Featured Articles Archive - Page 451

Nevada may clamp relationships between casinos and Net

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Nevada gaming regulators may clamp down on contractual relationships between the state's casino operators and nongambling arms of the Internet gaming industry. The move, which the Gaming Control Board is exploring, could shut off revenue streams for the World Series of Poker and other similar events. Several years ago, the World Series Poker, which is owned by Harrah's Entertainment, set self-imposed guidelines prohibiting online gamblers from qualifying to the tournament through the Internet...read more

Shuffle Master reverses net loss

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Gaming equipment provider Shuffle Master reversed a quarterly net loss from a year ago but disappointed analysts who expected stronger profits. The Las Vegas-based company, which provides casinos with table games and casino management equipment, said Thursday its net income was $3.7 million, or 7 cents a share, in the first quarter ended Jan...read more

Deal Me In: A negative-expectation game like craps can't be beat

Dear Mark: Some time ago, you mentioned a bet on the craps table that I had never heard of. It seemed like a "no lose" proposition. Could you explain what it was? Frank H. If your question really means, is there any absolute way of beating the game of craps, the answer is, yes, DON'T PLAY...read more

Plan to build Aqueduct casino rejected

NEW YORK, New York -- A partnership that includes Las Vegas-based Navegante Group was rejected Thursday by New York licensing authorities to build and operate a lucrative slot machine casino at the Aqueduct Racetrack. The move comes six weeks after the group won a contentious bidding process and was selected by Gov...read more

Vegas visitor volume climbs four percent

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Las Vegas visitor volume climbed 4 percent in January, the fifth straight year-over-year monthly increase in tourism numbers. But Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority officials said Wednesday they are still not ready to claim the market has turned. In January, 2.877 million tourists came through Las Vegas compared with 2.765 million visitors a year ago, a monthly report released by the tourism agency shows. However, citywide room occupancy was down from 71.9 percent in January 2009 to 71.1 percent this year with the average daily room rate falling 4.9 percent to $99.75 a night. Las Vegas had 148,891 hotel rooms in January -- 8,100 more than it did a year ago, including almost 6,000 from MGM Mirage's $8.5 billion CityCenter project, which opened in December. "What we're seeing is encouraging," convention authority research manager Kris Tibbs said...read more

MGM announces debt-exchange plan

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- MGM Mirage announced a debt-exchange plan Tuesday in which the casino operator will offer up to $845 million in senior secured notes due 2020 in a private placement. Cash raised in the offering will be used to repay part of the debt outstanding under the company's senior credit facility. The notes will be secured by a mortgage on MGM Grand. Last month the company said it had reached a deal with lenders to extend the deadline for paying off about $3.6 billion worth of debt to February 2014. In all, the MGM Mirage has about $13 billion in long-term debt. Following the announcement, Moody's Investors Service upgraded their view of MGM Mirage's debt. "As a result of these actions, MGM's probability of default has declined because the company is expected to have sufficient revolver capacity to meet its 2010 debt maturities and a portion of its 2011 funding needs," Moody's Vice President Peggy Holloway said in a statement...read more

Nevada gaming revenue down 3.2 percent in January

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Nevada casinos collected $883.3 million from gamblers in January, a 3.2 percent decline in statewide gaming revenues, the Gaming Control Board announced this morning. A year ago, statewide gaming revenues were $912.7 million. On the Strip, gaming revenues were $495 million, a 3 percent decline compared with $510.4 million collected a year...read more

Harrah's Interactive Entertainment launches bingo room

Three months after launching the much anticipated Caesars Casino Online, Harrah's Interactive Entertainment (HIE) has entered the bingo market. A press release from HIE confirms the company has launched CAESARS Bingo Online. The site is only available to U.K...read more

Bill Bible nominated to MGM board

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Nevada Resort Association President Bill Bible has been nominated to become a member of the MGM Mirage Board of Directors and will resign from the trade organization he has headed for more than a decade. Bible has overseen the resort association, the gaming industry's primary lobbying group, during several peaks and valleys in terms of membership brought about by fractures among the various company executives and leaders. The organization was established in 1965 and several insiders questioned its future with Bible's departure...read more

Harrah's tells Privé Nightclub to pay rent or leave

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Harrah's Entertainment has told the owners of the bankrupt Privé Nightclub and its adjacent Living Room ultralounge inside Planet Hollywood Resort to either pay past-due rent and expenses or leave the company's recently acquired Strip hotel-casino. Harrah's took over the Planet Hollywood Resort in February and immediately set out to deal with the Miami-based nightclub operator, Opium Group, which ran afoul of state gaming regulators and Clark County authorities last year over the operation of the nightclubs. Opium Group filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Miami last November for the nightclubs. Last week, Harrah's attorneys said in a motion filed with the court that the Privé operators are past due on rent since the beginning of the year and are delinquent on paying their share of a $500,000 fine assessed by the Nevada Gaming Commission last year on Planet Hollywood's previous owner. Planet Hollywood Resort's former owners settled a multicount complaint with gaming regulators for not properly policing actions by Privé's operators...read more