Featured Articles Archive - Page 229

Big summer ahead for Bally's new WSOP-themed poker room

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Early on a Thursday afternoon in late April, the new World Series of Poker room at Bally's Atlantic City's Wild Wild West casino felt a bit empty. The 42-table room, which also features a large section for tournaments and an additional, closed-off "high limit" area, had six live cash games running...read more

Top-10 ways online poker rooms can improve their "ecology"

Over the weekend, I learned that Party Poker has decided to begin offering "Casual Cash Games," which are only open to players who are playing one ring game at a time. I have to say it's a great idea. In fact, I thought it was a great idea over a year ago when I devoted an entire column to promoting it.Obviously this is an attempt to promote a better "poker ecology." In case you haven't heard the term, the poker ecology is a term that refers to the mixture of online poker pros, mid-stakes grinders, casual/recreational players and beginners that make up the universe of players at a given online poker room...read more

Macau April gaming revenue enough to ease worries of a market slowdown

The Macau casino industry didn’t produce a third straight $4 billion gaming revenue month in April, but the final total and double-digit increase were enough to ease worries of a market slowdown.Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said Friday casinos collected $3.9 billion in gaming revenue during April, a 10.6 percent increase over April 2013.The figure might seem, paltry to investors after two straight $4 billion revenue months, including February’s all-time single month record of $4.8 billion...read more

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