Nevada's all-important
gaming industry is rapidly changing and growing, and
we explore how here at G2E this week on
Nevada Week. ♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week
is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt. -Welcome to Nevada Week. I'm Amber Renee Dixon
joining you from G2E, the Global Gaming
Expo at the Venetian. Ahead, we're going to
show you some of the hottest developments
in gaming right now. But first, we want to
check in with Howard Stutz, Gaming and
Tourism Reporter for The Nevada Independe
nt. Howard, thank you for
joining Nevada Week again, on location now. (Howard Stutz) On location,
and it's kind of loud in here, a little different
from a few years ago. -A lot of energy
compared to when we had you on last. That was with
Kipp Ortenburger, and that was coming
out of COVID. What do you think
when you see it now? -Well, they're thinking
this will be the largest one. Last year broke some
records, I guess, for attendance. They think this year
will break records, and it seems
like alr
eady. I mean, excitement
around a lot of the new games. Just walked by the
Light & Wonder booth, and they
got SQUID GAMES, a slot machine
based on Squid Game. I don't know how you
clean blood on the floor of the casino
afterward, but, yeah, they're-- so there's
some new products here. There's some changes in
the industry and a lot of, you know,
a lot of excitement. So, you know,
look at Nevada. We've had 30 straight
months of a billion dollars or more in
gaming revenue. -We're gonna talk
about h
ow long that can last. But when you do walk
around and talk to people at the booths,
what's standing out to you? -I think they just
want to see-- it's like every G2E,
you want to see what's new. What you do here with
the companies the sales here,
a lot of the product you're not going to see
on the casino floors until next year. -Right. -Now, Aristocrat,
for example, and I know you're gonna
visit Aristocrat, they have an NFL slot
machine that they've teased for the
last two years. Last year, it
w
as hidden. This year, they have the--
two of the games that are out, they
have the prototypes. A lot of it will be
out by the Super Bowl. -And why is that
so significant, to have an NFL themed
slot machine? -Oh, Amber, you're a
sports person like me. You know the NFL. It's like-- Vegas,
eh, like this. They didn't even want
to talk about gambling, and the NFL now, not
only with sports betting, they have this
NFL themed slot machine. I went around and
programmed them all for the Los Angeles
Charge
rs. I got the
Chargers on there. But it's a significant
move by the NFL. And I'm wondering if
we'll see other leagues, see the opportunity
by this. The NFL, let's face it.
That's the behemoth. -The big kahuna, yeah. -And so this is a
great-- if it's successful for the NFL,
maybe we're gonna see the NBA do it.
You know, I don't know. Maybe-- maybe
internationally. I asked about
Premier Soccer League or something like that. We'll see what
happens there. -All right. Among some of the
standout speak
ers at G2E was MGM Resorts' CEO,
Bill Hornbuckle. He talked about the recent
cyber attack that MGM faced. What did he say? -Well, it was interesting
because last week, MGM put out a very
carefully worded SEC filing explaining what
happened with the cyber attack that they, you know,
they lost customer data. They were down. He was a little more
untethered to the lawyers in his discussion with
Contessa Brewer from CNBC, said it actually took the
systems down for, you know,
four or five days. And no
t just
on the Strip. This was
regionally, where they, in eight states where
they have casinos. They went back
to basics. Like he said, when he
was an employee coming up in the gaming
industry, you didn't have
computers or technology. You wrote out hotel, you know,
hotel reservations by hand. You did everything
by, you know, on type and pay. You didn't have
computers. They went back
to a lot of that. But it took a while
to get everything back up, and now they're
back operating. They said it's gon
na
cost them about 100 million, they believe,
in adjusted cash flow for the loss, but that
will be covered by cyber insurance, cybersecurity
insurance they have. Their cyber and
security premiums are going to shoot
up through the roof. -Right? -But it was a wake-up call
for the industry, who for, you know, seen
both MGM and Caesars, two of the three largest
operators on the Strip, get hit by cyber attacks
in the last, you know, during September. And they handled them
differently, of course. -You
know he also talked
about another topic you've been reporting on,
and that is the Culinary Union,
its potential strike. What is the latest that he
said on those negotiations? -Well, he actually
said-- he said that the CEO is him and
the three companies. So it's like him, the
CEO, the CFO of Caesars, CEO of Wynn have been
talking with the Culinary Union. He believes they'll
get to a deal. The Culinary announced
on Monday they're going to picket, informational
pickets on the Strip this week. They
're going to ask
customers and visitors not to cross the picket line
for two hours on, like, on Thursday, starting at
ten and five. Hornbuckle mentioned
those informational pickets are going to happen,
and then we'll just-- He believes
this will be gotten. There will be a
deal reached, a contract, and we won't see a
strike in the middle of Formula 1, which is the
last thing they want to see. -Right. And the Culinary Union
argues that they should be benefiting from the
record gaming revenue that
these companies
are taking in. As you mentioned
in August, Nevada gaming revenue
reached $1 billion for the 30th straight month. How long can this
last, Howard? -It seems it's
not-- you know, you're gonna see
ebbs and flows. I mean, we've had record
months throughout the last 30, you know--
basically the last 18 months, last year and a half,
we've had record numbers. And we saw
that this year. There was still a huge
month in like June and July, the second largest,
but it was down because the lar
gest month
occurred a year earlier. So it was actually a
down month when you look at the numbers. I think we'll see
a billion dollars, you know, statewide,
you know, for the next, at least into next year. Then we'll see what happens
if things settle back. If a recession happens,
we don't know what's going to happen there. Obviously, what's going
on in Israel in the Middle East this past week
could perpetuate a recession. We don't know. That will be
one of the challenges we'll face here. -Do you
get any ideas
that casino operators are preparing
for a recession? -In some ways they are. They're always-- they
always have to be. But I think visitation
is still up. We're seeing good
numbers from on the Strip in terms
of visitation. Last month was back to
almost normal totals that we saw before
the pandemic. Formula 1 is going to be a
ridiculously record weekend. I will make a prediction
for you, Amber. Last month, or August
numbers, the Strip hit, it was like over like
$853 million in gaming
revenue. That was a record. There is a chance the
Strip alone could do a billion dollars in
gaming revenue in November because of the
attention and the big money play that's going
to be coming in because of Formula 1. The airport has already
expanded its private jet landing areas and
parking areas for these big jets that will be
coming in from, you know, from Europe
and the Middle East and Asia, because that's
what Formula 1 brings in. People are going
to be paying the million-dollar-a-night
ra
te for a suite at the Wynn, but they're not
gonna be paying that. They're actually going
to put about, you know, five, ten million dollars
into the bank, into the casino cage
to play off of. -Whew! -That's how they
get those rooms. So I think, I mean,
there's the possibility we'll see that.
We'll see. If I'm wrong,
oh, well, I'm wrong. But I just think it just
seems that's the trend it's going toward right now.
It's such a big event. We've never seen anything
like it with Formula 1. I mean, ther
e's a lot
of-- it's brought a lot of attention to the
U.S., and it's very popular in Europe
and the Middle East. -Howard Stutz of
The Nevada Independent, thank you for your time. -Anytime, Amber.
Thanks for having me on. -I'm with Ryan Scott of
Aristocrat Gaming. And this is perhaps one
of the most anticipated product launches of G2E,
the NFL themed slot machine. Tell me about it.
Show me how it works. (Ryan Scott) Yeah, tons
of excitement both at the show and so far in
the field where these ha
ve been placed. NFL slot machine,
every game that we've developed, we developed
a full suite of games. We have six games
we're showing at G2E that will be
on floors before the end of the season this year,
starting with "Super Bowl Jackpots." We're sitting at that
right now, on our King Max cabinet. So this is a
game right here, "Super Bowl Jackpots,"
that the player has the opportunity to
select their team. So every game that we're
developing has every team inside of it so a
player can walk up a
nd play their team. -Okay. Let's do the Raiders
since we're in Las Vegas. - The Raiders! Oh, how neat. -So there you go. You're playing a
Raiders slot machine. -Highlights, as well! -Of course. We worked with
NFLPA to make sure we had game footage
in the games. Every team has over
six minutes of game footage. So players are going to
see all sorts of sights and sounds that they
would experience while being at a game. -That's incredible,
because for so many years, the NFL
was anti-gaming. But then
the Raiders
relocated here, the U.S. Supreme Court
decision to legalize sports betting across the
country certainly helped. How difficult was it to
get the NFL on board with this? -That's right. It definitely opened up
a door for us to engage the NFL and bring a
powerful brand like NFL to slot floors. So the NFL and the NFLPA
worked very closely with us to create what
you're seeing today. So it's been exciting. -Very neat.
I'm going to try it out. -Give it a spin. -A lot of
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
, but-- -It switched over on us. -Hey, I got a
little bit. -Right.
You got a little win. You'll notice that
instead of the royals you might
see in a slot machine, we've replaced it
with stadium food. So you're gonna see
beers, nachos, pizzas, hotdogs, things
players would expect to see at a football game. -So apropos. So you teased this last
year with that giant football helmet, which
you brought back this year. Now that people have
actually gotten to get their hands on it, what
has the feedback
been? -It's been phenomenal. So we've seen early
installs be really a center of energy
on the slot floor. So I personally got out
and see a number of them. And you'll see crowds
gathered around and cheering on players and
sometimes booing them if they miss a field goal
in the field goal kicking feature, which
is pretty fun to see. So it's been
really exciting, and it's been
received very well. Now we're going to kick
some field goals for cash. -Okay. -He kicks it! -And if you make
the field goa
l-- - It's a winner! - --you win. -Awesome! -Another thing
to show you while we're kicking field
goals is you can actually charge your
cell phone as we're playing. -How do I do that? -Just put it right here
on the wireless charger, and there you go. -Oh, how neat!
High tech. One last question for
you: The demographic that this is attracting,
I would think it would be just the typical
male football watcher. Is that the case? -It's not, no. NFL is a brand that
resonates with a extremely broad
demo
graphics. We've seen everybody
playing this game. And when we went live
with this game at M Resort earlier this
month, we actually saw the first four players
were all female. So it appeals to a very
broad demographic. It's really exciting. -Oh, that's so cool. Ryan Scott with
Aristocrat Gaming, thank you for
showing us this game. -Thank you.
Thanks. -I'm with Phil O'Shaughnessy,
with IGT. And, Phil, it is obvious what
IGT is excited about this year. Tell me the backstory behind
this Whitney Hous
ton machine. -Yes, indeed, Amber. IGT pioneered licensed
slot themes more than 25 years ago with
"Wheel of Fortune." -Okay. -And now, yes,
you're right. The focal point of
G2E 2023 for us is this brand new
Whitney Houston slot on our brand new
Skyrise 55 cabinet. And you know something,
a licensed theme is really a mixture
of art and science. If you think
about the art, obviously we have a
gorgeous display here. We have a social
opportunity with the music playing throughout
while players are enj
oying and a
shared top screen. -It's beautiful! -The truth of the matter
is to successfully do a licensed theme, what you
want to make sure you do is have some sort
of relevance. In this case, iconic
elements like stars and albums that fall down
into the reels while the music is playing. There's a very close tie
there, right, with the art and the way this is packaged
with the Grammys. -Yeah. -You get the idea. -Tell me about the
science aspect. -Absolutely. In terms of the science,
it's fantasti
c. So the woman who runs
our studio in Reno, Nevada, where this game was made,
collaborated with the woman who runs our
global licensing. She's based here
in Las Vegas. So great female leaders
coming together and putting together a game
that really resonates with the core slot
demographic, right? We do a lot of research
to make sure that a licensed theme will
resonate with the slot demographic. On top of that, we
actually pulled some secret sauce from a
game that has already performed exceptiona
lly
well in the marketplace. -Wheel of Fortune? -Actually, no. It's called
"Prosperity Link," and it was developed
in Reno, Nevada, by the same person
who sits behind the development of this. So when you have that
secret sauce integrated into the machine, you
know it's probably set up to do pretty well for
your casino operator partners, and you can
present it to them with absolute confidence. -I love the Nevada
connection. When will this be
available in casinos? -This will be available
in Q2 of
2024. And, Amber, I saved the
best part for last. Did I mentioned the huge
jackpots that this pays out? In this case, we're cued up
for half a million dollars, playing on house money
at G2E. -Wow! -This will be fun
for players with some really big jackpot
excitement as well. -IGT certainly known
for its slot machines. This one will become
very popular I imagine, but "Wheel of
Fortune" already. IGT also a leader,
though, in video poker. -Yes. -Let's go take a look
now at your new bartop. -Great!
-So, Phil, some of our
viewers may have seen this bartop already
out and about in Southern Nevada, but
what's new about it? -That's right. The PeakBar Top from IGT
is all over Nevada in the bars, the taverns,
the casinos. In fact, IGT has enjoyed
a commanding share in video poker for over
three decades now. Think about when you
go to the bar, Amber. You might want to
play some video poker, maybe some
keno or slots, but you might be
watching sports. I know you're a
big sports fan. -I definitely a
m
when I go to the bar, watching sports. -What we've done is
integrate sports betting into the bartop now. So here I am enjoying
a little video poker. And now I can just
switch over and decide, Hey, what games do I
want to bet on right now? I'm feeling good.
I'm gonna do a parlay. I'll hit this
one for the spread, this one and this one. And you can see my
betslip is starting to fill up over here. -Wow! -And then what I'm gonna
do is just place that bet, confirm that bet. It tells me how much I
w
ill win for what I've wagered. And it's going to
print out my slip. -Oh, that's so cool. I can even watch the
game right here on the screen if I want to or
just watch the game in the bar and play
slots or video poker. -That is neat. -Everything all
in one, yes. -So right now it's only at a
specific casino in Wisconsin? -Yes, that's correct. -But this will be
implemented as time passes? -All over the place. Very much like we've
done with video poker, you can expect to see
this in the states where
video poker and
sports betting are legal. -And this bartop
in particular, what kind of research
went into it? -Oh, extensive research. It's a great question,
because I've told you before that IGT is very
research-based and content driven, right? It's one thing to make a bartop
and show it to a pub owner. It's one thing to show
it to a casino operator. We went so far as
to show this to the bartenders themselves
and said, Will this ergonomic design
work for you while you're
working in the bar? Is
the lighting on the
back good enough so you know when to comp
a player a drink? -This type of thing. We got wonderful
feedback and actually modified this quite a
bit before it went to market. -Based on the
bartender's advice. -Indeed. -I'm sure they
were happy. Phil O'Shaughnessy,
thank you so much for your time. -Thank you, Amber. -I'm with Gerard Crosby
of Konami. And, Gerard, I
understand this is the big product launch for
this G2E, "Dimension 43x3." What makes it special? (Gerard Crosby) We
ll, the
size of it, obviously. -Yes. -So it's over
9 feet tall, features three
43-inch LCD screens, 4K graphics. -Look at that graphic. -Yeah. You can see why we
believe it's going to be published. At the size of
the screens, the graphic looks really
sharp and really visual. -I'm gonna go
ahead and-- Oh, I gotta select my
denomination, one penny. -Push the spin button. -And so it's big in
other ways, too. Giant spin button. And then this allows
for two people. That's a popular
feature? -That's r
ight. So we sell this machine
with a two-seater bench seat. So what that gives is
plenty of comfort so couples can sit together
and play the machine. They've got a
spin button each, so they can
play together, which a lot
of couples do. -And this is available
now on the Venetian floor? -It is.
That's right. This is our official launch of
the cabinet at this show. -There is another
machine you want to show me. Let's go take a
look at that now. -Okay. -All right.
So Gerard, what is this game? -So t
his is "Buzzer." It's a-- what "Buzzer"
is, it's a gaming show channel. It features old game shows,
such as-- -Betty White is in it! -Yeah. That's Betty White on
Family Feud. -Okay. -It's got Card Sharks and
another game called Beat the Clock. -All right. -So the game features--
And the games are based around those
gaming shows. -What has your
research shown? Is there an appetite for
this kind of nostalgia? -Yeah, we believe so. A lot of the
players are older. And so we believe
something like t
his, the nostalgia of the game
will bring them to the game. And you know, the way
we designed the game, it's fun to play. I think everyone
will enjoy it. -So Konami has most of
its offices in Japan, but there is a location
here in Las Vegas. What advantage, if any,
does that give Konami to be based here? -Great advantage. It's the gaming
capital of the world. You know, it's called
resort casinos, local casinos. With that, it brings a
large, diverse and experienced workforce
like we rely on. We h
ave over 500 employees
in our office here. And, of course,
the market here, we have all the
research we need. We can take what we need and
go there and play games. -And see it firsthand. -And see it firsthand.
Exactly. -Gerard Crosby
with Konami, thank you for your time. -Thank you. -Thank you to
Aristocrat Gaming, IGT, and Konami for
sharing their time with Nevada Week,
and we now want to share something special with you. As we continue to
celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we are
proud to brin
g you a preview of a new show
being produced by Vegas PBS focused on Southern Nevada's
Latino community. The host of that
show, Maria Silva, joins us now from our
Nevada Week studios with more on
Bienvenidos a Las Vegas. -Gracias, Amber. Bienvenidos a Las Vegas,
Welcome to Las Vegas, is the show near and dear to my heart for
so many reasons. Mi familia, the Silva family
has been in Las Vegas since 1981. In Bienvenidos a Las Vegas,
I'll introduce you to families who have lived here
for many, ma
ny generations. They are entrepreneurs,
educators, entertainers, and historians with
extraordinary stories to tell. We're back in
school for a very important
history lesson. (Tom Rodriguez) All
right, let's do it. -Let's talk about this
18-year old Mexican Scout, Rafael Rivera.
He comes here. He's on that mesa
overlooking all that beauty. He is credited with
giving us our name, Las Vegas. -Yeah. Well, you know, it's not
unusual that he called it Las Vegas, because
that means "meadows," and he wa
s looking
at a green wash. It's still green
to this day. -Mr. Tom Rodriguez is one
of the most trusted historians when it comes
to Latinos and Hispanics in Nevada and has even
written several books. -Well, that's the
thing with history. It's always there. But if nobody
records it, it almost sort of
doesn't exist. -Making sure the history
of 150 Latinos living in Southern Nevada
was recorded, the next generation
of historians. At UNLV, I met up with
fellow Rebel Laurents Banuelos-Benitez
to talk
about UNLV's student-led Oral
History Project, Latinx Voices of
Southern Nevada. (Laurents Banuelos-Benitez)
You can't really talk about Las Vegas without
talking boxing as well. -Yes. -I'm a big boxing fan. I grew up watching
boxing with my parents and my family. It was always
a big event. The early days of
watching Oscar De La Hoya, right, hearing stories-- -Julio Cesar Chavez. -Julio Cesar Chavez,
hearing those stories from my dad. So one of the ones that
I really love to do was when I got to
sit down
with legendary boxing referee Joe Cortez. -Still top of my game. But when I got inducted
into the Hall of Fame with Julio Cesar Chavez,
Mike Tyson, Sylvester Stallone,
Kostya Tszyu, Ignacio Beristain,
I said to myself, I'm on top of my game. I want to go out
still on top. I don't want to
be pushed out. -From UNLV, I headed to
a neighborhood which holds a special
place in my heart. - Bienvenidos a Las Vegas! -At the East Las Vegas
Community Center, I met up with
Councilwoman Olivi
a Diaz, the first Latina
elected to the Las Vegas City Council. Councilwoman Diaz grew
up in East Las Vegas and shares what makes
this neighborhood, also known as the Rafael Rivera
neighborhood, so special. (Olivia Diaz) The East
Las Vegas Community Center just turned
20 years old, and we gave it
much needed love. Every now and again,
we'll celebrate September 16, which is a
big to-do for the community. It's the Mexican
Independence. And so with the
Mexican Consul, we come and we do the
celebrac
ion del Grito. Hence why we have that
wonderful bell back there. And now we actually have
something that is ceremonial. [bell ringing] -From East Las Vegas
to the Arts District in Downtown Las Vegas,
that's where I met up with Las Vegas native
Brian "Paco" Alvarez. An anthropologist and
talented artist himself, we talk all things
art and culture. We are here for a
very specific reason, this beautiful metal
artwork back here, this sculpture. (Brian "Paco" Alvarez)
This is my pride and joy in Down
town Las Vegas. It's the second most
important work of art ever commissioned in
Las Vegas history. The first one is the
Flashlight at UNLV. These are site-specific
works of art. Luis Varela-Rico
actually created this. He's a local artist
originally from Mexico. His mother's very
locally famous. -Irma. -The beautiful thing about this sculpture is
it's representative of the Paiute baskets. The Paiutes were renowned,
are renowned, for their amazing
baskets that they created. And it also represents
--
it's made of aluminum, and it also represents
the railroad, because the railroad was
just a few feet away. So you've got this
juxtaposition of aluminum and steel and
the delicateness of the, of the Paiute baskets. So we have Radial Symmetry
by Luis. - Bienvenidos! -Also in
Downtown Las Vegas, we paid a visit to
the Martinez family. Three generations now
run what is considered the oldest Mexican
restaurant in the city of Las Vegas,
Dona Maria Tamales. -Now real quick, I need
to say, because th
is is actually your grandma's
recipe, abuela's recipe? -That's correct,
my grandma. -He taught you
how to make them? -Si, yes. I don't know how to make
nothing-- no tamales, no rice, no beans.
He show me how. -Yes.
She learning. -Thank you. -And that little six-
seven-year-old girl who said she wanted to be a
businesswoman and open up her own restaurant,
you did it. So proud of you. -And she continuing
to do this, and she liked it. -The American dream. So many of our
parents came to this country
to give us a
better life, and look. -That's correct. That's correct, and
we are very grateful. -Anybody can do it. If they want to do it,
they can do it. -[in Spanish] - Bienvendidos a Las Vegas! ♪♪ - Bienvenidos a Las Vegas
is partially funded by a grant from WNET and
will air in conjunction with American Historia,
a three-part docuseries executive produced
and hosted by the multitalented
John Leguizamo. Take a look. (John Leguizamo) This
is my chance to dig deep on the real history
of Latinos
. We're going to fill in
the parts of our history that were lost all the
way from the ancient Olmecs... -Latinos were
here long before the United States existed. -...to the Latinos
who helped build this great nation. -With a strike and with
a boycott, we were trying to get farmworkers
basic human rights. -That's a lot of
ground to cover. But don't worry,
because I got you. -Representation matters. American Historia and
Bienvenidos a Las Vegas will both
air in early 2024. -Thank you to Maria
Silva
for her reporting. And thank you
for watching. For any of the resources
discussed on this show, go to
vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek. And I'll see you next week on
Nevada Week. ♪♪♪
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