To get a good picture of the future of gaming, one need only look to the Northeast.
It has been 40 years since New Jersey voters approved casinos in Atlantic City, and in those four decades the region has gone from a monopoly to near-saturation. Other regions, though a decade or two behind, could follow similar development arcs.
Discussions of the next step for the Northeast are central to the 20th annual East Coast Gaming Congress, which starts Wednesday afternoon at Harrah’s Waterfront Resort and Conference Center in Atlantic City.
“What I really think is going to be the driving theme is what will the brick-and-mortar casino industry look like in five years and what’s it going to take for them to be successful?” said Michael Pollock, managing director of Spectrum Gaming Group. Pollock leads the concluding session on Thursday, consisting of outlooks from nine chief executives, including James Allen of the Seminole Gaming, Felix Rappaport of Foxwoods Resort Casino, Greg Carlin of Rush Street Gaming and Keith Smith of Boyd Gaming.
The Northeast casino market has grown from just Atlantic City to include Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts and other states.
“The Northeast is ground zero for a lot of the issues,” Pollock said. “There’s a longer history here so every issue we expect to hear discussed will have a Northeast element. That includes the expansion of gaming within states, to the expansion of gaming regionally, and online.
“There are new questions, with tough answers, but this is reflective of where this industry stands.”
Pollock said most agree that growth is going to have to come from changing the business model “as opposed to growth historically coming from entering new markets.”
Other topics include daily fantasy sports, internet gaming, attracting millennials, retail gaming, gender equity and solutions for Atlantic City. Go to EastCoastGamingCongress.com.
