Featured Articles Archive - Page 643

What's good about multi-hand poker machines, and what's dangerous

Picture a nothing-wild (jacks-or-better) video poker game, in which you start by receiving a low pair. Assuming you're not so wet behind the ears as to hold some kind of "kicker," you'll keep the pair and draw three new cards. Your chances of improving to a winning hand, and the returns you'll receive at a machine with a typical payoff schedule, are as shown in the accompanying table. Improvements to a low pair by drawing three cards at jacks-or-better video poker improved hand probability return two pairs 16.00% 2 three of a kind 11.40% 3 full house 1.02% 8 four of a kind 0.28% 25 any improvement 28.70% -- You're an underdog when you draw to a low pair, despite its seeming promise...read more

The Strip: Growing north

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Almost two weeks after the Sahara was seemingly given a new lease on life, demolition crews are preparing to blast away the last remnant of the Stardust. The separate events have gaming analysts and real estate speculators trumpeting current and potential redevelopment opportunities centered along the Strip corridor north of Convention Center Drive. Boyd Gaming Corp...read more

Rebecca's Recommendations - March 9, 2007

Arctic blast. Yep. This is what Boston will be receiving later today. Someone please remind me...why do I live here? WHY? I feel bad for my kiwi friend who is vacationing on the East Coast this week as it is summertime in New Zealand and he is not used to the cold...read more

Ayer, Parasol, DeLeon fall from Forbes Billionaire list

Several land-based gambling tycoons rank high on the Forbes billionaire list, but the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement act has driven Bodog founder Calvin Ayre and PartyGaming founders Ruth Parasol and Russell DeLeon off the list. Online Gambling hit hard Calvin Ayre, playboy founder of the powerful Bodog brand, dropped off the list one year after making the cover...read more

Herbst acquistion approved

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The growing Herbst Gaming operation received tentative approval Wednesday to acquire its largest assets yet, the three Primm casinos on the Nevada-California border now operated by MGM Mirage. Herbst representatives told the Gaming Control Board that Whiskey Pete's, Buffalo Bill's and Primm Valley would become the flagship properties in their expanding casino empire when the $400 million deal closes in early April. "To a large and successful company like MGM Mirage, these were secondary properties," Herbst Gaming general counsel Sean Higgins told the control board...read more

Progressive tries to deal table game business

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Casino equipment provider Progressive Gaming International said Monday it will try to sell its table game business to free up cash flow and pay down some notes that are coming due next year. The Las Vegas-based company has asked Roth Capital Partners to assist in the sale. Progressive Gaming owns the rights to more than a dozen specialty table games, such as Caribbean Stud and World Series of Poker Texas Hold 'Em Bonus Poker...read more

Mergers and acquisitions: Eye on past, hand in future

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- As one of the Strip's last remaining icons, the Sahara savors its 55 years in operation. The wall behind the hotel's front desk is adorned with old photos from the casino's heyday, when its star-studded showroom lineup included Johnny Carson, Tina Turner, George Burns, Jack Benny, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis...read more

EU court rules against Italy in Internet gambling case

The European Court of Justice ruled today that Italy could not bar gambling companies from other European Union nations from doing business with Italian citizens. The ruling could force state-run monopolies in Germany and France to open up to competition. Italy had prosecuted three executives from Stanley Leisure under its criminal code for accepting bets without receiving authorization from Italian authorities...read more

Progressive Gaming wants to sell table game business

LAS VEGAS -- Casino equipment provider Progressive Gaming International said Monday it will try to sell its table game business to free up cash flow and pay down some notes that are coming due next year. The Las Vegas-based company has asked Roth Capital Partners to assist in the sale. Progressive Gaming owns the rights to more than a dozen specialty table games, such as Caribbean Stud and World Series of Poker Texas Hold 'Em Bonus Poker...read more

Understanding cultural differences

The following is reprinted by permission from Canadian Gaming Business. It seemed like a good idea at the time. A lion has roared at the beginning of MGM films since 1924, so when the MGM Grand opened in Las Vegas late in 1993, making a lion's mouth the main entrance was a way to connect the casino to an established brand. The unintended result, according to Toby O'Brien of Raving Research, a Reno, Nevada, consultancy, was a noticeable lack of Asian customers. "Asian people wouldn't cross the threshold of the casino through the mouth of a lion," O'Brien said in an interview, citing a superstition that doing so would bring the player bad luck. In 1997, a new management team at MGM redesigned the entrance and commissioned a new lion, which was installed in early 1998...read more