Abstract
This seems like an appropriate time to dispense with the typical review of what's in this issue and focus instead on a shared experience that many in the gaming industry had in early October. I'm speaking, of course, of the mass shooting which took place right before the opening of the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas. G2E attracts some 26,000 people in the gaming industry.
Personally, like many others, I've long thought that Las Vegas was ripe as a target for a terrorist attack. But, like many others, I struggle to understand the scope of this attack (58 dead and 489 wounded at the time of this writing), and the fact that the shooter was a well‐off real estate investor with a propensity to gamble remains unfathomable. As of this writing in mid‐October, investigators are still struggling to find a motive and we may have to come to terms with the fact that none may ever emerge.
I arrived on Sunday afternoon and began G2E week with a reception that evening. After dinner, a return to my hotel room meant that I was checking in on news and social media. Information about an active shooter at Mandalay Bay was out there already and I was quick to let folks back home know that I was ok. Hearing the numbers in the morning, shock set in for myself and many others in town.
Other friends and colleagues had a more direct brush. Some had friends and colleagues at the concert, some had flights diverted or delayed as the airport (across from Mandalay) was closed for a while. Up and down the Strip, crowds were running in and out of hotels in a panic with rumors of multiple shooters in some of the other properties. Many were evacuated into ballrooms or basement caverns and held for periods of time until it seemed safe and people were vetted. This panic and confusion spread as far north on the Strip as the Circus Circus property.
In the meantime, G2E organizers (the American Gaming Association or AGA and Reed Exhibitions) were busy monitoring the activities and determining how to handle the event with pre‐conferences scheduled to begin the next morning. They determined to go forward with the show. All of the pre‐conference sessions on Monday morning started off with a moment of silence from a very subdued crowd.
The effects were clear though. In the iGaming Congress, which I helped organize, we had a speaker cancel. His flight to Las Vegas was delayed due to the shooting and his family begged him not to go to G2E after all. He decided to cancel his trip. These decisions were playing out all over town.
At a reception at the Wynn Monday night, there were lines to get into the facility with security doing bag checks and “wanding” people before they could enter. Lots of talk about the “new normal” was taking place as people waited in line. While we were waiting, we noticed that the Strip properties had new signage on banners, billboards, and electronic signs. Created by the agency that brought you “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas,” it perfectly hit the tone that the city wanted to project less than 24 hours after the shooting. “We've been here for you during the good times. Thank you for being there for us now.” The #VegasStrong motto spread across the city quickly. A particularly powerful ad, featuring tennis star Andre Agassi, asked for unity in the city. 1
The gaming industry quickly stepped up to initiate a fund to aid the shooting victims and their families, as well as to support relief organizations and first responders including commitments from MGM Resorts (Mandalay Bay is in the MGM holding company) for $3 million, Station Casinos for $1 million, and the Sands for $4 million. Zappos, which is based in Las Vegas and has done so much to revitalize the northern end of the city, committed $1 million. A GoFundMe account for the fund raised $6 million in two days, well exceeding its $2 million goal.
Visitors and residents alike also helped in many ways. Blood drives were so successful that volunteers endured waits of up to six hours.
By Tuesday morning, the actual start of G2E, Geoff Freeman (head of AGA) decided to scrap his planned remarks on the state of the industry. Instead, he did a one‐on‐one interview with former Boston Police Department Commissioner Ed Davis, who had first‐hand experience with the Boston bombing during his service there from 2003 to 2016.
“We gather in the wake of a senseless and despicable event,” Freeman said. “While we sit here, all of us safe, hundreds of others are recovering or battling for their lives or in mourning. There are no words that can accurately express our sorrow and how we feel about this event. I certainly have no wisdom to offer when something like this happens.”
Freeman expressed his gratitude to the first responders “who often rush in while all of us are rushing out” and for the medical professionals that have saved so many lives this week. He also said he has gratitude for the acts of heroism “we are all reading about that took place on that evening.”
Ed Davis, who now consults on security issues, was quoted in the media as saying, “This is, just on its face, a big glaring target for Islamic terrorists. And now you've got a yahoo with a machine gun firing at people from a hotel window. It's terrible times. Working on presidential visits and with the Secret Service, snipers are a concern for them, but you don't think about it around a concert. I can tell you I don't have a solution.”
Davis added, “The future of live events will likely include anti‐sniper teams, metal detectors and better separation of audiences so they can be evacuated quickly and first responders can get in and out. Whether the Las Vegas massacre sparks broader changes in gun laws remains to be seen.”
Questions surrounded the shooting cropped up among trade show attendees throughout the week. How could the shooter have amassed such an arsenal and gotten it in to the hotel? Steve Wynn said that his hotels were familiar with the shooter who often stayed there once or twice a month. He said that his staff found nothing unusual about him. Wynn pointed out that the policy in his hotels is that if the Do Not Disturb sign is on a door for more than 12 hours, the staff investigates “for safety.”
The shooter's gambling habits were studied by the media to determine if there was any cause and effect. But there didn't seem to be one.
It was an act which created tens of thousands of personal stories by people caught up in the melee. The videos captured during the shooting were very hard to watch and hear, as the non‐stop barrage of bullets seemed never ending … and then started up again.
We heard the stories all week. Ridesharing and taxi drivers were traumatized by scurrying to fill their cars up with people panicked and injured to just get them out of the area that night.
One young man we shared a Lyft with worked at the night club, Tao, which was just reopening after being closed for three days. He said that he had about 100 friends and acquaintances at the concert and 10 had been shot. He added, “We have ‘active shooter’ training at the club all the time but no one ever envisioned anything like this.”
Visitors in those properties that were evacuated were shuttled to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas's (UNLV) Thomas and Mack Center for sheltering. This also served as a triage area for the hospitals, which were clearly overwhelmed by the volume of injuries.
The following Sunday, at the time of the shooting, the city showed its unity in commemorating the victims. For 11 minutes, the Strip went dark.
It's too soon to know what effect, if any, this will have on tourism in Las Vegas. But it's clear that security issues will rise to front and center there … and elsewhere. Macau was quick to say that they're reviewing their security practices and policies in the wake of the shooting and other gaming‐oriented communities will undoubtedly follow suit.
This was a watershed event for the gaming industry and for Las Vegas. It's our hope that Vegas does, indeed, stay strong and recover as best they can.