With casinos launching fireworks throughout the Independence Day weekend, Las Vegas police are out in “full force” patrolling the streets, according to Capt. Dori Koren.

In a post on his Twitter account, the police captain said the Fourth of July weekend is “Captain America’s favorite weekend.” On his Twitter feed, Koren identifies himself as the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s “Captain for the Las Vegas Strip.” 

One recent tweet features a brief video of several officers on the Strip, with Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” accompanying the video.

We’re expecting another sold-out weekend for July 4th,” Koren recently tweeted. “And we’ll be out in full force to help keep things safe.”

Based on pre-pandemic Fourth of July visitor volume, at least 300,000 tourists were expected in the Las Vegas Valley for Independence Day this year. In 2018 and 2019, an estimated 330,000 visitors attended July 4 celebrations in the valley, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. These visitors spend an estimated $235 million each year, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. 

Amanda Belarmino, a UNLV hospitality professor, told the newspaper the US is experiencing a “surge of traveling and spending.” The July 4 weekend is expected to be big across the country, including Las Vegas, she said.

“In a way, it’s really New Year’s Eve ,as it’s the beginning of the post-COVID-19 world,” she said.

Tourists Return

At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year, casinos were closed across Nevada for 11 weeks, reopening early June 2020. For a year, the hotel-casinos were required to follow state COVID-19 restrictions, including capacity limitations. The resorts were allowed last month to begin operating again at full capacity. 

With the national rollout of vaccines and stimulus checks, tourists have returned to Las Vegas in increasingly larger numbers. In May, almost 2.9 million tourists visited the city, the third straight month with more than 2 million visitors.

In welcoming tourists for July 4 celebrations, Koren said on Twitter, “We’ll have a lot of cops out this weekend, so have fun, but remember the ‘no limit’ thing is just a poker term.”

During most weeks, Koren is active on Twitter, showing photographs of firearms and illegal narcotics that police have confiscated on the Strip and nearby tourists areas. One recent tweet showed a gold-plated AK-47 that police retrieved from a criminal suspect.

Fireworks Scheduled

Two casinos celebrating anniversaries already have staged fireworks shows leading up to July 4. The off-Strip Palace Station and the Plaza Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas began the celebrations with fireworks on July 1. 

The Palace Station is celebrating its 45th anniversary. It originally opened as The Casino before changing its name to the Bingo Palace and finally the Palace Station. 

Known as the Union Plaza at first, the Plaza opened 50 years ago on Main Street where the passenger train station was located for decades.

Also on July 4, seven resorts on the Strip are scheduled to participate in fireworks shows beginning at 11 pm. These casinos are The Strat, Resorts World Las Vegas, Treasure Island, Caesars Palace, Aria, The Venetian, and Planet Hollywood. Other resorts in the Las Vegas Valley also are planning to celebrate with fireworks on July 4.

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Online casino games developer Playson has further expanded its Lithuanian foothold thanks to a recent partnership with locally licensed sports betting and iGaming operator 7bet.

Under the terms of the deal, Playson will supply its entire library of innovative online slots to its newest operator partner.

Licensed by Lithuanian authorities, 7bet is a young online casino and sports betting operator providing its services to local players and sports fans. While newly launched, the brand already enjoys great popularity with Lithuanian online gambling customers.

Through its partnership with Playson, 7bet will benefit from the provider’s highly successful and hugely popular gaming titles, including hit slots Wolf Power: Hold and Win, Legend of Cleopatra: Megaways, and Solar King, among others.

This new deal comes as part of Playson’s continued effort to introduce its content to new audiences across the globe. It also sees the company strengthen its position in the Lithuanian market and the Baltic region, as a whole.

In Lithuania, Playson’s portfolio of online slots has already been live with a number of market-leading local operators, including TOPsport, among others, as it continues to expand its regulated presence across Europe and beyond.

Fantastic to Be Involved with 7bet

Commenting on their latest partnership with an iGaming operator, Playson Sales Director Blanka Homor said that it is fantastic to be involved with 7bet and its new online casino from day one and that they are thrilled this gambling company, as many others, “has entrusted our content to build its online offering and have no doubt that it will attract an impressive number of players across Lithuania.”

Ms. Homor went on to say that they are ready to continue to go above and beyond for partners around the world with their state-of-the-art games catalog and a suite of integration-free engagement and retention tools.

7bet Head of Marketing Andrius Lapienis said that Playson’s “world-class content portfolio speaks for itself” with its “enthralling succession of recent slot launches”, along with a range of classic slot hits that have proved consistently popular.

Mr. Lapienis went on to say that they were very keen to integrate the studio’s products within their new online casino operation and that they look forward to “cultivating a commercial relationship of strong mutual benefit going forward.”

Playson currently supplies its games in more than 18 regulated markets. The company boasts a portfolio of 75 innovative online casino games and its content is licensed in the UK, Romania, and Greece, and is certified in a number of other jurisdictions.

News about the company’s partnership with 7bet emerged shortly after it announced expansion in another attractive market through a deal with a local operator. Last month, Playson teamed up with Admiralbet.rs to further grow its Serbian foothold.

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The Gila River Indian Community is set to build its fourth casino in Arizona after the state signed a historic compact with local tribes in April to pave the way for at least four new Las Vegas-style gambling venues and legal sports betting.

Gila River Indian Community has revealed plans to develop its new casino on community trust land south of Gilbert Road and Hunt Highway, south of the City of Chandler.

The tribe currently operates gambling venues at Wild Horse Pass, which is currently undergoing a $143 million expansion, and Lone Butte in Chandler and Vee Quiva in Laveen.

The new facility is expected to cost more than $100 million and to feature all of the new games allowed under the recently inked compact, including new table games and sports betting. A community representative said that plans could be expanded to include a hotel.

Construction is projected to take between a year and a half and two years. The new gambling venue is expected to generate approximately 1,000 new permanent jobs once fully operational. The tribe’s Community Council approved the scheme, including a design and construction budget, at a June 18 meeting.

The Gila River Indian Community reservation spreads over nearly 600 square miles south of Phoenix.

New Casino Comes as “Historic News”

Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis said in a recent statement that their fourth casino is “historic news” for the community and that they have been negotiating a new gambling deal with the state for years.

He went on to say that the addition of a new gambling venue will bring “additional revenue, security, and critical services to Community members.” He also pointed out that they expect many of the jobs the multi-million-dollar project will create to be filled by Community members.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and the state’s tribes in April signed an agreement that marked the biggest update and expansion of gambling in the state in many years. It allowed sports betting and expansion at existing casinos as well as the addition of at least four new gambling venues, including at least two in metro Phoenix.

When Gov. Ducey signed the compact a couple of months ago, Mr. Lewis said the tribe did not yet know where and when it would build its fourth casino. He said at the time that the matter had to be “definitely studied” and that they wanted to “grow the market, but we want to grow it responsibly.”

Plans for one more tribal casino have recently surfaced. The Tohono O’odham Nation has said could build a metro area facility near Loop 303 and Northern Parkway in the West Valley.

Of news about the new Gila River Indian Community casino, some Chandler residents have responded with concerns. Tribal representatives said that they will be reaching out to the future gambling venue’s host community to address concerns such as increased traffic and other issues that may arise once the property opens doors.

Source: Gila River Indian Community plans 4th metro Phoenix casino south of Chandler, The Arizona Republic, June 28, 2021

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The Illinois Gaming Board has given the green light to Hard Rock and its local partners to commence construction work on a temporary casino in Rockford.

However, the gaming facility’s owner, 815 Entertainment LLC, was told by the regulator that it must secure a permit to operate the temporary casino as well as to have its security and surveillance plans approved by board members in order to be able to launch the venue.

Rockford was one of six Illinois cities that were approved to host casinos under a sweeping gambling expansion bill that Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed into law in the summer of 2019. A few months later, the Rockford City Council selected Hard Rock out of three finalists that sought to build the city’s first casino.

Earlier this month, the Illinois Gaming Board allowed 815 Entertainment to seek construction approvals for both the temporary facility and the permanent location in the first major step forward for the project in a while. The regulatory agency also approved a list of 51 investors involved in the scheme and granted a supplier license to the company behind the proposed casino.

Hard Rock and its local partners can now move onto transforming a 38,000-square-foot restaurant and banquet hall into a temporary gaming location. Developers plan to spend $8.8 million into renovating the Giovanni’s site at 610 N. Bell School Road to turn it into a casino.

The Casino Project

The temporary site will feature 736 slot machines, two restaurants, and possibly a Rock Shop selling Hard Rock memorabilia. The smaller casino will remain operational for two years while the main casino resort is under construction.

The permanent $311 million gaming complex will be located at the former site of the Clock Tower Resort on East State Street near the I-90 entrance. It will feature a 65,000-square-foot casino with an initial 1,500 slot machines, 55 table games, and a sportsbook, a Hard Rock Café, and a 1,600-seat Hard Rock Live concert venue. Investors have said there will be room for future expansion projects at the gaming floor. The future resort will also offer three restaurants and two quick service cafés, among other amenities.

Commenting on the recently granted construction approval, Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara said that “this is a huge accomplishment for our community, and it will bring hundreds of construction jobs to Rockford.”

The official also pointed to the fact that the Rockford casino project is the first of six casino locations approved under the state’s 2019 gambling expansion to be given the nod to begin construction.

Source: Gaming board ok’s construction of temporary Rockford casino, The News & Observer, June 26, 2021

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Caesars Entertainment will get to operate three casinos in Indiana thanks to a ruling Thursday by that state’s gaming regulatory body.

The Indiana Gaming Commission voted 4-1 to accept a request by the Las Vegas-based company to take Horseshoe Hammond off the market.

Last July, the IGC approved the $17.3 billion acquisition of Caesars by Eldorado Resorts, which then took on the gaming giant’s name. At that time, Eldorado owned Tropicana Evansville. Caesars owned Horseshoe Hammond, Caesars Southern Indiana, Harrah’s Hoosier Park, and Indiana Grand.

However, the commission stipulated its approval with the requirement that the newly merged company sell three of its five casinos by the end of last year. At the time, those five casinos accounted for 61.1 percent of the adjusted gross revenues the state’s 13 licensed casinos generated.

The new Caesars sold the Tropicana Evansville to Bally’s in October and then reached a deal with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to sell Caesars Southern Indiana in December. Last November, the IGC gave Caesars an extra year to find a buyer for Horseshoe.

The Bally’s deal officially closed earlier this month, and Caesars CEO Tom Reeg told IGC commissioners the Caesars Southern Indiana sale should close in the next three months.

Hammond Mayor Expressed Concern About Sale

At Thursday’s IGC meeting, Caesars CEO Tom Reeg told commissioners he did a “poor job” in answering questions from them about their concerns over market concentration. Last July, he tried to get them to sign off on Caesars selling just two properties.

However, since that time, there have been some new developments in the Chicago-Northern Indiana market. Some, like the opening of Hard Rock Northern Indiana in nearby Gary, were expected.

Reeg noted that others, such as the Class III gaming compact approval for the Four Winds tribal casino in South Bend, were “not on the table” a year ago. The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians had expressed interest in a Class III license, but an agreement on the compact wasn’t reached until January and approved by lawmakers until April.

Caesars also got support from Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., who wrote to the IGC earlier this month and lobbied on Caesars’ behalf. He said forcing the company’s hand to sell the state’s biggest casino put the northwest Indiana community at risk.

“Divestiture of Hammond’s license I believe allows for investment by a casino company with less of a track record and less of a name than Horseshoe and Caesars,” the mayor wrote. The new Caesars management “has proven themselves to me and to our city since becoming owners of the city’s most important private industry.”

Caesars Indiana Market Share Coming Down

Based on the IGC’s financial report for May, the adjusted gross revenues for Hammond ($38 million), Indiana Grand ($30.1 million), Hoosier Park ($21.2 million), totaled $89.3 million. With a statewide total of $239.4 million, which does not count revenues for the Four Winds casino, those three venues held a 37.3 percent share.

That percentage, though, is likely to drop even more because those figures included Hard Rock’s $21 million in revenues, and that casino was only open for 18 days. Eventually, a planned casino for Terre Haute, whose original license holder saw its permit not renewed at Thursday’s meeting, may also cut into that as well, Reeg said.

“We would expect, given all the competitive openings that we expect to hit Northern Indiana, that (market share) would eventually settle in the low thirties, which is frankly much more in line with what you see in other jurisdictions and where Indiana has been in the past,” Reeg told the commissioners.

However, Commissioner Marc Fine brought up a couple of issues about waiving the requirement to sell. He felt a gaming company with a market share in the low 30 percent range was still too concentrated, and he raised concerns that allowing Caesars to have that much market share would lead to “more concentration than we want” in the years ahead.

He said the commissioners made the right move last year.

I would love to see Caesars stay in Hammond. I think it would be awesome,” said Fine, who cast the lone no vote in the decision. “But we didn’t select the properties for divestiture. These were selected by Caesars. So, if they truly want to stay in Hammond, they should stay Hammond. They have other licenses and other properties that they can consider.”

However, Fine’s colleagues opted to approve the request, citing the concerns from Hammond as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty regarding the Chicago area gaming market.

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