Featured Articles Archive - Page 410

Top-10 2011 Super Bowl prop bets

There's less than a week to go before the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl, and all the online sportsbooks are offering prop bets on the big game. Here's our top-10 list of Super Bowl prop bets, and where you can make them.10...read more

Slot makers hurt by Illinois ruling

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois -- The hopes of slot machine manufacturers in Nevada looking to Illinois as an opportunity for millions of dollars in sales have been dashed by a state appellate court. Gaming analysts said International Game Technology, Bally Technologies, WMS Industries and other slot makers might have to re-evaluate their quarterly and annual earnings guidance reports because of the potential market loss of some 35,000 video slot machines. An Illinois appellate court ruled this week that a $31 billion capital construction bill, approved in 2009, is unconstitutional because it violates the state's single-subject rule. The bill, which had several components, would have legalized slot machine-like video lottery terminals at the state's bars, taverns, restaurants, truck stops, fraternal organizations and veterans halls. The idea that locations in Chicago could have participated in the plan to add slot machines was potentially lucrative for the game providers. "For the equipment manufacturers this news is a negative," Janney Montgomery Scott gaming analyst Brian McGill told investors...read more

Iowa governor proposes gaming tax increase

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has proposed a major tax hike on the state's casino industry as part of his budget package submitted to the Legislature last week. Under his proposal, the gaming revenues produced by Iowa's riverboat and racetrack casinos would be taxed at 36 percent. Currently, Iowa's casinos pay a gaming tax rate of 22 percent...read more

You can get lucky chasing losses, but the more you play, the less the chance

Casinos generate their earnings by nibbling off small percentages of the money players wager. Say, for instance, you're a roulette buff and always bet $5 on each of three rows – $15 total per spin. Edge, assuming a double-zero game, is 5.26 percent; the bosses therefore figure your action per spin is worth 5.26 percent of $15 – just under $0.79...read more

Deal Me In: But look at all the snow they got

Dear Mark: An AP article reported that blackjack players at the Tropicana in Atlantic City, November 2009, bought $15.1 million worth of chips and lost $2.1 million to the casino for a casino "hold" of 13.9 percent. In November 2010, players bought $20.2 million and lost $6.4 million for a casino "hold" of 31.8 percent...read more

American Gaming Association hires Boehner aide

WASHINGTON, D.C. The gaming industry's Washington D.C. lobbying group has hired a longtime aide to Speaker of the House John Boehner as the organization's vice president of government affairs. In a statement Friday, the American Gaming Association said Whitaker Lee Askew would work to expand gaming's support in Washington D.C. Askew spent five years with Boehner, a Republican from Ohio who became Speaker this month following his party's takeover as the majority in the House of Representatives. Askew served as the executive director of The Freedom Project, leading fundraising efforts, managing day-to-day political operations and serving as the key political contact for members of Congress, candidates, businesses, donors and community leaders. Prior to working with Boehner, Askew served as political action committee coordinator at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. American Gaming Association President Frank Fahrenkopf, Jr...read more

Nevada Gaming Control Board reaches deal with Alderney

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Online gambling publications are reporting an agreement between the Nevada Gaming Control Board and the British-based Alderney Gambling Control Commission, an Internet gambling regulatory body for the British Channel Islands. The agreement would lay the framework for cooperation between the two regulatory bodies. Nevada gaming regulators and Alderney officials would share information and skills...read more

Stanley Ho ends feud with family

MACAU -- After two days of back and forth charges, Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho put an end his family feud. In a televised broadcast in Hong Kong Wednesday, the 89-year-old Ho, reading an off-camera cue card from a reclining chair as his daughter held a microphone, said he was transferring ownership of his Macau casinos to several of his 17 children and his third wife. "I have been really unhappy recently because of the disputes, my family members were unhappy as well," Ho said...read more

Penn National starts work on New Orleans casino

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- Penn National Gaming isn't waiting for Louisiana authorities to decide the winner of the state's 15th casino license. The casino operator began preliminary work on a site the company has proposed for new casino in New Orleans along the Harvey Canal. According to New Orleans media outlets, two backhoes are removing a blighted industrial building to make way for Penn National's proposed $145 million Hollywood Casino Harvey...read more

Lawyer says Stanley Ho doesn't want to lose casinos

MACAU -- The transfer of Stanley Ho's Macau casino holdings to family members has turned into a soap opera. A day after it was announced that the 89-year-old Hong Kong billionaire had moved nearly his entire Macau casino ownership stake to several of his 17 children, a Hong Kong lawyer said the transfer took place without Ho's consent. A few hours later, Ho's family members produced legal documents they say were from him, showing the allocation of shares in his Hong Kong-based corporation represented his wishes...read more