and it may even be top three- – contributor in terms of overall state revenue after obviously sales tax and income tax.

Is this the biggest challenge the industry has faced?

At this moment in time, it’s as bad as we’ve ever seen and because so much of the infrastructure is closed and honestly, I don’t think it’s clear to anybody when things will reopen and what life will be like.

Is everybody going to be rushing to Las Vegas to sit at a crowded blackjack table or sweaty nightclub or busy convention center? I don’t think right away. I mean that’s something that will take a little bit of an adjustment.

I do have some fascinating statistics that I’m gonna share with you: Italy is kind of the worst-hit market in the world, maybe, in terms of death and shutdown, certainly one of the worst and still heavily concentrated. For the month of March, online casino was up 30%. Three-zero. Online poker cash games were up 89% and tournament poker revenues were up 123%. So that’s pretty amazing online statistics. So one of the things I’ve been thinking about, will land-based companies who’ve been forced to close go out and start buying online companies? You see statistics like this and they’d be crazy not to.

I mean, you’d be crazy to have literally your entire business dependent upon land-based business where you see online growth, when everybody’s forced to stay at home and you don’t know how long this is going to last. Is this going to come back in the spring time and if it’ll come back next year if you’re not going to be able to leave your home?

How big a factor was online casino and poker in relation to the Italian market before gamblers there had no sports on which to bet?

It’s a pretty big business in Italy. It’s a legal business and PartyPoker recently sort of had come back into the market, but PokerStars is one of the dominant players. People are at home and so they’re playing more, playing more poker. Italy is a relevant market. It’s a top-10 market in the world for gaming. Most people don’t realize that.

Can you estimate the monetary impact of multiple months of lost sports betting in the United States, particularly March and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament?

Right now it’s down 90-plus percent. I’ve seen a lot of different numbers in terms of total revenue, but what I think the legal sports betting was on a pretty good clip to be $10 billion monthly, so $120- ish [in a year]. I really think it’s going to take several months to sort of get back, but I do think that there’ll be pretty decent pent-up demand.

I think that the U.S. sports betting, and this is for 2019 was just about billion [monthly], so the whole year was $11 billion.

There’s no really new state activity. So if you think about last year alone, it was $11 billion from sports betting and this yea it could be less than half that, but I do think next year it could very well exceed, if things normalized. 2021 could be bigger than 2019 because you’ve got the Olympics now, you’ve got the Euro Cup, you just got a lot of people who have learned how to use online gaming. You have a lot of states now that need revenues that are probably going to accelerate their plans to legalize online.

Will sports betting’s momentum as a business and a pastime more available to more people in the United States allow it to pick right back up where it left off when this is over?

It’s not going to be like that, because I think it’s been a bit too long. You’ve got a lot of people out of work, you got a lot of people who had economic damage. So the business, you can sort of flip a switch and say, ‘OK, the business is open,’ but demand is going to take some time.

Now there’s a lot of government programs that are in place. You’ve got very cheap money, you have the system flushed with liquidity. You can have follow-on Congressional activity to help small businesses. You’re going to see people get hired back, but it’s going to be like when you turn up a dimmer as opposed to a light switch.

I think we’ll get back to very strong, especially given the government fiscal and monetary stimulus that’s in place. But if everything sort of goes as planned and things in May are turned back on we could be by elections, in a much more normalized environment. We could be well on our way to a pretty strong recovery. But it’s going to take several months for that dimmer that’s almost off right now to come back on and to be producing bright lights again.

Given how bad the timing of this was in terms of March Madness, would you agree it’s crucial for sportsbooks is a return of the NFL in some capacity this fall?

I think that’s right. And again, I wouldn’t just frame this in the context of sports betting either. I mean, you’ve got gigantic television contracts, gigantic. The TV broadcasters need this and want this, too, because there’s advertisers that have made sales and there’s been advances to teams and there’s already discussions with the [soccer] teams and the clubs in Europe to pay back some of their broadcasts advance. So gaming, it’s like a derivative industry to a much bigger industry, which is broadcasting and advertising. And they all want it and they want it for their own selfish economic reasons.

And don’t lose sight of the fact that the sport is not about betting. The sport is about the broadcast and the business of sports. And, to some extent the gaming industry is the first and second derivative around that gigantic economy, which is FOX and Sky and NBC and ESPN and everything else.

What’s the forecast for the recovery of the Macau casino market?

They opened the border and there was this video that I saw with thousands of people rushing the border to get in. And they actually got pretty clean for a couple of days with COVID-19 cases, even no new cases. Everything seemed to be going great with Macau in the context of trying to make a comeback, but there was a re-emergence of some cases and it was hard to track because it’s Chinese statistics.

But borders opened up just to Chinese and Hong Kong residents. And when the borders opened up to Chinese and Hong Kong residents only, the people that got infected had been in Europe or elsewhere within the last 14 days. So what’s happened in Macau now is if you go over, it’s a pretty long border control.

Usually, you’d get through in an hour or less, maybe even a half hour if it’s not busy. And the border control is a bit extreme now. I’m seeing reports it’s taking six hours to get through the border. Nobody wants that.

But the bigger issue is the borders have tightened up again. If you leave Macau, you’re required to quarantine for 14 days. I don’t know if you’re required or suggested, but that’s sort of the deal-killer.

I’d say business is still down 88 to 90%. But you scrape a lot of travel and tourism data on Macau and the bookings, the interest in bookings from Chinese and throughout the Asia market is just extraordinary. When Macau does green-light this, I think it’s going be like a Chinese New Year demand, which is one of the strongest periods for the Macau market.

There’s just a lot of interest in returning as soon as the Chinese markets can and, obviously, Macau has built itself up now where it’s gone well beyond gaming and has the new spectacular entertainment there and restaurants and non-gaming activities have been a push by the Chinese government.

What will be the apprehension level of the gaming public or non-gaming tourists in returning to casinos or shows in Las Vegas?

I think it’s mixed. I think that the casino operators that I talked to are far too optimistic. I think they’re all hoping there will be some Memorial Day open. The rates are going to be spectacular. You’re going to be able to get gigantic rooms for like $100. And I think everybody has to drop rates to the absolute lowest level they’ve ever sold for as long as they need too.

And I think what you’ll see with Las Vegas is that you’ll see a complete sale this summer. Like, airfare, hotel, $200, over multiple nights, and then that’ll move up over time just to get people out there. So I’m sort of hearing the pricing strategies of Las Vegas as they think about reopening this summer and the prices are going to be amazing, if you don’t mind being in Las Vegas in the summer – and I’ve done it – it’s pretty hot. Even sitting by the pool can be uncomfortable.

But I do think there’s going to be a lot of people who want to go and get out and the deals they’re going to get are unbelievable. You could take a whole family to Las Vegas for like a week and have airfare included and it could be under a thousand dollars and that might even include the buffet, one or two buffet meals.

So we’re back to that, which is sort of how Vegas recovered post-financial crisis and post-recession in 2002. That’s the playbook. That’s the Vegas playbook. And price as a means for recovery becomes very compelling to conventions and meetings because conventions and meetings look at New York, look at Orlando. [You] can put the whole convention in Las Vegas and look at the room prices and look at the rates and people say, ‘Yeah, Vegas is pretty fun, let’s do that.’ So price as a weapon has always Las Vegas’s means to a recovery.

The post Top Gaming Industry Analyst: Moving Online Now Can Safeguard Gaming From Next Quake appeared first on Play USA.

NJSCOOP on PokerStars NJ wrapped up yesterday, concluding a successful series that saw close to $1.8 million awarded to New Jersey online poker players.

The post NJSCOOP Concludes, Awards Nearly $1.8M While Crushing Guarantees appeared first on Play NJ.