Featured Articles Archive - Page 416

Herbst-less Herbst reorganization approved

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Herbst Gaming is expected to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year -- without a Herbst at the helm. The Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday signed off on the court-approved reorganization plan for the casino company and slot machine route operator. Regulators expressed optimism with the company's new financial structure, which will reduce the business's long-term debt from $1.2 billion down to $350 million. The founding Herbst family will lose their ownership stake, with a consortium of some 140 lenders taking over, exchanging debt for equity in the company...read more

Lesniak targeting Jan. 6 for passage of New Jersey's online gambling bill

TRENTON, N.J. -- While the future of online poker legislation at the federal level is uncertain at best, online gambling legislation in New Jersey is steaming toward a January vote in the New Jersey Assembly. If Sen. Raymond Lesniak's Internet gambling bill is approved by the Assembly in January, then it will go to Gov...read more

Ameristar Casinos cancels sales plans

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Ameristar Casinos canceled plans to consider a sale of the Las Vegas-based regional casino operator this morning, saying in a brief statement "a sale is not in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders at this time." The company hired an investment bank and lega...read more

Top-10 poker stories of 2010

It's been a busy year in the poker world, and not just on the felt. In fact, poker made headlines in the courtroom as well as Washington D.C. While there are still a few weeks left — and the potential for more big news to come before the New Year (see No...read more

There are $5 billion reasons to love Singapore

SINGAPORE -- Analysts believe Singapore's two casinos will produce gaming revenues of more than $5 billion in the island nation's first full year of legalized gambling.That would exceed the combined annual take of the 41 casinos on the Strip.That reason alone has investors embracing Las Vegas Sands Corp., which opened the Marina Bay Sands in April...read more

Sports wagering has record month in Nevada

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Buried within all the good news surrounding October's statewide gaming revenue figures was the performance by the race and sport book industry. Nevada casinos saw gaming revenues jump 11 percent in October while casinos on the Strip reported a 16 percent increase. Sports book operators statewide collected gaming revenues of $35.7 million during the month, a jump of 113.2 percent compared with October 2009. The amount wagered on sports betting increased 9.4 percent to $352.9 million, the largest handle ever in the month of October. Gaming Control Board research analyst Mike Lawton had several reasons for the increases. First, the hold percentage by sports book operators was slightly above 10 percent, when the average is usually 6.5 percent...read more

Nevada gaming revenues continue surge

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Gaming revenues in Nevada grew 11 percent in October, the third straight monthly increase reported by casinos statewide. On the Strip, gaming revenues grew 16 percent, the sixth time in the last 10 months that casinos along Las Vegas Boulevard increased the figures they collected from gamblers compared with 2009. The Gaming Control Board said this morning casinos statewide collected gaming revenues of almost $888.6 million, which compared with almost $800.4 million collected in October 2009. Strip casinos collected $494.8 million from gamblers during October, compared with almost $426.3 million in the same month a year ago. Clark County as a whole saw gaming revenues increase almost 12.5 percent during October...read more

Deal Me In: Glitches happen

Dear Mark: We love your column. We always learn something (especially understanding why we lose -- ha, ha!). But, for the winners -- since we have NEVER been in this situation; we would like to know, do casinos have the ability/right to remove you from a machine "mid-play" because they feel you are winning too much, or, under the guise that the machine has malfunctioned? Carole P.In the 30-plus years I've been in the gaming business, Carole, I'm hard pressed to recall a player getting backed off a machine because of winning too much; from table games on occasion, such as card counters bounced from blackjack, yes, but not from a slot machine...read more

Gambling and the Law: How to win $23.1 million by folding

The World Series of Poker offers the biggest prize in the world of sports. The last player walks away with $8.94 million. Not bad. But far short of what champion poker player Lyle Berman just made, betting on casinos in Ohio. Berman has won three WSOP bracelets and is co-founder of its rival, the World Poker Tour...read more

Gambling and the Law: Change Indian gaming can believe in

Indian casinos may soon overtake commercial casinos. Total gaming revenues for tribes appear to be more than $26 billion a year, while the American Gaming Association reported the 12 commercial casino states generated less than $31 billion in 2009. But Indian gaming is getting a boost from changes in the law, or, more particularly, from those who make the laws. The most dramatic change is the result of the election of President Barack Obama...read more