Featured Articles Archive - Page 218

Sands ends speculation on Pennsylvania casino sale, plans investment, taps executive

LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas Sands Corp. ended speculation Friday that it was looking to sell its Pennsylvania casino, saying the company plans further financial investment into the property, while naming a former Atlantic City casino executive to head the resort.In a statement, Las Vegas Sands named Mark Juliano as president of Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, replacing the property’s original president who left the casino last month for a job with Wynn Resorts, Limited.Juliano, who had been the senior vice president of the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, previously served as CEO of Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City and president of Caesars Atlantic City...read more

Deal Me In: Prosperous gaffes do happen

Dear Mark: I enjoy your column very much, mostly because you spent a lot of time on the inside. Here is my question. I was wondering if you have ever given away money to a player that did not deserve it. A dealer on a blackjack game once claimed it never happens, and yet, he overpaid me twice in two hours...read more

Poker Player Tweets of the Week: Tell me what you really think about Donald Sterling

Now that I've felt the grind of covering my first poker tournament, I feel I have a greater appreciation for the daily struggles of the common professional poker player.It must be hard waking up every day at noon, throwing on a hoodie and taking the elevator downstairs to sit in a chair and play a game all day...read more

Pinnacle Entertainment rebuffs investor proposal for REIT spinoff

LAS VEGAS -- Regional gaming operator Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. on Wednesday dismissed an investor proposal to spin-off the company’s 14 casinos into a real estate investment trust.During a conference call to discuss the Las Vegas-based company’s first quarter earnings, Pinnacle officials said they are focused on consolidating the casinos the company acquired last year in its $2.8 billion buyout of rival Ameristar Casinos.Pinnacle CEO Anthony Sanfilippo said the company wants to reduce its $4.35 billion in debt, much of which was taken on because of the Ameristar transaction.However, Sanfilippo said the company might consider the idea in the future...read more

MGM details $80 million rebranding of The Hotel to Delano Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- MGM Resorts International released details Wednesday about the $80 million transformation of the The Hotel into the Delano Las Vegas, which includes remodeling all aspects of the 1,100-room nongaming hotel into a boutique-style luxury property.The transformation began this month and the renovations are scheduled to be completed by September...read more

Wynn joins chorus of gaming chief executives saying Strip is recovering

LAS VEGAS -- Stop the presses. Steve Wynn declared Las Vegas is on the road to recovery Thursday.At the outset of a first-quarter conference call with analysts, the Wynn Resorts Ltd. chairman and CEO said he was “feeling good about Las Vegas, better than I had in the past.”Wynn based his opinion on the company’s results from Wynn Las Vegas and Encore during the three-month period that ended March 31.The resorts’ overall revenue total — $380.9 million — was a 1.5 percent decline from a year ago and accounted for just 25 percent of the company’s overall first quarter revenue of $1.51 billion.It was the nontraditional reporting numbers that Wall Street uses to gauge profitability that caused Wynn to proclaim the Strip’s recovery.The average daily room rate at the two resorts increased 6.2 percent to $275 per night...read more

Downtown Las Vegas events help drive Boyd Gaming properties to best quarter since 2009

LAS VEGAS -- Increased business from its three downtown Las Vegas casinos helped Boyd Gaming Corporation offset poor first-quarter results from the company’s regional jurisdictions hurt by weather issues and market softness.The Las Vegas-based company said Wednesday it had its best first quarter in five years from Main Street Station Casino Brewery and Hotel, Fremont Hotel & Casino and California Hotel & Casino, all of which benefited from a cavalcade of market-changing events downtown.“It’s really a combination of all the things happening downtown combined which has led to a little bit of a renaissance on Fremont Street,” Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith said following an afternoon conference call with analysts to discuss results for the quarter that ended March 31.The opening of the Zappos headquarters in the former City Hall, improvements on East Fremont Street, such as the opening of Container Park, and the opening of the Downtown Grand inside the former Lady Luck, have all worked to boost downtown visitation.Smith said the opening this week of the Slotzilla zipline attraction on Fremont Street would also bring more visitors downtown, which benefits Boyd Gaming’s properties.“It ends right at the Fremont,” Smith said.Boyd said its net loss for the first quarter was $6.2 million, an improvement from the loss of $7.3 million in the same quarter of 2013...read more

Venetian, Palazzo barely an afterthought with Macau in the mix

LAS VEGAS -- There is a reason analysts spent about 40 minutes questioning Las Vegas Sands Corp. officials last week about the company’s over-the-top results in Macau.It has to do with Confucius.During a conference call to discuss Las Vegas Sands’ first-quarter earnings — net income of $776.2 million on a single-quarter record of $4.01 billion in revenue — analysts didn’t ask a single question about the company’s Strip resorts, The Venetian and the Palazzo.They weren’t even curious about Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson’s widely publicized war on Internet gaming.Macau was all they cared about.No wonder...read more

Green Valley Ranch Resort getting $20 million in upgrades

LAS VEGAS -- Station Casinos, Inc. announced plans Wednesday to spend $20 million on improvements to Green Valley Ranch Resort, Spa and Casino by adding four restaurant and bar concepts and other amenities to the hotel-casino in Henderson.The move comes after the company recently announced a $35 million renovation to Red Rock Resort.The Green Valley Ranch changes are expected to be completed by spring 2015.As part of the changes, Station Casinos will bring to Green Valley Ranch a branch of Mercadito, a Zagat-award winning restaurant from the Sandoval brothers of Chicago...read more

Multimedia Games acquires PokerTek in $13 million deal

Slot machine provider Multimedia Games, Inc. said Wednesday it spent $13 million to acquire electronic table game company PokerTek, Inc.The transaction was announced as part of Multimedia Games’ second quarter earnings, in which the manufacturer said it grew both profits and revenue in the quarter that ended March 31...read more