Featured Articles Archive - Page 271

What's the best strategy for doubling-down when it's offered at video poker?

Question: Some video poker machines offer "double down." If you win a hand, you can go for double-or-nothing and keep going as long as you keep winning. Are there rules about whether or not, when, and how many times to take this bet?Answer: You have a 50-50 chance, one out of two, to win even money on double down at video poker...read more

Deal Me In: Reader questions where lucky machine went

Dear Mark: I recently had the good fortune of hitting a sizable jackpot on a slot machine. It took over an hour to be paid, plus, they opened the machine, not once, but twice. Here is the funny part. I returned the following month, and the machine was gone...read more

Station Casinos sees double-digit growth in profits

Station Casinos, Inc. grew profits 11 percent in the second quarter but didn’t disclose what percentage of the company’s overall figures came from online poker.The casino operator, which has 16 large and small gaming properties in the Las Vegas Valley, said Wednesday that the quarter marked the company’s ninth consecutive three-month period of increased cash flow.Station Casinos-owned Fertitta Interactive, which includes online poker operator Ultimate Gaming, had $1.6 million in operating costs associated with the start-up of Ultimate Poker on April 30.The company’s adjusted cash flow for the quarter that ended June 30, including the loss from Fertitta Interactive, was $96.1 million, a 4.7 percent increase over the same quarter a year ago.Station Casinos’ net income was $7.3 million, compared with $6.5 million in the second quarter of 2012.Total revenues were $316.6 million, an increase of 1.4 percent.Station Casinos is not publicly traded but has publicly owned debt.Ultimate Gaming’s Ultimate Poker is the only regulated pay-to-play online gambling provider in Nevada.During the quarter, Ultimate Gaming announced a deal with the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City to provide online gaming services.“Ultimate Gaming’s entrance into the New Jersey market is our next step in expanding our presence in the online gaming industry,” said Chief Financial Officer Marc Falcone.During the quarter, Ultimate Poker completed its field trial with Nevada gaming regulators on July 25...read more

MGM Resorts narrows second-quarter net loss, grows revenues

LAS VEGAS -- MGM Resorts International narrowed its second-quarter net loss but improved revenues companywide, which included a 3.4 percent hike from customer spending on the Strip.The results gave Wall Street renewed hope of a potential casino market turnaround.The casino operator, which controls 10 Strip resorts, said it lost $92.9 million, or 19 cents a share, in the quarter that ended June 30...read more

Caesars taps new regional president to oversee three Strip properties

LAS VEGAS -- Caesars Entertainment Inc. shuffled its Las Vegas and Atlantic City resort management executives Tuesday, moving a regional president from the Strip to the East Coast.The company, which has 10 properties on or near the Strip, said Eileen Moore, currently president of the company’s Mid-North Regional Division, will come to Las Vegas to oversee three casinos.Moore will be a regional president and general manager of the Flamingo Las Vegas, The Quad Resort and Casino and the $180 million Gansevoort development after receiving required regulatory approvals, said company spokesman Gary Thompson.Prior to her role in Illinois and Southern Indiana, Moore was assistant general manager at Harrah’s New Orleans...read more

Hacienda ownership confirms sale to Dotty's operators

The ownership of the Hacienda Hotel and Casino near Boulder City confirmed Tuesday that it sold the hotel-casino to the operators of the Dotty’s statewide chain of taverns.A sales price was not disclosed by the Lakeview Company, which said the Hacienda employees were told the property and surrounding land had been sold to Nevada Restaurant Services Inc., which owns the Dotty’s brand.Dotty’s owner and founder Craig Estey said in a statement that the 370-room hotel-casino, 3½ miles from Hoover Dam on U.S...read more

Slot machine maker IGT expands board by two members

Five months after a contentious proxy fight threatened to shake up IGT - International Game Technology’s board of directors, the company announced it has expanded the governing panel by two members.In separate statements released Friday, the slot machine giant said two new members, both with experience in the technology sector, have been appointed to the board...read more

M Resort closes 14-table poker room

LAS VEGAS -- M Resort closed its 14-table poker room last week to make space for additional slot machines that will be used for tournament play.Rina Foster, a spokeswoman for the casino, said employees displaced by the closure were offered other jobs, although she wasn’t sure how many were moved to new positions.M Resort is owned by Penn National Gaming.She said the space layout is still be reconfigured and M Resort has not determined how many slot machines will move in the space...read more

IGT laughing all the way to bank over acquisition

Suddenly, Wall Street loves IGT - International Game Technology’s DoubleDown Casino.After roundly panning the slot machine giant’s $500 million acquisition of the free-to-play social gaming website 17 months ago, the analyst community pulled a 180-degree turn in July.“In our view, DoubleDown is turning into one of IGT’s best acquisitions, which we believe can continue to grow profitably,” Wells Fargo Securities gaming analyst Cameron McKnight told investors July 24.A day earlier, IGT credited a boost in results from its social gaming products with increasing the company’s third-quarter earnings and profits.DoubleDown Casino, an application found on the Internet, Facebook and mobile devices, was responsible for $61.4 million of IGT’s $579 million in revenue for the quarter that ended June 30.Interactive gaming revenue — nominal fees paid by users to the website to purchase additional gambling tokens that increase their virtual bankrolls — were more than double compared with the same quarter a year ago...read more

Nevada gaming revenues fall, but analyst heralds slot play

LAS VEGAS -- A more than 10 percent decline in gaming revenues on the Strip during June was directly attributed to poor results from baccarat play.But that’s just part of the story.One analyst pointed toward a third straight month of increased slot machine wagering inside Strip casinos as the “best metric” for determining if a Las Vegas recovery is taking hold.The Nevada State Gaming Control Board Gaming Commission said Friday that Nevada casinos collected almost $792.5 million from gamblers in June, a decline of 4.81 percent compared with more than $832.5 million collected in the same month a year ago.On the Strip, gaming revenues fell 10.1 percent in June to $434.7 million.Sterne Agee gaming analyst David Bain said the increased slot machine volume — 0.2 percent in June, 1.7 percent in May and 1.1 percent in April — were indicators that Strip casinos are seeing a return of midlevel customers.“We continue to believe correlating factors, as well as several other data points, point to Strip upside relative to consensus,” Bain said.Revenues from slot machine play on the Strip increased 3 percent.Baccarat was the culprit for the Strip’s decline.Revenues from the game decreased 48.9 percent to $52.7 million in June...read more