Dubai Tourism Chief Says City Won’t Become Gaming Destination, Despite MGM and Caesars Projects

Dubai will quickly become house to hotel properties branded by MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, but area officials say do not get the wrong concept: casinos and gambling aren’t visiting the region.

Dubai hosts the globe’s tallest building and some of the most fascinating synthetic islands, but casinos won’t presumably be coming anytime soon.

Gambling is considered ‘haram’ under Islamic law: a forbidden activity that goes against sacred texts present in the Quran.

During an meeting with Gulf News this week, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce CEO Issam Kazim was asked if there was clearly an increasing appetite to welcome casinos to the city.

‘No, there is not a desire for casinos,’ Kazim declared. ‘ We need to bear in head that you can find cultural items that are a definite priority to us.’

Non-Gaming Horizons

MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, correspondingly ranked no. 2 and #5 in terms of gross gaming revenue of the planet’s casino operators, are embarking on the center East for the very first time by way of Dubai.

In March 2017, MGM reached an operating contract with Dubai-based Wasl Hospitality and Leisure to advise on the development of a destination resort, and when completed in 2021, run its operations.

The beachfront that is 26-acre will feature the MGM Hotel, MGM Residences, and Bellagio Hotel.

Earlier in the day this month, Caesars Entertainment announced a partnership with Meraas, additionally a Dubai development firm, to handle and run component of the $1.6 billion Bluewaters that is man-made Island. Caesars are responsible for hospitality and entertainment on the artificial land that measures roughly 80 acres.

Caesars CEO Mark Frissora said the venture into Dubai is section of its post-bankruptcy give attention to expanding to markets that are international lending the brand to hoteliers. Bob Morse, the company’s president of hospitality, stated its Bluewaters partners Meraas put any gambling talk ‘to rest really quickly.’

Expanding Tourism

The biggest and many populated city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), over the last decade Dubai leaders have actually made an endeavor to become less reliant on oil. Expanding the tourism sector was a center point, and billions of dollars have been invested, lots of which are monies linked with your house of Al Falasi, the Dubai family that is royal.

One of the town’s main draws are the synthetic islands built within the Persian Gulf.

Dubai is now the sixth most-visited town in the entire world, according to the entire world Economic Forum. Nearly 15 million individuals checked out in 2017, lots that’s behind only Hong Kong, Bangkok, London, Singapore, plus the world’s richest gambling hub, Macau.

Dubai is considered to be a city that is progressive and has now eased some restrictions on which’s otherwise considered haram vices. Adult non-Muslims are permitted to consume liquor in licensed venues typically present city resorts.

But gambling — often included on so-called ‘sin industry’ listings, along with alcohol, tobacco, weapons manufacturing, and products that are sex-related; is not likely to be coming to Dubai any time in the future, if ever.

However, city officials in Dubai have an ambitious goal of welcoming 20 million tourists a year by 2020, which would make it the third locale that is most-visited the globe.

Shocker, Not: Nevada Most Gambling-Addicted State, Learn Reveals

Nevada is America’s most gambling-addicted state, in accordance with a new study conducted by WalletHub.com, an online personal finance site. It’s probably the least study that is surprising since the one that showed that more than 50 percent of teenagers are dependent on their mobile phones.

Nevada holds the record for the most addicted gamblers, a study that is new. And no one is surprised. (Image: File/Getty)

Which should come as surprise that is little but the positioning of various other states in the study results may be worthy of a few elevated eyebrows.

The old-fashioned way, WalletHub says it studied 19 key metric indicators to determine where excessive gambling is most prevalent in its third year evaluating which US states are the most addicted to taking chances with their money.

The evaluation considered two main areas, ‘gambling friendliness’ (a quotient that combined a number of video gaming factors for every state) and ‘gambling problem and treatment.’ The weighted categories included factors such as for instance the wide range of commercial and tribal casinos per capita, and percentage of adults with gambling disorders and parallel number that is available of counselors.

Nevada topped record of most gambling-addicted states with a total score of 62.43. It rated very first in gambling friendliness, and 10th in gambling problem and treatment.

Nevada has the most casinos and gaming machines per capita, and fifth-highest rate of gambling addiction.

One may suspect nj-new Jersey or Pennsylvania to come next, but that ‘honor’ goes to South Dakota, which scored 53.1. Rounding out of the top five many gambling-addicted states are Montana (52.9), Mississippi (51.8), and Louisiana (44.7).

Four of the top five are repeat offenders. Louisiana could be the entry that is newest, up from no. 9 in 2017, while West Virginia (#5 in 2017), dropped back again to number 6 in 2010.

Listing Down And Up

Pennsylvania — which generates the second-most gross gaming casino revenue behind only Nevada — placed #27 on last years WalletHub list. But with the Keystone State in the process of further expanding its commercial industry with up to 10 new satellite casinos, along with impending online gambling and daily fantasy activities, and slots inside truck stops and airport video gaming lounges, Pennsylvania has surged a dozen spots, up to #15.

Illinois was another mover-upper, going from #18 in 2017 to #9 on this 12 months’s list. Though Illinois ranks 25th in gaming machines per capita and 21st in lottery sales, no state has more gambling-related arrests per capita, according to WalletHub.

Atlantic City’s nj dropped two spots to #8. The Garden State ranks second in gambling problem and treatment, with nearly three per cent of most adults recognized as have a gambling disorder.

Implications of Legal Sports Betting

Much of the US will discover their ‘gambling friendliness’ score increase, should sports betting be legalized for many 50 states. The Supreme Court is expected to soon hand straight down its viewpoint on the current federal ban that prohibits the game in all but four states.

WalletHub asked five behavioral and psychology experts whether sports betting should be allowed at the level that is federal. All five said it should, using the general opinion that eliminating unregulated illegal offshore and underground sportsbooks is within the most useful interest of both consumers and the gaming industry.

‘ The reason that is main states want gambling is money. Why not make sports gambling legal? Gamblers will gamble anyhow,’ Indiana University Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Professor Emeritus Jim Sherman noted.

as 20 states would be anticipated to pass activities gambling laws in the coming years should SCOTUS repeal the ban that is federal.

Land in Sight for Louisiana Riverboat Casinos as State Senate Passes ‘River to Shore’ Bill

On Tuesday, the very time that the Horseshoe Southern Indiana was issued authorization by the Indiana Gaming Commission to go its operations onto dry land, hundreds of kilometers south the Louisiana Senate had been approving a bill that would also propel its own riverboat gambling enterprises onto terra firma.

State Senator Ronnie Johns believes Louisiana riverboat casinos should be permitted to come onto dry land after 25 years into the drink. He desires to modernize the state’s casino industry so that it can compete along with its neighbors. (Image: Sarah Camard/Gambit Weekly)

The Louisiana Senate voted 22-14 to pass State Senator Ronnie Johns’ (R-Lake Charles) SB316, which will permit the state’s 15 riverboat casinos to help make the leap that is evolutionary provided all gambling activities are conducted within 1,200 feet of their licensed berths.

Johns’ bill would also remove a quirky statute from Louisiana gamble law that requires each facility to have a paddle wheel that is operational.

https://gamblingprofessors.com/

Horseshoe Gets Lucky

Indiana passed a similar bill in 2015, and not just a moment too soon for the Horseshoe which has been shut down on at least five occasions due to the flooding of the Ohio river where it’s been permanently docked since its establishment in 1998. The most recent closure had been in February, at great expense to their state.

The Indiana regulator on Tuesday approved a $85 million facility that is land-based should that be ‘above-land-based center,’ because the Caesars-owned casino will be slightly elevated to negate the possibility of flooding.

‘This project further shows our continued enthusiasm for and commitment to the state,’ said Brad Siegel, senior vice president during the Horseshoe. ‘We appreciate the Commission’s decision today and appear ahead to continuing our positive working relationships at the State and local level.’

Expansion or development?

Much of the debate in Louisiana, meanwhile, was whether Johns’ bill constituted gambling expansion, since it proposes reworking the cap on casino floor space. The current restriction of 30,000 square legs would be replaced by a limit on gambling positions or the amount of seats in front of slots at 2,365.

Johns stated his bill would modernize the state’s creaking casino sector, allowing it to incorporate bigger slots with the cutting-edge technology that is latest, which will surely help it to deflect competition from the casinos of Oklahoma and Mississippi.

State Senator Danny Martiny (R-Dist. 10) agreed, and berated senators that are fellow thought otherwise.

We’ve got an industry that’s supplying us with income, thank God,’ Martiny stated. ‘Everybody that’s against it, sure doesn’t shy away from coming to Appropriations and asking for some of that money.