Featured Articles Archive - Page 334

Good-bye Sahara, hello SLS Las Vegas - Strip property to be redeveloped

Goodbye Sahara, hello SLS Las Vegas. Think of this as an implosion without the dynamite. Sahara owners SBE Entertainment Group, LLC of Los Angeles and San Francisco-based private equity group Stockbridge Real Estate said Monday they had completed the process to acquire $300 million in financing that will return Sahara, which was shuttered almost a year ago, into an operational north-Strip hotel-casino sometime in 2014. SBE Chef Executive Officer Sam Nazarian said the three existing hotel towers would remain, but two will be "stripped down to their skeletons." A low-rise hotel structure will be torn down, but the 2,500-space parking garage will remain. SLS Las Vegas will have roughly 1,600 rooms and operate as a "true boutique resort," although it will be the largest SLS hotel in the company...read more

Gaming stocks gain for fourth straight month

It's early in the quarterly earnings season, but initial reports have given a boost to the gaming sector. For the fourth consecutive month, gaming stocks - on a whole - gained in value, according to Las Vegas-based financial consultant Applied Analysis, which charts the average daily stock prices for eight casino operators and four gaming equipment providers for its monthly Gaming Index. Gaming operators posted mixed results; shares of Caesars Entertainment Corp...read more

Poker icon "Amarillo Slim" Preston, 83, dies

Poker legend "Amarillo Slim" Preston, who dominated the tables long before the game's massive growth in popularity, died early Sunday morning after a long illness at the age of 83.Born Thomas Austin Preston Jr., "Amarillo Slim" became one of poker's most accomplished cash-game players...read more

O'Sheas to raise final toast to current home on Strip

O'Sheas Casino will end its current existence on the Strip at noon Monday.Roughly 14 hours later, the real action begins.The 22,000-square-foot standalone casino, which does not have hotel rooms and opened in 1989, is being demolished as part of the construction for the $550 million Project Linq...read more

Slot points for spinach? Golden Gaming will try it - launching rewards club for grocery stores

Slot points for steaks, seafood and spinach? Golden Gaming, Inc. is about to make that possible by giving grocery store slot players their own rewards club. The company, which is Nevada's largest tavern owner, became the state's biggest slot machine route operator in March through an asset swap with Affinity Gaming. One of the business units acquired by Golden covers the roughly 2,200 slot machines operated in large grocery store chains statewide...read more

For slot machine company executive Bob Miodunski, Cabo will wait

What happens when you grow weary of building and selling custom houses in Cabo San Lucas on the lower tip of Baja California Sur, Mexico? If you're retired gaming executive Bob Miodunski, you come back to the U.S. and take a temporary position helping an up-and-coming slot machine manufacturer gain a foothold in the industry. That was almost two years ago. Six months after being named the interim president and chief executive officer of American Gaming Systems (AGS), Miodunski, 61, dropped the temporary title...read more

What are the chances of various wins and losses per hand at blackjack?

To unsophisticated casino patrons, gambling is gambling. They pay their money and take their shots. Usually, although not always, they know the payoffs they hope to obtain. This, because the amounts are posted in some way, in plain sight, on all machines and many tables. More enlightened solid citizens not only know the payoffs, but – by reading or word of mouth – have ascertained the house advantage or edge on games or bets they make, as well...read more

Las Vegas Sands boss Sheldon Adelson tells UNLV students he learned on the fly

It's not every day that the nation's seventh-richest billionaire tells college students the secret of his success was "never knowing anything" about the businesses in which he got involved. In a 90-minute discussion Thursday with University of Nevada, Las Vegas students, Las Vegas Sands Corp...read more

Pinnacle plans to purchase majority stake in Texas racetrack

Regional casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. announced Thursday it will acquire a 75.5 percent interest in a Texas racetrack for $22.8 million. The Las Vegas-based company, which operates casinos in Louisiana, St. Louis and Indiana, also owns the River Downs Racetrack in Cincinnati, Ohio. Analysts said Thursday's deal helps buoy Pinnacle if Texas legalizes casino gaming...read more

Asia properties boost LV Sands

Roughly 83 percent of Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s $2.76 billion in first-quarter revenues came from the casino operator's holdings in Asia. Don't expect that to change anytime soon. During a conference call with analysts and investors Wednesday to discuss the company's financial results for the three months ended March 31, Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson said he doesn't believe the gaming operator's prospects in Macau and Singapore will flatten out. "The word plateau, in terms of Asia, is not in our vocabulary," Adelson said. Results from Las Vegas Sands' three resorts in Macau and the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore helped the company more than double its first-quarter profits. Las Vegas Sands said its net income in the quarter was $498.9 million, an increase of 118.7 percent compared with $228.2 million in the same quarter of 2011...read more