Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
■ Mobile tech will dominate the gaming industry in 2021, experts say.
IT’S time once again to share what will make headlines in the coming year by peering into the crystal ball and making educated guesses about what’s in store for 2021.
I’ve done this for several years now and will start out with how well I did for 2020.
It wasn’t perfect, but I did hit on several predictions. And who could have foreseen a pandemic of epic proportions and the huge outcry against social injustices that we saw last year?
So some of 2020’s hits and misses:
■ “Allegiant Stadium will open on time, and the first season of the Raiders will be played there without having to move games elsewhere.” On the nose, thanks to the diligent efforts of the Raiders, Mortenson Construction and McCarthy Builders, who delivered as promised. It looked a little iffy with roof engineering issues in the spring, but it all worked out.
■ “The Boring Co. will complete its tunneling on schedule, and the opening of the people-mover system at the Las Vegas Convention Center will come down to the wire.” Another score. The system was scheduled to offer its first rides later this month, just as planned. We’re taking the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority at its word that the system is complete, because Boring hasn’t invited us in the media to see it for ourselves.
■ “The number of conventioneers coming to Las Vegas will break 2017’s meetings attendance record, but overall visitation will still fall short of 2016’s record. The number of passengers flying through McCarran will be higher than the 2019 record.” Definitely did not happen. A COVID-19 fail. And another one: I predicted that Las Vegas’ hosting of the NFL Draft in April would be a massive success. The pandemic prevented that from even happening.
■ “The Caesars Entertainment Corp. buyout by Eldorado Resorts Inc. will be completed as expected, and the new Reno-based Caesars will sell Planet Hollywood to a gaming company that doesn’t currently have a presence on the Strip.” I was half right. The transaction occurred as planned, but Caesars still owns Planet Hollywood.
■ “When Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Tony Alamo ends his third four-year commission term
similar path and make its way over to the table games, too.
Nevada Resort Association President Virginia Valentine predicted that touchless technologies will keep evolving with customer wants and needs.
“The resort industry continues to seek out innovative technology that enhances the overall customer experience while meeting the strict standards set by gaming regulators,” she said.
Additionally, she said, resorts will keep in place the health and safety measures they implemented during the pandemic “to ensure the industry is always providing the safest environment possible.”
Safety and health concerns could spur a whole host of other changes to Las Vegas casinos. Bussmann suggested that resorts will find new ways to safely separate groups of people, potentially reimagine buffets, devise new cleaning protocols or incorporate new ways of checking guest temperatures.
It surprises Bussmann that cashless gaming technologies haven’t entered the mainstream since he first learned of them nearly a decade ago, particularly as “80 to 90 percent of our daily lives” involve moving cashless money.
“There’s going to be a lot of opportunity for innovation and adaptability as we recover going forward,” he said.
‘Floodgates have opened’
Legalized sports betting drew a ton of media coverage in 2020 as it spread across the country at breakneck pace, and there’s no slowing down in 2021.
Nineteen states have operational sports betting, and eight more potential jurisdictions have the “steps to start a regulatory phase,” Bussmann said. Other states, like Massachusetts and Texas, could consider it in the near future.
Nehme Abouzeid, founder and president of LaunchVegas LLC, said it’s “felt like musical chairs” keeping up with sports betting partnerships.
Caesars Entertainment Inc. announced in September that it was buying sports betting company William Hill for $3.7 billion. That deal is expected to close in the second half of 2021.
It’s a big area for potential growth and competition, Abouzeid said, adding that gaming companies will need “access to multiple states, a cool brand and a user-friendly” app to compete in the market.
“I remember when sportsbook directors were cautious about doing interviews with national media outlets,” he said. “Now the floodgates have opened.”
Turning the page
The return of visitation will fuel an economic turnaround, according to the Nevada Resort Association.
Valentine said “enormous pent-up demand” for Las Vegas’ offerings will bring back visitors when it’s safe for them. Events, concerts, trade shows and venues with unrealized potential, like Allegiant Stadium and the expanded Las Vegas Convention Center, will drive visitation, she said.
“Once the vaccine is widely accepted and the virus has abated, we are confident the return of large gatherings will be the highlight of 2021,” she said.
Visitation to Clark County remains down. Visitor volume plummeted to 106,900 in April, down from 3.5 million the previous April, and has
steadily climbed since June to nearly 1.9 million in October, according to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority data. Clark County saw about 3.7 million visitors in October 2019.
Clark County gaming revenue is down, too. Revenue totaled about $5.3 billion through October, a 38.1 percent decrease from the same period last year, according to the LVCVA. One-third of all gaming revenue in those 10 months stemmed from a January and February that generated a combined $1.8 billion in revenue.
Restrictions like a 25 percent casino floor capacity limit will carry into the new year. If you ask Bussmann, the story of 2021 may begin on Jan. 15.
That’s the deadline for Gov. Steve Sisolak’s statewide economic “pause” to slow the spread of COVID-19. He may stay the course, loosen restrictions or impose new ones, depending on infection trends.
Analysts and economists point to June and beyond as a potential turnaround point, to coincide with vaccine administration and the return of conventions and large gatherings, as many resorts already have conventions on the books for late 2021.
Maintaining current restrictions or tightening them further could delay a recovery, which may take a couple of years for a full rebound as it stands, Bussmann said.
“It may be optimistic, but I’m sort of the optimistic pessimist,” he said of a second-half recovery. “When I look at this thing, I’m going, ‘I’m hoping for the best but realizing that the worst may happen.’”