GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 38 - July 2017

QUOTABLES Quotables “It’s stupid. If you want to play poker, there are lots of opportunities in Australia, at casinos and tournaments. It’s not as if there isn’t a great deal of poker playing already, but they’re just stopping it online. The whole world is online now.” —Australian Senator David Leyonhjelm, on Australia banning online poker and live sports betting. “Online gambling is becoming a highly effective tool for Atlantic City’s casinos. Increased integration between the online and live casino appears to be driving additional play and visitation at land-based properties.” —Gaming industry research group Eilers & Krejcik, in a report on Atlantic City’s online gambling. “We believe bitcoin awareness, high liquidity, ease of transport and continued market outperformance as geopolitical risks mount will make bitcoin a strong contender for investment at a consumer and investor level.” —Jeremy Liew, the first investor in Snapchat, and Blockchain CEO and cofounder Peter Smith, in a presentation sent to Business Insider in which the duo laid out their case for why it’s reasonable for bitcoin to explode to $500,000 by 2030. “What internet gaming is doing is allowing people to be familiar with gaming in the comfort of their own home. Now once a player becomes familiar online with your internet gaming … typically when they want to go visit a brick-and-mortar property, they are probably going to visit your property.” —Rummy Pandit, executive director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality & Tourism at Stockton University. “I wonder why government introduced betting to poor people. It is a game of the rich . . . Where do they get the money from [if they don’t steal]?” —The Uganda People’s Defence Forces Commander of Land Forces, Maj Gen Peter Elwelu, after asking the government to regulate the gambling industry, saying it poses a “serious threat” to national security. “I want everybody to know what happened so it won’t happen to them. I’ve played slots all over the country and never had a problem like that. Even the people handing out the money said, ‘This isn’t right.’ ... That jackpot money is long gone.” —Jan Flato, a 66-year old Florida man, after being denied a $100,000 slot machine jackpot at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino because he had his friend, Marina Medvedeva Navarro, push the button “for good luck.” Legally, whoever makes the winning spin has rights to the money, and Navarro took the entire jackpot. 6 w w w . g p w a t i m e s . o r g