In other gaming news, the Culinary strike against Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is approaching its third week and drawing attention from Nevada politicians.
Hundreds marched in front of Virgin Hotels on Saturday in support of Culinary Local 226’s strike at the off-Strip resort-casino, including local and state Democratic politicians.
“We have to stand together to fight for our future and for good wages and to make sure that one job should be enough,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., told union members on the picket line at the Paradise Road property, about one mile east of the Strip.
The strike, approaching its third week, is over insufficient wage increases in the five-year contract, according to the hospitality workers. Virgin is the only union-represented property in the resort corridor without a new contract after the last one expired June 2023.
Below is a roundup of gaming news from Las Vegas and elsewhere.
Bank of America analysts expect more of the same for gaming operators in 2025
Some Wall Street analysts are expecting the best hospitality and gaming-related growth to be largely focused in online gaming and lodging corporations. According to a Monday research note from Bank of America Global Research, operating businesses like gaming operators, lodging real estate investment trusts and other leisure businesses on publicly traded markets “face lackluster revenue, supply or competitive pressure, interest rate risk and remain mostly at or above peak unit level margins.”
Las Vegas Strip operators expect to have tough year-over-year comparisons in their financial results and more normalization, lapping Super Bowl 58 held in the destination last February. Similarly, regional casino operators can expect supply and competition headwinds, though consumer sentiment and tax cuts in the upcoming Trump administration could improve spending.
NGC in Boulder City
History will be made Dec. 19 when one of the state’s gaming regulatory bodies meets in a Nevada city that doesn’t allow gambling.
The Nevada Gaming Commission will meet in the chambers of the Boulder City Council at 10 a.m.
Boulder City is one of two cities in Nevada — the other is Panaca — that has no legalized gambling as established by city charter.
Casinos are located in unincorporated land near the city limits at the Hoover Dam Lodge south of the city near Arizona-Nevada border, and north of the city at the Railroad Pass Casino just south of Henderson.
Bovada shutdown
The Arizona Department of Gaming has filed a cease-and-desist letter to a company it says is operating illegally within the state.
The action was taken in November against Bovada.com and Bovada.lv, operated by Harp Media B.V.
Located in Curacao, the company has operated a website in Arizona that is not licensed by the state.
Bovada also isn’t legal in Nevada.
NJ woman suing online sportsbook for ‘actively participating’ in estranged husband’s problem gambling
A woman in New Jersey is suing DraftKings sportsbook alleging the online gambling operator “nurtured” her now-estranged husband’s addiction which cost the family at least $1 million.
The federal lawsuit claims DraftKings had an active role in the family’s financial demise by incentivizing the unnamed man to continue placing wagers on the app, despite knowing he was a problem gambler and was betting beyond his financial means.
According to the complaint, the man went from never wagering more than $3,775 in any single month in 2020 to spending roughly $125,000 a month by 2023 on the DraftKings app. His annual salary was $175,000, the court documents said.
The complaint alleges that the now-estranged husband gambled close to $15 million between January 2020 and January 2024, losing $942,232.
The suit says the unnamed man — he is identified only by his DraftKings username “Mdall01990” — had four VIP hosts who communicated with him almost daily. The lawsuit states that DraftKings employees are trained on how to spot problem gambling behaviors but ignored the signs for this client.
