Featured Articles Archive - Page 545

Spirited fan base floods the Main Event final table

LAS VEGAS -- Anyone who ever doubted the concept of poker as a spectator sport would probably have a change of heart after seeing the spectacle that transpired at the Penn & Teller Theater Sunday morning. It was like March Madness and a heavyweight prize fight all rolled into one...read more

WSOP final table notebook

LAS VEGAS - Of the many reasons given by Harrah's and the World Series of Poker for deciding to delay the Main Event final table, one of them was for the nine players to gain more exposure and, in turn, secure lucrative sponsorships. Almost four months seemed like it would be plenty of time for potential sponsors to come knocking, but as a couple of players noted Sunday after they were eliminated, the timing just wasn't there for them to attain much in terms of sponsorships...read more

Deal Me In: When in doubt, let the house set your hand

Dear Mark: As someone new to pai gow poker, would you a) play the game, and b) advise letting the dealer set my hand since I'm a beginner? Pat T. Pai gow poker is a variant of American seven-card poker. It is played with a standard 52-card deck and a joker, but differs from the typical seven-card game in that you play against a banker, not against the other players at the table...read more

Moody's downgrades Fontainebleau debt funding

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Moody's Investors Service on Thursday downgraded to negative ratings nearly $2.5 billion of debt funding the Fontainebleau project on the south Strip near the Riviera. Moody's bond analyst Keith Foley said in a note to investors the $2.9 billion project has sufficient financing to achieve its scheduled opening in late 2009. However, declining gaming revenues and weak demand for condominium-hotels in Las Vegas increases the risk the property won't be able to meet its debt service obligation when it opens. The project has not begun selling its 1,018 condo-hotel units, proceeds from which are applied to debt reduction during construction. "Any shortfall in condo-sale proceeds relative to original expectations will have a direct negative impact on (Fontainebleau's) leverage," Foley wrote. Fontainebleau Resorts executives said in April, before the mortgage crisis hit the condo-hotel market, the project expected to raise $700 million to $900 million from condo presales. Additionally, the collapse of financial house Lehman Bros...read more

Las Vegas Sands in danger of default?

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The financial health of Las Vegas Sands Corp. took a sudden downturn Thursday when the casino operator told investors it was in danger of defaulting on some of its loans, raising the possibility the company could be facing a date in bankruptcy court. Wall Street analysts, however, cautioned that the language in the company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission may have been ordered by auditors...read more

Bally posts profit and revenue gains

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- In a market where casinos are not readily spending money on new slot machines, Bally Technologies grew both profits and revenues in the recently completed first quarter. The Las Vegas-based slot machine provider said Thursday its net income was $30.3 million, or 52 cents a share, for its first quarter ended Sept...read more

College hoops record and trend book arrives with a great boxing tome

RME's NCAA Men's Basketball Workbook (242 pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound, $26) has arrived, along with an interesting biography written by Englishman Rob Steen titled Sonny Liston: His Life, Strife and the Phantom Punch (245 pages, paperbound, $16.95). College basketball has hundreds of teams from which bettors can choose for wagers...read more

An orbit around the poker table with WSOP Tourament Director Jack Effel

Jack Effel is a veteran of the World Series of Poker and the poker scene in general. The 32-year-old Texas native broke into the business in 1997 as a dealer and since that time has risen to become the tournament director of the WSOP...read more

UltimateBet owner gets $15 million in settlement with Excapsa

Tokwiro Enterprises, which owns Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, will receive $15 million from previous UltimateBet owner Excapsa Software as part of a settlement agreement over Excapsa's role in the "superuser" cheating scandal that's plagued UltimateBet this year...read more

Gaming companies boosted by elections in three states

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Nevada-based casino operators and slot machine manufacturers were the beneficiaries as voters in three states Tuesday approved ballot initiatives that expanded legalized gambling opportunities. One Wall Street analyst suggested the election of a new governor in Delaware might mean Nevada could pick up competition from the state in the legalized sports wagering field. Exactly when companies will benefit from the expected revenue boost provided by voters was unclear to Wall Street, where analysts have been looking for some good news to boost sagging stock prices in the gaming sector. "The overall election results were mostly in line with our expectations," Susquehanna gaming analyst Robert LaFleur told investors Wednesday...read more