Featured Articles Archive - Page 211

Inside Gaming: Alamo brings fresh approach

In his first meeting as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, Tony Alamo Jr. turned the Sawyer Building conference room into a doctor's office.Alamo, a specialist in internal medicine, is the first non-attorney to head the part-time regulatory panel.Using a bedside manner similar to how he would address a patient, Alamo attempted to calm the jittery emotions of a restricted gaming license applicant seeking approval for five slot machines in his Las Vegas restaurant.Two weeks earlier, the Gaming Control Board spent two hours in heated discussion on the application, grilling the 30-year-old applicant over a laundry list of legal matters that were later resolved.Alamo watched the hearing from the audience...read more

Deal Me In: Never busting never works

Dear Mark: What do you think of a blackjack player who always stands with 12 or more, no matter what the dealer is showing? The player therefore never busts and wins all of the times when the house does bust. You would still use basic strategy for splits and doubling...read more

SLS Las Vegas operators recommended for Nevada gaming license

LAS VEGAS -- It took more than three-and-a-half hours Wednesday for Nevada gaming regulators to gain a level of comfort with the ownership structure, management and financing for the $415 million SLS Las Vegas Hotel Casino.In the end, operators of the north Strip hotel-casino were recommended for licensing approval by the Gaming Control Board...read more

Isaacs goes from unemployed to CEO of four companies

LAS VEGAS -- Less than 10 months ago, Gavin Isaacs was jobless.By early next year, Isaacs expects to be CEO of a company that controls two of the world’s top three slot machine manufacturers, the casino industry’s largest supplier of table games and casino management products, and the biggest U.S.-based provider of lottery systems.Last week’s surprising announcement that lottery giant Scientific Games Corporation, was buying slot machine giant Bally Technologies, Inc...read more

Caesars Entertainment files lawsuit against bond holders

LAS VEGAS -- Caesars Entertainment Corporation filed a lawsuit Tuesday in New York against a group of the company’s institutional investors, claiming the bond holders are trying to block the casino operator’s debt restructuring efforts.Caesars named more than two dozen investment firms, hedge funds, and management groups in the lawsuit, which was filed in the Supreme Court of New York...read more

Gaming group, child safety nonprofit team up

American Gaming Association (AGA) CEO Geoff Freeman said the organization has partnered with a children’s advocacy group to end a recent trend that has found casino patrons leaving their children in cars while they go inside to gamble.For example, an Oakland, California, woman is facing felony child abuse charges for leaving her two small children in her car during July while she gambled at Casino 580 near Livermore...read more

Strip properties power MGM earnings

LAS VEGAS -- MGM Resorts International’s single casino in Macau has carried in the company in recent quarterly reporting periods.But not for the three-month reporting period that ended June 30.Backed by healthy gains from 10 Strip developments, MGM Resorts reversed a second-quarter net loss, the company said Tuesday.The casino giant — whose Strip holdings include Bellagio, MGM Grand, The Mirage, Mandalay Bay and the CityCenter complex — said its net income for the quarter was $105.5 million, or 21 cents a share...read more

Top-10 ways to fix Atlantic City

It's been a rough summer for Atlantic City. Revel Casino Hotel declared bankruptcy (again) in June. Caesars announced Showboat Atlantic City would close at the end of August. And the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino is scheduled to close in September.The Atlantic Club closed in January...read more

Scientific Games to buy Bally in $5.1 billion deal

LAS VEGAS -- Lottery manufacturer Scientific Games Corporation will purchase slot machine giant Bally Technologies, Inc. for $5.1 billion in a deal announced Friday.The transaction is the second high-profile gaming industry merger in less than a month...read more

Aussie outfit makes U.S. inroads

LAS VEGAS -- While a photographer adjusted lighting equipment, Aristocrat Leisure Limited CEO Jamie Odell relaxed in the Australian gaming equipment manufacturer’s south Las Vegas showroom and played a few free spins on a “Batman” slot machine.Dressed casually in jeans, a dress shirt minus the tie and a sports coat, Odell, 55, was anticipating a 14-hour plane flight that evening...read more