Bally Technologies has been bought out by Scientific Games for a reported $5 billion. According to the terms of the deal, Scientific Games will pay a figure of $3.3 billion and it will take over the $1.8 billion in debt owed by Bally’s. This places the deal at over $5.1 billion. The merger will see Bally’s absorbed into Scientific Games to form a massive gaming supplier company and lottery company.

Scientific Games Merger with Bally a Buffer to GTech and IGT

This will allow both companies to compete with the recently formed GTech and IGT merger. Back in July, it was announced that Italian GTECH (GTCH.MI) was ready to purchase US slots maker IGT (International Game Technology) for a staggering sum of $6.4 billion (inclusive of debt). The aforementioned deal was the biggest ever acquisition between a foreign gaming company and a US company.

Both Bally Technologies and Scientific Games have been snapping up various companies to expand their scope of operations. As the race continues between these operators, they have been adding to their portfolios to reach an even greater audience of gaming fans. Bally’s purchased SHFL Entertainment and Scientific Games bought WMS – the land-based/online slots manufacturer.

Bally’s Unique Jackpot System

Bally Technologies has a one-of-a-kind jackpot system and that is precisely why Scientific Games was eager to acquire it. Bally’s began as a pinball manufacturer in the 1920s and soon went into slots in the 1930s. As it grew, so it began manufacturing gaming equipment. Likewise, Scientific Games also has an interest in gaming equipment by way of its video lottery systems and table games.

Financial Benefits of the Merger

There are many benefits to the merger, including being able to combine the two companies for the purposes of creating cutting-edge gaming and technological products. Customers will be able to enjoy innovative solutions for all their gaming needs. Scientific Games is now ideally suited to becoming a strategic partner for many lottery and gaming providers. The cost savings that both companies are expected to enjoy will be significant. Both Bally Technologies and Scientific Games are likely to save $220m annually and $25m in capital expenses annually. This will be done through the consolidation of operations and efficiency in admin procedures, customer service, engineering and manufacturing.

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Las Vegas is no stranger to celebrities and powerful people. Among the many big-name individuals about to meet at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino are the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as well as Valerie Jarrett – President Obama’s top adviser. The issues that will be discussed include global monetary policy, and geopolitical uncertainty, followed by plenty of fun-filled entertainment at one of the most luxurious casino resorts on the Las Vegas strip – the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. Other notable powerbrokers who will be in attendance at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino include the chairwoman of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) Mary Schapiro. She was recently voted by Forbes Magazine as 56 on the list of the world’s most powerful women. The conference will be shrouded in secrecy, and the highest security protocols will be put in place for the dignitaries. The VIPs will be protected by as many as 30 bodyguards, and other Hollywood bigwigs including Francis Ford Coppola, NBA superstar Magic Johnson and Kevin Spacey will be in attendance.

The Bellagio Hotel and Casino Plays Host to Spectacular Gathering

Las Vegas has long been the happy hunting ground of high profile athletes, celebrities, superstars, politicians and business people. People like Al Pacino, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Robin Leach and others frequent the VIP establishments of this adult playground paradise. Last year, Al Pacino and Nicolas Sarkozy were meeting about a hedge fund conference in Las Vegas. The conference will be hosted again this year, and it is likely to be attended by some of the most notable millionaires and billionaires on the planet. SkyBridge Capital – a fund of hedge funds– and it is managed by Troy Gayeski. The precise details have not been revealed, but the conference will focus on charitable activities and political discourse. As yet, no information on the after parties, VIP dinners or gatherings has been mentioned. The list of investors and celebrities slated to meet at the conference earned in excess of $2 billion from their investments in hedge funds during 2013.

Lady Gaga Fires up the Crowds at the MGM Grand Garden Arena

Big name performers continue to dominate the action at the casinos across Las Vegas. Lady Gaga needs no introduction. Her recent concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena sold out and she mesmerized the crowds with her electric energy and stunning vocals. She’s known as an artist with plenty of ambience and she certainly didn’t disappoint on Friday night when she blew the crowds away with her performance and larger-than-life personality. Fans broke out in rapturous applause when she said “We have sent all the weird people outside and locked the freaking door!” Indeed she is one of the few pop artists who knows how to keep a Poker Face, and rightly so.

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James Packer’s gambling company – Crown Resorts Limited – has recently acquired the site that was formerly occupied by New Frontier Casino on the Las Vegas strip. A deal was struck whereby Packer’s gambling company agreed to pay $280 million for this new investment. The proposed new casino resort will be built by 2018 and is expected to occupy 34.6 acres of territory on the famed Las Vegas strip. Crown Resorts Ltd will work in partnership with the former president of Wynn Las Vegas, Andrew Pascal. This new initiative will be the third such attempt that Crown Resorts Ltd has made in Las Vegas. The two previous offerings failed to take off, including Cannery Casino Resorts LLC and Fontainebleau Resorts LLC. James Packer views this investment opportunity as a way to move beyond London, Melbourne and Perth to the gambling mecca of Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Expected to Boost Appeal for VIP Players

Crown Resorts Limited has been looking to Las Vegas to bolster its portfolio of casino offerings. This is especially important to the group’s VIP clients from Asia who like to fly to multiple gambling destinations around the world. The site for the new hotel and casino is approximately 1 mile away from The Flamingo, towards the north end of the Las Vegas strip. James Packer is confident that this latest attempt to capitalise on the gambling market in Las Vegas will bear fruit. However, Crown’s track record in Las Vegas is nothing to be proud of. Prior to the financial crisis, the company invested AU$792 million for a 20% share of the Fontainebleau Casino Resort. Several other investments were made in Harrah’s Entertainment Inc, Stations Casino Group as well as LVTI LLC. By 2009, all of those investments had degraded down to 0.

Crown Resorts Ltd bets Big on Vegas while Macau Declines

In much the same fashion, Crown Resorts Ltd has not received any earnings from its $320 million investment for a 24.5% stake in Cannery Casino Resorts LLC. This establishment is also located towards the northern end – just off the Las Vegas strip – towards the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. Around the world, Crown Resorts Ltd has also been hit by declining revenues in Macau. In the second quarter of 2014, revenues dropped by 3.6 percentage points to $3.56 billion. These figures are in line with the general trend taking place in Macau as a result of the Chinese crackdown on corruption on the mainland and surrounding territories.

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The recent crackdown by Beijing against corruption across the mainland and in Hong Kong is reversing strong growth in Asia’s biggest gambling market – Macau. Chinese high rollers are feeling the pinch, as evidenced by their reluctance to gamble in Macau. The world’s gambling mecca – no longer Las Vegas – reported a second straight month of declines in July, with a 3.6 percentage point drop from a year earlier. Allied with this decline are massive declines in high-end jewellery purchases, with a 20% drop during the month of June – for a fifth straight month of losses in Hong Kong.

Declining Numbers

The bulk of the traffic responsible for these sharp declines comes in the form of VIP players. It was these same players that put Macau on the map several years ago. These include the wealthy elite from China who frequent Macau casinos through intermediaries known as junkets. The number of high rollers visiting Macau dropped between 14% – 18% in July, in sharp contrast to the strong uptick in 2010 when their numbers increased by 70%. It is not only casino revenues that are declining, high-end luxury goods and jewellery sales have also been on a downward spiral. At the heart of this issue is the government’s clampdown on corruption which began two years ago.

Negative Revenues Becoming a Trend

The crackdown against corruption in China is likely to have a much more severe impact in the short term than previously expected. As for Macau, the last time it posted such negative revenue declines was during the financial crisis in 2009. In terms of actual numbers, Macau posted 7 times the revenue generated by Las Vegas in 2013 – that’s a whopping $45 billion in gambling funds. And of that figure, $30 billion came from the high rollers. The anti-corruption measures are focused on illegal transfers of funds to outside territories, and Macau is a big player in this industry. Politicians have been linked to the junkets and the transfer of funds from mainland China via the former Portuguese territory (Macau).

Chinese High Rollers Stay Away

Chinese players are reluctant to get embroiled in a sticky situation with the government, vis-a-vis corruption and the junkets. As it stands, the government in Beijing put strict limits on how much money the Chinese can remove from the mainland. Major casino resorts in Macau including Wynn Resorts Ltd and Las Vegas Sands Corporation have both posted losses during the last month, falling short of analyst expectations. However, casino executives remain optimistic as they feel that larger numbers of low-end gamblers are making their way to Macau casinos. In terms of actual figures, Macau gambling continues to grow at a rate of approximately 33% annually.

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On July 21^st, 2014, a Las Vegas player was given 3 years probation for his participation in an illegal bookmaking scheme. Mitchell Garshofsky, a 54 year-old sports bettor and poker player, was sentenced to 6 months on house arrest complete with electronic monitoring in accordance with the terms of his probation.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey also ordered Garshofsky to serve 100 hours of community service and fined him $10,000. Richard Wright, Garshofsky’s defense attorney said his client is a religious, honest man who is truly sorry for what he has done.

Garshofsky along with his co-defendant Aaron Virchis both pled guilty in April to 1 count of felony operation of an illegal gambling enterprise. Both defendants forfeited approximately $1 million to the government.

IRS agents led a financial crimes task force which raided Garshofsky’s home to seize evidence of the illegal bookmaking operation. The evidence that was found linked the illegal bookmaking business to offshore gambling operations. The evidence suggests that Virchis and Garshofsky were communicating with offshore betting sites like Matchbook, BetCRIS and Pinnacle Sports.

First Female Gaming Regulator Inducted into Gaming Hall of Fame

The first female gaming operator in the casino industry has been inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. On July 21^st, 2014, the American Gaming Association (AGA) announced its list of inductees. The list includes Patricia Becker who was a member of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, Caesars Executive Vice President Jan Jones Blackhurst, gaming attorney Bob Faiss and Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association Ernie Stevens.

The ceremony will be held on September 29^th, 2014 at the Global Gaming Expo which is taking place in Las Vegas. Patricia Becker served on the Gaming Control Board in 1983. She was appointed by Governor Richard Bryan and she is the only woman who has served full time on Nevada’s regulatory panel.

After Becker served as a regulator, she had several executive positions with Harrah’s Entertainment and Aladdin Gaming. She also served on a number of boards for technology and gaming companies. She was also chief of staff for Governor Bob Miller for two years and was the Executive Director at the UNLV International Gaming Institute for five years.

Jones Blackhurst served two terms as the mayor of Las Vegas – she was the first female mayor of that city. She began working for Caesars in 1999 and is currently the head of government relations, corporate responsibilities and communications.

Faiss, who passed away in June, was a historian of Nevada gaming law and casino industry expansion for 40 years. Faiss was also a partner at the Lionel Sawyer & Collins law office and was the chairman of the gaming and regulatory law department.

Stevens is the second Indian gaming Hall of Fame inductee and currently serves as the leader of the National Indian Gaming Association. He is part of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and has been involved in Indian gaming since 1993.

While it was not like the operation in Ocean’s Eleven, the casino heist that took place in Atlantic City on July 21^st, 2014 was just as brazen. A manhunt began on July 22^nd, 2014 in search of two masked robbers who stole over $180,000 at gunpoint from an Atlantic City casino according to local media.

State Trooper Alina Spies spoke to USA Today and said that the New Jersey State Police were currently investigating a robbery that took place at Caesars Atlantic City. At the time of the interview, Spies said that the amount of money that was stolen was not disclosed. Spies did not provide any additional information on the case for fear of compromising the investigation.

NBC 10 in Philadelphia, PA and Press of Atlantic City reported that local police said that the two robbery suspects went into the casino around 6 in the morning. In addition, police say that at least one of the robbers pulled a gun before they took two boxes that contained over $180,000 in cash. The robbers then left the casino by car.

Currently, the New Jersey State Police Gaming Bureau is in charge of investigating the case. They indicated that the robbery happened inside the casino which makes it within the jurisdiction of the Gaming Bureau. The Atlantic City police investigate crimes in public areas and in hotels. Casino heists actually do not occur all that often especially with the advent of advanced security systems employed by casinos.

Daring Heists and Hollywood Getaways

One of the most incredible casino heists occurred in 2010 at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In that heist, a single robber wielding a gun walked into the casino and was wearing a white motorcycle helmet to conceal his identity. The robber, later determined to be Anthony Carleo, pointed his gun toward a craps table, stuffed the casino chips into his fanny pack and then ran out of the casino and fled the scene on his motorcycle. While it took a few months, police were able to identity and find Carleo who is now serving a prison sentence for his crimes.

Another notable casino heist occurred in 2012 in Ohio. David Hayes had been visiting a local casino and was subsequently robbed of his winnings which were worth $35,800. Matters got even worse for Hayes in 2010 when he was caught stealing from his workplace – a jewelry store. Hayes was stealing to get money for his gambling problem.

Atlantic City Fading Fast

The heist is not the only tough break for Atlantic City casinos as they continue to experience declines in revenue for the past 8 years. The losses continue to pile up when the Revel Hotel and Casino, which was opened in 2012, filed for bankruptcy a second time. The Trump Plaza and Showboat, two of the older casinos, will be closing in the fall of 2014.

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