Featured Articles Archive - Page 251

Top-10 questions after seeing Runner Runner

Runner Runner opened over the weekend and managed to pull in a disappointing $7.7 million, but I'll be honest, I thought it would be less. The plot of the Ben Affleck/Justin Timberlake film revolves around an offshore online gambling operation run by Ivan Block (Affleck)...read more

Terms of Caesars restructuring, spinoff company set

LAS VEGAS -- Caesars Entertainment Corp. told shareholders they have until Oct. 17 to participate in a stock sale that will raise $1.18 billion and place ownership of Planet Hollywood, the company’s interactive division and a new Baltimore casino into a new holding company.Caesars announced the restructuring effort in April...read more

Gibraltar firm rocks online gambling

Gibraltar-based 888 Holdings Plc has quietly carved out an extra-large share of the neophyte U.S. online gaming market.The company, one of the largest operators in legal European Internet gaming jurisdictions, has deals to operate interactive gaming platforms — the technology to house the online gambling websites — in all three states where the activity is legal: Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware.As other states move to adopt Internet wagering regulations, 888 Holdings will buy into the game.“We’re building a U.S.-based poker network,” 888 Chief Operating Officer Itai Frieberger said in an interview during last month’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas...read more

Pop goes the expo: Celebrity and cinema dominate G2E

LAS VEGAS -- Gaming analysts were turned into film critics during last month’s Global Gaming Expo.Knowledge of the entertainment industry was a required tool when visiting the booths of the major slot machine manufacturers inside the Sands Expo and Convention Center.You also needed to avoid the roaming zombies from Aristocrat Technologies and the Na’vi warriors patrolling the International Game Technology space.Credit Suisse gaming analyst Joel Simkins told investors in a post-G2E report the show had the “most licensed premium content available for the participation segment we have seen in some time.”It also didn’t come cheap.Securing branded content from feature films (“Avatar,” “Bridesmaids,” “Back to the Future,” “Beetlejuice,” “Flashdance,” “Titanic”); television (“Batman,” “True Blood,” “The Walking Dead”); and entertainment (The Rolling Stones, David Copperfield, ZZ Top ) comes with a hefty price.“Some vendors are mindful of the costs to secure branded content,” Simkins said...read more

Deal Me In: Gambling goodies from the grave?

Dear Mark: A friend of mine recently passed away. He had a large amount of casino comps. Do they go into his estate and to his heirs? Bob M.In its strictest form, Bob, a "will" is limited to real property while a "testament" applies to the disposition of personal property...read more

Poker Player Tweets of the Week: Let's go to the movies

The fate of the poker world might depend on a Ben Affleck movie. We're all doomed. Runner Runner, starring Affleck and Justin Timberlake and written by Rounders scribes Brian Koppelman and David Levien, is the first full-length feature film centered on online poker...read more

New Jersey online gambling will go live Nov. 26

New Jersey will officially go live with online gambling on Tuesday, Nov. 26.State regulations go into effect Oct. 21, with additional changes not included in the original proposal becoming effective Oct. 28.A five-day "soft play" period will begin Nov...read more

Macau gaming revenues increase 21 percent in September to $3.6 billion

Macau casinos collected $3.6 billion from customers during September and analysts already are debating whether or not October’s results could surpass the single-month all-time record.Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said Thursday that casino revenues in the Chinese enclave grew more than 21 percent during the month...read more

Baccarat play drives state gaming revenue to 11 percent increase

LAS VEGAS -- Baccarat giveth and the baccarat taketh away.In August, the game giveth.Nevada recorded its fourth-highest baccarat revenue total ever during August and the highest percentage increase since June 1999, fueling double-digit gaming revenue totals statewide and along the Strip.The Nevada State Gaming Control Board Gaming Commission said Monday that casinos statewide collected almost $955.3 million in gaming revenues during the month, an 11.17 percent increase compared with $859.3 million collected in August 2012...read more

City Center operators seek new loans to refinance debt

LAS VEGAS -- The operators of CityCenter are seeking new loans to refinance the four-year-old Strip development’s nearly $2 billion of long-term debt.MGM Resorts International, which owns 50 percent of CityCenter and operates the 66-acre complex, has scheduled lender meetings in New York City to explore options to refinance the debt on the development.“This is an opportunity to extend the debt maturities at lower rates thereby improving City Center’s free cash flow,” MGM Resorts Chief Financial Officer Dan D’Arrigo said in a statement emailed by the company’s corporate communications office.MGM Resorts also reportedly is no longer interested in selling the Crystals retail component of CityCenter.According to Bloomberg News, CityCenter has $1.8 billion of debt, including $1.14 billion in bonds that expire in 2016 and $708 million of obligations that come due in 2017.During a meeting with investors at last week’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, MGM Resorts officials said the company wanted to address CityCenter’s debt...read more