Featured Articles Archive - Page 637

Granholm Appoints Kalm MGCB Executive Director

On March 29, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced the appointment of Richard S. Kalm as executive director of the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB). Mr. Kalm has an extensive background in law enforcement, and currently serves as chief of staff for the Macomb County Sheriff's Office...read more

Baccarat bails out Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- February's hosting of the NBA All-Star Game brought to the Strip marquee athletes and big-name celebrities, as well as large crowds of visitors and volumes of national and international attention -- both good and bad. What the festivities didn't bring was gamblers. Nevada's gaming win for February was $1.055 billion, a 2.9 percent increase from $1.026 billion a year ago, according to figures released Tuesday by the Gaming Control Board...read more

Back to a family fold in Primm

In a way, the three casinos in Primm have returned to their roots. Herbst Gaming completed its $400 million acquisition Tuesday of Whiskey Pete's, Primm Valley hotel and Buffalo Bill's at the Nevada-California border from MGM Mirage, a deal originally announced in November...read more

PartyGaming shuts out Turkish market

PartyGaming announced this morning that it will no longer allow Turkish citizens to play real-money games on any of its sites. "In light of the passing of recent legislation which prohibits certain forms of online gaming from being offered by an unauthorised domestic or foreign company to citizens in Turkey, (PartyGaming) has now taken all reasonable steps to ensure that customers in Turkey are denied access to any of the Group's gaming sites," the company said in a release. In late February, Turkish legislators passed a law prohibiting unauthorized operators from providing Internet gambling services...read more

AP, UB change in marketing focus decreases use of poker pros

Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker are changing their marketing plans, and as a result, several well-known poker pros, including Michael Mizrachi, Mark Seif and Antonio Esfandiari, will no longer be used to promote the sites. UB and AP are both owned by Absolute Entertainment following a merger in November 2006...read more

Ameristar's purchase scrutinized

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- A $675 million deal by Ameristar Casinos to purchase a riverboat casino about 25 miles from downtown Chicago matched the prediction made last winter by new Chief Executive Officer John Boushy. Some gaming analysts, however, are wondering if Ameristar is paying too much for the property owned by Resorts International and located in East Chicago, Ind., on the shores of Lake Michigan. The transaction, which Ameristar is funding from within its existing cash structure, was announced last week and is subject to regulatory approval and closing conditions...read more

Checking the books brings intrigue for casino auditor

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Armed with an accounting degree from Arizona State University, Gregg Gale wanted more than just a job as a numbers cruncher. He found that intrigue and some glamour when he joined the Gaming Control Board as an auditor in 1979. Two days into the job, Gale was checking over the casino books at Caesars Palace...read more

Trump pitch goes prime time

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- As sales were rapidly closing on the 1,282 units in the $500 million Trump International Hotel & Tower last summer, Jack Christie began thinking about the project's second phase. Christie, vice president of sales and marketing for Trump International, was exploring ideas and a timeline for accepting reservations to purchase units in the development's planned second tower when he discussed the matter with his boss, New York billionaire Donald Trump. "'Maybe I can help,'" Christie recalled Trump saying. Four days later, a Trump jet landed in Las Vegas and off stepped the six remaining candidates vying for a $250,000 a year job with the developer as part of the NBC reality television series "The Apprentice," which was filming its sixth season in Los Angeles. Along with "The Apprentice" contestants came more than three dozen cameramen, lighting and sound technicians, and other television production personnel who spent a day capturing the candidates interacting with Christie and New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin at the under-construction Trump International. The episode aired Sunday night and Trump sales agents began accepting reservations for one- and two-bedroom units in the new tower today. "Not a bad way to announce the next phase," Christie said of the hourlong episode that centered around the Trump International...read more

Rebecca's Recommendations - April 6, 2007

I am going straight to hell. Why? Because I am flying to Vegas on Good Friday and returning on Easter Monday. Club Light on Easter Sunday! These are things that are probably not OK with the Catholic religion. Whoops. Oh well, what can you do...read more

WPT Season Six moves to GSN

The Game Show Network plans to couple their ratings giant High Stakes Poker (HSP) with the newly acquired World Poker Tour franchise as part of a Monday night "must-see-TV-type" package beginning early next year, GSN President Rich Cronin said...read more