Trends In The Casino Industry in 2016

The gambling at Las Vegas Strip had great years until 2007 with revenues of $6.84 billion. This figure declined to $5.54 billion the year after the economic recession which hit the casino industry pretty hard. The revenues have started to rebound all over the world since 2010.

The world has seen significant growth in the coming years as other countries have legalized the casinos and online gambling has risen in popularity.

Expansion Trends in the Casino Industry

UK

A large Las Vegas-style casino resort opened near Birmingham in October 2015. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, as most casino development operations have been stalled in the UK. The country focused hard to develop online casinos instead.

Meanwhile, we can ask ourselves the following question: “Is the UK the next Las Vegas?”

After 10 years since the Gambling Act was created, “super casino” projects started to be developed within the UK, leading to a boom in the gambling industry on the old island. We could say that the future of UK casino industry in sunny.

One of the CEOs of a large casino operator in the UK, Bea Stevens from Aspers, said that UK casinos have taken huge advantage of Britans’ wide acceptance of gambling in general. In addition to this, the relaxation of membership laws now means that anyone can simply walk in off the street to play blackjack or roulette. If we dig even further, we could say that gambling venues are not just casinos any more: they are more focused on entertaining, dining and grabbing a drink than they where 15 years ago.

As the Las Vegas Strip moves into a completely new era of gambling venues, where millionaire DJs are the main draw rather than a jackpot and where 20-somethings are the main target market, the UK industry is slowly catching up. With casinos in the UK are more popular than ever, we expect this trend to continue.

US

In the US, the Las Vegas Strip offers great revenue for the big players, but they are looking for ways to expand their business. Las Vegas Sands owns The Palazzo and The Venetian, two properties that boast a revenue of almost $600 million per year.

The giant Wynn company is working hard to expand its operations that are not in the Las Vegas Strip to help boost its domestic growth. Figures indicate that Boston casino will help the giant diversify its assets in the US. Wynn Resorts operates another two big resorts in this region: Encore and Wynn Las Vegas Resort – both of which reported revenues of over $700 million.

Speaking of MGM Resorts, the company operates 16 casinos in the US and boasts a whopping $2.8 billion in revenue per year. Now, these big boys want to expand. For instance, Wynn has won a bid to build a large casino resort just outside Boston, the largest city in Massachusetts.

On the same note, New York awarded licenses to three multi-million casino projects at the end of December, 2015: Montreign Resort Casino, Rivers Casino & Resort, and Lago Resort & Casino. These casinos are expected to create over 3,300 permanent jobs in the US.

East Asia: Gambling Growth For The US Casino Operators

While the United States provides growth in other sources, it’s equally essential for the big casino companies to expand their businesses internationally for additional growth. Macau has been one of the core gambling destinations recently with a powerful growth potential in the following years.

Asia boasts a huge number of players, so why not take advantage of this? On the same note, all major casino companies, including Las Vegas Sands, MGM, and Wynn are developing new businesses to improve their presence in this region. The Wynn company is working a new casino resort, Wynn Palace, in Macau. The casino resort will feature 400 gaming tables and 2,000 hotel rooms. It will cost around $3.6 billion and will be operational by mid-2016.

Australia

The latest Australian government’s review of the 2001 Interactive Gambling Act will definitely not attempt to block any gambling in 2016. Most operators are already providing online in-play wagering and betting via voice-recognition smartphone and tablet apps so the government will have to accept the inevitable and explicitly legalize this practice.

In addition to this, the Australian government will also end the Northern Territory online licensing party by allowing individual Australian states to impose a point of consumption tax. Aussie states have long protested receiving no tax benefit from NT operators’ dealings and businesses with their state’s residents, and domestic corporate bookies have complained much about Northern Territory operators receveing a free ride while they pay a lot. Therefore, the new law is a real crowd-pleaser, a great decision for legislators.

France

France reported on January 21 an increase in net revenue generated by the country’s casinos for the very first time in 7 years.

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French casino companies seek to expand beyond their historic hunting grounds of fantasic holiday resorts in search of way younger customers.

We’re talking about an industry that has managed to thrive despite a century-old ban and strict regulation in the capital Paris. We’re talking about an industry that is now eyeing big cities where it was once unwelcome.

It seems that cash-strapped countries look for more revenue, as it is the case with Brazil’s fiscal crisis, and casino operators are ready to offer their business in exchange for a place to open new casinos. In a remarkable turn of events, the mayor of Marseille, a city from the southern coast of France, has just opened the way for new casino operations in the Mediterranean port city of more than 850,000 people, where 1 in 4 people lives below the poverty line.

A next big step for France would be to allow casino operatios in Paris, where no casinos are allowed inside the capital or anywhere within a radius of a staggering 100 km under a law dating back to 1907.

What Casinos Have Been Opened Lately?

• Nambé Falls Casino – Santa Fe, New Mexico (opened January 17th, 2016)
• Winford Hotel & Casino – Manila, Phillipines (opened January 6th, 2016)
• Desert Diamond Casino – West Valley – Glendale, Arizona (opened December 20th, 2015)
• Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort, D’Iberville, Mississippi opened December 9th, 2015)
• Resorts World Birmingham, Birmingham, England (opened October, 26th, 2015)
• Tigre de Cristal Vladivostok, Russia (opened October 6th, 2015)
• Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino, Murphy, North Carolina (opened September 28th, 2015)
• Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino, Jeju, South Korea (opened September 15th, 2015)

What Land-based Casinos Will Be Opened Soon?

• Whitesands Casino Samoa – Apia, Samoa, Opens February 12th, 2016. It will feature: Roulette, Blackjack, Baccarat, Slot machines, Parking, Jack Pot Poker, Valet Parking
• Shooting Star Casino Bagley – Bagley, Minnesota, USA, Opens April 1st, 2016. It will feature: Open 24/7, Parking, Slot machines, Native Casino
• Buffalo Rivers Casino & Lodge – Poplar, Montana, USA, Opens May 1st, 2016. It will feature: Texas Hold’em, Slot machines, Poker Room, Open 24/7, Valet Parking, Parking, Native Casino
• 7 Clans Perry Casino – Perry, Oklahoma, Opens May 1st, 2016. It will feature: Slot machines, Blackjack, Texas Hold’em, Dining, Parking, Poker Room, Native Casino
• The Baha Mar Casino and Hotel – Nassau, New Providence, Opens June 1st, 2016. It will feature: Roulette, Blackjack, Slot machines, Open 24/7, Valet Parking, Accommodations
• Montreign Resort Casino in Thompson, New York. It will be an 18-story casino tower and hotel with meeting space, an indoor waterpark, and a wide number of food and beverage options.
• Lago Resort & Casino in Tyre, New York – 2,000 slot machines, 85 gaming tables and a 207-room hotel.
• Rivers Casino & Resort at Schenectady’s Mohawk Harbor, New York – 1,100 slot machines, 66 gaming tables.

Exotic Casino Destinations: A Rise in Popularity

Macau, the former Portuguese colony, has had a tremendous rise in popularity in the last years. Now, in a remarcable turn of events, with lavish shows and new malls, Macau is hoping to replace high rollers with middle-class families. The recent bet on the continued prosperity of the middle class is a safe one. More than 850,000 tourists from mainland China visited Macau in 1999; in 2013, that number had grown to 17 million. Things have gotten crazy in China, and Macau, as the only place in China where gambling is legal, is a monument of endless possibility.

Singapore has been relaxing its grip in the last couple of years. The country’s founder, Lee Kuan Yew, once said that casinos would exist in Singapore only over his dead body. As a true opponent of gambling, Singapore adamantly rejected casino gambling for decades, fearing the emergence of addiction, prostitution, money-laundering, and other issues associated with gambling.

But two casinos have opened here in 2010 – as grandiose as anything in Macau or Monte Carlo – entirely transforming Singapore’s landscape.

Countries That Are In The Process of Gambling Legalization

Japan.

Japan’s long journey to legalizing gambling venues recently entered a decisive phase after a bill to allow the opening of gambling-based Integrated Resorts was submitted to the country’s parliament a few months ago. The bill is supported by a coalition that includes the Party for Future Generations, in addition to representatives from Japan’s Innovation Party, and the country’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The parliament had to discuss the bill by August, but they decided to once again delay it.

France.

France has been getting much money from casino-related activities in 2015, mainly from taxes, and the government has seen pressure from different parties to legalize gambling in Paris and other big cities where it is forbidden.

Brazil.

Brazil is in a deep fiscal crisis and could allow gambling for the first time in 70 years, as the parliament is ready to discuss the new bill in 2016. Although this is not the first time when senators try to introduce the new law, let’s hope they will manage to do it soon.

We’ve discussed more about this topic in a news article on our website.

And That’s That

We’ve just seen a year in the rearview and a fresh one looming on the horizon. We hope 2015 was great for everyone reading this and that 2016 is way better. Leaving the aggravations aside, this is a remarkable and dynamic industry and we will all be taken by surprise by market shifts and innovations that no one sees coming.

Meanwhile, read our in-depth, jaw-dropping casinos reviews and follow us on social media to get the latest news from the gambling industry delivered to your news feed.