Many of us take the time of transitioning from one year into the next as a time to reflect back on our history and to look forward to what might lie ahead. It’s a healthy process, and it allows us insight into how to prepare and plan for the coming year.
Looking back at our recent history, I recall moments when many of us became nay-sayers about our future. Right after Sept. 11, 2001, when the part of our industry that is dependent on air travelers became temporarily depressed, many of us felt as though the long ride of prosperity enjoyed by gaming would never be the same. Similar thoughts came about when SARS, the bird flu, and Hurricane Katrina appeared regularly in newspapers and on the evening news. None of these events brought about the anticipated paradigm shift of doom some of us envisioned.
There were also times when we were convinced the streets of gaming were going to be made of gold. With the advent of racinos coming into play, many of us assumed that in short order most race-tracks would launch electronic gaming device parlors. While racinos have increased in number, it hasn’t been the cataclysmic change anticipated. And Pennsylvania may indeed become a strong gaming market, but it will only do so in its own time.
This “everything is all good or everything is all bad” thinking only misguides us. It leaves us unprepared to deal with the realities of our industry. It’s painful to understand that some major changes will only come into being after our professional histories in gaming have come to an end.
Think back for a moment to 1990 when the first few Native American casinos came online for customers. Few of us envisioned or understood what Native American gaming would become just a decade later. Today it’s nearly a $23 billion industry, growing at a rate three times faster than commercial gaming. Now that’s a paradigm shift; however, it’s one that took almost a decade to be fully understood.
For me, it’s a constant fight to try to understand our industry in a time frame other than my own. The industry is bigger than the next quarter, the next year, or the next term of my own professional life. It goes against my grain to understand this. It means that I was not here at the beginning and will not be here at the ending of gaming. It existed lifetimes before me, and it will continue to exist lifetimes after I’m gone.
There is a necessary and important humility for us to reach for here. Having it is critical to our ability to accurately and realistically understand where we fit into the world of gaming, and to have some reasonable ability to predict outcomes. After all, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we are only visitors in the world of gaming.
In the year ahead, we will prosper as an industry. Some of us will have to fight obstacles, and some of us will be the recipients of great fortune. In coming years, these roles will change. There is beauty mystique and challenge in what lies ahead.
Enjoy your journey, and may good fortune be yours.
Peter Mead
Publisher, Casino Enterprise Management
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