Featured Articles Archive - Page 291

MGM Resorts seeks return to Atlantic City gaming market

LAS VEGAS -- MGM Resorts International, which gave up its ties to Atlantic City's casino market nearly three years ago to settle a dispute with New Jersey gaming regulators, is seeking to regain a piece of the action.The Las Vegas casino giant, which still owns 50 percent of Atlantic City's market-leading Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, petitioned the New Jersey Casino Control Commission on Monday to reinstate the company's gaming license in Atlantic City.In a statement, MGM Resorts officials said the company "would welcome the opportunity to once again be an active, contributing member of the New Jersey gaming marketplace."MGM Resorts placed its Borgata ownership in trust in 2010 following settlement of a complaint filed by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.The agency said MGM Resorts' joint-venture partner in Macau, Hong Kong businesswoman Pansy Ho, was unsuitable because international law enforcement alleged casinos controlled by her father, billionaire Stanley Ho, were influenced by Chinese organized-crime triads.Casino Control Commission Chairman Matthew Levinson said in a statement Monday that the panel will review MGM Resorts' request at a meeting Wednesday."If the amendment is approved, MGM indicated it will promptly file for a statement of compliance," Levinson said.MGM Resorts has been unable to find a buyer for its Borgata stake...read more

Largest Affinity Gaming shareholder proposes buying all outstanding shares

LAS VEGAS -- The largest stockholder in Affinity Gaming has proposed purchasing all outstanding shares of the Las Vegas-based casino operator at a 22 percent premium over the current value.In a letter Monday to Affinity's board of directors that was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Illinois-based Z Capital Partners, which owns 30.5 percent of the company, offered $14 a share for the remaining stock."Given the size of Affinity Gaming and that we already have a strategic ownership in Affinity Gaming, we believe this to be a fair price, and we are convinced that your stockholders will find our offer extremely attractive," Z Capital CEO James Zenni wrote in the letter.Z Capital controls more than 6.17 million of Affinity's more than 20.2 million shares.The transaction would be valued at almost $196.8 million.Affinity Gaming operates casinos in Nevada, Colorado, Iowa and Missouri...read more

Maintain wages, benefits, Culinary workers say

LAS VEGAS -- That was the overriding theme from three Strip and downtown casino workers as Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165 enter into contract talks with much of the Las Vegas hotel-casino industry.Several thousand union members convened Monday in meetings at Cashman Center in different sessions to discuss the upcoming contract talks.Five-year collective bargaining agreements expire June 1 at Strip resorts operated by MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment Inc., and with downtown Las Vegas casinos.Several other casinos, including the Tropicana, Riviera, LVH, Stratosphere and Treasure Island, also have contracts expiring.Contracts covering the two Wynn Resorts properties expire in 2015 while new contract talks with The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas have stalled.For now, members of the union's negotiating committees repeated the same mantra: maintain the current wages and benefits package."That's our primary goal," said Dunnunique Ahmad, who has been employed in the housekeeping department at CityCenter's Aria since the property opened in 2009...read more

MGM Resorts wants Toronto to bet on its complex

Nevada's largest casino companies are about to bet the house on Toronto.A single integrated resort complex in the heart of Canada's largest city could be worth billions in annual revenue to whichever casino operator wins a heated bidding process for the gaming license.Of course, there has to be a competition.Toronto and its residents have the final say on the Ontario Lottery Commission's proposal to locate the casino in the metropolitan market.One observer speculated Toronto has "no better than" a 50-50 chance of approving a casino.Who would make such a prediction?MGM Resorts International Chairman and CEO Jim Murren.Murren, whose company has placed itself square in the middle of Toronto's gaming debate, made those remarks on a Canadian television news show.A day later, Murren addressed the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto, telling the group a casino will happen in Ontario...read more

Top-10 snowstorm prop bets

There are a ton of great things about living just outside of Boston, but winter storms aren't one of them. Over the weekend we were battered with more than two feet of snow as a powerful blizzard hit the Northeast.But just because you're snowed in doesn't mean you can't have a little fun...read more

Goodwill, friendships may die in IGT proxy fight

LAS VEGAS -- A conjured-up meeting of the Gaming Hall of Fame's membership might get interesting.I'd feel sorry for the person who had to handle seating arrangements.The continuing proxy fight over the direction of slot machine manufacturer IGT - International Game Technology has put several legendary gaming personalities on opposite sides of the dispute.Disagreements between gaming executives are not uncommon...read more

Ex-gaming analyst finds new niche inside industry

LAS VEGAS -- Marc Falcone always knew that one day he would quit being a spectator and get into the action.So it was no surprise in October 2009 that he gave up a 15-year career as a Wall Street gaming industry analyst to become chief financial officer for the newly created Fertitta Gaming.The only question at the time: What exactly would Fertitta Gaming own?The company was formed by brothers Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta at the outset of the bankruptcy reorganization of Station Casinos, Inc...read more

N.Y. investment firm questions IGT's decision-making

A New York-based investment firm Thursday became IGT - International Game Technology's first outside shareholder to publicly question the slot machine manufacturer's management decision-making since a proxy fight surfaced last month over the company's direction.In an open letter to IGT Chairman Phil Satre, Orange Capital LLC managing partner Daniel Lewis suggested the company conduct a "Dutch auction" tender for 25 percent of IGT's outstanding shares and "reconstitute" the company's board to include former IGT Chairman Charles Mathewson and two others."IGT's valuation is near its all-time low on the basis of net income and cash flow," Lewis said in the letter...read more

Why can you write down past results at any casino game except blackjack?

Question: Casinos let you write down the results of past plays at any table games except blackjack. In fact, they even have signs showing previous winners at roulette and some baccarat tables. Why can you do this in certain games, but not blackjack?Answer: In games like roulette and craps, each round is independent of whatever happened previously...read more

Christie signals way forward to Internet gambling with conditional veto

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie issued a conditional veto to legislation that would regulate Internet Gambling in the state, sending a revised version of the bill back to the state's legislature for approval."I have concluded that now is the time for our state to move forward, again leading the way for the nation, by becoming one of the first states to permit Internet gaming," Christie wrote in his conditional veto...read more