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Global Gaming Business Magazine GGB July 2024 •Vol. 23 •No. 7 •$10 Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers HOLD & SPIN SLOTS PAYMENT PROGRESS ONLINE BONUSES CORDISH’S ROB NORTON Retiring Regulators Bright Future Supplier AGScontinues to innovate while the company looks forward to a new era TAX & SPEND Will higher rates strangle the sports betting business? Global Gaming WomenVol. 23 • No. 7 COLUMNS CONTENTS 10 Mark Your Calendars 12 Looking Ahead 32 Uncarded Opportunity 4 6 8 13 40 41 42 44 46 49 50 DEPARTMENTS july 3 COVER STORY Global Gaming Business Magazine AGS Evolution As gaming supplier AGS looks forward to returning to private ownership, the company continues to innovate, topping industry charts in slot games, cabinets and its unique table-game progressive systems. FEATURES 14 Sports Tax Conundrum Potential hikes in the tax rates on sports betting revenue threaten to erase profits and weaken the ability of operators to compete with the illegal market. 24 Cashless Evolution Cashless payment systems benefit operators and marketers, but are players accepting the migration away from cash? 28 Holding, Spinning The “hold-and-spin” game mechanic has taken the slot sector by storm, as each manufacturer comes up with new ways to deliver the popular feature. 34 Changing of the Guard The Louisiana Gaming Control Board searches for a new leader as distinguished LGCB Chairman Ronnie Johns prepares to step down. 36 Beware of the Bonus The avalanche of sign-up matching bonuses in the nascent U.S. online gaming market is not a sustainable long-term practice as it shrinks profit margins. JULY 2024 www.ggbmagazine.com4 Vol. 23 • No. 7 • JULY 2024 Roger Gros, Publisher | rgros@ggbmagazine.com X: @GlobalGamingBiz Frank Legato, Editor |flegato@ggbmagazine.com X: @FranklySpeakn Jess Marquez, Managing Editor jmarquez@ggbmagazine.com Monica Cooley, Art Director mcooley@ggbmagazine.com Terri Brady, Sales & Marketing Director tbrady@ggbmagazine.com Beck Kingman-Gros, Associate Publisher & COO bkingros@ggbmagazine.com Lisa Johnson, Communications Advisor lisa@lisajohnsoncommunications.com X: @LisaJohnsonPR Columnists Maureen Beddis |Julia Carcamo |Frank Fantini Contributing Editors Jill R. Dorson |Marese O'Hagan Bill Sokolic twitter: @downbeachfilm|Buck Wargo ______________ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Official Publication O ne of the advantages of being in the gam- ing industry over the past 40 years has been watching talented people climb the ladder to become presidents, CEOs, chairmen— leaders of their companies and organizations. Starting even before I covered gaming as a jour- nalist, the people I connected with as a dealer and part-time supervisor at Caesars Atlantic City, the Golden Nugget and Showboat—many of the people who were my supervisors, pit bosses and execu- tives—have taken that route. So I can say I knew them when. Even with very little experience in the industry at that time, I could recognize when some- one was special in the way that they treated their employees and their bosses. When I was working as a baccarat dealer at Caesars, our casino president was Terry Lanni. His availability to his line employees was extraordinary. We could come to him at any time with our con- cerns—and you’d best believe we had a lot of them in the early days of Atlantic City gaming—and he would calmly listen. If he could help, he did so. If not, he’d explain why. And of course everyone knows how high Terry rose in the industry, becom- ing one of the legendary leaders of MGM. And when I was recruited to deal baccarat at the Golden Nugget a couple of years later by my now good friend Arte Nathan, I had the chance to meet the man who invented so much in the gaming busi- ness, Steve Wynn. When we dealers were sitting at a dead baccarat game—the “big” game, not the single- dealer table in today’s world—he’d sit down and just talk to us. I learned so much from him—it was like a master’s degree in gaming. And the people who worked for him had the same respect for all the employees. Yes, I know in hindsight this may sound silly, but times were different back then. When I started covering gaming with Casino Journal, we took an employee-friendly approach. Our publication was distributed in the employee lounges of the Atlantic City casinos and our mission was to make their lives better. So we’d interview the leaders of the casinos to get their perspective of where the industry was going and how employees could par- ticipate. And I think we did our job. Even today in almost every gaming jurisdiction around the world, you’ll find folks who got their start in Atlantic City and now are the leaders in their particular regions. At the Sands in Atlantic City, I met the “power trio” of Bill Weidner, Brad Stone and Rob Goldstein, who made that little casino a dynamo. They later joined Sheldon Adelson and propelled Las Vegas Sands into a worldwide gaming behe- moth, turning sleepy Macau into the world’s most successful gaming destination. Goldstein still leads this important company. Most of the top executives in Atlantic City at that time went on to become leaders of their corporations. WhenCasinoJournaltransformed into a true gaming trade publication, I got to meet the people who truly led the worldwide industry such as Adelson, Barron Hilton, Kirk Kerkorian, Arthur Goldberg and many others. That continued when I left Casino Journalto form Global Gaming Business. And credit also goes to the manufacturing/ven- dor side of the industry. I had the honor of inter- viewing Si Redd, the inventor of video poker and founder of IGT; Chuck Mathewson, who took that company to dizzying heights; John Acres, who has more patents than any single gaming individual; Len Ainsworth, the man who went from making dental equipment to building slot machines for now-indus- try giant Aristocrat and later for a company that car- ries his name; James Maida, who went from a B-level regulator to found Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), which tests and authenticates all gaming technology; Gary Platt, who revolutionized casino seating; and many more. And let’s not forget the people who actually built these casinos—the architects, designers and builders. Lots of them got their start by working with Steve Wynn, including Joel Bergman, Paul Steelman, Brad Friedmutter, Roger Thomas, DeRuyter Butler and more. Dick Rizzo with Perini Builders was the one to make it happen. I didn’t mean for this column to be the name- dropping extravaganza it became—and apologize to anyone who I didn’t mention. My point was that every one of the names mentioned here started at the bottom of their companies or their craft, and the opportunities that they grasped on their way up the ladder are still there. Talented people, people with a true love for the industry, people who “get” it, are the people who will succeed and rise to a promi- nence equal to or greater than anyone mentioned in this piece. Naming Names BY ROGER GROS, PUBLISHER Global Gaming Business JULY 2024 THEAGENDA Fee Fi Fo Fum You know all the stories. Giants are notoriously hungry. We get it. Our agency may have the deepest bench of talent in the industry, but we’re never satisfied. Hungry to learn more. Hungry to compete. Hungry to create the next big thing. Hungry to find an edge. And this is why our clients win. Join us at goodgiant.com.6 Global Gaming Business JULY 2024 Trust, but Verify I D verification provider AU10TIX recently released its Q1 2024 Global Identity Fraud Report, which identifies fraud trends in a va- riety of global industries. Unfortunately for operators, the online gaming industry made its first appearance on the report. It was placed third in global fraud attacks (5 percent), behind only payments (62 percent) and crypto (24 percent). That means gaming’s total was already more than the banking (3 percent) and e-commerce (2 percent) sectors. According to the report, the online gaming industry saw its share of identity fraud attacks increase by more than 250 percent from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024. As much as 50 percent of those attacks, AU10TIX said, are at- tributable to bonus abusers, or those who look to take advantage of new member promotions by opening several accounts. The firm’s an- alysts project that this trend could slow down as global regulation continues to ramp up and more operators adopt more stringent age verification and know-your-customer protocols. BYTHENUMBERS S ince its launch in January 2021, Michigan has become one of the biggest online gaming markets, due to the fact it is one of the few states that offers both iGaming and mobile sports bet- ting. The influence of the market is reflected in the amount of promotional spending by operators, which has only increased over time. According to data from the Michigan Gaming Control Board and published by PlayMichigan.com, the projected 2024 promotional spending totals for four of the state’s top five iGam- ing operators—FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars and BetRivers— are all expected to exceed their outputs from both 2023 and 2022. BetMGM had been the top spender by far in both previous years, investing $55.6 million in 2022 and $58.6 million in 2023, but for 2024 that title will likely go to FanDuel, which is projected to shell out $59.6 million this year as opposed to just $40.5 million in 2023. In Michigan, promotional deductions for iGaming fall under a graduated scale: in years 1-3, operators can deduct up to 10 percent of gross receipts, which then falls to 6 percent in year four, 4 percent in year five and 0 percent in year six and beyond. Promotional Spend by Michigan’s Top 5 Online Casinos8 Global Gaming Business JULY 2024 CALENDAR “TheyIt” 5QUESTIONS T he International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is America’s premier gaming research hub, led by Executive Director Brett Abarbanel. Since its inception, the IGI has been instru- mental in fostering innovation, developing executive talent and advancing regulation across the industry. Having been at the school in various roles for more than a decade, Abarbanel is a leading figure when it comes to gaming research, policy, responsible gaming and other high-level topics. Abarbanel spoke with GGBManaging Editor Jess Marquez via Zoom in May. GGB: You’re about a year and a half into your tenure as executive director of the IGI. What has been the most difficult part of stepping into the lead role? Abarbanel: The IGI is a really walls-outward institute; huge chunks of what we do are not even on campus. I was ready and prepared for it, but it was the internal stakeholder management that I really had to learn. A university atmosphere is almost like a small city. You have different departments that may never talk to one another, and it’s like living in a completely different neighborhood. I think I finally have a grasp of the insti- tutional knowledge that one needs to be a leader in that environment. The IGI is the only large gaming research hub in the U.S. Does that make your job harder? There are definitely pros and cons to being who we are. We do have the benefit of getting to work with different universities and other academic institutions all over the world. There aren’t very many that really look at gambling in the holistic way that we do. But sometimes when we get a really neat project, it can be a struggle to find the right folks to work on that project. We’re very lucky that we do have a network that we’ve cultivated over many years to be able to reach out and put together a really useful and thoughtful group of people for different projects. But it absolutely can be a challenge. Shannon Bybee was a friend and former boss of GGBPublisher Roger Gros. Bybee was an instrumental figure at the IGI. How do you think the institute is carrying on his vision? The goal of the IGI has really largely stayed the same since (Bybee’s) leadership, and I like to think we are continuing that to this day. One of the things we’ve always tried to maintain is a really balanced look at all of this, because gambling’s not inherently positive. It’s not inherently negative; it’s just something that we do as human beings, this risk-taking activity. We want to make sure that we’re emphasizing the positive, we’re emphasizing the negative, while at the same time maintaining the level of compassion that Shannon championed. You’re very interested in esports and video games—what draws you to that side of things? I love this subject. Even if you’re not a gamer, if you don’t participate in it yourself, it’s a really interesting phenomenon that has just spread across a lot of the ways that humans consume entertainment. And it’s a huge overlap with gambling, but it becomes an area where we have this pretty convoluted space that is very difficult to unpack from a regulatory perspective, from a commercial perspective. It is really fascinating to work in the broader gambling gaming industry and be able to explore the really interesting ways that we have innovated in this space over time. What do you think we as an industry should be monitoring as this evolution unfolds? The biggest thing is to be open to learning. There should be almost an open-door type of policy to learn more about what this space looks like. If you’re doing some sort of product development or you’re try- ing to figure out a new space, there’s also proactive outreach by the industry that can be done to regulators so they are aware of what’s going on, of what this thing looks like. It’s really important to be mindful that they have to regulate a pretty big industry that clearly is regularly changing, and so it’s hard to stay on top of all those changes if they’re not doing that themselves. 1 2 3 4 5 August 12-14: Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association (OIGA) Conference and Tradeshow , Oklahoma City Convention Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Produced by OIGA. For more information, visit oiga.org. August 12-14: The Racing and Gaming Conference at Saratoga , Saratoga Hilton, Saratoga Springs, New York. Produced by Spec- trum Gaming Group. For more information, visit racingandgamingsaratoga.com. August 13-15: Australaisan Gaming Expo , ICC Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Produced by the Gaming Technologies Association. For more information, visit austgamingexpo.com. September 24-26: SBC Summit , Feira Internacional De Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. Produced by SBC Events. For more information, visit sbcevents.com/sbc-summit. October 7-10: Global Gaming Expo (G2E), The Venetian Expo, Las Vegas, Nevada. Produced by Reed Exhibitions. For more information, visit globalgamingexpo.com. October 15-16: European Gaming Congress , Hotel Polonia Palace, Warsaw, Poland. Produced by Hipther. For more information, visit hipther.com/events/egc. November 27-28: Eastern European Gaming Summit , Inter Expo Center, Sofia, Bulgaria. Produced by the Association of Gaming Industry in Bulgaria. For more information, visit eegamingsummit.com. January 20-22: ICE Barcelona , Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain. Produced by Clarion Gaming. For more information, visit ICEGaming.com. Brett Abarbanel LnW.com The look and feel of the games and their individual components and displays are trade dress of Light & Wonder, Inc. and its subsidiaries. © 2024 Light & Wonder, Inc. All Rights Reserved. @LightNWonder More Puff than you can shake a stick house at The Wolf is ready to bring the house down, and these are some big houses. 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