It became very clear recently just who controls the real power with the Nevada Legislature. The ‘Big Guys’, which in Nevada means the big casinos, have called the shots once more and convinced the lawmakers to strike down a system that has been working well for the past couple of years in the state of Nevada. It allows bettors to place their wagers at small ‘kiosks’ conveniently located at designated pubs and bars that have restricted licenses.
Senate Bill 416 was unanimously passed a couple weeks ago and now those nice little betting stations will be closed down so that anyone wishing to place a small wager on their favorite team will have to pick up and actually go to one of the big casinos in order to place his wager… and spend lots more money of course.
That’s the whole point of the exercise… keep the players near the action. Keep them playing… keep them spending more and more money. As of July 1, the ‘kiosk’ will no longer be an option. Thanks a lot big guys.
The British company William Hill has been operating around 70 of these small wagering ‘kiosks’ around Nevada for the past two years since the measure was approved on a trial basis by that same body of lawmakers. The company has done everything by the book… everything required of them during this whole process. But, it wasn’t enough.
The case against the wagering kiosks surely was not based on the numbers that were accumulated during the trial period. Nevada sports books showed a 20.8% growth in handle from 2011-2012. Collectively the various books won over $170 million. Since only about $600,000 of that figure came from the kiosks, doubters wonder what harm the smaller wagering shops were doing to the big guys.
Actually, $600,000 doesn’t sound like so much until you start to figure that the average wager in these places is around $20. Then it becomes a pretty impressive number. A lot of small players were using the kiosks and now they are going to have to find wagering alternatives. Some will go legal… some will not.
No one actually presented any evidence that the small kiosks were having any negative effect on the large casinos at all. Everyone in Nevada has been making money with the newly revised laws and this move by the large houses can only be seen as one of greed and avarice. What the hell are they afraid of?
