Featured Articles Archive - Page 548

Slot machine lawsuits spinning out of control

LAS VEGAS, Nevada --If you find the constant legal wrangling between rival slot machine makers International Game Technology and Bally Technologies perplexing, you're not alone. Roughly a dozen patent infringement lawsuits and antitrust claims between the companies are floating through the federal courts...read more

Gaming industry bets big on McCain

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Gaming has bet the house on the presidential campaign of Republican John McCain. Through September, individuals with ties to casinos have contributed more than $260,000 to McCain's campaign, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics...read more

New books focus on lottery, betting on games, Wall Street

Sometimes it's like a feeding frenzy as lottery terminals and computer terminals hum all across the United States. People bet billions of dollars annually on lotteries and on Wall Street. Sometimes it's tough to tell the difference between what your chances are of hitting the big one in either endeavor...read more

Judge tosses motion to order Sands to post bond

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- District Judge Michelle Leavitt denied a motion Monday that would have ordered Las Vegas Sands Corp. to post a bond on a $58.6 million judgment against the casino operator won by Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen following at six-week trial last spring. After a brief hearing, Leavitt said she didn't believe Las Vegas Sands was in financial trouble despite the current global economic crisis. Attorney John O'Malley of Los Angeles, who represents Suen, said Las Vegas Sands' failure to list any reserves to cover the verdict, a more than 90 percent decline in the company's stock price in the past year, and a $475 million cash infusion into the company by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson on Oct...read more

Playing It Smart: Saving a buck at the casino

Sir William Thompson, aka Lord Kelvin, a 19th Century Scottish engineer, said, "When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind." Few things are more definitively measured and expressed in numbers than money and probabilities...read more

Inside gaming column: New casino hopes to match price to patrons

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The challenge for Station Casinos in opening Aliante Station is to not scare away the customers. In other words, the $662 million North Las Vegas hotel-casino may resemble Red Rock Resort in Summerlin, but it better not have Red Rock prices. Aliante Station executives seem to have to have taken that thought to heart. "The key is to have approachable price points, to correctly market the property and to be smart enough to understand our customer base," Aliante Station general manager Joe Hasson said. Some 1,500 of Aliante Station's 2,500 slot machines are multidenomination penny-based games...read more

Gambling beyond Nevada: Eyeing markets and taking chances

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Amid collapsing credit markets and sinking stock prices, gaming industry leaders are looking for any piece of positive news. They hope voters in five states will give them a reason to smile come Nov. 4. Voters in Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Missouri and Ohio are evaluating gaming expansion or changes to existing gaming laws...read more

Deal Me In: It probably doesn't matter where you sit

Dear Mark: You mentioned in a recent column regarding 98% slot paybacks that "if you look closely at the casino advertisement, it will probably say, "on select machines." Typically that means dollar machines, but the return usually it is not posted on the machine itself, and generally will be limited to a single carousel of machines, or possibly just one or two slots." My question as to that comment is, on each machine on a carousel that are linked together, such as Megabucks, are the paybacks the same? Frances D...read more

Kentucky judge gives online gambling sites 30 days to block access

Judge Thomas Wingate has given 141 online gambling sites 30 days to block access to Kentucky residents. If the sites in question -- which include industry giants Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, Bodog and Golden Palace – have "reasonably established to the satisfaction of the Kentucky's Justice and Safety Cabinet or this Court that such geographical blocks are operational, (they) shall be relieved from the effects of the Seizure order and from any further proceedings in the instant civil forfeiture action," said Wingate in his 43-page ruling...read more

Gambling and the Law: Is poker -- like chess -- a game of skill?

Is poker a game of skill? In states without licensed cardrooms, the answer will almost always determine whether it is legal to operate the game as a business. In about half the states, it would also determine whether merely playing in a commercial game is a crime...read more