Earlier this week, The Daily Payoff, the first U.S.-based platform to cover all business aspects of the gaming and gambling businesses had its official launch. The site will look to have the most comprehensive national and international news in verticals that will include the casino business, fantasy sports, horse racing, e-gaming, games of skill, the lottery and others.
The editorial side for The Daily Payoff will be overseen by Frank Scandale, the award-winning media veteran who most recently has served as Vice President, Print Production for Digital First Media but before that was editor and a vice president of The Record (Bergen County, NJ) newspaper from 2001-2011.
Given the interest in the gaming and gambling space in the state, we caught up with the Glen Rock, NJ resident to talk about why now, and where the industry is going.
How is this venture different from your other stops, and what elements of the business today will help this venture grow?
This is really an outgrowth of all the journalism stops I’ve made over 30 plus years. One thing about journalism, it evolves and the challenge is to evolve with it.
I’ve covered gambling some in Colorado where in the early 90s it launched limited stakes gambling in three mountain towns, Cripple Creek, Black Hawk and Central City. Being from New Jersey, home to Atlantic City, I had a natural curiosity about the industry. As the technology changed and allowed us as consumers to do more things, such as follow our favorite teams, players, horses and casinos from the comfort of our phones, more opportunities for journalism have occurred. Covering gambling and gaming is just one aspect of journalism, which is becoming more niche-focused than ever before. I believe this venture will grow because of the growng appetite for information in this space, whether it is about legislation governing the industry, brick and mortor development (just look at New York’s granting of three upstate licenses and a fourth coming closer to the metro area), new games and , of course, the unrelenting rise of fantasy games.
In New Jersey in particular, what has gone wrong with the gambling and horse racing industry and what is the opportunity going forward?
To be clear, I am not the person to analyze what is wrong or right with these industries. Our role is to create a forum for news and analysis by the experts to inform the public and the politicians of the news, trends and insight into these businesses. If you are asking me what I think as a longtime resident of New Jersey who discusses these things with others, the answer is that there are so many issues with the casino industry here I can’t put my finger on any one thing. According to The Center for Gaming Research in Nevada, Las Vegas, New Jersey’s casino and gaming revenues have declined just under 50 percent since 2007. You could point to the competition that has risen up in neighboring states as a good reason; Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York, to name a few states that have entered into the market in a big way. Others say it is the environment directly outside of Atlantic City casinos. Did the government and private industry miss their opportunity to make Atlantic City the Las Vegas of the East with tons to do outside of gambling? Could be.
I do know that if you look beyond our state at the national trend, the revenues are up. Not much, but up a couple of percent last year over the year prior.
Horse racing is a different animal. Sorry. I couldn’t resist. I don’t know much about it other than OTB sure makes it easy to bet without going to a track. I personally like seeing the horses run, the smell of the track, the ambiance. I don’t go much at all, maybe once a year to Monmouth, but I always enjoy the day. Harness racing sure seems to be doing some business. For instance, Yonkers just announced it was raising its purse by 20 percent starting this Sunday. Again, I don’t know what the long-term trends and histories of these places are, but over the next months and years, I hope www.TheDailyPayoff.com becomes that site where all is explained and everyone is enlightened.
Do you think legalized sports wagering is more of a possibility or a certainty in the United States in the next five years and why?
I do think that is the way it is leaning. When you see the NBA floating conversations starters in the Op-ed section of the New York Times and the MLB and MLS mulling the possibility of a structure, organized legalize sports waging infrastructure (http://thedailypayoff.com/wagering-on-baseball-mlb-comish-manfred-open-to-talking/) , then you have to think it is coming. I saw Sen. John McCain is calling for a national debate on the subject in an ESPN interview http://espn.go.com/chalk/story/_/id/12255167/sen-john-mccain-says-congress-needs-hold-hearings-discuss-legalizing-sports-betting so that is also a start.
What do you say to people who think gambling will ruin sports? That’s a good question, if it were not already happening, right?
The experts will tell you it is happening illegally in big, big numbers. What the leaders in the sports and political arenas are saying on this subject is let’s looking an organized way to do this. Of course, there is a tax and revenue component of this to the states and federal government.
Why do you think a site like this has not existed before?
Just one of those things that was overlooked. There are many, many excellent sites that are dedicated to specific aspects of gambling and gaming. If you want, you can search every one of them and get tons of great content. But housing them under one roof and serving as a portal to an infinite supply of this great content seemed like an efficient way to go about it. Plus, we are planning to have our own unique content and grow that end of the site. I only thought of this concept because as I traveled around the country I noticed casinos everywhere. I was driving in Central Michigan, which is not very populated as far as I could tell, and I came across this giant casino, Soaring Eagle, a tribal casino, and thought, “Wow, this is huge.” Plus there are still plenty of horse and dog tracks. Of course, i believe 47 or 48 states have lotteries, as well.
Are there people who cover the space well that you follow?
I am learning fast who covers and who does a good job. I am so far behind at this point, but you know John Brennan at The Record is one of the top brains on this subject as far as I can tell. Howard Stutz at the Las Vegas Review-Journal is good. There are so many smart, talented reporters and commentators and analysts out there. We hope to feature their work as we grow and expand. Think about it, there’s casinos, lotteries, horses, dogs, fantasy, cards, e-gaming, legislation, and then there is the whole universe outside the United States. The possibilities are staggering.
How has the digital space changed the gambling industry now and going forward?
A guy I was talking to from one of the major sports was saying how at games now he sees tons of fans on their phones making bets on the outcomes of the game, the quarters, the players, the over-under, you name it. You have people watching their computers or phones while NFL plays out its dance on Sundays who don’t really care which team wins, but rather which running back racks up the most points. Now, Tim Rooney Jr. , who runs the Yonkers Raceway and Empire Casino operation in New York told a funny story about how things evolve with technology but really haven’t changed fundamentally. He talked about how people years ago were running to pay phones at the track to likely wager on various sporting events. He said, “all I can tell you is that they are not calling home to find out what’s the wife is making for dinner.”
