Inside Gaming: MGM Resorts Executive Bobby Baldwin Stepping Down
Bobby Baldwin to Leave MGM Resorts International at End of Year
Late yesterday MGM Resorts International announced that at the end of the year longtime gaming executive Bobby Baldwin will be stepping down from his positions as Chief Customer Development Officer of MGM Resorts and CEO and President of CityCenter.
Neither MGM Resorts nor Baldwin have offered any reason as yet for the decision to part ways.
"Few have played a more central role in the growth and transformation of the gaming industry than Bobby, and his contributions over more than three decades are immeasurable," said in company in a brief press release. "MGM Resorts thanks Bobby for all he has done for the company and all he has meant to this industry and wishes him the best for the future."
Baldwin became CEO of Project City Center in 2005. Covering over 16 million square feet, CityCenter first opened in 2009 with a total cost of approximately $9.2 billion, reportedly the largest privately financed development in the United States. CityCenter includes the ARIA, Vdara, Mandarin Oriental, and The Crystals (all of which opened in 2009), as well as the Veer Towers (which opened in 2010).
A native of Oklahoma, Baldwin first came to prominence as the (then) youngest ever winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event, capturing the title in 1978 at the age of 28. Baldwin went on to win four bracelets during the late 1970s.
Baldwin contributed a chapter on limit hold'em to Doyle Brunson's groundbreaking strategy book Super/System, first published as How I Made Over $1,000,000 Playing Poker in 1978. Baldwin was the subject of a biography and strategy guide authored by Mike Caro in 1979 titled Bobby Baldwin's Winning Poker Secrets, and authored his own collection of poker stories, Tales out of Tulsa, in the mid-1980s.
Baldwin's career as a casino executive began in earnest in 1982 when he signed on as a consultant for the Golden Nugget, becoming the company's president two years later. Baldwin held a variety of positions during the subsequent decades, including president of the Bellagio where the famed high-stakes poker room is named "Bobby's Room" after him.
Baldwin continued to play occasionally at the WSOP and elsewhere since becoming a casino executive, his last cash coming in 2012 in the first $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop where he finished seventh for just over $1.4 million. Baldwin is pictured above participating in the €1,000,000 buy-in Big One for One Drop that took place in 2016 in Monte-Carlo.
Baldwin was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2003.
Federal Judge Nixes Connecticut Tribes' Plan for East Windsor Casino
In other news affecting MGM Resorts International, the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes' plan to build a casino in East Windsor, Connecticut — just a dozen miles or so from the recently opened MGM Springfield across the state border in Massachusetts — was dealt a big setback last weekend.
Per the Connecticut Post, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ruled that neither the state of Connecticut nor the Mashantucket Pequots have "legal standing to compel" Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to revise the state's current gambling agreement with the tribe.
Even though Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed an act in July 2017 that would allow the Pequots and Mohegans to build a gaming facility in East Windsor, that authorization was contigent on revisions being made to the state's current revenue sharing deal with the tribes. "Without Zinke's approval, the East Windsor project is blocked indefinitely," explains the CT Post.
The decision represents a victory for MGM whose new $960 million MGM Springfield opened in August of this year. MGM expects to draw from five to six million visitors a year to the new resort casino, the majority of whom are expected to come from the region including the northern part of Connecticut.
Judge Contreras additionally approved a motion to dismiss the lawsuit while also granting MGM "the right to intervene if the state and tribe appeal his decision."
"The thorough and unambiguous federal court ruling can only be seen as a clear rejection of the Tribes' insistent efforts to obtain a no-bid commercial casino license in Connecticut," said MGM in response to the ruling. "It has become increasingly apparent that the Tribes' promises of legal victory, no matter how often they are repeated, prove hollow."
Meanwhile the tribes signaled an intention to continue the battle. "We remain committed to both seeing this process through and to the people of Connecticut and our partners in state government," said Andrew Doba, spokesperson for MMCT Venture, the group representing the two tribes' efforts. Doba said the tribes are reviewing options for how to respond.
Sports Handicapper "Haralabob" Hired by Dallas Mavericks
Finally, last night the NBA's Dallas Mavericks announced it had hired poker player and sports bettor Haralabos "Bob" Voulgaris as their new Director of Quantitative Research and Development, reports ESPN.
The hire has been interpreted as not only reflecting the increasing interest and influence of "analytics" by major sports teams' management, but a nod to the more general acceptance of sports gambling among professional sports leagues in the wake of the May ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing individual states to legalize and regulate sports betting.
According to a 2013 feature by ESPN, Voulgaris began his sports betting career in the late 1990s, "and within five years... had accumulated a fortune." Specializing in betting on the NBA, Voulgaris and a partner developed computer-run predictive models using league-provided data to help inform his handicapping of games and wagering decisions.
Voulgaris has also accumulated over $3 million in live poker tournament earnings, though has been less active as a player over recent years. His most notable finishes include a runner-up to Michael Mizrachi in the 2005 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic for just over $900K and a fourth-place finish in the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop at the 2017 WSOP for just over $1.15 million.
