Featured Articles Archive - Page 365

Adelson riles players with online poker stance

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson made his opposition to legalizing Internet poker known last week.In the process, he may have destroyed the live poker business at The Venetian.Hours after news broke that Adelson opposes any federal legislation allowing states to license and regulate online poker, players flooded social media with calls to boycott The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino's 11,000-square- foot poker room."Since Sheldon Adelson is lobbying against Internet poker, I will no longer play at The Venetian poker room," a player wrote on the TwoPlusTwo.com message board...read more

Pinning numbers on the hopes and fears of blackjack

Many casino games are characterized by multiple moments of truth. Craps has one whenever the shooter throws the dice. At blackjack, they occur every time a card is turned over – yours or the dealer’s. When you take whatever action you do, you could bust, losing then and there...read more

Proposed Miami casino could deal blow to Vegas

MIAMI, Florida -- A Malaysia-based gaming company plans to fill a proposed Miami casino complex with would-be Las Vegas gamblers, siphoning an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion in annual gaming revenues away from the Strip.It's still unclear whether Genting Americas, a subsidiary of the Genting Group from Malaysia, will even have an opportunity to build its $3.8 billion waterfront hotel-casino in downtown Miami...read more

Adelson says he opposes regulated online poker

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson has broken ranks with the bulk of the casino industry, telling Washington, D.C. insiders he opposes federal legislation that would allow states to license and regulate online poker.His comments immediately drew criticism from rival gaming operators who are hoping Congress will approve Internet poker legislation...read more

Heartland Poker Tour continues to flourish

In an industry that has seen its fair share of bad news, especially since April 15, the Heartland Poker Tour is one of poker’s true success stories.What started out as a series of events in the Midwest has exploded into a full-fledged national poker tour, complete with televised coverage and prize pools that can top $1 million.The Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) was first conceptualized by casual poker player Todd Anderson and his friend Greg Lang back in 2005...read more

Top-10 side bets to make during a poker game

Whether you're in a home game with a group of friends or in the busiest room in Las Vegas, there's a lot of sitting and waiting in a poker game. And if you're an action junkie, it can lead you to play a lot of hands that you probably shouldn't just out of sheer boredom.But there's an antidote for that: side bets during the game...read more

How different are your strongest and weakest blackjack starting hands?

The strongest playable blackjack hand is 20 versus eight-up. Ignoring rounds in which the dealer has a blackjack, your expectation by standing with this combination is to win an average of 79.1 cents per dollar bet. Many players would assume a 20 to be their best total but would suppose it would be most favorable against a six, the card on which the dealer is likeliest to break...read more

Market surge boosts gaming stocks

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- One day doesn't make a month.But Wednesday's 490-point surge by the Dow Jones industrial average -- the largest single day gain since March 2009 -- gave the stock prices of several publicly traded casino operators and slot machine manufacturers a lift on the last day of November.The month as a whole, however, was a mixed bag.Casino giant Wynn Resorts Ltd., which saw its price per share climb $10.42, or 9.46 percent, to close at $120.56 on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Wednesday, saw its average daily price fall more than 6 percent during the month.Brian Gordon, a principal with Las Vegas-based financial consultant Applied Analysis, which charts seven casino operators and three manufacturers for its Gaming Index, said the sector surged Wednesday...read more

Deal Me In: A side bet here, a side bet there

Dear Mark: Some of the local casinos are offering a side bet called "Perfect Pair" at their blackjack tables. What are the casino odds on this bet, and is it worth playing? Richard G. We all get our share of "mixed pairs," cards of the same number, one black and one red...read more

Macau gaming revenues shatter last year's record

MACAU -- Eleven months are in the books for 2011 and Macau's casino industry has collected more than $30.5 billion in gaming revenues, blowing past the region's total for 2010, which was itself a record haul.Actually, Macau's 34 casinos surpassed last year's $23.5 billion mark during the third quarter.Investors have shifted their focus toward 2012...read more