internationalcasinoreview Comment Casino Review


International Casino Review reaches a huge milestone this month with this being our 100th issue to roll off the presses and what an amazing 100 months it’s been. Editor Phil Martin reviews the first 100 front pages.


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Having launched in October 2002, Casino Review has seen an incredible amount of change in its first 100 issues. Whilst some parts of the casino sector have been turned upside down, reinvented and changed beyond all recognition, others have been turned inside out, only to remain pretty much the same.


Launching as a European facing publica- tion the headline grabbing story in our first ever issue was focussed on expansion in the Baltic State of Lithuania. Gaming growth across the Baltic’s would be a common theme for many issues to come as compa- nies such as Olympic Casinos ploughed a slot trail through the Eastern European leisure sector. Another notable story was The Moon resort, a project unveiled in Las Vegas but destined never to see the light of day. In that sense it was the first of many that Casino Review would cover illustrating the imagination and creativity that casinos allowed as development projects, even if many never make it out of the design studio. Hugh Hefner also graced the front page as Bally introduced its Playboy slot machine to the world, a slot that would still be wowing slot players and demanding new releases 100 issues later.


In September 2003, big expansion plans


were set in the UK. ‘Size will matter when it comes to rebuilding the Kingdom’ our head- line roared with a government position paper suggesting 10,000 square feet resort casinos should be given unlimited machine entitle- ments. If only! Russian reform reared its head by June


50 February 2011 •comment


2004 but no one could predict the blanket ban that would eventually fall. A beautifully conceived land grab off the shores of Monte Carlo never saw the light of day from July 2004 but by December 2004, things were finally shaping up in the UK. The ‘Great British race’ was ‘on for eight regional casinos. The free market approach had been kicked into touch but super casinos were still being linked with everything from football clubs, shopping centres, exhibition halls and failed government Millennium celebration projects. Russia was also running away with itself too although its super casinos were already fully functional whilst slots were springing up everywhere, to the industry’s eventual detriment as it would turn out. By November 2005 and perhaps growing weary of the UK’s meandering approach to liberalisation, Harrah’s was starting to look elsewhere for its first European casino, signing up with Slovenian group HIT for a project that like all those UK super casinos would never see the light of day. A similar story surfaced in July 2005, when Euro Vegas was launched in Hungary. It would draw busi- ness from the Golden Triangle linking Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava or not as the case would later prove.


Further frustrations followed with the Daily


Mail’s middle England axe falling on the eight super casinos by August 2006. ‘Britain to move forward with just one super casino’ we reported not knowing then that that too would be scrapped as the British govern- ment looked to perform more about turns than its Queen’s army ever had. By November the writing was on Putin’s wall for Russia when the four zones were reported for the first time. If only it had also been the last. By January 2007 Harrah’s had set its sight on Spain as expansion into Europe became a clear but ever frustrating goal.


‘Sol Kerzner leads the race to build Man-


chester’s super casino’ dominated the front page in March 2007. Manchester was the surprise winner of the country’s first super casino, the main surprise being that by August the UK’s ‘Super casino farce’ was ‘now dead in the water.’ A change in the man in charge of the country saw him drop this political hot potato without even touching it


and Manchester would end up with nothing apart from a ban on any new 1968 casino licences. By April 2008 Casino Review had gone international and the focus was now on which far eastern country was going to tap into Asia’s casino success. Singapore had finalised its operators and Thailand was leading the pack as the next to launch a tender.


By September 2008 the recession had


really taken a hold and ‘Distressed US Casinos’ were ‘at risk of defaults. Those that borrowed most were hit hardest and sud- denly Chapter 11 wasn’t a bankruptcy plan that conjured memories of The Aladdin but something discussed in many board rooms across Las Vegas.


The clock was now ticking for Russian operators with a ban to kick in in July 2009, whilst venues were also being closed down across Eastern Europe with Ukraine and Estonia making the headlines for the wrong reasons.


By January 2009 the focus for Las Vegas


groups was very much the Far East with ‘MGM to star on Vietnamese Strip’ making the front page in a story yet to be concluded. Only a month later a ‘Taiwanese vote brings casinos one step closer’ was the lead story despite a referendum on Pengu ultimately halting any plans.


Chapter 11 was still rife with Trump making


the front page in March 2009 and MGM warning of possible defaults a month later. Having been spoon-fed on an editorial diet based on new opening after new opening, the good news stories from Nevada were drying out quicker than the desert air with project funding collapsing, left, right and CityCenter. Indeed the problems were piling up for CityCenter in May, Russia closed over night in July and EuroVegas was back on in August. The recession’s silver lining surfaced on the front page of September 2009 with the ‘US set for unprecedented gambling expan- sion.’ Faced with cavernous cuts in their budgets new states were looking at bringing in casino gaming and whilst Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and Delaware would all later prosper, Atlantic City would be hit even harder. If it didn’t rain it poured on the East Coast resort’s financial health. Macau bounced back in October proving


its unrelenting resilience in face of the reces- sion and by the first issue of 2010 CityCenter was ‘upping the ante as MGM’ reinvented Vegas. The US$8.2 to 11bn CityCenter project became the largest privately financed development in the United States when it opened. It is also perhaps the biggest gamble ever placed on The Strip with MGM Resorts seeing its main market spiral out of control from the project’s conception to its opening as the recession and credit freeze bit hard. Good news in February though as ‘Vegas rebounds for first time in two years’ made the headlines and the first indication that the recession was loosening its grip. Next up came two huge openings to boost the supply sector with Genting shuffling ‘up for Sentosa opening’ in March and Las Vegas Sands predicting ‘five years to recoup Marina Bay investment’ in June. The Singapore gov- ernment had shown everyone the easy way to legalise and introduce resort casinos and is now reaping the rewards. Several govern- ments should take note.


In September 2010 the Russian authori-


ties were ready to admit that at least one of its gambling zones hadn’t worked. ‘Russia set to scrap Azov City’ we wrote as invest- ment failed to materialise something that pretty much everyone had predicted a few years back. Never has ‘build it and they will come’ been so completely inappropriate! More signs of a recovery in November as ‘Golden Macau’ pulverised ‘previous records’ whilst baccarat brought the Strip to its feet with the highest drop from the game in Strip history. The climax to 2010 saw Playboy hit the front page again, 97 issues after the last time, with ‘London Clubs to bring Playboy back to London’ in December. The entertainment brand was back again in the first month of 2011 with the launch of its casino club in Cancun. Casino Review’s 99th issue also predicted that a ‘Leveling out’ pointed ‘to 2011 recovery.’ All in all it’s been a pretty hectic first 100 issues but what a fantastic industry to write about. Projects come and projects go, but we remain privileged to write about each and every one of them. Fingers crossed for a quick economic and sector recovery and here’s to another 100 issues of International Casino Review.


celebrates 100 issues of headline grabbing stories


“Legislations for casino operation are completed, the regulations are now being done and members of the Commission, which was recently established, have already started their work. Applications for licences to operate casinos are now being accepted. Jamaica will soon become a destination that offers casino gambling experience, rather than a casino destination.”


Jamaican tourism minister Edmund Bartlett says it’s time for Jamaica with projects expected at three main resort; Montego Bay, Trelawny and the Ocho Rios districts.


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