Opinion: Passing them by

I wonder what Las Vegas would look like today without Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson. Maybe it would be struggling like Atlantic City, finding it hard to compete with other casino destinations across the country. Instead, thanks to these gentlemen’s amazing hotels and enormous conference facilities, Las Vegas had more visitors than ever last year. And although the gaming revenue is still not quite back to the 2006-2007 levels, it has been steadily growing since 2009.

There are casinos all across the US today and people still fly to Vegas to have fun and gamble. And although Macau is a lot closer for people in, say, South Korea, many of them still fly to Las Vegas. Would they still come without casino/hotel complexes like Bellagio, Mirage and Venetian, which offer a great combination of entertainment and gambling? I doubt it.

I attended the recent G2E conference in Las Vegas and it was interesting to hear Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, who built these aforementioned casinos and hotels, speak about their opposition to online gaming.

“I take a pass on the internet,” as Steve Wynn put it. What do these (once) visionaries have against internet gambling? Why wouldn’t they embrace it and invest in it? Is it just a case of ‘success inertia’?

Steve Wynn did not mention online gaming in his keynote speech but when asked about it, he gave an interesting answer. He said he sided with his friend Sheldon Adelson and he listed a number of problems with online gaming in the US: Firstly, he said the states will tax it too heavily. It will be over-regulated, and that might spill over to land-based operations as well.

Underage gambling was also cited as a problem. For Wynn this seemed to be a pure business decision—he did not claim to have anything against it in principle. And I can both respect and understand his concerns, although I don’t share his conclusion.

Reasons and excuses

Sheldon Adelson seemed to be much more against online gaming in principle. He talked about how his father had gambled too much and that he had experienced first-hand what negative effects gambling can have on a poor family. From someone who has become the world’s 19th richest man (according to Forbes, July 2014) from casinos across the world it does sound hypocritical, to say the least, but it also sounded as though he meant it.

He went on to ask, rhetorically, why anyone would want to put a casino in every American’s hand (pointing to an imaginary mobile phone). He also said that poor people would be exploited by the industry and weak poker players would be “cleaned up” by sharp poker players.

He almost sounded like me when I argue for a Recreational Poker Model. But while I want to create a more level playing field, Adelson wants to stop weaker poker players from playing. Unless they come to the Venetian Poker Room, or any other Las Vegas poker room, of course. After a few good poker sessions at Venetian last week, I can confirm that they are already there.

Think of the children

Adelson also expressed fear over underage gambling and said that Know Your Customer (KYC) is impossible over the internet. “Kids will figure it out” he said and talked about how tech-savvy his grandchildren are. I didn’t hear him say anything about banning internet banking or any other forms of e-commerce though, just gambling.

Preventing kids from using their parents’ credit cards is something parents already have to deal with, with or without online gambling. Equally, I think it much more likely that a kid given a credit card would buy the latest computer game or pair of expensive designer trainers than play poker or bet on the 2.30 from Saratoga.

I don’t want to take anything away from these industry icons but I strongly disagree with them on this subject. Their business models are still very successful and internet gambling is not a threat to their businesses, but they are clearly not visionaries anymore. If they were, they would see the business potential here and not “take a pass on the internet.”