[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fwK1b87h2I?feature=oembed]

The North American gambling industry is trying to thread that needle of staying in operation while keeping customers safe. That’s not easy during the time of COVID-19, and the recent ICE North America Digital took a hard look at how they’re trying to accomplish it. Michael Caselli, Chairman of Clarion Gaming, joined our Becky Liggero after the event to discuss some changes the industry needs to consider, and specifically a push to the online space.

The original design of ICE North America was to be an in-person convention, but that had to change. “Well clearly, ICE North America was not meant to be COVID-focused when we designed it last year, but we were meant to hold it in New Orleans, then we quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen, Caselli said. “And we decided we should do something that had a lot of longevity and didn’t necessarily focus just on COVID, but it turned out to be very COVID related because the COVID related stuff actually has longevity and has consequences that continue on to the future for casinos pretty much from now on forevermore.”

Although casinos have now reopened in many places, they’re continued success isn’t guaranteed at this point. “Casinos are places where you have a lot of people congregating in one small area, so clearly they’re the last things that some states are going to want to open, but they’re also massive economic drivers, huge contributors to the state coffers through the taxes and duties, and beyond that massive employers in the states,” he said. “So states like Nevada are very keen to get their casinos back online, get tourism rolling in and reboot the economy, because you know, you’ve got to balance this whole social health issue with problems in a balanced budget and getting the economy rolling again, because if not you’ll have other social issues.”