Feeling the pain at the pump? You’re not the only one. Many people who normally plan summer road trips to casinos are rethinking these journeys due to high gas prices, according to a new survey. That’s just one of the headlines we’re tracking in this week’s casino news.
Casinos Traffic May Take A Hit Due To Gas Prices
It’s beginning to look like casinos are going to be taking a bit of a hit over the summer due to high gas prices. Many land-based casinos are not located inside major cities and the doubling of gas prices might make people re-think visiting. These venues can’t seem to win as travel was cramped due to COVID-19 worries and now guests aren’t going to want to pay so much on gas.
A recent survey handed out that determined 82 percent of respondents believe that gas prices are impacting their
travel destinations – especially gaming venues.
The numbers right now show that Las Vegas is on a tear when it comes to gaming revenue. However, with so many people planning to take fewer and shorter trips over the summer, those numbers may start to take a hit. Also, spots like Atlantic City – which are hours away from New York City – are going to struggle to attract visitors. To put it into perspective how high these prices are, Golden State just saw their gas prices soar over six dollars a gallon.
The good news out of all of this is that people aren’t nearly as worried over the pandemic as they once were. And hopefully, this won’t heavily impact travel like COVID-19 did in 2020. At the same time, until inflation and gas prices tamp down, consumers are likely to cut back on visiting the land-based gaming venues.
MGM Resorts See Stolen Customer Info Posted On Telegram
A whopping eight gigabytes of personal data from MGM Resorts has been posted on Telegram. The data breach included 142 million records such as names, addresses, and phone numbers. All types of guests were exposed to this with the breach – including popular celebrities and government officials.
If there happens to be any positive news about the situation, no payment information and password data were stolen. Unfortunately, this news doesn’t give users a ton of confidence back in the company considering that information was still accessed and shared publicly.
This isn’t the first time that casinos have been targeted by cyberattacks. In fact, land-based casino properties have been hit with ransom demands in the form of cryptocurrency. If it is paid, then they decide to restore all of the property’s operations. We’ll have to see how MGM Resorts handles this and if they can somehow clean up this mess. Often, the first dump might be the first of many, so there could be more to come.
Rhode Islander Casino Workers Hoping To Ban Indoor Smoking
There has been a tremendous amount of support to ban indoor smoking in casinos in Rhode Island. Indoor smoking has been banned throughout the majority of properties in the state since 2005, though certain businesses have been listed as exceptions to that rule. For example, two commercial casinos in the area were exempted. Both the Twin River Lincoln and the Tiverton can set areas of their casino floor for indoor smoking.
Workers, along with other union officials, are hoping to back a legislative effort to get indoor smoking banned in casinos. One particular reason this has grown so much in popularity is that people don’t like how secondhand smoke isn’t allowed in certain businesses yet legal in others.
Since the protests and legal push have started from these workers, Bally’s Corp hasn’t spoken out about the situation. While this means they may not disagree with this push to ban indoor smoking, the fact that they haven’t agreed yet causes some mystery. Rhode Island does happen to neighbor Massachusetts, a state that is completely smoke-free. That may impact the final decision as well.
