Featured Articles Archive - Page 350

Gaming stocks slump in 2011

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Good riddance to 2011. A majority of the gaming sector saw its average daily stock prices nosedive during the year despite a perceived economic recovery in most of the major gambling markets, including Las Vegas. Seven out of the 10 casino operators and slot machine manufacturers followed by Las Vegas-based financial consultant Applied Analysis for the company's gaming index finished December below their average daily price from December 2010. Five companies suffered double-digit declines. "While gaming companies' stock and financial performances outpaced 2010 in aggregate, individual operators and manufacturers experienced varying degrees of success," Applied Analysis Principal Brian Gordon told clients in a research report. "During the final month of the year, speculation about the impact of Internet-based poker, new developments in emerging markets and broader economic conditions were key drivers of the sector's performance," Gordon said. Slot machine maker WMS Industries ended 2011 with the biggest 12-month decline in average daily price per share of any company, falling almost 57 percent...read more

Macau gaming revenues $33.5 billion last year

MACAU -- Forget the Strip. Macau's 2011 gaming revenue total surpassed the combined casino revenues produced by the top 20 U.S. commercial casino markets in 2010. And, analysts said, Macau shows no signs of a slowing. Macau gaming revenues reached a staggering $33.5 billion in 2011, the Chinese Special Administrative Region's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau reported Tuesday...read more

DOJ statement not a green light for Internet gaming

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Based on the reaction of Internet poker supporters, you would have thought Santa Claus had arrived early. Two days before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it reversed a long-standing opinion on the federal Wire Act of 1961...read more

Brunson earns EPL Lifetime Players Card

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Is there any honor or recognition that poker icon Doyle Brunson has yet to receive?Brunson, 78, is considered the game's living legend. He was one of the original Texas Rounders, a group of gamblers who traveled the back roads of the state finding the big money poker games in the 1950s and 1960s.He eventually settled in Las Vegas, twice winning the World Series of Poker's Main Event World Championship in 1976 and 1977 and earning 10 individual event championship bracelets, his last coming in 2005...read more

Why don't more craps players make Lay bets? Or, do they?

Lay bets are wagers having greater probability of winning than losing, but payoffs less than the amount at risk. Craps has two major classes of these propositions. One class, available to players who bet Don’t Pass or Don’t Come, comprises the Odds they can lay after the point is established...read more

Top-10 gaming resolutions for 2012

Most New Year's resolutions are the same. I want to lose weight. I want to spend more time with my family. I want to learn a new language. By the time March roles around, you've put on 10 pounds, your parents don't recognize you and the only Spanish words you've learned are "siesta" and "cerveza."As someone who works in the gambling industry, my New Year's resolutions are slightly different...read more

New Bellagio nightclub ready for opening

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Sam Nazarian has long-believed the Strip was a perfect spot for one of SBE Entertainment's nightlife brands.Little did he imagine a prime location at the center of Bellagio would open up."With great real estate comes great responsibility," said Nazarian, whose SBE-operated Hyde Bellagio Lounge opens Sunday in a 10,000-square-foot space overlooking the Fountains at Bellagio that once was the Fontana Bar."We're going to take advantage of this location and deliver like we have never delivered before," the SBE founder and CEO said.Strong words from Nazarian.His company operates 14 nightlife and restaurant venues in Southern California, including four Katsuya locations, The Abbey Food & Bar, and Gladstones in Malibu, all haunts of Hollywood and entertainment industry crowds.SBE also has 30 properties in cities such as San Francisco, Dallas and Miami, including the luxury SLS hotel brand, and plans to remodel and reopen the now-shuttered Sahara at the northern end of the Strip.But until this weekend, SBE didn't have a brand in Las Vegas."SBE was probably the largest lifestyle company not operating in Las Vegas," Nazarian said...read more

Deal Me In: Ah, those cash-comp-currency calculations

Dear Mark: I have a disagreement with my spouse that we hope you can settle. My husband believes you get more in casino comps when you put cash into a slot machine than if you were to use a credit slip from another machine. His reasoning is that most players turn those credit slips in for cash, which takes them “out” of play, whereas, his money is now “in” play, which gives the casino more of an opportunity to win it...read more

Gaming expansion to be major story in 2012

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- What could become the gaming industry's biggest story of 2012 is already taking shape.Nevada-based casino operators and slot machine manufacturers are evaluating the political and economic landscape of what some hope will evolve into the industry's largest expansion year on record.Four casino projects are under way in Ohio, with the first to open in downtown Cleveland by March...read more

World Poker Tour stays steady in 10th season

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- In some ways, the World Poker Tour has gotten lost in the hoopla that has surrounded the game over the past 10 years.But if you ask the folks who have lived and breathed the World Poker Tour since the tournament's first hand was dealt in 2002 at Bellagio, they will tell you the tour is one of the main reasons poker has gone through its renaissance and growth.The World Poker Tour was the first televised poker event to use a small camera embedded in a table to reveal a player's hole cards to the television audience...read more