Featured Articles Archive - Page 397

Hong Kong officials want more info on MGM IPO

MACAU -- Media in China reported Thursday night that financial officials want more information about a planned initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by MGM Resorts International. The Listing Committee of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd...read more

Pinnacle delays opening of Louisiana casino

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Regional casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment told investors Thursday the opening of its hotel-casino project in Baton Rouge, La., would be delayed several months.The Las Vegas-based company said unusually high Mississippi River water levels had slowed construction of its $357 million development, pushing the planned opening from the first quarter of 2012 to the summer."Overall, we don't view a three-to-four month delay as a negative; however, given this is the second delay in two quarters, it is frustrating," JP Morgan Gaming analyst Joe Greff told investors.The yet-to-be-named property will have 206 hotel rooms, a casino with 1,500 slot machines and 51 table games, a multipurpose event center, and restaurant and entertainment venues.Pinnacle said the floating casino's three hulls were recently moved from the shipyard to the project site.Pinnacle said the company saw first-quarter revenues grow 9.6 percent in the period that ended March 31...read more

IGT sells British-based slot developer

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Slot machine manufacturer International Game Technology announced Wednesday it sold its British-based Barcrest Group for between $54 million and $66 million. The transaction with lottery equipment provider Scientific Games could close later this year. Barcrest develops slot machines and game content for casinos in the United Kingdom and other European markets...read more

Ameristar Casinos chairman announces resignation

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Ameristar Casinos Chairman Ray Neilsen announced his resignation Tuesday, saying he will step away from the Las Vegas-based company founded by his late father on May 5.Neilsen said he would focus his attention on The Craig H...read more

Vancouver casino plans go up in smoke

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming Inc.'s quest to build a casino in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, was ended by last week by city leaders.Vancouver's City Council voted unanimously to kill the $500 million project that would have included two hotel towers, four residential towers and a casino with 1,500 slot machines and 150 table games.The development was to be attached to BC Place, Vancouver's downtown stadium...read more

Top-10 non-gambling activities to do in Vegas

One of the beautiful things about Las Vegas is there are plenty of thing to do for people who don't gamble. In fact, there are so many things to do, it was hard distilling this list down to just 10, so I cheated a little bit (you'll see where below)...read more

Gambling and the Law: Black Friday - A Step Too Far

Can a government be charged with war crimes, if the war is only one of intimidation?The U.S. federal Department of Justice isn’t blowing up buses. No one has died. But while Palestinian terrorists can only close down Israeli pizza parlors; the DoJ stopped online poker sites from doing business anywhere in the world – including where poker is 100% legal.On Friday, April 15, 2011, the DoJ seized the .com names of five of the biggest poker sites...read more

Leroy's continues to stay ahead of the game

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- In the mid-1980s, Leroy's Race and Sports Book owner Vic Salerno spent $7,000 to install a satellite television dish atop his building. At the time, Salerno thought he was making a heck of an investment. Leroy's was an independent betting parlor, tucked between a pawnshop and a men's clothing store in an aging downtown strip mall on First Street behind the Golden Nugget "I think the dish was bigger than the whole roof," Salerno says. Fledgling satellite TV technology allowed Leroy's to show customers live sporting events from across the country...read more

If 17 in blackjack isn't much better than 16, why treat them differently?

Some folks play blackjack by guess and by gosh. Others learn and follow Basic Strategy but do it by rote and haven’t a clue why hands call for the treatments they do. Solid citizens of the latter ilk don’t guess but do exhibit lots of gosh when bets go bad even through they abide by the rules. The differences in treating 16s and 17s offer a case in point...read more

Deal Me In: The oddities of odds

Dear Mark: Seems to some of us that the replacement discard is the same face value card but a different suit (of course) than random probabilities would warrant. Example: I discard a six of clubs and a six of another suit appears in its place more frequently than one would expect...read more