Featured Articles Archive - Page 222

Top-10 reasons Phil Ivey's baccarat play shouldn't be called cheating

Last week we learned that the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa is suing Phil Ivey for $9.6 million, the amount he won from the casino playing baccarat in 2012. Unfortunately, many journalists (or at the very least, headline writers) have characterized Ivey's play as "cheating."For a detailed explanation of how Ivey was able to gain an advantage over the house, give John Brennan's story from NorthJersey.com a read.I'm not a lawyer, so I won't make a prediction about what will actually happen in this case...read more

IGT announces first multistate progressive jackpot network

LAS VEGAS -- Slot machine manufacturer IGT - International Game Technology announced the company’s first multistate progressive jackpot network Thursday, linking the games of two casino operators in Nevada and New Jersey.The initial networks involve casinos operated Caesars Entertainment Corporation and Boyd Gaming Corporation.Under the IGT system, certain slot machine games at Caesars’ 13 casinos in Nevada and Boyd Gaming’s nine Las Vegas casinos will be linked with similar games at Caesars’ four Atlantic City properties and Boyd’s Borgata Atlantic City.The slot machines are connected under an IGT system called Powerbucks, a multistate wide-area progressive jackpot link.IGT and rival slot machine maker Bally Technologies, Inc...read more

Pro poker player Phil Ivey sued by Atlantic City casino Borgata

Professional poker standout Phil Ivey has been sued in federal court by the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, which claimed the $9.6 million he won at the casino in 2012 was earned through cheating at high-stakes mini-baccarat.The casino, which is 50 percent-owned and managed by Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Corp., claims Ivey, one of the world’s best known poker players, manipulated a defect in the playing cards through a special manner of dealing that he requested.According to the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S...read more

Deal Me In: How'd he do dat?

Dear Mark: I witnessed something interesting once while I was playing blackjack. The dealer, about every 15 minutes or so, would yell out a card, and lo and behold, that exact card would appear. I am not kidding. He must have done it three times in an hour...read more

CG Technology enters sports betting deal with Mexican casinos

Las Vegas-based CG Technology announced an agreement Monday that will license the company’s sports wagering products with one of Mexico’s leading casino operators.The transaction is CG Technology’s first licensing agreement in Latin America...read more

Casinos shudder over possible federal requirement to divulge source of high rollers' gambling funds

Word that the U.S. Treasury Department may soon require the casino industry to report the source of gambling funds used by their big spending high-rollers sent a few shock waves through corporate offices.It wasn’t so much a rumble as it was a magnitude 7.0 earthquake.The move is part of a stepped-up effort by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to crack down on money laundering...read more

S&P lowers corporate credit ratings on Caesars, cites outlook as 'negative'

Standard & Poor’s rating services lowered its corporate credit ratings on Caesars Entertainment Corp., painting a dire picture for the casino company that carries a gaming industry-high $23 billion in long-term debt.In a statement Tuesday, Standard &Poor’s credit analyst Melissa Long said the company’s outlook was “negative,” adding Caesars’ planned sale of four casinos to its affiliate, Caesars Growth Partners, will not help the company get out from under its debt load.Also, Long said she does not expect Caesars will have “sufficient liquidity” to meet its debt obligations of about $3.5 billion that mature in 2015.“The downgrade reflects our expectation that Caesars’ capital structure is unsustainable,” Long said...read more

Top-10 reasons I've come around on late registration and re-entry

A few weeks ago, I jumped into a $400 no-limit Hold'em tournament at the Foxwoods Poker Classic. I busted out about an hour before play ended on Day 1 after losing two-thirds of my stack with pocket queens vs. kings.The event included a couple of my longstanding tournament pet peeves: late registration and re-entry.For years, I railed on the two practices...read more

Another group of Caesars Entertainment Corp. lenders, bondholders wants details of company affiliate

A second group of Caesars Entertainment Corp. lenders and bondholders said it wants to unravel the deals used to create the company’s growth-oriented affiliate.But in a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Caesars Entertainment said if the spin-offs of several Caesars Entertainment’s casinos and businesses into Caesars Growth Partners were undone, it “could trigger a default” of the affiliate’s debt raised to finance the transfers.“These consequences could have a material adverse effect on Caesars Entertainment’s business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects,” the company said in the filing.Caesars Entertainment owns 58 percent of Caesars Growth Partners, which was created to help repair the company’s balance sheet, which has a gaming industry-high $23 billion in long-term debt.Caesars Growth Partners owns Planet Hollywood Resort, the under-construction Horseshoe Baltimore, a hotel tower at Caesars Palace and the company’s interactive gaming business, which includes its online gaming operations in Nevada and New Jersey and the World Series of Poker.In February, Caesars Entertainment announced plans to sell Bally’s Las Vegas, The Quad, The Cromwell and Harrah’s New Orleans to Caesars Growth Partners in a $2.2 billion transaction...read more

Deal Me In: Dealers aren't paid enough to spar with players

Dear Mark: I have been a dealer for almost 20 years. Blackjack players love to argue about what the correct strategy is to be played. This can result in intimidation and even violence if someone at the table isn’t going by “their” rules. As a dealer, I try to keep the peace by telling them to play their own cards...read more