Featured Articles Archive - Page 744

US Appeals WTO Ruling

On Jan. 7, a trade representative for the United States filed a notice of appeal to Valerie Hughes, the Appellate Body Secretariat of the World Trade Organization, informing her and the rest of the world that the United States wants the opportunity to defend its case against Antigua before the WTO's Appellate Body...read more

Nevadan At Work: Technology Helps Bring Exec Back to Gaming With Alliance

Distance made an interest in gaming grow fonder for Richard Haddrill. Technology's march drew him back to the business he briefly left. For three years Haddrill headed Powerhouse Technologies, a gaming equipment company that had its fingers in numerous industry facets, including government-backed lotteries, systems for racetrack wagering, video lottery terminals and slot machines. Under his leadership, Powerhouse became an attractive takeover target. Following Powerhouse's sale to Anchor Gaming in 1999, Haddrill joined Atlanta-based Manhattan Associates, a software company serving the retail and manufacturing industries, as chief executive officer. His success continued...read more

Horoscope for the Week of January 9, 2005

Tip of the Week: With a New Year according to the Gregorian calendar now officially underway, the warm up towards the Chinese New Year is beginning to brew. The official date changes each year because the Chinese New Year begins with the first New Moon in Aquarius...read more

Isle of Man Welcomes US Play

A policy change in the Isle of Man enables online gambling operators based there to accept bets from U.S. customers. The change has been approved by the Council of Ministers and jointly issued by the Isle's Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry. The new rules repeal a policy dated back to a time period over 18 months ago when the big six casino operators on the Isle held businesses in the United States and required such a policy to avoid conflict with U.S...read more

Shuffle Master Acquires Patents to Track Table Play

Pity the poor table games player. And while you're at it, shed a tear for the harried floor person trying to watch and rate the player's gambling activities. While customers and casinos have benefited from the advent of slot machine clubs -- technology-driven tracking systems that record a player's activities, allowing the casino to offer gamblers complimentary rewards based on play while giving the casino valuable marketing data -- table game players have been left out of the loop. That may be beginning to change...read more

Index Shows 2004 a Scorcher for Casino Stocks

Gaming stocks closed 2004 with a flourish and analysts don't foresee future roadblocks that could slow the climbing prices. Several casino issues had their average daily prices nearly double in the past 12 months, according to the Applied Analysis Gaming Index, a weighted average of local gaming stocks published by the Las Vegas-based financial consulting firm. Events during December, such as the highly successful initial public offering by Las Vegas Sands Corp., and progress toward the expected 2005 first quarter closing of the $7.9 billion merger between MGM Mirage and Mandalay Resort Group, helped drive up the stock prices of several companies. As a whole, the sector showed a larger percentage gain in both December and in 2004 than the Standard & Poor's 500, when the index is computed on similar basis. "All the news that has come out on the industry has been positive, especially for Las Vegas," said Brian Gordon, a partner with Applied Analysis...read more

Strip Development: Trump Adding Tower

With more than 80 percent of the condominium units in his planned Trump International already reserved, developer Donald Trump said Monday he and New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin will build a second 64-story tower behind the Strip resort across from the Fashion Show mall. The addition of a second Trump high-rise to the 41-acre Frontier site comes as Ruffin said he would divest from his real estate holdings in the Bahamas and use the proceeds to redevelop the 986-room hotel-casino portion of the parcel without a partner. Ruffin said he hopes to begin reshaping the site in 2006 into a 3,000-room resort-casino. Trump said groundbreaking for the first $300 million tower had been pushed up to April because almost 1,000 of the building's 1,282 units had been reserved by buyers who paid between $10,000 and $20,000 in refundable costs...read more

Analyst Predicts Every Room in City Will Be Booked

The number of Strip resorts posting "no vacancy" signs for the New Year's Eve weekend is growing quickly, with one gaming analyst predicting that every hotel room in Las Vegas will be booked as visitors celebrate the holiday. As of Tuesday, many Strip resorts reported they had sold out all available rooms for Friday and Saturday nights, with tourists booking rooms for up to $699 a night...read more

The Strip: Riviera Shares Rising Fast

Those who bought stock in the parent company of the Riviera back in January and held onto the shares through Monday aren't disappointed. Duane Krohn, chief financial officer of Riviera Holdings Corp., said he's fielded very few shareholder complaints in 2004, a fact he couldn't boast previously. Since the beginning of the year, shares in Riviera Holdings, traded on the American Stock Exchange, have increased nearly eight times in value. On Jan...read more

Strip Casinos Avert Strike

A strike by maintenance workers planned for Monday at three Strip resorts was averted when employees voted to accept a new five-year agreement negotiated with a federal mediator. Workers approved the agreement late Christmas Eve after talks with a federal mediator a day earlier. The agreement covers 320 maintenance workers at Luxor, Excalibur and Circus Circus, an official with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 501 said Monday. Union business manager Jim McLaughlin said the vote was 253-47 to accept an offer from the Mandalay Resort Group, that includes annual raises of 85 cents per hour each year of the contract...read more