It’s been a busy week in the headlines for casinos with a couple of big brands from Las Vegas making the news. Here’s a look back at what we’ve been tracking over the last seven days.
Leisure Suit Larry Is Back
Remember the video game Leisure Suit Larry? It was a cult hit for a period of time and now it’s making a comeback. The adult-themed series that features Larry Laffer, who wears leisure suits and tries to attract women, is getting an online reboot. However, it’s not the type you’re thinking. This time, Larry is moving into the world of online casinos. Gaming Innovation Group (GIG) is using their iGaming Cloud service to create LarryCasino.com where users will use Larry to progress through the online casino. That includes everything from popular slots to the regular games you’ll find at most online casinos.
Players can then use the coins they win in The Shop, although there is no word on what that will hold yet. Is it a bit of a stretch in terms of a reboot? A little bit. But it’s still a fun take on traditional games. LarryCasino.com is live now, so you can go hang out with Larry to get a taste of his lifestyle.
MGM Sues Online Casino
MGM is going after an online casino that has been trying to live off of their name. LiveMGM.com launched and their operators used the company’s logo, likely in an attempt to attract players that respect the reputation that MGM has in the industry. LiveMGM.com is actually in Chinese and they even have a line on their page that says “Copyright MGM Resorts International”, so the real MGM is obviously going to challenge this as directly ripping off their branding.
This isn’t the first time that it has happened as Las Vegas Sands filed a similar complaint against a slew of online betting sites in China that used its company’s logo and they won. MGM has also run into this before, although it wasn’t from an online casino. Two years ago, MGM took M Life to court as M Life is the name of the customer loyalty program for MGM. Also, M Life is a medical marijuana company, so they didn’t want their name associated with that. They eventually won as M Life changed their name.
Sands Looking To Buy Wynn?
Speaking of Las Vegas Sands, it was reported that they were interested in the Wynn-Encore Casino Resort, which is very close to their Venetian-Palazzo Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. This caused the stock for the Wynn-Encore to shoot up. According to conversations on social media, Sands was offering between $120 and $125 per share. The stock traded as low as $103.89 in the last five days but has since gone as high as $113.54.
Many inside the industry don’t expect this to happen. To start, Sheldon Adelson and Wynn CEO Steve Wynn are rivals. It’s unlikely that one would submit to the other. Another wrinkle to this story is that Adelson – the owner of Las Vegas Sands – is vehemently opposed to online poker. That has caused a lot of poker players to stop going to the Venetian, so if he bought the Wynn, they’d probably stop going there as well.