Featured Articles Archive - Page 146

Inside Gaming: Will multiplayer tables save the slots industry?

Tables resembling giant smartphones have grown so popular inside The Mirage, Bellagio and MGM Grand Las Vegas that content providers are clamoring to put their free-to-play gambling products on the devices.Recently, Reno-based Spin Games added its slot machine, video poker and bingo games to the tables, which already offer blackjack and slot machine titles provided by the myVegas social casino application.MGM Resorts International views the tables — which were manufactured by an Australian company — as a way for its customers to test-drive gaming’s future.However, it may be a year before real money can be wagered on the multiplayer tables.“This is one more step in our strategic initiatives that will revolutionize how Generation X and Y experience our properties,” said Tom Mikulich, MGM Resorts’ senior vice president of business development...read more

Deal Me In: About those resort fees ...

Dear Mark: I would like to take exception to your column last week as regards to resort fees. I manage the pool at a Las Vegas casino, and I can tell you that today’s pool setting is not your Motel 6, let alone a casino hotel of 15 years ago...read more

Herbst family to take over Searchlight Nugget next week

Herbst family-owned JETT Gaming will take over the Searchlight Nugget Casino next week after the Nevada Gaming Commission Thursday signed off on the purchase of the historic gaming site in tiny Searchlight.JETT Gaming executive Tim Herbst told gaming commissioners the casino, which is being acquired for an undisclosed price from the Doing family, could be revived.“I think we can do something with it,” said Herbst, whose company also operates Terrible’s Searchlight that is 300 yards from the Nugget.The goal, he said, is to add amenities to the Nugget to give travelers a reason to stop in Searchlight, which is 60 miles south of Las Vegas.“We want to bring people up from Cottonwood Cove,” Herbst said...read more

McCarran saw more traffic this May than any month since 2008

McCarran International Airport had its busiest month in more than seven years in May because of special events on the Strip and an increased number of flights added by the airlines to the market.The Clark County Aviation Department said 3.99 million passengers used McCarran during May, a 5.7 percent increase over May 2014.The raw total was the largest number of passengers McCarran has seen in a single month since the airport brought in 4.12 million passengers in March 2008.Similarly, the percentage increase was the largest figure since an 8.7 percent hike in September 2011.Through May, McCarran has seen more than 18.1 million passengers, an increase of 3.3 percent over the first five months of 2014.Aviation Director Rosemary Vassiliadis said the month benefited from a combination of factors.Convention attendance in Las Vegas was up significantly in May, fueled by both large and small trade shows...read more

Nevada gaming regulators start work on skill-based slot machine rules

For more than an hour Wednesday, state gaming regulators and gambling equipment company representatives discussed a proposed draft of new rules governing development and use of slot machines that include a skill-based element.Additional workshops are expected this summer before the regulations are finalized.But the magnitude of the hearing in Las Vegas was made clear from the outset.“This is the most important regulation I’ve worked on in 17 years,” Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G...read more

Massachusetts 'slots parlor' filled to capacity on opening day

PLAINVILLE, Mass. — Several hundred patrons stood in line, waiting to be among the first to enter Plainridge Park Casino half an hour before the official opening of the first gaming establishment in Massachusetts on Wednesday afternoon. When the doors finally opened at 11:55 a.m., five minutes ahead of schedule, the first visitors received to a hero’s welcome, with employees cheering and clapping as they entered the building.One hour later, cars lined Route 1 as more people tried to get into the facility, even though nearly all of the more than 1,200 slot machines were occupied.Penn National Gaming, which operates the facility, won the state's sole "slots parlor" license in February 2014, though officials at Penn National aren't too fond of that designation."We refer to this as Plainridge Park Casino," said Jay Snowden, the chief operating officer of Penn National...read more

SLS Las Vegas sees losses of $35.3 million in first quarter

The SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino lost $35.3 million in the first quarter, according to a securities filing, and the Strip resort’s private equity owners contributed a total of $5.3 million in April for the property’s general operations purposes.SLS Las Vegas opened last August as a $415 million renovation of the former Rat Pack-era Sahara, which closed in 2011.In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Stockbridge/SBE Investment Co., owners of the 1,600-room resort, collected $37.3 million in net revenue during the three months that ended March 31.In the filing, the ownership described the SLS as having “a working capital deficit” and “incurred net losses and negative operating cash flows” in the quarter.San Francisco-based Stockbridge Capital Partners, which owns 90 percent of the SLS, said it would contribute as much as $40 million through the end of the year “to enable the company to pay its obligations as they become due.”“Stockbridge remains committed to the project, believes in our business plan, and is excited about the future,” SLS President Scott Kreeger said Tuesday...read more

Pinnacle Entertainment planning a deal with GLPI

At some point — if we’re reading the signs correctly — regional casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment will marry itself to real estate investment trust Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc.Wall Street hopes this isn’t a shotgun wedding.In March, Gaming and Leisure Properties offered to pay Las Vegas-based Pinnacle $4.1 billion for the company’s 15 regional casinos...read more

Judge delays ruling in Caesars reorganization

A bankruptcy judge has delayed a ruling in the reorganization of Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s largest operating division until October.Investors have worried an adverse ruling on when exactly Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. Inc. entered Chapter 11 could leave the casino company on the hook for more than $1 billion in debt obligations.According to the Law 360 website, U.S...read more

Lakes Entertainment shareholders approve merger with Golden Gaming

Lakes Entertainment shareholders approved the company’s merger with Las Vegas-based tavern and slot machine route operator Golden Gaming during a vote on June 17, the company said in a securities filing.The transaction will create a new publicly traded company, Golden Entertainment...read more