Tribal casinos set a high standard for how gaming facilities can reopen safely from their coronavirus closures, panelists said Thursday at an SBC Digital North America discussion.
“Every single tribe is going over the top in safety measures to remain open,” said Conrad Granito, general manager of Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, Wash., which reopened in late May before state officials sanctioned the resumption of similar operations under their jurisdiction. “These casinos fund so many programs. So many lives are touched. Not having these funds available is a huge hardship on the tribes. They’re doing it extremely responsibly for the safety not only of guests, but team members and tribal members.”
Granito spoke during a panel discussion on “Assessing the Tribal Gaming Landscape.” Also serving on the panel were Jonodev Chaudhuri, partner at the nationwide Quarles & Brady law firm and chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission from 2013 to May 2019; James Wise, vice president of marketing and sports for Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek, Mich.; and Dermot Smurfit, CEO of GAN, an iGaming-systems supplier with global headquarters in London. Sheila Morago, executive director of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association, moderated.
Firekeepers Casino reopened June 1 with a face-mask requirement that triggered “some conversation,” Wise said. “People tried to put us to the test — as toddlers do to their parents. We held firm to the mask. The fact that we’ve tried be as vigilant as we can has helped our business and our ability to regain some of our money, a fraction, that was lost to the down time, and give money back to the tribe.”
Chaudhuri said the pandemic posed significant challenges for tribes, but also opened opportunities, including online gaming. Tribes need regulatory “flexibility” to provide valuable services to their members, he said. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the federal law governing tribal gaming, does not expressly prohibit online gaming.
“We need … to allow tribes as much as possible to provide services off their lands,” he said. “As we’ve seen in this pandemic, people still want to engage in gaming, but their health is important, too.”
Smurfit said every tribal casino should be active with online social gaming, even if real-money wagering is not available to them. From mid-March through the second quarter, every day was like a “snow day,” he said, with patrons who were unable or unwilling to visit a casino increasing their spending online. Social gaming can bring revenues of $2 to $4 per person per day and leverage existing investments in a casino’s rewards program, he said.
Sports betting is another emerging revenue source for tribal casinos.
Wise said the Firekeepers sportsbook opened on June 22, when almost all sports had been shut down. Business has grown, with interest in UFC pay-per-view bouts and NASCAR races.
Michigan allows only on-premises sports betting for now, with online gaming and sports wagering expected to be available before the end of the year.
“It certainly looks from the New Jersey numbers that online gaming has exploded during this down period,” he added.
Smurfit predicted a “surprisingly strong rebound” in sports-betting revenue, but he said most online revenue comes from casino games instead. Internet sports betting by itself is “not the Holy Grail,” he said. “You need to have the online casino conjoined and available to sports gamblers.”
About a third of people who are primarily sports gamblers cross over to online casino games, he said, while about 10 percent of those who are primarily online casino gamblers cross over to the sportsbooks.
Granito said Washington tribes have won the right to offer sports betting, but only at their casinos. Tribes and state officials are negotiating their compacts for that, but those probably won’t be finished until January or February.
