G2E: Prediction Markets, Sushi Servers, Slots, Badges, Salt-And-Pepper Hair, And More

With apologies to NFL reporter Peter King, here’s 10 things I think I think … well, 10 things I think I thought … or maybe it’s 10 things I’ve been thinking about?

At any rate, I was at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas last week. It is the biggest gambling industry conference and trade show in America, and this was my first time there. I was a G2E debutante. A virgin, if you will. (You will.)

Here are my observations, to be taken with the normal amount of salt grains.

And you are … ?

So about 25,000 gambling industry folks — approximately 24,500 of them middle-aged white dudes with glasses and salt-and-pepper beards — descended on the Venetian for the four-day event. As such, in order to gain entrance into the main expo hall, you needed to wear a name tag necklace lanyard badge thingee.

Which meant as you walked by people, everyone’s eyes naturally gravitated to your name. It would happen hundreds of times a day, maybe even hundreds of times an hour.

And you immediately knew how important you were depending on where the eyes went next. 

If you were important, the eyes would shoot up and attempt to meet your eyes.

If you weren’t important, the eyes would scan the next white dude with a beard.

I think I made purposeful eye contact (checks notes) zero times. 

Bizness

I’m guessing plenty of business gets done at these things. I honestly have zero idea. I was there to record podcasts for The Business of Betting, as well as meet a few people that I wanted to cajole on to the podcast at a later date. I fulfilled both rather easily. That’s why I was there.

What were the other 24,999 people doing? I really don’t know, though I do know there were plenty of investor and banking types there, people who say things like, “We’re seeing some really interesting movement in the space,” and “Liquidity’s tightening but there’s still upside if you know where to look.”

When faced with these types of comments — and I was — I nodded sagely. I can be a very sage nodder when pressed. 

Golden Ratio analysis

Sorry to be superficial, but by golly was the Venetian full of 10s. I’m serious. It seemed like every other female employee working at the hotel — which, for the record, is the second largest hotel in the entire known universe — was gorgeous.

And by the way, this isn’t me being a sexist pig middle-aged white dude with glasses and a salt-and-pepper beard. This is science, folks. The Golden Ratio’d to non-Golden Ratio’d was severely out of whack at this place. 

Of course, I’m A) happily married, and B) not a sexist pig. So all I did was marvel at the beauty, much like someone would appreciate an exquisite work of art.

That said, if that one particular server at that sushi place told me to follow her into the desert and start a new life selling bubble tea to ayahuasca pilgrims, I’d at least have had to check flight prices to Reno and the rental price of a single-wide.

Yum

Speaking of food, yeah, wow. I love food. Love good food. Had a ton of good food. So that’s nice. Very seriously recommend Nomikai. Outstanding sushi. Excellent, bordering on sublime, service as well, but we’ve already covered that.

No gambling for you

To get to the main expo hall, you had to at least skirt by the casino. And every time I walked by, or through, the casino, I never saw anyone with one of those necklace lanyard badge things. I honestly didn’t see what was happening on the casino floor in the evenings, but really, it seemed like not a lot of gambling was going on.

I didn’t gamble at all, in fact. Weirdly, I felt like I went to Vegas and was pretty much banned from gambling. Couldn’t play DFS, couldn’t get to my daily bonuses at the online casinos. That’s like 98% of my gambling dollar, right there, and I couldn’t get to it. 

So yes: I went to Vegas and couldn’t gamble. Weird times.

Have you heard about prediction markets?

Outside of the obvious words — like “the,” “and,” “but,” “omnichannel,” and “we should grab 15 minutes” — the most overheard term, the biggest conversations, all centered around prediction markets.

And with good reason, as the apple cart of sports betting is in danger of being overturned. 

In fact, every time I heard the word “Kalshi” or “Polymarket,” DraftKings stock lost a penny.

Slot mania

I’d say virtually 95% of the expo floor was dedicated to slot machines. Unless I completely whiffed, there was nothing sports betting related on the floor. Good reminder that conversations don’t always equal dollars.

Hold my calls

I have three children, two dogs, and one wife. Our house is 1,600 square feet.

My hotel room was like half the size of my house. It was a suite.

And so while I enjoyed the hobnobbing and the parties and the sushi and all of it, I think what I enjoyed best was getting back to the hotel room where it was quiet, I could watch whatever I wanted to watch on TV, and there were no demands to “hurry up in there” when it came to bathroom use.

Real quick

As to the “one wife” thing mentioned above — and clearly, very clearly, obviously, nothing to do at all with that server at the sushi restaurant, and, in fact, I’m not even asking for me, I’m asking for a friend, my friend Bobby, he lives down the street, good guy, solid citizen — how to best introduce the idea of a “throuple” to one’s spouse?

Ah, never mind, I’ll — I mean, I’ll tell Bobby to just ask ChatGPT.

And lastly …

Despite the sheer size of the event, despite the legion of middle-aged white dudes with salt-and-pepper beards, despite the relatively impersonal nature of any industry conference, I have to say: It felt small. A lot of people who know a lot of people. Forget six degrees of Kevin Bacon; it certainly seemed like every single person there was one degree away from everyone else.

Big conference, big business, small world.