Each Wednesday and Sunday, Digital Wager Wire highlights the most important events impacting the domestic and international sports betting and gaming industry landscape.
Let’s take a closer look at this week’s recap and analyze the online sportsbooks‘ ever-changing landscape.
Sands Rethinking Long Island Casino
Three coveted downstate casino licenses are up for grabs in New York, with several major players competing for the right to do business in one of the city’s five boroughs. The competition has been fierce, and billions of dollars are at stake.
However, one of the bidders, Las Vegas Sands, has considered the looming specter of online casino gambling that may be passed in New York and is contemplating the chilling effects it could have on retail casino gambling. The Sands just completed its first step in building a hotel resort and casino at the old Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, winning approval of the governing board to transfer 72 acres of the property for its development.
The cost to develop the project is estimated to be $6 billion, but should the Sands not be awarded a license, it still plans to build a resort and entertainment venue. Yet, if iGaming is passed by the New York legislature, its presence could loom large, possibly cannibalizing the land-based casino’s revenues.
Las Vegas Sands CEO Robert Goldstein said recently, “(…) we built capital-intense buildings that require a long-term perspective. And I must admit that there’s got to be some kind of way of thinking about how the online impact would be, not where you are in the U.S. It’s just a concern, and it’s something I’ve been looking at closely. I’d love to be in New York with the right capital structure and the right licensure process.”
A’s New Home Slated for 2028
Another spectacular state-of-the-art sports facility in Las Vegas is slated for the 2028 season, when the former Oakland A’s will take the field and begin anew as the Las Vegas A’s. But there will be plenty of work ahead as the site of the recently demolished Tropicana is transformed into a Major League ballpark and home to a Bally’s resort and casino on its sprawling 35 acres.
The $1.5 billion project is funded primarily by the team’s owner, John Fisher, who has pledged $850 million, along with team debt of $300 million and public funding to the tune of $350 million. The stadium is expected to seat 33,000 fans, with Bally’s casino towers on either side of the ballpark, including a 90,000-square-foot casino and 110,000 square feet of convention space, along with several restaurants and retail outlets.
Las Vegas Stadium Authority Chairman Steve Hill said that the price tag could increase. “We’ll have that number, and then we’ll be able to do the math,” Hill said after a recent stadium authority meeting. “If it’s a $1.6 billion stadium and the public is going to put in $350 million, then the Fishers will have to put in the balance. It is 75 or 80 percent funded by the Fishers and 20 or 25 percent funded by public funding.”
In the interim, the A’s will play their games in west Sacramento at Sutter Health Park, a 14,000-seat stadium and home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.
