Featured Articles Archive - Page 212

At Maryland's National Harbor, MGM Resorts wants to fit in — and stand out

OXON HILL, Md. -- It was an easy sale for Jon Peterson to convince tenants of National Harbor that a $925 million hotel, casino and entertainment complex would be good for the 6-year-old multiuse development.All he needed was the development plan provided by MGM Resorts International, he said.“What MGM is bringing is not only complementary to what is already here, but it will create a destination attraction that will benefit all of our tenants,” said Peterson, whose family-owned Peterson Cos...read more

For Maryland Live! first in market means best in show

HANOVER, Md. -- On a Monday evening in mid-May, Maryland Live! Casino resembled the Strip on a busy weekend.The stand-alone casino’s banks of 4,300 slot machines were packed with customers. Not all of the 177 table games were in use, but those in service were filled...read more

Baltimore has high hopes for new Caesars casino

BALTIMORE -- If General Manager Chad Barnhill needs a case study to follow when the $442 million Horseshoe Casino Baltimore opens this summer, he can look a few states to the west.In the past two years, Caesars Entertainment Corp., in partnership with Detroit-based Rock Gaming, opened the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland and the Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati.The companies are bringing that same urban gaming concept to Maryland with a 122,000-square-foot free-standing casino.Like its counterparts in Ohio, the Horseshoe Baltimore won’t have a hotel and is seen as a tool for revitalizing a postindustrial inner city.In 2012, Baltimore-based Under Armour, a sports equipment manufacturer, moved its corporate headquarters to a south Baltimore location that was once a Procter &Gamble soap manufacturing plant.Caesars will follow suit in the building repurposing: The Horseshoe site was once a chemical factory.“It restores an old area and brings in another attraction that adds to the destination,” said Dominick Murray, secretary of Maryland’s Business and Economic Development Department.Caesars expects to benefit from the old factory area’s proximity to the city’s sports stadiums and other attractions, such as the Inner Harbor.For Barnhill, a 20-year Caesars veteran, the operating model is mindful of the company’s Harrah’s New Orleans at the edge of the French Quarter, or the Horseshoe Hammond, about 18 miles from Chicago.“Much like we did in New Orleans, we have opportunity to capture everything this great city has to offer,” Barnhill said...read more

Caesars fires back after bondholders file notice of default

Caesars Entertainment Corp. struck back Friday against a group of 13 bondholders that filed a notice of default against the casino giant, calling the claims “baseless” and vowing to defend itself.The company, which controls 10 Strip resorts and carries a gaming industry-high $23 billion in long-term debt, revealed the default notice in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.Caesars said the investment group oversees at least 30 percent of $3.7 billion in second lien 10 percent bonds due in 2018.The collection of companies, which according to Bloomberg News includes Oaktree Capital and Appaloosa Management, have objected to various moves Caesars undertook in the past year to alleviate its debt...read more

Deal Me In: This rule offers a distinct advantage to the player

Dear Mark: Another player on blackjack game roundly chastised me because I “doubled for less.” It was a $20 bet, and I only put out $10. You would have thought I was responsible for all the bad luck he was having. What are your thoughts on doubling for less? Gary P.For starters, Gary, it’s your money on the layout, so you ought to be able to play your hand, and bet, any way you choose...read more

Widely respected gaming attorney Bob Faiss dies at 79

The word “retirement” never entered the vocabulary of gaming attorney Bob Faiss.A few years back, however, he told his wife, Linda, that maybe he would take two weeks away from the offices of Lionel Sawyer &Collins just to explore what the concept of being retired was like.“I said, ‘Honey, that’s what people call a vacation,’?” Linda Faiss said Thursday...read more

Bally Technologies to buy social gaming company for $100 million

Better late than never.Slot machine giant Bally Technologies joined its rivals in the rapidly growing social gaming business, saying Thursday it would pay up to $100 million to acquire Dragonplay, an Israel-based social gaming business.Dragonplay, which generated more than $10 million in cash flow over the 12 months that ended March 31, is considered one of the industry’s top 10 grossing social game developers with 700,000 active daily users and 3 million monthly users.The move comes more than two years after International Game Technology paid $500 million to acquire DoubleDown, considered the top social gaming website on Facebook.Caesars Entertainment Corp...read more

Gaming manufacturer with 'game changing' ideas wins preliminary OK

A gaming equipment manufacturer, that has the idea of combining traditional slot machines with entertainment-style video games, received preliminary approval to operate in Nevada from state gaming regulators Wednesday.During a more-than-90-minute hearing in Carson City, the Gaming Control Board recommended that Gamblit Gaming and its parent companies be awarded three different manufacturer-type licenses.In making the recommendation to the Nevada Gaming Commission, all three Control Board members said the company’s ideas could be “game changing” for the Nevada casino industry.Gamblit showed the regulators video of a gaming concept in which a Scrabble-type word game, such as those found on social gaming websites, was combined with a traditional slot machine.Think “Words With Friends” meets “Lucky Sevens.”The concept, Gamblit CEO Eric Meyerhofer told the Control Board, was to bring more customers onto a casino’s slot machine floor...read more

Downtown Las Vegas workers faced no chance of striking

There was never going to be a strike by downtown Las Vegas hotel workers.Despite the headlines and saber rattling, the leadership of Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165 wasn’t going to force union members to walk-off their jobs at properties that hadn’t finalized new contracts by 5 a.m...read more

SLS Las Vegas joins independently operated Hilton hotels chain

LAS VEGAS -- The SLS Las Vegas Hotel Casino, which is scheduled to open in late August, will become part of a new chain of independently operated Hilton Worldwide hotels.The announcement Monday places the $415 million SLS into Hilton’s Curio brand.Among the hotels in the collection are the SLS Las Vegas, The Sam Houston Hotel in Houston, Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City, S.D.; The Franklin Hotel in Chapel Hill, N.C.; and a soon-to-be named hotel development in downtown Portland, Ore.The deal allows members of the Hilton HHonors program to use and earn points at the participating hotels.“Curio expands our portfolio to a total of 11 exceptional brands and creates additional opportunities to serve our existing customers even better, attract new customers and grow our pipeline,” Jim Holthouser, executive vice president, global brands, Hilton Worldwide, said in a statement.SLS is the renovated Sahara...read more