Featured Articles Archive - Page 416

Macau gaming revenues jump 42 percent

MACAO -- Macau gaming revenues grew 42 percent during November, boosting the prospects for Nevada gaming companies operating in China. The Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said this morning the region's casinos collected $2.13 billion in gaming revenues during the month, the second highest month ever. Analysts thought the numbers benefited Las Vegas Sands Corp., which operates the Venetian Macau and Sands Macau, and Wynn Resorts Ltd., which owns Wynn Macau and Encore. "We believe these results are above expectations and confirm our belief that Macau gaming revenues will continue to be strong throughout 2010 from a year-over-year growth perspective, despite a modest cooling of the Chinese economy," Jefferies & Co...read more

MGM executives travel to Vietnam

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- MGM Resorts International Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Murren led a delegation of consultations, designers and construction teams to Vietnam recently to visit the site of the future MGM Grand Ho Tram.The planned project, scheduled to open in 2013, is part of a $4.2 ...read more

Nevada's Buffalo Bill's closed until Christmas Eve

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Herbst Gaming closed Buffalo Bill's in Primm until Christmas Eve while the company renovates the property's 1,242 rooms and portions of the casino.Only the concert series at the Star of the Desert Arena remains open.Hotel guests with reservations will be moved to the company's two other Primm resorts, Whiskey Pete's or Primm Valley.The three resorts at the California-Nevada border at Interstate 15 operate 2,643 hotel rooms.Some 250 employees who work at the three properties will be affected...read more

Deal Me In: The only game in town

Dear Mark: I know that with strict adherence to basic strategy and a 3/2 payout for blackjack, you can cut the house edge to 0.5 percent. Assuming that I continue to use "perfect" basic strategy, what does the house edge shift to when the blackjack payout is only 6/5? We're going on a cruise, and I've read that this is "the only game in town." Walt I...read more

Should you flout Basic Strategy in blackjack – and, if so, when and why?

Even blackjack players who are a mite shaky on the fine points of Basic Strategy know "you're supposed to" double on an 11 facing anything except an ace, and on a 10 against anything but an ace or 10. The reason has to do with what the gurus call "expectation." Whichever option on a hand gives a bettor the greatest positive or the least negative expectation determines the rule. Expectation is a statistical term involving probabilities of alternate draws by players and dealers, chances of those draws leading to triumph or tragedy, and the corresponding amounts...read more

Eastgate bracelet sells for $147,500

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The gold and diamond championship bracelet put up for auction on eBay by 2008 World Series of Poker winner Peter Eastgate sold for $147,500.The auction attracted 116 bids. The buyer was not disclosed.Eastgate said all proceeds from sale of the bracelet would be donated to the U.S...read more

Pinnacle Entertainment buys Ohio racetrack

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Las Vegas-base Pinnacle Entertainment acquired a racetrack in Ohio last week for $45 million on the hopes the state moves forward with plans to legalize slot machine-like video lottery terminals.The regional casino operator bought the River Down Racetrack, which is in the Cincinnati area.Ohio's outgoing governor had proposed allowing the state's racetracks to operate up to 17,500 VLTs...read more

Isle of Capri front-runner for Missouri license

ST. LOUIS, Missouri -- Isle of Capri Casinos, which has been exploring a Las Vegas casino purchase, appears on track to acquire Missouri's 13th and final gaming license. The Missouri Gaming Commission released an economic impact study that seemed to favor St...read more

Online gambling regulations a hot topic at G2E

The Global Gaming Expo (G2E) opened last week with a series of conference sessions on Internet gambling. And with a standing-room only audience of brick-and-mortar gaming executives in attendance, the hot topic for discussion was when Congress would pass legislation that licensed and regulated online gambling."If nothing happens in the next 14 days, then nothing will happen in the next two years," said Filament Strategies President Lloyd Levine."You'll have better odds at the slot machine than with the new Congress," said Levine, who attempted to pass legislation regulating online poker in 2008 when he was a state legislator in California.The consensus among the online gambling experts assembled was that federal legislation to regulate online gambling would only pass if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) attached the legislation to an unrelated must-pass bill -- the same way the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was attached the Port Security bill in 2006."It's up to Reid now," said Jerome Encinas, director of government affairs for the California Nations Indian Gaming Association...read more

Seidel has stock market crash to thank for HOF career

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The stock market crash of 1987 ended Erik Seidel's career on Wall Street as an options trader and sent the one-time backgammon expert into poker.It turned out to be a pretty good job move.Seidel, 51, has earned more than $10 million in tournament poker and collected eight World Series of Poker individual event championship bracelets over a 23-year career.During the final table of the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold 'em World Championship at the Rio earlier this month, Seidel was inducted into Poker's Hall of Fame along with 1995 world poker champion Dan Harrington...read more