Lewis Pek Editor
Comment
April 2021
I don’t think I’ve written one company’s name so many times in a single issue of the magazine. I’ve had to edit down the news content to avoid putting ‘Bally’s’ on every page of the Wire. I can’t remember the last time that a single brand, not even in the days when Bally’s was an operator and slots supplier, that a single brand has been so prominent. What’s remarkable is that the Bally’s name has languished in Caesars Entertainment’s vaults until October of last year. In the five months since then the roster of casino operations, sports betting deals, major US sports sponsorship with the NHL, NBA and MLB, esports and online gaming companies now part of the Bally’s portfolio is remarkable.
No single gaming company could sustain the level of investment currently being ploughed into Bally’s Corp., but as we’ve seen with multiple Blackstone and Apollo deals in recent months, Covid has spurred a fire-sale of gaming industry assets. Gone is the era of the casino moguls. The past 18 months has seen Steve Wynn removed from the board, the passing of Sheldon Adelson, Stanley Ho, Georges Tranchant and Sol Kerzner. Having been an industry guided by such potent
GONE IS THE ERA OF THE CASINO MOGULS: STEVE WYNN, SHELDON ADELSON, STANLEY HO, GEORGES TRANCHANT AND SOL KERZNER.
personalities for the best part of half a century and more, the new reality (not relating to Covid), is one in which investment funds determine the trajectory of the business from this period forward.
Of course, Bally’s has been through many cycles of growth, diversification, contraction and narrowing of focus. Launched in the 1930s on the success of its Ballyhoo pinball game, Bally Manufacturing and Bally operations went their separate ways years ago, but the story of ‘Bally’ as an operator of casinos, Total Fitness health clubs, Six Flags amusement parks and manufacturing, not just of slots, but Life Fitness gym equipment, is an epic saga that charts the rise, fall, rise etc. of a diverse empire. The fact that Bally’s sold its lottery division in the 1990s, to have that same company return to acquire Bally Technologies in 2014 is just part of its legend. Where Bally’s goes next is going to be just as fascinating and unpredictable.
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G3 Magazine Editor Lewis Pek
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G3Newswire Editor Phil Martin
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Features Editor Karen Southall
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International Reporter James Marrison Staff Reporter William Bolton
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Contributors Abhinay Bhagavatula, Duncan Faithful, Iryna Sergienko, Robert Khorolsky, Olga Belyakova, Mykola Heretiy, Eduardo Aching, Sina Miri, Loren Rosenberg, Biser Bozhanov, David Orrick, Anthony Baerlocher, Allan Petrilli, Todd Haushalter, Jesper Karrbrink, Fraser Linkleter, Brandon Walker, Quentin Martin, David Natroshvili, Shalva Bukia, Paul Witten, Adam Doyle, Matthew Vassallo, Dima Reiderman, Leon Allen, Mark Schmidt, Nicole Pike
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