Dubai Tourism Chief Says City Won’t Become Gaming Destination, Despite MGM and Caesars Projects

Dubai will soon become house to hotel properties branded by MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, but area officials say do not get the incorrect concept: casinos and gambling are not coming to the spot.

Dubai hosts the globe’s tallest building and some of the most fascinating artificial islands, but casinos won’t presumably be coming anytime soon.

Gambling is considered ‘haram’ under Islamic law: a forbidden activity that goes against sacred texts found in the Quran.

This week, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce CEO Issam Kazim was asked if there was a growing appetite to welcome casinos to the city during an interview with Gulf News.

‘No, there is not a desire for casinos,’ Kazim declared. ‘ We must bear in head that you will find cultural items that are a definite concern to us.’

Non-Gaming Horizons

MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, respectively rated #2 and #5 when it comes to gross gaming revenue of the world’s casino operators, are embarking on the center East for the time that is first way of Dubai.

In March 2017, MGM reached a running contract with Dubai-based Wasl Hospitality and Leisure to advise on the development of a location resort, and as soon as completed in 2021, run its operations.

The 26-acre beachfront complex will feature the MGM resort, MGM Residences, and Bellagio Hotel.

Previously this month, Caesars Entertainment announced a partnership with Meraas, also a Dubai development firm, to manage and operate part of the $1.6 billion Bluewaters that is man-made Island. Caesars are responsible for hospitality and entertainment regarding the land that is artificial measures roughly 80 acres.

Caesars CEO Mark Frissora stated the venture into Dubai is section of its post-bankruptcy focus on expanding to markets that are international lending the brand to hoteliers. Bob Morse, the company’s president of hospitality, stated its Bluewaters partners Meraas put any gambling talk ‘to rest very quickly.’

Expanding Tourism

The largest and most populated city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), during the last decade Dubai leaders have made an endeavor to become less reliant on oil. Expanding the tourism sector was a center point, and billions of dollars have been spent, a lot of which are monies linked with your house of Al Falasi, the Dubai family that is royal.

Certainly one of the city’s main draws are the islands that are artificial within the Persian Gulf.

Dubai is today the sixth most-visited town in the entire world, based on the World Economic Forum. Nearly 15 million individuals checked out in 2017, lots that’s behind only Hong Kong, Bangkok, London, Singapore, plus the world’s gambling hub that is richest, Macau.

Dubai is thought to be a city that is progressive and has eased some restrictions on what’s otherwise considered haram vices. Adult non-Muslims are permitted to consume alcohol in licensed venues typically found in city resorts.

But gambling — frequently included on so-called ‘sin industry’ lists, along with alcohol, tobacco, tools manufacturing, and sex-related products — is not likely to be coming to Dubai any time soon, if ever.

However, city officials in Dubai have an ambitious goal of inviting 20 million tourists per year by 2020, which would make it the third locale that is most-visited the globe.

Shocker, Not: Nevada Most Gambling-Addicted State, Research Reveals

Nevada is America’s most state that is gambling-addicted based on a new study conducted by WalletHub.com, an online finance website that is personal. It’s most likely the least study that is surprising since the one that showed that more than 50 percent of teens are addicted to their mobile phones.

Nevada holds the record for the most addicted gamblers, a brand new study shows. And no one is surprised. (Image: File/Getty)

Which should come as little surprise, but the placement of various other states within the study results could be worthy of a few raised eyebrows.

In its third year evaluating which US states are the most addicted to taking risks with their funds the old-fashioned way, WalletHub says it studied 19 key metric indicators to ascertain where exorbitant gambling is most common.

The evaluation considered two areas that are main ‘gambling friendliness’ (a quotient that combined a variety of gaming factors for each state) and ‘gambling issue and treatment.’ The weighted categories included factors such as the range commercial and tribal casinos per capita, and percentage of adults with gambling disorders and parallel number that is available of counselors.

Nevada topped the list of all gambling-addicted states with a score that is total of. It ranked very first in gambling friendliness, and 10th in gambling issue and treatment.

Nevada gets the most gambling enterprises and gaming machines per capita, and fifth-highest rate of gambling addiction.

One may suspect nj-new Jersey or Pennsylvania in the future next, but that ‘honor’ goes to South Dakota, which scored 53.1. Rounding out the top five many states that are gambling-addicted Montana (52.9), Mississippi (51.8), and Louisiana (44.7).

Four of the top five are repeat offenders. Louisiana may be the latest entry, up from number 9 in 2017, while West Virginia (#5 in 2017), dropped back to # 6 this year.

Listing Down And Up

Pennsylvania — which generates the second-most gross gaming casino revenue behind only Nevada — put #27 on final years WalletHub list. But utilizing the Keystone State in the process of further expanding its commercial industry with as many as 10 satellite that is new, along with impending on line gambling and day-to-day fantasy sports, and slots inside truck stops and airport video gaming lounges, Pennsylvania has surged a dozen spots, up to #15.

Illinois was another mover-upper, going from #18 in 2017 to #9 on this year’s list. Though Illinois ranks 25th in gaming devices per capita and 21st in lottery sales, no state has more gambling-related arrests per capita, according to WalletHub.

Atlantic City’s nj fell two spots to #8. The Garden State ranks 2nd in gambling treatment and problem, with nearly three per cent of most adults recognized as have a gambling disorder.

Implications of Legal Sports Betting

A lot of the US will discover their ‘gambling friendliness’ score increase, should sports betting be legalized for all 50 states. The Supreme Court is expected to soon hand down its viewpoint on the current federal ban that prohibits the activity in all but four states.

WalletHub asked five behavioral and psychology experts whether sports betting should be allowed at the level that is federal. All five said it should, utilizing the basic viewpoint that eliminating unregulated illegal offshore and underground sportsbooks is in the most readily useful interest of both consumers and the gaming industry.

‘ The major reason that states want gambling is money. Have you thought to make sports gambling legal? Gamblers will gamble anyway,’ Indiana University Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Professor Emeritus Jim Sherman noted.

as 20 states would be likely to pass sports betting laws in the coming years should SCOTUS repeal the federal ban.

Land in Sight for Louisiana Riverboat Casinos as State Senate Passes ‘River to Shore’ Bill

On Tuesday, the very day that the Horseshoe Southern Indiana ended up being provided permission by the Indiana Gaming Commission to move its operations onto dry land, hundreds of kilometers south the Louisiana Senate ended up being approving a bill that would additionally propel its own riverboat casinos onto terra firma.

State Senator Ronnie Johns believes Louisiana riverboat casinos should be allowed to come onto dry land after 25 years within the drink. He wants to modernize hawaii’s casino industry so that it can compete with its neighbors. (Image: Sarah Camard/Gambit Weekly)

The Louisiana Senate voted 22-14 to pass State Senator Ronnie Johns’ (R-Lake Charles) SB316, which would permit the state’s 15 riverboat casinos to make the evolutionary jump, provided all gambling activities are conducted within 1,200 feet of their licensed berths.

Johns’ bill would also remove a quirky statute from Louisiana gamble law that requires each facility to have a paddle wheel that is operational.

Horseshoe Gets Lucky

Indiana passed a similar bill in 2015, and not a moment too quickly for the Horseshoe which includes been turn off on at minimum five occasions because of the flooding of the Ohio river where it offers been permanently docked since its establishment in 1998. The absolute most closure that is recent in February, at great price to hawaii.

The Indiana regulator on Tuesday approved a $85 million land-based center or should that be ‘above-land-based center,’ because the Caesars-owned casino will be slightly elevated to negate the possibility of flooding.

betx1

‘This project further shows our continued enthusiasm for and commitment towards the state,’ said Brad Siegel, senior vice president at the Horseshoe. ‘We appreciate the Commission’s decision today and appearance forward to continuing our positive working relationships at the State and local level.’

Evolution or expansion?

Much of the debate in Louisiana, meanwhile, was whether Johns’ bill constituted gambling expansion, since it proposes reworking the cap on casino floor space. The limit that is current of square feet would be changed by a limit on gambling positions or the amount of seats in front of slots at 2,365.

Johns said his bill would modernize the state’s creaking casino sector, allowing it to incorporate bigger slots utilizing the latest cutting-edge technology, which can only help it to deflect competition from the casinos of Oklahoma and Mississippi.

State Senator Danny Martiny (R-Dist. 10) agreed, and berated other senators who thought otherwise.

We have got a market that’s providing us with income, thank Jesus,’ Martiny said. ‘Everybody that’s against it, sure doesn’t shy away from coming to Appropriations and asking for some of that money.