Hot Zone

What is Hot Zone?

In 1996, Stupak replaced Vegas World with the Stratosphere—whose 1,149-foot observation tower remains the largest structure west of the Mississippi—remodeling Vegas World’s towers for the new purpose.

Stupak’s friends in city government agreed to rebrand the neighborhood as Meadows Village in the late ’80s. They also told and retold the cover story of the sunbathing showgirls, insisting that the Naked City nickname had nothing to do with crime.

Several local businesses signed on to celebrate the rewritten history, including Naked City Pizza, Naked City Audio, and Naked City Sweets.

About Hot Zone

Veikkaus has submitted licence applications as a private entity, joining around 50 other companies that had applied to join the upcoming market by the end of June.

The company committed to a management reshuffle late last year as part of this transition, scrapping the role of deputy CEO after Velipekka Nummikoski was shuffled into a new role.

The operator has made a number of key operational and technology changes during this process, including switching its sportsbook backend from DraftKings to OpenBet. And hiring a number of industry stalwards to lead its competitive business.

How to play Hot Zone

Macquarie’s Beynon agrees with that sentiment, pointing to the relative stability of gaming companies through tough economic stretches such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Bankruptcies in the sector have been low relative to the broader market, he notes, and both land-based and digital companies have reason for optimism moving forward.

“It’s certainly not lost on us that this sector has underperformed for several years in a row just because it doesn’t have either the growth of say, tech companies, or the perceived free cash flow-insulated businesses, which we believe it does…We’ve thought there’s been value in the sector for a few years, particularly this year,” he told iGB.

Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.