Does regulated igaming cannibalize customers who would normally be frequenting land-based casinos? Is the mere threat of regulated igaming in an emerging gaming market enough to halt construction plans for land-based casinos entirely? These kinds of nuts-and-bolts and questions were very much on the mind Las Vegas Sands CEO Rob Goldstein during a recent quarterly earnings call with investors.
Goldstein was asked during the call about efforts by New York lawmakers to expand the Empire State igaming portfolio to include horse racing, lotteries, and casino games. His response highlights the complexities gaming operators face when planning huge investments in physical spaces in a world where physical spaces are jeopardized by virtual spaces on a regular basis.
“I believe in New York, that it’s a very strong market. However, the igaming possibility to me in any market that has land based gambling and has sports betting, igaming seems inevitable. And so I think you have to agree, I mean, read your comment that sometime during the construction phase, you could be faced with high gaming competitive, which dilutes the value of the product. So that’s our conundrum,” Goldstein said in comments reported on by iGaming Business.
Striking that balance between online and in-person players is something that operators must be continually monitoring. The caveat is how do you deal with the ongoing threat, which appears to me to be inevitable in a lot of states, especially as it has land-based properties coupled with sports betting. I don’t know why you wouldn’t have igaming at some time in the future. So that’s our concern as we look at that market,” he added.
So far, all efforts to bring this type of gaming expansion to New York have failed, but given the pace of gaming expansion across the US, that could easily change.