Featured Articles Archive - Page 394

Pinnacle announces name for Baton Rouge casino

Pinnacle Entertainment has gone with a familiar name for the company's $357 million hotel-casino under construction in Baton Rouge, La.The Las Vegas-based regional casino operator said Monday the riverboat casino would be called L'Auberge Baton Rouge, extending the brand of the company flagship L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles, La.Pinnacle Chief Executive Officer Anthony Sanfilippo said the name L'Auberge -- French for "The Inn" -- is familiar throughout the Southern gaming market."We believe that L'Auberge Baton Rouge will transform the entertainment experience for Baton Rouge residents and regional visitors alike," Sanfilippo said.The hotel-casino is expected to open in the summer of 2012 with 206 hotel rooms, a 30,000-square-foot casino with 1,500 slot machines and 51 table games, and a variety of entertainment and dining amenities...read more

Slots go quiet as Sahara closes 59-year run on Las Vegas Strip

LAS VEGAS -- In the end, it wasn't the celebrities who came to bid farewell when one of the last of the Strip's Rat Pack era hotel-casinos ended its 59-year run Monday. It was the average folks. Longtime Sahara customers and employees showed up in the morning and quickly turned a somber occasion into a reunion. Rules prohibiting photo taking inside a casino were quickly discarded...read more

Top-10 takeaways from the AGA's "State of the States"

Recently, the American Gaming Association released its 2011 "State of the States" report. The annual publication outlines the jobs, revenues and taxes commercial casinos produce in every state that licenses and regulates commercial casinos...read more

Hong Kong IPO looks promising for MGM

A long-awaited stock offering by MGM Resorts International on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is close to fruition.It turns out the nearly 18-month wait could be profitable.Analysts originally thought MGM China Holdings, secured by a minority stake in the MGM Grand Macau, would fetch MGM Resorts $300 million to $500 million...read more

Sahara offers last goodbyes after nearly 60 years

In its day, the Sahara was Las Vegas' epicenter.Peter Villalobos would know.For almost 35 years, he manned the Strip hotel's front desk.He watched the parade of celebrities and the pseudocelebrities.He supervised thousands of hotel check-ins for high rollers and want-to-be high rollers.Villalobos will be at his front desk terminal Monday when the Sahara's final guest checks out at around noon...read more

Closure doesn't sadden Sahara's former owner

Paul Lowden is planning to have one last dinner at the Sahara's famous House of Lords steakhouse tonight.It seems appropriate.Lowden owned the Sahara for 13 years and was responsible for much of its transformation from a small Rat Pack-era hotel-casino into a 1,720-room Strip resort.But the property's closing Monday doesn't make him sad."I like progress...read more

Sahara employees to receive severance pay

Monday’s closing of the Sahara will put almost 400 employees, who are members of Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165, out of work.The unions credited Sahara owners SBE Entertainment with softening the blow.SBE is providing Sahara workers with severance pay based on years of service...read more

After deal, PokerStars returns $100 million to gamblers

Disgraced online gambling company PokerStars said Friday it has returned more than $100 million to U.S. gamblers since it reached an agreement with government prosecutors last month that allowed Americans to cash out their accounts.PokerStars, whose American operations were frozen on April 15 when the U.S...read more

Straighten out your lucky tie before entering the casino

You’re hardly alone when you carry or wear a lucky charm into the casino, use a number that’s worked before in deciding how to bet, play more confidently after experiencing a good omen, consult your family haruspex to ascertain when punting will be propitious, or mumble a sure-fire incantation while awaiting the result of a coup...read more

WSOP optimistic for this year's event

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The federal government's crackdown on three Internet poker gambling sites and their operators won't hurt participation in the 2011 World Series of Poker tournament, which is scheduled to begin at the end of the month at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, tournament officials said Wednesday.However, World Series of Poker Executive Director Ty Stewart acknowledged that poker players who can't retrieve funds frozen by the three shuttered poker sites could have their gambling activities curtailed."The World Series of Poker is not impervious to outside issues," Stewart said during a media conference call to kick off the 42nd annual tournament...read more