Inside iGaming’s Biggest Deals

Yevhen Krazhan: Welcome to Bet It Drives, the show that takes you for a ride through the igaming world. I’m Yevhen Krazhan, your driver and conversational partner. Let’s get this journey started.

Attorney, lobbyist, operator, investor, strategic partner, Stephen Crystal has been shaping gaming markets for over 30 years, as his beard can confirm. He’s built casinos, helped companies enter new markets, and advise different gaming communities, all while speaking at major events from Vegas to Sao Paulo to Asia.

He runs SCCG Management, a global consultancy at the crossroads of regulation, tech, and investment. Tonight, he’s riding with us, and we’re heading straight into the heart of gaming. Welcome, Stephen, to our new show, Bet It Drives. And thank you for joining us. I think it’s always fun to come to London.

Stephen A. Crystal: I love London, it’s good to be back for iGB. And I like the show. It’s a lot of energy. I don’t think there’s a better way to do business than face-to-face. I guess I’m a little bit old school.

Yevhen Krazhan: Have you actually seen a lot of business coming from these shows?

Stephen A. Crystal: I think for me, because the nature of our business is really to connect the industry in a very strategic way, there’s really no way I can do it better than to touch and feel. This is what I was taught 33 years ago when I entered the industry. If I wanted to build a casino, buy a casino, if I wanted to be involved back then in brick-and-mortar, I had to get on a plane or in a car and go see it, touch it, observe, talk to people. And I don’t think it’s any different. No matter how technologically oriented we are, it’s still at the base, a process of connecting people.

Yevhen Krazhan: You have seen iGB for many years, and it’s shifting, transforming. But what is the few things that you would maybe suggest to change?

Stephen A. Crystal: One of the things I think they could do a better job across the board is to involve more case studies, more actual situations. A lot of times companies don’t want to reveal too much about their secret sauce because it is, after all, a competitive business. But actually what people are looking for is to learn from other people’s experience. So I think encouraging more of that sharing would be one thing. The other thing is, you know, you have all kinds of industry shows, different industry sectors that invite the actual customer into the show environment. And I think a lot of times it feels like there are vendors talking to vendors, hoping that the operators have shown up. But what I would suggest is we should bring real people into the fold more and more so we can get real players. Real players so we can get real-time feedback. And this is something that other industries do that I wish we would do better.

Yevhen Krazhan: Wonderful. I love the idea. If you are given the keynote speaking slot with only one sentence, what that sentence would be.

Stephen A. Crystal: I would say, and it’s not really a message that is relevant to the gambling industry per se, but I think it’s relevant to the times that we live in. And it’s just this notion that as the world has become more complicated and interconnected, some of the basic principles of how we interact with people have been lost. Kindness means returning a call if someone reaches out to you. 

In the early days when we started in the casino business, we would never think of not returning a call within a 24-hour period to someone who would reach out to us. It’s commonplace for people to ignore outreaches. To me it’s an example of not being kind. If someone takes the time to reach out, you need to find a way to make the time to touch back. So, if I could leave one message after 33+ years and I was asked to give it, it would be the notion of being kind to the people that we are in business with.

Yevhen Krazhan: Do business with a little step of being a little bit more kind.

Stephen A. Crystal: Yes.

Yevhen Krazhan: A few words about after parties and parties. Is it a natural part or we could live without that stuff?

Stephen A. Crystal: You know, as a Vegas guy, we know how to throw a party. Vegas is the quintessential host. And so, at the core of getting to know people and finding some common interest is the process of coming together in a fun environment. And for me, it’s pretty simple. You need good food, you need good people, you need some drink, maybe some music, and you need a good full, energetic room in order to do the business of recreating. And so I’m for it. I don’t think you can have enough of that type of activity. It’s part and parcel of the business that we are in.

Yevhen Krazhan: So Stephen, you probably met a lot of variety of different people, like influencers, pop stars, which ones impressed you a lot?

Stephen A. Crystal: I would say in the last few years we’ve seen in our business kind of a convergence between the traditional gambling industry and pop culture. And it’s come in the form not only of celebrities like mega stars, but also influencers. And we’ve been open to all of it. I remember at the last Global Gaming Expo we hosted Mark Wahlberg, probably one of the top stars in the world, in Hollywood. But what most people know him for in addition to being a Hollywood star is his work on behalf of veterans and his work on behalf of religious values. And when I met him in person, I felt that from him. So that was a good experience.

 In the last few years, we partnered with the top influencer in the world for slot machines, Lady Luck HQ, with over a billion impressions a month and growing. And this was interesting for me to see how someone who went from being a technology executive playing slots in her free time turned it into a mega business. I saw that with my own eyes and that those are two extremes in a way. One is what I call real celebrity. The other is celebrity or influence in an industry that we love. 

In the old days when we had casinos, I remember hosting Tom Selleck. If you remember, these are names more associated with my generation. Ed McMahon, who was the sidekick to Johnny Carson. Larry MAnetti, who was Rick the bartender in Magnum, P.I. These were the celebrities that we worked with in the brick-and-mortar. And now we work with rappers, we work with Hollywood stars, we work with influencers big and small. So it’s changing as I’m getting older. I have to be open to looking at things with a wider lens.

Yevhen Krazhan: And this is entertainment business, entertainment industry.

Stephen A. Crystal: Agreed.

Yevhen Krazhan: But in your business, from your experience, who is more unpredictable? A pop star or maybe an operating CEO?

Stephen A. Crystal: I would say both have a certain ego to them. And ego is not a bad thing. It’s a part of what is a necessary ingredient to creativity and to making things happen. I think CEOs have to live in the real world because they have real world issues to solve day in, day out; 24/7. Celebrities sometimes put themselves into make believe worlds and that’s the nature of their business. So I would say that’s the big difference between megastars and CEOs. But overall, what I love most about both of those groups of people is the creative spark that comes when they do what they do. I marvel. And frankly, it doesn’t just come when we’re talking about mega stars or we’re talking about CEOs. Sometimes it’s a skilled laborer or someone who can do something that I can’t even imagine myself doing. In many cases, everyday people who do their thing super well, I marvel at it. So, I guess all in all, the creative spark can come from megastars and CEOs and people who are neither of those doing what they do best. And that’s how I view the world.

Yevhen Krazhan: If you remember, was there a situation when using the Expo that you closed a deal without even a slight? Were there any cases?

Stephen A. Crystal: I was thinking about this the other day. It wasn’t a situation at an Expo, but it had more to do with some of the early days when we were expanding gambling in America. I had a partner who ended up being my partner for over 25 years and he was older than me. And what he taught me was that a lot of times it’s not what’s in the PowerPoint, it’s not what’s in the deck, but it’s about taking old fashioned shoe leather kicking over the stones. I remember standing on a levee in Kansas City, Missouri, and it was a cornfield, and it was by a substation. And he said, you know, this site didn’t flood during the 1993 flood. Maybe it would be a good site for a riverboat casino. And without much thought we all put a few thousand bucks in the pot. We put it down to option that piece of real estate and then we sold that piece of real estate before we even purchased it to station casinos who built a 500 million dollar casino two years later. I will tell you we turned those thousands of dollars into many multi millions of dollars. And that was done without a business plan. That was done with just shoe leather observation and forethought. And after that, I would say that has patterned the way I approach most things that some of the biggest, best, most exciting things that happen in life are things that happen because you’re using good old-fashioned instincts and good old-fashioned shoe leather.

Yevhen Krazhan: And sometimes a napkin is enough.

Stephen A. Crystal: And sometimes a napkin is enough. I have more than a few that sit in a case in my office. It’s actually the way business was done for years in Vegas.

Yevhen Krazhan: Stephen, moving into a little bit personal areas like music. When you’re signing a deal, what song comes to your mind?

Stephen A. Crystal: Well, I, I guess I go back to a Las Vegas classic, Frank Sinatra. Talk about somebody whose music is timeless and not only associated with Vegas, where he ended his career, but there’s one song in particular, “My Way”, which was, which is really Frank Sinatra’s anthem. He was looking back at a life that was well lived, lived hard, and lived on the edge. But he said I did it my way and when I accomplished something, yes, I think about the unique way in which I went about it and that song speaks to me, whether it was in my parents’ generation or in mine. So I would say that’s what I think of.

Yevhen Krazhan: That’s the song I play a little bit different energy. When you’re walking into a high stakes meeting, just to pump up and energize, what is the song on the top of your head?

Stephen A. Crystal: Ah, you know, actually I’m looking for a different vibe. To be fair, when I’m going into a high-stakes meeting, it’s almost always about what I observe and not what I say. So I usually tend to like things that put me more in a contemplative or meditative state.

So it could be classical music, or something chill. Because what I’m really trying to do is take myself down a beat or two, so I can focuson reading the body language, reading the little signs. The little signs. Because that will tell me where I stand. So it’s less about pumping up and it’s more about pumping down.

Yevhen Krazhan: It’s more about listening and observing rather than pushing and pitching.

Stephen A. Crystal: Agreed.

Yevhen Krazhan: So, Stephen, we have this little rubric called network or not work. Something that maybe you would support or maybe some idea you don’t support. Okay. Would you do something like directly messaging somebody after more or less a formal presentation?

Stephen A. Crystal: I’m a believer in communication. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I’m an over communicator in my own life. People can reach me 24/7/365, literally. And so I don’t personally set a boundary, but I would say what I’ve learned is not everyone feels the same way. So I would say I’m in favor of communication whatever form it takes, as long as it’s respectful. And it’s, I guess, up to people to set the boundaries they want to set.

Yevhen Krazhan: Okay, so it’s network.

Stephen A. Crystal: Yes.

Yevhen Krazhan: Imagine you see some interesting, appealing stuff on Instagram and show immediately to the private party that was announced. Would you do that? Network or not work?

Stephen A. Crystal: Not work. I would just basically leave those types of social media things to where it belongs. I think it’s fine to participate. I do. But I don’t cross the line and get into other people’s business that way.

Yevhen Krazhan: That’s. That’s a no work.

Stephen A. Crystal: That’s a no work.

Yevhen Krazhan: Okay. Pitching your product at a nightclub. Network or not work.

Stephen A. Crystal: Look, I will be honest. I’m about my work. I love my work. If I’m at a trade show and I’m socializing, everything is fair game for me. If someone doesn’t want to, I mean, I have some emotional quotient. I can gauge whether someone wants to keep it one way or the other. But if I see an opportunity, it doesn’t matter to me that it’s a nightclub. I can have a discussion anywhere. So network.

Yevhen Krazhan: Network. Acceptable stuff.

Stephen A. Crystal: Yes.

Yevhen Krazhan: Okay. Imagine a tough one. Somebody you were trying to get a hold of through LinkedIn but then you all of a sudden have access to a personal email. Would you write to that personal email?

Stephen A. Crystal: Again, it depends on what I’m writing about. But I have no shame reaching out however I can. I’ll say, hey, Joe Smith gave me your email. I hope it’s okay. And nine times out of 10 people will interact with me because they know my motivation is not to, quote, unquote, sell them something, but to share information that they will either feel is helpful or not for their business.

Yevhen Krazhan: I would say there’s, you know, low likelihood that somebody will be ignoring you because this industry knows you well. And I think it will be a great, great respect shown.

Stephen A. Crystal: I think it is a response. It’s a respect issue. And I try to respect people’s boundaries. But again, I’m not calling people just to shoot the shit, as they say. I’m calling them because we’re on the cutting edge. We’re doing some exciting things. We’ll working with amazing companies and our job is to kind of spread that word.

Yevhen Krazhan: I think we’re about to more or less start parking.

Stephen A. Crystal: Okay.

Yevhen Krazhan: Is there’s any final comments, final observations, some impressions from this?

Stephen A. Crystal: I’ll give you a one sentence keynote. Be kind. Use this conference to take a moment out and be kind to somebody. Somebody’s been trying to reach you. Take them up on whatever they’re reaching out for. Be kind.

Yevhen Krazhan: Thank you. 

Well, what a ride. Stephen officially earned the Bet It Drives seatbelt of honor. Season one of Bet It Drives is a wrap. Thanks for riding with GR8_TECH.