77% of G2E attendees feel positive about industry's future

As the world’s largest gaming conference wrapped up last Thursday, a survey showed most casino officials are optimistic about the industry’s future, despite the sluggish economy.

More than 1,150 casino professionals were surveyed by the organizers of the Global Gaming Expo and 77 percent said they feel positive about where the industry is headed in 2012. Of those surveyed, 80 percent believe that the gaming company they work for will be stronger in 2012. More than 75 percent of them say they are not concerned about their future employment.

The Global Gaming Expo, also known as G2E, was held at the Sands Expo and Convention Center from Tuesday to Thursday. Nearly 26,000 industry professionals from around the world attended the expo.

Although G2E attracted a global crowd, many of Atlantic City’s top gaming executives decided to stay home. Companies struggling in Atlantic City’s slumping economy simply can’t afford to send large delegations to Las Vegas, said Aimee Schultz, marketing director for AC Slots, a slot machine manufacturer based in Pleasantville.

Schultz noted that only a few Atlantic City casino executives attended a lavish party thrown by AC Slots on Monday night at the MGM Grand. “It’s so tough right now because of the economy,” Tony Rodio, president and CEO of Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City, said at the party. “Tropicana used to send seven or eight executives to the gaming conference. Now, we send the chief executive officer and only a few other executives.”

The casino industry’s top advocate said New Jersey’s efforts to legalize sports betting appear to be a longshot at best. New Jersey residents will vote on a November ballot referendum to allow sports betting at the Atlantic City casinos and the state’s horse-racing tracks,

Supporters say the nonbinding referendum, if passed, would be an important step in attempts to overturn a federal ban on sports betting. Only Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana are currently allowed to offer sports betting, because they had it before the federal ban was enacted in 1992.

The federal ban would have to be overturned by the courts or repealed by Congress before sports betting could actually begin in New Jersey.

But Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, the trade group for commercial casinos, bluntly said that Congress isn’t ready to lift the ban.“It’s just off the table,” he told reporters during a briefing at G2E last week.