Featured Articles Archive - Page 694

Venetian About to Give Gamblers a Hand

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- By year's end, Venetian customers could be the first in Nevada to gamble somewhere inside the casino using a wireless hand-held device. An agreement between Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Cantor G&W, the first company licensed by Nevada gaming regulators to distribute mobile gaming devices, is expected to be announced today. The deal calls for Cantor G&W to be the exclusive distributor of mobile gaming equipment to both The Venetian and Palazzo, Las Vegas Sands' new $1.8 billion Strip resort expected to open next year. Neither company would disclose financial terms of the agreement...read more

Most Americans Believe People Bet Beyond Their Means

Americans are wagering more dollars in casinos, at racetracks and through state lotteries, but they're not too happy about it, a survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press suggests. The study found that seven out of 10 people questioned believe that legalized gambling encourages folks to spend more money than they can afford on the activity...read more

My Poker Lesson With World Champion Tom McEvoy

I have the world's most difficult job. Sitting at my desk, trying to come up with interesting story ideas for my Casino City readers, I stumbled upon a link advertising poker lessons with World Series of Poker Champion Tom McEvoy. A flurry of emails got me in contact with Tom and several days later he agreed to instruct me on No-Limit Texas Hold'Em tournament play if I would promote his business through my articles...read more

Annual GIGSE Conference Attracts Record Numbers

Record numbers of I-gaming industry members participated in the annual Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo (GIGSE) May 16-18 at the Palais de Congres in Montreal. A total of 1821 people from more than 42 countries registered for the conference and 127 businesses either had an exhibition booth or sponsored a proceeding...read more

Internet Gambling Leaders Address Changes Facing the Industry at GIGSE

MONTREAL, QC - Lawrence Lessig opened the eighth annual Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo (GIGSE) last week with an appeal to the Internet gambling industry to convince government officials to regulate online gaming. According to Lessig, the industry will not survive in its current form without regulation. Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School and the author of two books on the destruction of the original promise of the Internet, opened a dialogue that ran the course of the three-day conference. The issue is pressing for the industry, especially as three separate bills to make Internet gambling illegal have been proposed in the United States Congress...read more

Pinnacle Gets $78 Million Consolation Prize

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Pinnacle Entertainment ended Friday with an extra $78 million in the bank but without ownership of Aztar Corp. Gaming analysts and Wall Street investors weren't upset at the outcome of the two-month Aztar bidding war, won by Columbia Sussex Corp. The $78 million breakup fee paid to Pinnacle by Aztar -- $25.8 million will go to the lawyers -- is worth $1 a share in earnings to the Las Vegas-based casino company, according to one gaming analyst. "We view this as a very positive outcome for Pinnacle and laud the company for not matching Columbia Sussex's $54 per share bid, which we view as too steep a price to pay for Aztar's assets," CRT Capital Group gaming analyst Steve Ruggiero said. Pinnacle, which operates casinos in Reno, Louisiana, Indiana and Argentina, had sought to increase its scope nationally by acquiring Aztar, which operates the Tropicana casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City and three smaller casinos in Laughlin, Indiana and Missouri. Now, Pinnacle may cast its eyes elsewhere on the Strip. Pinnacle Chairman Dan Lee was traveling Friday and couldn't be reached for comment...read more

US Conservatives Back I-Gaming Prohibition Bills

A Congressional organization of Republican social conservatives called the Values Action Team circulated a letter Thursday urging Republican leadership in both chambers of Congress to attach Internet gambling prohibition legislation to an appropriations bill. Addressed to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Il., Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the letter urges the Republican leaders to include Internet gambling legislation in an appropriations bill "so that senators adverse to such a measure are less able to stop this important legislation from passing the Senate and making it to the President's desk." The letter continues, "In the last 10 years, legislation to enforce laws against illegal Internet gambling has passed the House twice and the Senate twice, but it has never surmounted underhanded dealings to finally reach the President's desk." The letter also cites the concerns of a 1999 National Gambling Impact Study Commission and explains that the proliferation of a lucrative international gambling industry undermines federal anti-gambling laws and leads to the false perception that Internet gambling is legal...read more

US Alleges $250 Million Laundered by WWTS Execs

Editor's Note: The following article originally stated that the company WWTS is a property of Australia-based Betcorp Ltd. Following the publishing of the article, Betcorp contacted IGN to clarify that while it purchased certain assets from WWTS, it does not own the company itself...read more

Book Review: In the Money by Antonio Esfandiari

The World Poker Tour recently released the third in its series of books on poker, In the Money by Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari. The book takes a different approach than many of the recent poker books on the market, providing readers with a guide on how to become a winning Texas Hold'em cash game player. By eliminating the tournament aspect of poker, the format of the book allows Esfandiari to focus solely on the game itself, rather than the extra factors a tournament brings, such as chip stacks, increasing blind levels, and tournament payouts. Perhaps the best part of the book, however, is its voice...read more

Rebecca's Recommendations - May 19, 2006

Alright, so now I'm in a car with my colleagues, probably DYING, and driving back to Boston from Montreal. I get one day off- not even 24 hours- and on Saturday morning I'll be on a plane to Miami for CAP Spring Break. I am so excited. Honesty. Actually, one of the reasons why I'm so excited is because I will get so see another one of my partners in crime- my Absolute Poker main contact AND good friend...read more