Gaming trade innovator worries on line casino operators aren’t taking dangers

Enshrinement right into a corridor of fame usually caps an individual’s profession. Not for John Acres, 72. Almost a decade after his induction into the American Gaming Association’s Gaming Hall of Fame, retirement isn’t in his vocabulary. Acres stays a high gaming trade innovator.

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John Acres’ biography reads like a historical past of the on line casino ground.

He holds nearly 200 patents overlaying slot machine merchandise utilized in casinos worldwide, together with participant monitoring techniques, progressive jackpots and packages that decide frequent rewards and bonuses.

His present firm, Acres Manufacturing — the fourth iteration of the household gaming enterprise — unveiled a cost adapter for cashless gaming throughout final fall’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.

Acres has lengthy held a view that the on line casino trade must always evolve and alter the way it does enterprise or it dangers leaving cash on the gaming desk.

“Our real problem is we’ve lost our bravery. We’ve lost our courage. We’ve lost the willingness to continue to take risks,” Acres mentioned throughout a half-hour discuss on the Bob Maheu First Wednesday luncheon on the Ahern Hotel final week.

He recommended that 2025’s yearlong decline in Strip visitation — chalked as much as excessive costs, resort and parking charges and different add-ons — may be alleviated by giving gamers a greater purpose to go to Las Vegas.

“We simply need to make a player feel like a winner even when they’re losing,” Acres mentioned. “That’s the emotional twist we need to provide.”

The rising use of cashless gaming and digital funds makes it simpler for casinos to trace their prospects’ gaming habits and favourite video games, thus offering incentives for gamers to make return journeys.

Acres mentioned the information collected by casinos from hundreds upon hundreds of shoppers helps operators perceive what brings their gamers again.

“There is an old proverb that says there are two wonderful things about gambling — winning and losing,” he mentioned. “Winning has no meaning if there’s no opportunity for loss.”

During his profession, Acres has created and offered three corporations — Electronic Data Technologies, Mikohn Gaming and Acres Gaming — all for big earnings. 

Acres helped pace up the Nevada approval course of to carry new merchandise to casinos statewide by his involvement, together with different tools suppliers, whereas taking part within the Gaming Control Board’s 2023 efforts to streamline laws. 

Acres mentioned Nevada’s gaming trade usually views new concepts as a menace, and through a question-and-answer session on the Maheu occasion, he spoke in regards to the present debate over prediction markets. The web sites are regulated federally by a commodity-focused regulatory panel however attain into all 50 states, together with these that don’t provide authorized sports activities betting, resembling California and Texas.

He recommended prediction markets are “just another set of odds and most players will lose.” Acres mentioned Nevada needs to be “preparing a way to tax the hell out of it if we can’t get rid of it, to make sure that we make our money. Put them on equal footing with the casinos.”

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Slot operator sees greenback indicators after Chicago’s sweeping video poker legalization

Illinois-based slot machine route operator Accel Entertainment, which entered Nevada three years in the past by its $140 million buy of Century Gaming, is eyeing a chance in its hometown.

Chicago, which had been the state’s largest municipality with out slot machine route operations, recently legalized video poker and slot machines in each Chicago bar or restaurant with a liquor license. 

The company announced final week that it was evaluating the potential enterprise alternative in Chicago, a market that might attain $1 billion in complete gaming income. Accel mentioned the income determine would translate into roughly $320 million of annual internet earnings cut up amongst route operators. 

Texas Capital Securities gaming analyst David Bain instructed buyers Accel already has 30 % of the Illinois slot route market with nearly 15,800 slot machines in additional than 2,700 areas,  making the corporate “ready to go in Chicago with a potential highly profitable rollout.” 

Accel, which operates in 10 states, expanded its Nevada route operations in December when it acquired Dynasty Games, a small Northern Nevada enterprise with 20 areas in six communities, for an undisclosed worth. Before the transaction, Accel had 370 areas overlaying 2,757 slot machines.

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Light & Wonder pays $127.5M, retires slot machines after rival claims patent infringement

Slot machine developer Light & Wonder agreed to pay rival developer Aristocrat Technologies $127.5 million to settle a patent infringement lawsuit overlaying the event of two slot machines.

The lawsuit was filed greater than a 12 months in the past and concerned the usage of a proprietary math method owned by Aristocrat. Light & Wonder mentioned in a statement that the settlement contains overlaying Aristocrat’s authorized prices.

“This matter arose when a former employee inappropriately used certain Aristocrat math without our knowledge and in direct violation of our policies,” Light & Wonder CEO Matt Wilson mentioned within the assertion. “Upon discovery, we took immediate action and have since implemented strengthened processes aimed at preventing similar issues in the future.”

Light & Wonder agreed to take away the video games, “Dragon Train” and “Jewel of the Dragon,” from on line casino flooring globally and to “permanently cease” advertising and gross sales efforts for the video games.

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What I’m studying

✈️ Allegiant to buy rival budget airline Sun Country in $1.5 billion cash and stock deal — Leslie Josephs, CNBC

Both Las Vegas-based Allegiant and Minneapolis-based Sun Country concentrate on cost-conscious price range vacationers.

⁉️ A $400,000 payout after Maduro’s capture is putting prediction markets in the spotlight  — Wyatte Grantham-Philips, The Associated Press

The downfall of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is drawing renewed scrutiny into this murky world of speculative, 24/7 transactions.

🎰 Online casino coming to Maine after governor’s approval — Matthew Waters, Legal Sports Report 

Four tribes will function the casinos. Maine would be the eighth state with authorized on-line gaming, becoming a member of Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia. Nevada is restricted to poker solely.

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News, notes and quotes

🤝Tourism CEO says Vegas will rebound in 2026

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill expects Southern Nevada’s tourism to rebound in 2026. December 2025’s complete remains to be being counted, however the 12 months has seen Strip visitation decline 11 straight months to a 7 % drop from 2024’s numbers. Hill spoke at the opening of the weeklong CES commerce present, which introduced in additional than 148,000 attendees. He recommended a big conference and commerce present calendar, in addition to worldwide occasions, such because the World Cup soccer match, will increase the 12 months’s visitation totals. The company used CES to unveil the $600 million renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center Central Hall.

🧳 Cortez Masto seems to revive funding for Brand USA

Brand USA, a program that helps drive worldwide tourism, noticed its funding minimize by 80 % final summer time as a part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) has co-sponsored bipartisan laws to revive full funding for this system at a time when nationwide tourism has been on a decline. The invoice would assist to revitalize the American tourism trade forward of occasions such because the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics. The U.S. Travel Association helps the invoice and companion laws has been launched within the House.

💰 Wynn names Craig Fullalove as CFO, succeeding Julie Cameron-Doe

Julie Cameron-Doe, chief monetary officer of Wynn Resorts since 2022, will retire this summer time and be succeeded by Craig Fullalove, who has held the same place with Wynn’s Macau operations since 2020. As a part of her CFO place, Cameron-Doe helped to guide the corporate’s growth into Europe with the acquisition of Wynn Mayfair in London. She additionally helped safe financing for the primary resort-casino beneath growth within the United Arab Emirates, the $5.1 billion Wynn Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah.

💵 Macau casinos finish 2025 nearly 15 % beneath pre-pandemic income totals

Macau’s on line casino market in 2025 inched nearer to the annual gaming income complete it skilled earlier than the pandemic stymied visitation for greater than three years. The resorts — together with properties operated by Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts International and Las Vegas Sands — ended 2025 with complete gaming income of $30.9 billion, up 9.1 % from 2024, based on its Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. The determine was nearly 85 % of Macau’s 2019 pre-pandemic determine of $36.6 billion. Macau’s report 12 months for gaming income was $45 billion in 2013.