Featured Articles Archive - Page 342

Top-10 ridiculous gambling laws

Several states have recently made moves to make sports betting legal within their states. The most notable effort is New Jersey’s, which is on a collision course with the U.S. Supreme Court over the constitutionality of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which makes traditional sports betting (e.g., single-game spread bets) illegal outside of Nevada. PASPA is a silly law that stands in conflict with nearly every other gambling law in the United States in that the legality of different forms of gambling has always been decided by the states. But PASPA isn't the only ridiculous gambling law out there...read more

Debt crisis worries gaming stock investors

Gaming stocks nosedived in May as investors grew worried over foreign debt matters and mixed messages coming from company earnings reports. Of the 12 publicly traded casino operators and gaming equipment providers followed by Las Vegas financial adviser Applied Analysis, 10 saw decreases in average daily stock price during the month. Only the share prices of regional gaming operators Ameristar Casinos and Penn National Gaming, which owns M Resort, enjoyed slight increases. When compared with May 2011, the gaming sector was off 11.6 percent while the broader market edged slightly upward by less than 1 percent. The declines sent the Applied Analysis Gaming Index tumbling almost 61.5 points, to 435.74...read more

Texas casino expansion suffers a blow in the state's election

The prospects for casino expansion in Texas apparently took a hit this week, according to one gaming analyst. Three prominent allies of Republican Texas House Speaker Joe Straus were defeated in their re-election bids by anti-gaming conservatives. Straus is considered a moderate who supports expanded gaming...read more

Bloch wins Seven-Card Stud event to capture first WSOP gold bracelet

Poker standout Andy Bloch won his first World Series of Poker individual event championship bracelet Saturday night at the Rio, and in the process, removed a label from his name."Now, no one can say, 'Andy Bloch is the best player to never win a gold bracelet," Bloch said moments after the victory...read more

Unexpected competition raises worry for Cordish

Maryland Live! Casino has more slot machines than the MGM Grand and Bellagio combined and a location adjacent to one of the East Coast's largest shopping malls. And, despite obstacles placed in front of the casino by the state, Cordish Company Chairman David Cordish believes his company's $500 million development will prevail financially.A 67 percent tax on gaming revenues, the highest in the nation? No problem.A competing casino roughly 12 miles north, near Baltimore's Inner Harbor? Not a concern.Cordish knew the landscape for Maryland Live! when the state's constitution was amended in 2008 to legalize slot machines...read more

Nevadan at work: Exec aims to pump vibrancy into Westin Casuarina's casino

Real estate investor Rory Bedore tried to buy the Maxim Hotel and Casino in 2002, but he was outbid by Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex Corp., which paid $38 million for the off-Strip resort.Columbia spent another $40 million on changing the Maxim into The Westin Casuarina.Fast forward 10 years and Bedore, who since developed 777 Gaming, is now in charge of the resort.The 795-room property was in receivership when Bedore's gaming management company was approached to take over the casino portion...read more

Caesars chairman and Celtics owner Loveman says casino industry and NBA have unique connection

Caesars Entertainment Corp. Chairman Gary Loveman finally got some bragging rights over Carnival Cruise Lines founder Ted Arison on Friday night. Loveman has a minority ownership stake in the Boston Celtics, which beat the Miami Heat, 101-91, in the third game of the teams’ best-of-seven NBA Eastern Conference Championship series...read more

Gaming stocks plunged with market

The stock market's 275-point plunge Friday took the gaming sector along for the downward ride. Stock prices for publicly traded casino operators and gambling equipment manufacturers tumbled along with other industries. Wynn Resorts Ltd...read more

Macau gaming revenues experience smallest monthly increase in three years

Only in Macau could one-month gaming revenue of $3.26 billion - more than half of what the entire Las Vegas Strip produces in a year - be termed a disappointment. For the first time in almost three years, Macau casinos in May didn't post the double-digit monthly increase that investors and analysts have come to expect. Macau's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said Friday that casinos collected $3.26 billion from customers during the month, a 7.3 percent increase from May 2011...read more

Shuffle Master plans new headquarters on nine-acre site

Shuffle Master, Inc. said Tuesday it paid $2.2 million for a nearly nine-acre site in Las Vegas to build a new corporate headquarters and manufacturing office. The land, near Jones Boulevard and Interstate 215 in the southwestern part of the valley, will house nearly 110,000 square feet of new office and manufacturing space, bringing the gaming equipment provider's departments, services and employees to one location. Its current headquarters comprise four separate building leases that house executive and corporate departments, manufacturing, warehouses, an interactive division and a products showroom. Construction is to begin this summer and be completed in fall 2013. The new site will take Shuffle Master away from its office south of McCarran International Airport to a location near the corporate headquarters of slot maker International Game Technology. Shuffle Master Chief Executive Officer Gavin Isaacs said the timing was right, given the cost of real estate. Isaacs said Las Vegas continues to be the gaming industry's "intellectual hub." "When we first moved into our current location nearly 15 years ago, the company generated $27 million in annual revenues and had just two product lines," Isaacs said...read more