Some of the gaming industry’s most influential executives used G2E 2026 on Tuesday to address a business landscape being reshaped on several fronts, from shifting Las Vegas visitation and multibillion-dollar international developments to M&A, public-market pressures and an escalating confrontation over prediction markets.
MGM Resorts International President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle, Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg and Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings took the stage for “CEO Outlook: The Global State of Gaming,” moderated by CNBC correspondent Contessa Brewer.
Las Vegas provided the natural starting point.
Visitor volumes have softened, and operators acknowledged pressure on the leisure segment, particularly from higher airfare and reduced flight capacity. But the executives rejected the idea that the destination’s underlying appeal has weakened.
“Our average rates have crept up from like the 35th biggest market to like No. 17 or 18, but we’re still 40 percent lower (on hotel rates) than New York,” Hornbuckle said. “We’re 7 percent lower than L.A. Las Vegas still is an incredible value.”
Reeg framed the slowdown as a return to more familiar seasonal patterns following the exceptional demand seen after the pandemic.
“I think we’re really back to where we were pre-pandemic,” he said.
The executives also made clear that premium resorts are not prepared to chase occupancy through aggressive discounting. Higher-end gaming, conventions and luxury travel remain comparatively resilient, even as more price-sensitive customers contend with higher transportation and travel costs.
Rather than focusing solely on headline visitation, the discussion increasingly centered on the quality of demand and the customers operators are attracting.
Global investment remains firmly on the agenda
The international portion of the discussion showed how differently major operators are now evaluating growth markets.
In Macau, Billings said Wynn’s business is concentrated on a relatively specific customer segment, making overall visitor numbers less relevant to the company’s outlook than the composition and value of its guests.
“We remain very, very focused on the mid- and long-term in Macau,” Billings said.
MGM’s approach reflects a similar shift toward premium demand. The company has continued converting standard rooms into suites as it seeks to capture more value from casino customers rather than simply benefit from higher overall visitation.
The wider point made by both executives was that short-term fluctuations in Macau traffic or gross gaming revenue do not materially alter their confidence in the market’s longer-term economics.
Beyond Macau, both companies are committing substantial capital to markets that will not generate returns for years.
Wynn is advancing its $5.7 billion Wynn Al Marjan Island project in the United Arab Emirates, scheduled to open in September 2027, while MGM remains focused on its roughly $10 billion integrated resort in Osaka, expected to open in 2030.
Hornbuckle believes MGM’s position as the first integrated resort operator in Japan could provide a substantial competitive advantage before other large-scale projects enter the market.
“If we don’t have at least a five-year head start, I’d be absolutely shocked,” he said.
Taken together, the projects underline a recurring theme from the CEO discussion: some of the industry’s most consequential decisions now depend on investment horizons measured in years rather than quarters.
Reeg questions the 90-day mindset
That tension became explicit when the conversation turned to M&A and ownership structures.
Caesars is moving toward private ownership through its transaction with Fertitta Entertainment, and Reeg said the change should allow management to operate with a longer-term perspective.
“We’re forced as public companies to think in 90-day periods and that’s not healthy … because that’s not how you run a business,” Reeg said.
He argued that the rhythm of quarterly reporting can conflict with the realities of managing large hospitality and gaming businesses, where acquisitions, developments and strategic investments often take years to show their full value.
Reeg also addressed the Federal Trade Commission’s review of the transaction and suggested potential divestitures would not be unusual at this stage of the process.
Hornbuckle, meanwhile, was questioned about MGM’s portfolio and possible future transactions. He did not point to a specific deal, instead stressing management’s broader objective of unlocking value across assets spanning Las Vegas, BetMGM, Macau and Japan.
The exchange highlighted a broader issue facing large gaming groups: the difficulty of reconciling long-term investment strategies with market expectations that are measured quarter by quarter.
Prediction markets become G2E’s defining regulatory fight
But no subject generated a sharper response at G2E than prediction markets.
The issue had already taken center stage Monday during a session devoted to regulation and integrity. By Tuesday, it had spread into the AGA keynote, the casino CEO discussion and a separate Main Stage conversation involving commercial and Tribal gaming leaders.
The dispute centers on platforms offering sports-related event contracts under federal commodities regulation rather than the state-by-state gambling framework governing licensed sportsbooks.
Established gaming interests argue that the model can bypass licensing, gaming taxes, age requirements, responsible gaming obligations and, in some jurisdictions, Tribal gaming rights.
American Gaming Association President and CEO Bill Miller
American Gaming Association President and CEO Bill Miller used his G2E appearances to make clear that the association no longer views the issue as a peripheral regulatory disagreement.
“They have contorted the Commodity Exchange Act into something that is unrecognizable,” Miller said.
He also argued that legal momentum is beginning to turn against prediction-market operators, saying their “best days are behind them.”
The opposition has increasingly brought together groups that do not always approach gaming policy from the same perspective.
Commercial operators, Tribal gaming organizations and labor representatives used G2E to argue that the expansion of sports event contracts threatens not only existing gaming regulation, but also tax revenue, employment and Tribal sovereignty.
California emerged as a particularly important battleground. Tribal representatives said the arrival of prediction markets has helped unify California Tribes around opposition to platforms they contend are offering wagering without operating under the state’s established gaming framework.
The legal picture remains unsettled. Federal appeals courts have reached different conclusions over the extent to which federal commodities law can preempt state gambling regulation, increasing the prospect that the dispute may ultimately require Supreme Court review.
Against that backdrop, the tone from major casino operators was unusually direct. “Prediction markets are hurting the industry, full stop,” Hornbuckle said.
MGM had considered opportunities in the sector but ultimately decided not to participate. Hornbuckle argued that companies seeking to offer sports-related contracts in regulated gaming markets should be prepared to obtain licenses and operate under the same requirements as conventional sportsbooks.
“If they want to come in Nevada and pay a license, and do what we all do, God bless them,” he said.
Reeg approached the issue partly from a consumer-protection perspective, comparing the current situation with the early development of daily fantasy sports, when products expanded rapidly before regulatory frameworks had fully caught up.
His concern was that a major failure in a lightly regulated environment could ultimately affect confidence beyond prediction markets themselves and spill into the wider gaming industry.
For an industry that spent years building legal sports betting state by state following the repeal of PASPA in 2018, the debate strikes directly at the regulatory framework that operators, lawmakers and regulators have spent years establishing.
That helps explain why prediction markets moved so quickly from an emerging competitive issue to one of the most openly contested subjects at this year’s G2E.
Gretzky shifts the conversation from regulation to greatness
Tuesday’s Main Stage later moved in a very different direction when BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt sat down with hockey legend and BetMGM ambassador Wayne Gretzky for “Defining Greatness.”
Rather than focusing on gaming regulation or corporate strategy, the conversation explored the habits, relationships, and mindset behind sustained high performance.
Gretzky spoke about the athletes he admired while growing up and how observing elite competitors across different sports influenced his own approach when he eventually faced defining moments in hockey.
He also returned repeatedly to lessons from his father, including the importance of humility and treating people with respect regardless of achievement.
Hockey legend and BetMGM ambassador Wayne Gretzky
One of his most striking observations concerned the level of commitment required to reach the top of professional sport.
“I tell people this: The best athletes in the world, and I mean this in a nice way, are really selfish,” Gretzky said. “And to be the best or be the lead, you have to be selfish, and by that I mean you have to be dedicated to practicing hard, to preparing well, to getting into a routine.”
He added that those demands extend beyond the athlete, requiring the people around them to understand the discipline and sacrifice involved.
The session provided a distinctly different ending to a program dominated by regulation, capital allocation and corporate strategy, but it also echoed one of the themes running through the CEO discussions: sustained success depends on decisions and preparation that often pay off well beyond the immediate moment.
At G2E 2026, however, the broader contrast was hard to miss. Casino operators are committing billions of dollars to projects that will take years to mature, while at the same time confronting a prediction-markets sector expanding at a pace they argue regulation has yet to match.