It is the time of year when we wax nostalgic and think of the best of times in the previous year. The media makes lists of the biggest sports, Wall Street, political, economic, weather, death, divorce, marriage, and local events, along with an unlimited number of other topics. In an era of digital media, a reporter can easily discover which stories people read most. It is the click count, the way the media and advertisers track readers in the digital era.
Even without a click count, some stories are no-brainers—December snowstorm in Buffalo and a war in Ukraine, for example.
List makers tend to keep things in categories. So in the category of technology, the obvious top story for 2022 is Elon Musk and his Twitter affair. In film, Tom Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick generated nearly twice as much in sales as the second-place movie, giving Cruise bragging rights for the year. Sports aren’t so simple; there many of them and each has its own narrative, championship, and best teams, coaches, and players. In 2022, those included the Houston Astro, Los Angeles Rams, Golden State Warriors, Colorado Avalanche, and Argentinian national football team in the World Cup. Internationally, the World Cup wins the award with the most watchers and bettors.
The death of a queen and king are in a category by themselves. Queen Elizabeth II of England and Pele, King of Football, both died at the end of the year. That is one of the best ways to make the top ten list: Do your deed in October, November, or December. Those who died or made a memorable contribution to society in the first quarter of 2022 are for the most part forgotten.
The exceptions start with Elizabeth II. She had ruled our world for 70 years and her death was big news everywhere. Pele had ruled nearly as long; he was heralded as the world’s best footballer, even athlete in the eyes of some. The struggles of the stock market, inflation, and Ukraine stayed in the headlines throughout the year, pretty much guaranteeing a trophy at the awards dinner at year’s end.
People in the gaming industry also make lists. Among others, reporters in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Oklahoma, and California have their own lists.
My own list is not one that consists of top stories, rather of significant narratives. I have only two, but certainly there are others. The two on my list represent long-term trends, not single events or quickly passing fads. Each hit a high point or two during the year, but both are the results of events that took place long before 2022. Court rulings and new laws can take decades before the full impact can be seen.
On the top of my list is sports betting, in particular mobile, remote, and online. The Supreme Court opened the door to sports betting in May 2018. Since then, 30 states have legalized sports betting, but only seven or so have authorized remote wagering. The poster state for mobile sports betting is New York, which has the largest population and therefore the most bettors. Mobile sports wagering in New York began in January 2022; in 11 months, New York has generated approximately $14.6 billion in wagers. In the 30 prior months, the state’s handle was only about $400 million.
Nationally, the storyline is the same. Since the Supreme Court ruled against the feds and opened the door to individual states’ legalizing sports betting, $176.4 billion has been wagered on sporting events in the United States; the gross gaming revenue from those wagers was $13.4 billion and $2.2 billion has been paid in taxes.
Like the New York numbers, states with remote or mobile wagering take 90 percent of the wagers remotely and account for the majority of the wagers in the country. One gaming publication called online sports betting “a leviathan rising.” It is a monster, and a messenger. The New York experience promises a like experience for other large-population states if they go mobile. Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, and Nevada further illustrate the point. They are in the top five, each generating something close to $1 billion a month in wagers.
The other narrative on my list is Indian gaming in Las Vegas, where by the close of 2022, four tribes have established a presence. The Mohegan Tribe from Connecticut operates the casino for Virgin Hotels. The California-based San Manuel Band of Mission Indians has reopened the COVID-closed Palms after buying the property from Station Casinos. The famous Wynn-built Mirage has been purchased by Hard Rock Resorts, a company owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. And on the last day of the year, MGM Resorts International announced the sale of a 13-acre site on the Strip to Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota.
The presence of those four tribes on the Las Vegas Strip is ironic. Thirty-four years ago, Congress passed the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (NIGRA). The act was meant to contain the growth of Indian gaming and to give each state control over that growth. It failed to accomplish its goals, but it did open the door for tribes to enter a major cash-generating business that could help support tribal services. For tribes located near population centers, the act allowed those tribes to expand into other businesses, ones not governed by the federal government or NIGRA. Today, more than 500 tribal casinos in the country generate approximately $40 billion in GGR. That cash has allowed the Seminole, Mohegan, San Manuel, and Three Affiliated tribes to buy or build casinos in other states. The ultimate prize is, of course, the Las Vegas Strip.
Sometimes we place too much emphasis on today and today’s events. The really important trends in society develop over a period of years, not days or months. And it is the nature of our intellect that we cannot accurately foresee the eventual outcomes of any event.
In 1989, Professor Bill Eadington put on the first Indian Gaming Conference. It was filled with tribal representatives and non-Indian attorneys. Everyone had a different theory about the intent and outcome of NIGRA. Nelson Rose offered a word of caution. He said we would not be able to assess the act until it had been litigated everywhere. Rose estimated that would take decades. The Indian gaming events on the Las Vegas Strip in 2022 prove just how right he was.
The most important stories of 2022 are still just seeds hidden in the ground. It will be years before they sprout and bear fruit.
