Featured Articles Archive - Page 240

Inside Gaming: SLS aims to avoid Cosmo's mistakes

LAS VEGAS -- Much has been speculated about the business model for SLS Las Vegas.Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment Group, LLC is spending $415 million to transform the Rat Pack-era Sahara into a stylish, ultramodern hotel, bringing to the Strip amenities closely associated with Hollywood and Beverly Hills, Calif.When the remade hotel-casino opens in September, SLS Las Vegas will have nearly a dozen restaurants and nightlife brands, most owned by SBE...read more

Deal Me In: Uncle Sam loves those $1,200 jackpots

Dear Mark: Who originated the $1,200 starting point as the amount that can be taxed when playing slots? It seems when playing today’s higher denomination machines, you get taxable jackpots far more often. Sam L.The $1,200 threshold, Sam, came about 40 years ago when the government and casino industry negotiated that specific sum...read more

Poker Player Tweets of the Week: How to view your losses

Nothing puts a damper on the holiday season more than a "Friday the 13th." Today's the day. I'm not a superstitious guy, but of course many people in the gambling world are. So today is a bit of a holiday itself, depending on which way you look at it. But let's ignore the hoax that is Friday the 13th and instead focus on the ramblings of poker players over the past few days. And for what it's worth, this will be my final "Poker Player Tweets of the Week" column of 2013...read more

Caesars files lawsuit against Massachusetts gaming commission chairman

Caesars Entertainment Corporation filed a lawsuit against Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby, claiming the state’s top gaming regulator had several conflicts of interest that ultimately played into the casino giant’s departure from a proposed $1 billion Boston-area gaming complex.The lawsuit, filed late Thursday in U.S...read more

Macau operations help credit profiles of Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts

LAS VEGAS -- Compared with the competition, Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s outstanding long-term debt of just less than $10 billion seems manageable, which led Wall Street to praise the company’s plans to restructure a portion of the obligations.The difference between Las Vegas Sands’ debt of $9.76 billion and the industry-high $23.7 billion owed by Caesars Entertainment Corp...read more

Abboud called hypocritical in House hearing

The potential for federal online gambling legislation was the topic of an in-depth discussion in a House subcommittee meeting on Tuesday, but no clear vote or determination was made on the issue.The House Energy & Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade held a hearing on the state of online gaming to examine the status of Internet gambling in the United States and to review H.R...read more

Top-10 non-card betting games

My top-10 list last week was all about card games you could bet on that aren't poker. While Casino City Editor-In-Chief Vin Narayanan had a beef with some of my choices (he believes 7/27 and guts are poker games), the entire editorial department agreed that it was fun to think about betting on games that aren't poker.So this week, my top-10 list is devoted entirely to games that you can bet on that aren't card games.10...read more

Mixed results for East Coast Internet gaming rollouts

If his gaming analyst job doesn’t work out, Brian McGill could try winning a seat in the Main Event at the World Series of Poker.At least the Internet version.In late November, McGill, who follows publicly traded casino companies and slot machine manufacturers for financial services company Janney Montgomery Scott, sampled the new East Coast Internet gaming opportunities in Delaware and New Jersey.With a home base in New York City, McGill could cross state lines and check out the action.He found mixed results in both markets.New Jersey had sign-up issues in the initial days, which kept players from joining the game...read more

Gambling and the Law: Lessons from the insurance industry

Licensed gaming is slowly becoming just another legal business; which is a very good thing.Many of the strangest restrictions in the law arose from centuries of gambling being seen by society, or at least by opinion-leaders and law-makers, as an activity that was simply not respectable...read more

Gambling and the Law: Adelson's bad bet

The gaming industry won most of its battles at the ballot box, but lost the public relations war.In Maryland, voters passed Question 7, 52% to 48%. This will not only allow the five previously authorized slot casinos to add table games, it permits a giant sixth Las Vegas style casino, right next to Washington, DC...read more