Featured Articles Archive - Page 317

Gaming stocks fare poorly in July; Shuffle Master an exception

Unless you own shares of Shuffle Master, July wasn't a great month to be a gaming industry investor. Lackluster second quarter earnings reports and continued economic concerns have spooked the gaming sector. Average daily share prices of publicly traded casino operators and game equipment providers tumbled from June. Only Shuffle Master, which provides casinos table games, such as Three Card Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold'em, and table game management products, had any marked increase. Shares of Shuffle Master traded 9 percent higher on a daily basis compared with June...read more

Caesars plans $300 million casino in downtown Baltimore

Caesars Entertainment Inc. will develop a $300 million casino in downtown Baltimore after an investment group headed by the company was awarded a license Tuesday by Maryland gaming authorities. In a statement, Caesars said it would build the casino in partnership with Detroit-based Rock Gaming. The casino, named Harrah's Baltimore, will have 3,750 slot machine-like video lottery terminals and is expected to open in 2014...read more

PokerStars, Justice Department reach settlement

Internet gaming giant PokerStars will forfeit $731 million to the U.S. government over the next three years to settle a criminal complaint with the Department of Justice, although the company admits no wrongdoing as alleged in the April 2011 "Black Friday" indictments. Some of the settlement will be used to refund money owed to U.S...read more

PokerStars settles with DOJ, buys Full Tilt Poker

PokerStars has a reached settlement agreement with U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that includes the purchase of Full Tilt Poker.PokerStars will pay the DOJ $547 million to settle bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering charges. Part of that money will be used to pay money owed to American players by Full Tilt Poker...read more

Former WSOP champion Greg Raymer wins Heartland Poker Tour's 200th event

Former World Series of Poker champion Greg Raymer captured the Heartland Poker Tour’s 200th nationally televised event over the weekend. The first place prize of $71,875 earned from the tournament at the Route 66 Casino Hotel in Albuquerque, N.M., was much smaller than the $5 million Raymer collected in 2004 when he won the World Series of Poker’s Main Event at Binion’s Horseshoe. Raymer has often played on the Heartland Poker Tour, which was recently acquired by casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment...read more

Michael Jackson comes to the rescue of slot makers

We've heard this one before. The slot machine industry has been anticipating a comeback since the recession depressed new-game sales. Casino operators shunned new and more expensive technology and remained loyal to older machines in order to avoid spending money on updating gambling equipment. That attitude is changing, according to a survey by Fantini Research and Roth Capital Partners. Through new casino openings this year -- primarily in Ohio -- slot machine sales and game leases have increased...read more

Investors can't wait to gamble on Florida

Maybe February was just a speed trap on Alligator Alley or a jack-knifed trailer on the Turnpike. Florida's gambling proponents are not going to be deterred by a temporary slowdown and continue to push casino expansion in the southern part of the state, a market some analysts predict could exceed the Strip's annual $6 billion in gaming revenues. South Florida provides the gaming industry another access into an affluent Latin American customer base, a market that is way too lucrative to give up on...read more

Maryland governor backs plan for casino

Maryland's governor said Friday that expanded gaming in the state - including a Las Vegas-style hotel-casino development roughly 10 miles from the nation's capital operated by MGM Resorts International - could be worth more than $100 million annually in tax revenue for the state's school system. In calling for a special session of the General Assembly to start Aug...read more

Investors drub shares of Las Vegas Sands

Shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. took a beating Thursday, a day after the company missed second-quarter earnings projections by 27 percent. The stock price decline wasn't a surprise, especially to Wall Street. The company's properties in Macau grew revenues 22.3 percent, but suffered a 40 percent decline in profits...read more

Caesars fined $100,000 for under-21 gambling

Caesars Entertainment Inc. is paying the state a $100,000 fine to settle underage gambling charges, but may face a stiffer penalty if it happens again. "This is not an isolated incident, but a pattern of abuse," Nevada Gaming Commissioner Randolph Townsend said Thursday as the regulatory panel voted to accept the settlement with Caesars over multiple charges of gambling and alcohol consumption by underage customers at several of the company's Strip resorts between 2010 and May of this year. Townsend, whose comments were echoed by fellow commissioners John Moran Jr...read more