DOJ Indicts Bookmaker.com, True Poker, Doyle's Room and Friends

[DiamondGeezer]

Out of interest Jetset who are the biggest US gaming companies and what is their approx market cap?

One thing that has struck me is do the Vegas companies really have online expertise? I mean Vegas is more about entertainment and you could argue the Vegas firms are really in the hotel industry as much as gaming.

Another issue is why would they want to come to europe anyway when the market is saturated and many companies are having difficult times?

If you look at the performance of UK listed companies over the last five years it has mainly been dire. 888 have lost 90% of their value. The people who bought Coral lost their whole investment around £1BN which takes some doing. Ladbrokes and William Hill have lost about 70% of their share value. And Betfair floated a few months ago and has since halved.

People talk about the online gaming market being huge but in reality it is not as big as people think. Not least because of all the protectionism. It's very hard to turn a profit because there are few barriers to entry in the countries that are open for business.

For me this US business is more about factionalism than protectionism. I think it is that local interests have poisoned politicians and created this Frankenstein monster. I find it hard to believe the economic arguments of jobs and investment don't get more airtime though.

[jetset]

I'm open to correction, but I would say the following companies must be among the top land gambling outfits in the USA:

Las Vegas Sands

Market Cap - $29.93 billion
Enterprise value - $37.15 billion
Revenue trailing 12 months - $7.63 billion
Gross profit - $2.98 billion
EBITDA - $2.36 billion
Cash - $3.13 billion
Debt - $10.10 billion


Wynn Resorts

Market Cap - $18.12 billion
Enterprise value - $19.72 billion
Revenue trailing 12 months - $4.54 billion
Gross profit - $1.22 billion
EBITDA - $2.36 billion
Cash - $1.45 billion
Debt - $3.18 billion

MGM Resorts

Market Cap - $7.52 billion
Enterprise value - $19.33 billion
Revenue trailing 12 months - $6.07 billion
Gross profit - $2.26 billion
EBITDA - $1.03 billion
Cash - $431.27 million
Debt - $12.8 billion

Caesars Entertainment

Market Cap - $5.58 billion
Enterprise value - ?
Revenue trailing 12 months - $4.27 billion
Gross profit - $276 million (?)
EBITDA - ?
Cash - ?
Debt - ?

Although substantial, I don't think other firms like Boyd Gaming (market cap $810.08); Ameristar Casinos (market cap $738.5 million) or Isle of Capri Casinos (market cap $340.15 million) are statistically in the same league (source: Yahoo Finance stats).

I think this indicates the considerable resources that American majors can bring to bear on new ventures, even in an economic climate that has been the worst in recent times, although I would imagine these latest numbers include returns from investments in Macau - and the following is an example of how US big guns are doing there:

"MGM China Holdings has priced shares in its HKD 11.7 billion (USD 1.5 billion) IPO initial public offering at the top end of the expected range, reflecting an optimism of the world’s biggest gambling hub.

"The firm, a tie-up between Las Vegas based MGM Resorts International and Pansy Ho, a daughter of gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, said the stock would be sold at HKD 15.34 (USD 1.97) per share, according to company documents filed with Hong Kong’s stock exchange this week.

"MGM, who previously said the shares would be set between HKD 12.36 and HKD 15.34, is offering 760 million shares for sale with its Hong Kong listing set for June 3.

"Macau has become a key profit source for several US companies operating in the city, as the territory raked in a whopping MOP 188.3 billion in gaming revenue last year, outpacing the Las Vegas strip by at least four-fold, with the city’s April revenue figures showing a 43.3 percent year on year increase."

By the way, Pansy Ho is said to have surpassed her father's achievements in the deal, growing her orginal investment by 18 times! Other investors include US hedge fund giant John Paulson, who made billions of dollars after being one of the few investors to predict the collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market in 2007 that led to the global financial crisis.

The initial public offering will catapult Pansy Ho into the ranks of Hong Kong’s wealthiest people with a net worth of around USD 5.1 billion, according to the South China Morning Post.

MGM Resorts will have a 51 percent stake and management control in the listed joint venture.

Regarding expertise in the online sector, I don't think the US giants would hesitate to head hunt the best the industry has to offer if they needed to do so (and remember the US is no slouch when it comes to internet technology and gambling). And there is the prospect of partnerships with foreign companies and software providers....

Caesar's Entertainment has been building capacity for some time in Montreal, where ex-Party Gaming boss Mitch Garber runs the interactive interests of the company and has already partnered with companies in the UK.

Why would US companies want to enter a competitive European market if internet gambling was legalised?

Because it's there, there's money to be made and there is always that drive to expand and grow profits for shareholders.

Various land gambling execs have shown an interest in markets outside the USA, the latest a Caesar's exec just last week who told a land gambling conference that federal legalisation was preferable because it would make ventures overseas easier than confining activities to individual states (see Casinomeister News btw).

IMO there is a real and growing interest in legalisation among US gambling companies, especially now that the competition has been substantially eliminated - take a look at this exerpt from the latest AGA white paper, authored by David O. Stewart, of Ropes & Gray, LLP:

"The business of online gambling spans the globe and touches every corner of the United States. Worldwide, online gambling is increasingly a legal and regulated activity that generates almost $30 billion of revenue a year.

"In the United States, public policy on the subject has been schizophrenic. Online gambling is presently being conducted domestically for pari-mutuel betting on horse races and for state lotteries, yet government policy has been hostile to other forms of online gambling, and has included criminal prosecutions of online gambling operators and their payment processing partners.

"Despite this government opposition, millions of Americans spend $4 billion every year to gamble online.

"Prosecutions against online gambling operators have driven the more responsible offshore operators out of the U.S. market, leaving Americans to conduct their online gambling through largely unregulated websites.

"In contrast, about 85 nations have chosen to legalize and regulate online gambling. Numerous Western nations — including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and some provinces in Canada — have created structures for tight regulation of the online gambling industry.

"This course provides consumer protections for individuals while also generating jobs, economic opportunity and government revenue.

"Beginning with careful confirmation of the identity of every online gambler, which is the foundation for effective regulation, these nations employ technologies that effectively ensure:

• That the games are played fairly, according to their rules, and pay
off as promised;

• That underage gamblers are excluded from play;

• That people who struggle to control their gambling have access to
tools to limit their deposits, bets, and overall play, or even exclude
themselves from gambling websites entirely;

• That online gambling operators do not accept bets from
jurisdictions that prohibit online gambling; and

• That gambling websites are not used for money laundering and
other illegal purposes.

Similar protections are now required for U.S.-based websites that take
bets on horse racing or sell subscriptions for state lottery tickets."

Most of the Brit gambling groups have reported that in-game betting and online business activity generally have been very positive factors in their businesses - take a look at Paddy Power's results and those of Will Hill, where Management has acknowledged that the online contribution has helped to ameliorate less encouraging results from other verticals in these land and online groups.

As the world struggles out of the recession I see considerable promise for online gambling in the US and Europe...and the increased competition that this brings should be good for the player in terms of better offers, improved games and service and a wider choice of properly regulated sites.

[DiamondGeezer]

IIRC US hedge fund giant John Paulson bought about 4% of Playtech last week...

I don't doubt for a minute that the USA has the capital and expertise to make it work in europe. But the ban has given the USA a massive disadvantage and there would be a lot of catching up to do. And if you opened up your markets tomorrow the shares of all UK gaming companies would rocket and they could raise a lot of capital very quickly. If that happened my guess is the USA companies would have to bite the bullet and buy good european companies like BWIN/Party, Will hill, Playtech etc.

It certainly would make for exiting times .

[slotplayer]

Dang... what a party the DOJ has cooked up this year! Everybody's invited... And here's another article from The Domains.


At least I'm not totally crazy for thinking the feds might be setting up phony processsing...


Anyone familiar with this "Linwood Payment Solutions Inc." of the fed's? Or would that be purely from the casino end of the payment processing? What about it casino reps? QT?

its real alright - check out the notice

http://paymentprocessingsolutions.com/

[pokeraddict]

http://odenton.patch.com/articles/co...ling-seizure#c

That is where some of the forfeited money is going. Players hoping to get seized money back to the rooms so they can get paid are looking to be wrong.

[Mousey]

http://odenton.patch.com/articles/co...ling-seizure#c

That is where some of the forfeited money is going. Players hoping to get seized money back to the rooms so they can get paid are looking to be wrong.

The Anne Arundel County Police Department will be getting some new equipment after receiving more than $470,000 as part of the seizure of funds tied to a federal investigation into illegal gambling

Honestly... I don't know whether to laugh or cry. That is just so.... so... I am without words to describe it...

And don't you love that no has been convicted yet but the feds portion out the plunder anyway? Like the pirates of old... rape, pillage, and plunder...

It's always about the money...

[bpb]

http://odenton.patch.com/articles/co...ling-seizure#c

That is where some of the forfeited money is going. Players hoping to get seized money back to the rooms so they can get paid are looking to be wrong.

No, that money came from the proceeds of the processor Linwood. It did not come from the seized funds. Look at the date of the check in the article.

[pokeraddict]

No, that money came from the proceeds of the processor Linwood. It did not come from the seized funds. Look at the date of the check in the article.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/mar..._story_display

This article explains it more. It came from seized processors last year.

[jetset]

The idea that enforcement authorities get to share out money seized from criminal enterprises has always made me very uncomfortable, as I believe the police should be absolutely divorced from this largesse.

If money/assets are seized as required by a law, then these should go to Treasury for more general distribution rather than direct as reward to the people who confiscated it imo. After all, these government departments are paid to do what they do in the first place.

It presents a possibly tricky conflict of interest, I think.

Not reserving this money for the players is presumably motivated by two tactics - denying the offending operators the benefit of having their players accounts paid, thus pressuring them to pay out of their remaining finances and weakening them further; and maybe a little punitive and discouraging reminder to the players in making them wait for their just dues?

[lots0]

Honestly... I don't know whether to laugh or cry. That is just so.... so... I am without words to describe it...

And don't you love that no has been convicted yet but the feds portion out the plunder anyway? Like the pirates of old... rape, pillage, and plunder...

It's always about the money...

And of course it's about the lies... OH we didn't take your money... We don't know where the money is... Isn't that what woman from the DOJ said? They are liars and thieves... not a bit different than the people that they are supposed to be 'protecting' us from.
Ashamed to be an AMERICAN...