Featured Articles Archive - Page 339

Las Vegas the epicenter of madness

LAS VEGAS. Nevada -- There was a time when Greg Devitt of California had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. just to secure a seat in the Caesars Palace sports book to watch the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament.One year, he didn't tell his friend, Doug Roberts of New York, that sleeping in the sports book was frowned upon, especially at that time of morning."I kept on getting kicked awake by my friends every time security walked by," Roberts recalled.That was back in the 1990s.Today, the two friends, along with Kevin Frank of Cincinnati, command a spacious booth at Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa, complete with its own television monitor and unobstructed view of the sports book's multiple large television screens.They won't leave that booth for much of the weekend."We won't see sunlight for a few days," Frank said.March Madness, the term used to describe the annual NCAA Tournament, has a much different meaning in Las Vegas.Resort operators and sports book directors say the first weekend of 48 basketball games, when the field of 64 teams is cut down to the Sweet 16, is one of the most lucrative wagering weekends of the year."The volume is tremendous," MGM Grand Las Vegas President Scott Sibella said...read more

Gaming industry staying away from Las Vegas Strip

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The gaming industry has written off resort expansion along the Strip for the rest of the decade.The focus is on nongaming attractions, such as the $550 million Project Linq, which is being developed by Caesars Entertainment Corp...read more

Top-10 betting alternatives to an NCAA bracket

On Thursday, when the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament begins, millions of Americans who haven't watched more than 10 minutes of college basketball this year will be watching tournament games with great interest.The reason? Brackets...read more

Parallels drawn with Epic Poker League and UFL

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- There are similarities in the troubles that befell the Epic Poker League and the United Football League, both of which tanked their seasons after running into financial woes.What is also true is that neither failure had anything to do with the popularity of their particular sport or activity.Football is America's No...read more

Deal Me In: Getting ignored by a touch screen

Dear Mark: Here is a question from the Twilight Zone. My girlfriend and I play video slot machines side-by-side, but I have trouble activating the touch screen. She will switch machines with me and have no problem. I do not have cold, clammy hands, so should I not be able to activate the screen from the heat from my fingertips? Have you ever heard of anything this bizarre? Danny F.Your Midas touch question may seem a bit wacky, but if you do not mind a Rod Serling reply, I’ll take a crack at it by sharing anecdotal evidence with a likely bearing on what’s occurring.First, Danny, a question your way; Do you play the guitar?I ask because being a hack myself, with skill levels not much past Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, I do have hard-as-steel calluses on the fingertips of my left, or fret-board, hand...read more

Nevada gaming revenues top $1 billion in January

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- They're not throwing cold water on the first time in more than three years that Nevada casinos have collected more than $1 billion in gaming revenues in a single month, but analysts want to see February's gaming revenues before starting the celebration. Thanks to a calendar change that caused the lucrative Chinese New Year celebration to fall in January, Nevada casinos collected more than $1.038 billion from gamblers during the month. That was an 18.4 percent increase over January 2011 and the state's first billion-dollar month since September 2008, some 40 months ago. On the Strip, casinos saw gaming revenues increase more than 29 percent, collecting more than $623.5 million from customers. The Strip's numbers were helped by $365.2 million collected from table games, the single highest revenue month in the state's history for wagering from baccarat, blackjack, craps, roulette and other games. The figures, released Thursday by the Gaming Control Board, also showed marked improvement in areas outside the Strip...read more

Bally, Aristocrat reach online poker agreement

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Slot machine makers Bally Technologies and Aristocrat Technologies will team up to capitalize on the potential for legalized Internet gaming in the U.S. The companies on Tuesday jointly announced a deal to offer the same third-party poker networks as part of their business-to-business Internet gaming products for U.S...read more

Mississippi casino hosting $50,000 blackjack tourney

MEMPHIS, Tennessee -- Find a four leaf clover, rub a blarney stone, and maybe some the luck hanging in the air on St. Patrick’s Day weekend will shower down on you, even if you’re not Irish, at Gold Strike Casino Resort’s $50,000 Go For The Green blackjack tournament on March 16-18 in Tunica, MS.“We’re expecting a large turnout for this event, “ said Phil Hunter, Director of Casino Operations,” not just for the significant prizes offered but also because of the low buy-in of only $100.00.”This tournament is different than the previous one hosted by Gold Strike recently where players played head on with a dealer to gain chips where the person earning the most won out...read more

Shuffle Master purchases Ongame Network

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Shuffle Master Gaming announced Monday it agreed to acquire Ongame Network Ltd., a European-based provider of online poker products, for almost $28.5 million. The Las Vegas-based table game and gambling equipment vendor said the transaction will allow the company to expand its online product offerings in regulated online gaming markets...read more

Indian gambling revenues jump 1.3 percent in 2010

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Following a one-year slide, gaming revenues produced by the nation's Indian casino market grew 1.3 percent in 2010 to $26.73 billion, the highest single-year figure ever produced by the segment of the American gambling industry. The increase came about despite a 2.5 percent decrease in gaming revenues in California, the nation's largest Indian gaming state, and a 4 percent decline in Connecticut, the third-largest producer of Indian gaming revenues. "The positives were that you had smaller states carrying more weight and that balanced things out," said Irvine, Calif., economist Alan Meister, the author of the Indian Gaming Industry Report produced by Casino City Press...read more