Casino operator MGM Resorts says it will likely rely on ‘drive-in’ traffic in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thursday saw MGM release its official first quarter financial report, the gist of which was previewed one week ago. In short, revenue was off nearly 30%, earnings were down over 60% and the company would have booked a major net loss were it not for January’s deals involving two of its major Vegas properties.

Speaking of Vegas, MGM’s new CEO Jim Hornbuckle was asked on Thursday’s analyst call about what form the company’s Strip operations will take when Nevada’s governor finally gives casinos the nod to shuffle up and deal. (Gov. Sisolak indicated Thursday that casinos will likely remain closed for the month of May.)

Hornbuckle said MGM would likely open its New York, New York casino first, “because it’s one of our simpler places to run” with around 2,000 rooms. At the other end of the scale, the Bellagio is also on MGM’s opening radar because “we want to be in the high-end business.”

No one could have anticipated the world would have to deal with a major health pandemic capable of disrupting virtually every industry at every level. However, that’s exactly what has happened because of the coronavirus, and one of the industries that have been hit the hardest is the gaming industry. Casinos across the globe have been forced to shut down, sports leagues have had to cancel or postpone their activities and even lotteries have taken a hit due to stay-at-home orders. In the US, tribal casino operators have suffered, as well, and they came together today at the SBC Digital Conference to discuss how COVID-19 is impacting their business.

When it became evident that the U.S. states would need help to keep their heads above water during the health crisis, the federal government stepped in to offer several economic stimulus packages to individuals and businesses. While casinos were included in the relief, smaller gaming operations with less than 500 employees were initially not eligible for the funds. This included essentially all of the tribal casinos, many of which are independent from one another and have minimal workforces compared to the larger operations. Despite the fact that the tribes give it a substantially portion of their revenue to government bodies, they were going to be left out in the cold.

However, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was ultimately changed to include these smaller casinos – for the first time in 25 years. Tribes from around the country worked together to help lobby for the changes, joined by other operators who were in the same position. Even without the stimulus, the majority of the tribes had still been willing to keep their casino staffing levels intact, or close to the same, and the PPP support has made their decision a little easier to manage.

Tribes in the U.S. are controlled differently when it comes to casino matters. As opposed to commercial casinos that can essentially present a proposal to regulators and receive approval, each tribe has to present a separate proposal every time it wants to make some type of change. This is due to the complex gaming compacts they have in each state, as well as the oversight maintained by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). Any change that would incur an alteration in the economy of the tribe has to be approved each time.

Nevada casinos will likely remain closed for the full month of May under the governor’s plan for restarting the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

On Thursday, Gov. Steve Sisolak unveiled what he called Nevada United: Roadmap to Recovery, aka the plan to get back to something resembling normalcy prior to the pandemic lockdown, which included the closure of all gaming venues in mid-March.

The plan is to open the state in phases, each one lasting a period of two to three weeks so the authorities can gauge the impact of each step along the way. The state will only proceed to the next phase if the data – daily case counts, hospitalizations, deaths – supports such an advance. If infection rates rise, steps will be paused and phases could even be rolled back if the data turns truly dire.

Phase One will (hopefully) start by May 15 but the businesses that will be allowed to reopen will be subject to “extremely aggressive social distancing measures.” Businesses that won’t be allowed to open in Phase One include bars, nightclubs, malls, large sports events, mega-churches and live concerts.

Sweden’s online gambling licensees are warning that they could ‘leave’ the regulated market if the government continues to impose ever more restrictive limits on their operations.

On Thursday, the Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS) industry association published an open letter to Social Security Minister Ardalan Shekarabi, warning that the government’s efforts to limit locally licensed online gambling sites’ offering was driving customers to internationally licensed alternatives. The letter further warned that “if players leave, the companies follow suit.”

The letter – which was signed by the CEOs of Betsson, Kindred Group, LeoVegas, NetEnt and William Hill – starts by noting that the whole purpose of liberalizing Sweden’s online gambling market was to ‘channel’ local gamblers to local sites so their activity could be monitored for signs of problem gambling (and earn the government a tidy pile of cash, but we digress).

The government initially claimed a 91% channeling rate – above the stated 90% target – shortly after the market’s launch but this slipped to 85-87% by autumn. A BOS-commissioned report released this week claimed that the current overall rate stands between 81% and 85%, with an online casino rate as low as 72%.

Never before has there been a gaming conference as unique as this year’s SBC Digital Summit (SDS). Additionally, never before has there been a gaming conference as important as this one. With the entire world facing the coronavirus pandemic, the global gaming industry is being forced to make changes, whether it wants to or not. Some of these changes may be temporary; however, many will become a permanent part of the landscape, driving a new era of gaming like nothing seen before. As Day 4 of the SDS wraps up, a lot of attention was placed on North American gaming operations. While not as mature as the European gaming market, for example, the ability of the U.S. market to provide a major source of revenue exists. Before that happens, though, several hurdles will have to be jumped.

One of the issues facing the U.S. market, as discussed in a presentation about the state of legislative efforts, is the disconnect found from one state to the next in how regulations are implemented. Each state establishes its own guidelines and frameworks, and these are sometimes burdens to entry by operators who overly burdened with weeding through the state nuances. However, progress is being made and, as new states come on line, they will find the support from one source or another.

Virginia, Tennessee, Washington State and South Dakota are among the most recent states to be launching legalized gambling or expanding existing gambling laws. While legislators from all the states have worked diligently to introduce frameworks they feel will generate the most revenue while protecting consumers, this isn’t always the case. For example, Tennessee and Washington State won’t permit bets on in-state college athletics.

While this may seem like a good way to protect the athletes, the only result is that gamblers will turn to black market and offshore sportsbooks to place their wagers. The takeaway that many legislators still fail to comprehend is that gamblers are going to gamble, regardless of whether or not the activity is regulated or illegal. By prohibiting wagers on college sports, the states have only hurt themselves, missing out on a revenue stream that will exist for someone, somewhere.