Larry Gregory and the Mississippi Gaming & Hospitality Association want to return the Southern Gaming Summit to its glory days.
They’re on their way after rebooting the show last year, their first after assuming 100 percent ownership of the conference.
For the second consecutive year, the show, which was founded in 1994, returns to the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi. Projections call for approximately 1,300 people to attend this year, bettering the 1,000 that attended a year ago. The number of gaming manufacturers in attendance is also slated to increase. The three-day Summit runs is set for May 7-9.
Mississippi gaming is in a better place following the U.S. Supreme Court’s May ruling that a federal ban on single-game sports wagers was unconstitutional. That opened the door for states outside of Nevada to offer sports betting for the first time.
Gregory, the MGHA’s executive director, attributes the launch of sports betting in the state in August – some 26 years after casinos first opened on the Gulf Coast – for the state’s casino visitation numbers increasing from 22 million in 2017 to 24 million in 2018.
That’s translated into gains in revenue, including gaming, which rose 2.2 percent in Mississippi to $2.12 billion in 2018. Sports betting launched ahead of college football season, which is very popular in the South.
“Revenues are better than expected,” Gregory said. “I’m not saying they off-the-charts better, but we are pleased with them. And it’s not only sports betting revenue – we’re also seeing gaming revenue going up. We’re seeing new faces. I hear that from members all the time. We’re seeing a crowd that we have never seen here before.”
The summit brings together casino operators and vendors, lawyers, regulators and finance professionals to discuss gaming practices and innovations in the industry. In the long term, the plan is to focus on growing attendance and bringing in more vendors.
“The Southern Gaming Summit (exists) to showcase the South and how prominent the region is, and we’re proud of it,” Gregory said. “There’s a lot of competition out there. The summit gives us visibility. Our goal is to get it back to its glory days once again. And this year’s show is going to be much better than last year’s. There’s no doubt.”
The conference will feature several educational panels on sports betting, reflecting the excitement about the growth of the Mississippi gaming industry with the addition of sports betting, Gregory said.
“Mississippi has always been a great gaming destination, and there’s been a lot of expansion in our neck of the woods,” Gregory said. “We want to show the world we’re a prominent gaming and tourist destination. We’re trying to keep this show creative and imaginative.”
There’s also been a large investment in non-gaming in the region, to attract tourists and make the area a destination that offers more than just “putting a quarter in the slot machine.” The intent is to give people a reason to visit the Gulf Coast and discover what it offers, he said.
Sara Slane, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Gaming Association, will be one of the keynote speakers, along with Gavin Isaacs, the chairman of SBTech and former CEO and president of Scientific Games.
Following a successful inaugural event last year, the Mississippi Gaming Hall of Fame will induct the late William Silas Redd, a Mississippi native and the founder of IGT, as part of its new manufacturing category.
Manufacturing attendance has slipped in previous shows, and the organizers want to reverse that trend. Gregory said it’s expensive for manufactures to ship slot machines, electronic table games and other equipment, and to bring employees and staff to the show.
Perhaps signaling a shift in this philosophy, the Association of Gaming Equipment Operators is one of the sponsors of this year’s conference.
“This is great news,” Gregory said of the AGEM’s sponsorship. “Regional shows like the Southern Gaming Summit are competitive, and the return on investment is getting slim. It’s (sometimes) difficult for manufacturers to participate. We want to bring back as many people as we can, and manufacturers are the key. They are the ones who drive a lot of this.”
“We’re trying to get manufacturers involved without having to set up all of these machines,” Gregory said. “They want to meet and network and attend panels like everyone else. We’re trying to bring them back into the fold to talk about their products without having a hundred machines on display. We’re adapting to the needs of the industry.”
For more information, see http://www.sgsummit.com/
