Jamaica
Prime Minister Bruce Golding will permit the licensing of casinos in Jamaica and has already approved proposals for a major new investment predicated on the granting of a casino license. Applications for casino licenses will only be considered if these conditions are met: a minimum investment of $1.5 billion U.S. and the construction of not less than 1,000 hotel rooms; the casino component comprising no more than 20 percent of the total project; operators of the casino being subject to the approval of the government after appropriate due diligence, including fit and proper tests and evaluation of track record; and an appropriate regulatory framework with the necessary legislation and enforcement mechanism put in place.
Nevada
The mobile gaming device has arrived. In late April, the Venetian became the first casino on the Strip to offer mobile gaming, in the form of Cantor Gaming-manufactured devices that customers can pick up in the high-limit slot lounge, although only low-limit bets are allowed for now. Password protected, the devices are being tracked by bracelets with an imbedded RFID chip that are issued when the customer checks one out. Players must enter their password if the device is left to idle for too long, and every 30 minutes during play. For now, they will shut down if taken out of the high-limit slot lounge, but they will ultimately provide gaming opportunities in all public areas of the casino, from restaurants to the pool, although they will not be able to leave the property or be taken to a hotel room. The Nevada Legislature passed a bill allowing mobile gaming devices in 2005, and after two years of regulation-building and a year and a half of lab testing, the Venetian was given the go-ahead for this field trial.
Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has announced that current casino projects scheduled to be operational by July 2009 could result in a 40 percent increase in revenues and create nearly 3,000 more jobs.
The upgrade from temporary to permanent facilities at two racetracks, The Meadows Racetrack and Casino and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, along with two new standalone facilities, Sands Bethworks and Majestic Star Casino, may produce an increase in gross terminal revenue of $650 million. This would mean the amount of taxes collected by the commonwealth would increase annually by nearly $360 million, based on the 55 percent tax rate.
Based on the expected per machine revenue after the opening of these facilities, it is estimated that gross terminal revenue by mid-2009 could grow to approximately $2.28 billion annually. All licensed facilities are scheduled to have a combined 24,123 slot machines in operation at that time. Should that revenue be reached, Pennsylvania citizens would see a return of $1.23 billion of taxes annually, the largest portion of that going toward property tax relief.
These figures do not include additional projects that are licensed but not scheduled to open until after July 2009. Those projects are the permanent facility at Philadelphia Park Casino that is under construction and scheduled for opening in late 2009, and two approved Philadelphia projects, SugarHouse Casino and Foxwoods Casino, neither which has broken ground.