Featured Articles Archive - Page 669

Cantu leads impressive field at the Festa Al Lago Main Event

Brandon Cantu leads a star-studded field after the first day at the fourth-annual Festa Al Lago Main Event. Still alive at the $10,000 World Poker Tour event are legends Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington while young guns Phil Ivey, Jeff Madsen, Patrik Antonius, Alex Jacob, Tuan Le, Michael Mizrachi and Erick Lindgren all lurk near the top of the leader board...read more

PartyPoker's exit is PokerStar's gain

PokerStars.com Sunday Million set a new participation record and PartyPoker.com cancelled their Sunday Million tournament in the first weekend after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) became law. PokerStars saw a record 6,157 players Sunday while Full Tilt drew a hefty 1,127 players for their monthly $500,000 guaranteed tourney...read more

MGM Mirage selling two Laughlin casinos

LAUGHLIN, Nevada -- MGM Mirage struck a deal to unload its two Laughlin casinos Monday to a group headed by the son of casino building pioneer Tony Marnell. The side-by-side Colorado Belle and Edgewater, which MGM Mirage acquired as part of its $7.9 billion buyout of the Mandalay Resort Group 17 months ago, were sold for $200 million to a partnership that includes Anthony Marnell III and Sher Gaming. The deal marks the younger Marnell's most significant move yet as a casino operator...read more

Uncertainty surrounds WSOP online satellite entries

The World Series of Poker is still legal. But the status of online satellite tournaments, which have driven participation in poker's premier event to record levels, is uncertain at best. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Act, which President Bush signed into law Friday, has dramatically altered the landscape for online poker players...read more

Fear and loathing in Barcelona

Fear of indictments and extradition to the U.S. to face criminal charges over online gambling are driving many online casinos out of the U.S. market. More than 350 sites have stopped accepting American bets since Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act into law Friday. PartyGaming, whose initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange earned the company a valuation of $9 billion, believes the new legislation has sufficiently closed gaps in U.S...read more

Development: The next wave

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- When Wynn Las Vegas was unveiled 17 months ago, the opening of the $2.7 billion resort triggered a slew of announcements about other potential Strip projects. A collection of hotel-casinos, residential high-rise and mixed-use developments have been proposed along the Strip, from the boulevard's far southern reaches to 16 miles north just south of Sahara Avenue. The avalanche of declared projects validated the predictions of Wall Street gaming analysts and casino industry observers who had speculated that Wynn's April 2005 opening -- the Strip's first new casino in almost five years -- would inaugurate the newest construction boom. Just what ultimately gets built, however, remains to be seen. "The Las Vegas history book is filled with pages detailing casino announcements that have never been built," said gaming analyst Matthew Jacob of Majestic Research...read more

Civil rights litigation: EEOC lawsuit takes circuitous course

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- A civil rights discrimination lawsuit against the Golden Nugget, filed this month in Las Vegas federal court by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, took almost three years to document, and during that time the downtown casino has had three different owners. The lawsuit alleges that black and female dealers were subject to harassment, "including intimidation and threats of physical force, as well as racial epithets by co-workers, supervisors and third parties." The harassment and discrimination allegedly took place between September 2002 and 2003, said Santos Albarran, a spokesman for the EEOC in Los Angeles. During the time period, the Golden Nugget was operated by MGM Mirage...read more

Rebecca's Recommendations - October 13, 2006

Remember the GoldenPalace.com Online Casino sponsored black jack tournament that was supposed to take place in Vegas last month? Well, it was postponed...and rescheduled to take place in Aruba. ARUBA! Next week I'll be on a plane to Aruba, bringing along my best friend as a guest, and spending 4 days with my very good friend and main contact at Golden Palace...read more

Vegas visitation reaches all-time August high

LAS VEGAS -- The Las Vegas tourism industry roared to life after a three-month slide in visitor numbers with the area's strongest August on record. More than 3.3 million visitors came to the valley during the month, a 2.7 percent increase compared with 3.2 million visitors in August 2005, according to statistics released Thursday by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The number of visitors fell 0.9 percent in May, 2 percent in June and 0.5 percent in July...read more

Casinos' diversity efforts improving, panelists say

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- If there was a diversity-related figure that jumped out at the audience attending Thursday morning's joint breakfast meeting for members of the Latin, Urban and Asian chambers of commerce, it came from the session's last-minute substitute speaker. MGM Grand President Gamal Aziz, pinch-hitting for an absent MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni, said the company's diversity program has expanded its influence in the past five years from just making sure that minority-owned businesses are given an opportunity to bid on construction and development projects to actual percentage gains. Aziz, who oversees the 5,000-room Strip resort, site of the meeting, said the company's $7 billion Project CityCenter has become an example for diversity programs in the gaming industry...read more