Featured Articles Archive - Page 724

Company Exits Deal to Build Cotai Strip Resort Site with Sands

Las Vegas Sands Corp. said an international hotel company that pulled out of a deal to jointly develop one of eight resort sites on the Cotai Strip near Macau will need the Chinese government's approval to go off on its own. Las Vegas Sands Corp., operator of The Venetian, has submitted plans for all eight sites on the Cotai Strip to the Chinese government and planned to develop one of those sites with Regal Hotels, which operates five hotels in Hong Kong and two in mainland China. Last week Regal said in a statement that it and Las Vegas Sands had failed to agree on final details of a deal signed in March...read more

Las Vegas Sands Launches Problem-Gambling Program

The Venetian's parent company is working with the Harvard University Medical School Division on Addictions to start a program that trains all employees, from senior management on down, to recognize customers and co-workers who show signs of problem gambling...read more

Global Gaming Expo: Slot Market Looks Dim Within U.S.

While gaming expansion into new North American markets may be slow to develop over the next 18 months, opportunities internationally could arise more quickly, panelists told an audience at the opening session of the annual Global Gaming Expo on Monday. Pennsylvania, where gaming regulators are wrestling with writing rules to bring an estimated 65,000 slot machines into the state, is the most promising new domestic gaming jurisdiction...read more

Global Gaming Expo Kicks Off

Unlike past gaming industry trade shows, when slot machines themed after pop culture icons, 1960s and 1970s television shows, and blockbuster movies were the convention's rage, the star of this week's Global Gaming Expo 2005 is what's inside the machine. Gaming's largest annual get-together starts today at the Las Vegas Convention Center with several training and development seminars...read more

Alliance Risking Default on Loans

Las Vegas-based slot machine manufacturer Alliance Gaming is in danger of defaulting on its loan agreements if the company continues to delay filing its fiscal year financial report, management disclosed Friday. Since early August, Alliance has thrice delayed announcing year-end and fourth-quarter earnings, saying it has not been able to complete an audit review of the company's finances. During an early morning conference call with gaming analysts, Alliance executives acknowledged it may be November before the company files its form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which spells out a publicly traded business's 12-month financial picture. If that happens, Alliance would be in default of the language covering its loan agreements. "The delay has been principally with respect to the timing of revenue recognition," said Alliance Gaming Chief Financial Officer Steven Des Champs...read more

Horoscope for the Week of September 11, 2005

Tip of the week: With Mars in Taurus, the sign that Venus governs, and Venus in Scorpio, which is co-ruled by Mars, we are currently experiencing a "mutual reception" between the classical lovers. While a mutual reception is generally a favorable situation in Astrology there is an added complication in this case...read more

IGT Employees Affected by Hurricane

MISSISSIPPI -- International Game Technology's 100 Gulf Coast employees were affected more by Hurricane Katrina than was the company's equipment, Chairman TJ Matthews said. The Reno-based company's gaming operations monitoring sites in Gulfport, Miss., and New Orleans were shut down due to storm and flood damage...read more

Golden Nugget Owners Discuss Plans

LAS VEGAS -- Landry's Restaurants Chairman Tilman Fertitta on Thursday spelled out ambitious redevelopment plans for the Golden Nugget casinos in Las Vegas and Laughlin, including asking the city to vacate a street for the potential addition of a third hotel tower to the downtown property. During an animated presentation to the state Gaming Control Board, which gave unanimous preliminary approval to the Houston-based company's $326 million purchase of the two Golden Nugget casinos, Fertitta said Landry's, which operates more than 300 restaurants in 36 states, sees expansion opportunities. "Every business we've acquired, we've grown it substantially, and we see no reason why we can't do the same with the Golden Nugget," said Fertitta, whose company has 28 different restaurant brands along with a nongaming hotel division...read more

Rebecca's Recommendations - September 8, 2005

Welcome back to Rebecca's Recommendations! Right now I'm neck deep in preparation for one entire week in Sin City for an online gaming conference and a gaming trade show. Yes, that's right, one right after the other, both in Las Vegas. I might die...read more

Gulf Casino Workers Anxious

MISSISSIPPI -- Less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the Gulf Coast's gaming industry, some of the area's 14,000 casino workers are growing anxious about the future. While several gaming companies, notably Harrah's Entertainment and Pinnacle Entertainment, have said they will rebuild their destroyed casinos, others have been noncommittal while building engineers and company leaders assess and evaluate casino barges and structures. MGM Mirage announced late Wednesday it was accelerating the rebuilding process for the Beau Rivage, the largest casino in Biloxi, Miss., a day after Chairman Terry Lanni and other company executives and personnel descended upon the site to assess damage to the 1,740-room hotel. Lanni said the property's 3,400 employees would be paid salary and benefits through December...read more