Everything about casinos, lotteries, racetracks, and other gambling businesses: news, design, and corporate intrigue.
Harrah’s is getting back into the Gulf Coast with a brand new casino: Margaritaville. From the Houston Chronicle: Casino giant Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday it planned to open a Margaritaville Casino & Resort in Biloxi, Miss., with songwriter Jimmy Buffett, which it said would be the largest development in Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina hit […]
Parrothead Paradise Read More »
news about gamblingPinnacle Entertainment had its first quarter conference call today, and CEO Daniel Lee had some interesting thoughts on Atlantic City. I don’t usually do this, but here are some excerpts from the transcript by Bloomberg: Well, we’ve been consistently saying we expect to build something on the same order of magnitude as the first phase
It seems apropos. From the AC Press: Actually, hundreds of thousands of items will be up for grabs as the old Sands Casino Hotel clears out its vast contents in an “everything must go” sale beginning 10 a.m. Thursday. The public sale will continue for the next 30 to 45 days until the place is
Sands ends with a garage sale Read More »
atlantic city, news about gamblingIn what might be the opening salvo of a campaign to reverse 46 years of federal anti-cross-border gambling action, Barney Frank has introduced a bill to legalize Internet gaming. From Marketwatch: Attempting to roll back a ban on online gambling, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank introduced on Thursday a bill that would permit
Frank introduces anti-ban bill Read More »
news about gamblingFor a long time, I’ve been a little surprised that the US/WTO online gaming case hasn’t gotten more mainstream press. Now the tide may be turning. This LA Times editorial is a case in point: ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, former British colonies on the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea, are smaller than Los Angeles and
WTO objections go mainstream Read More »
news about gamblingIt earns more in gaming revenue than the Strip, at least. It was either this or a post on Stanley Ho’s medical issues, and I honestly can’t think of anyway to properly blog on that one. From news.com.au: MACAU says it has overtaken the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s biggest casino draw, raking in
Macau confirms: it’s bigger than Vegas Read More »
news about gamblingThe WTO is fed up with good old-fashioned American intransigence, at least as far as online gambling goes. From Ars Technica: The tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda has just won a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the US regarding online gambling. The WTO has ruled that the US “has failed to comply
Another WTO rebuke Read More »
news about gamblingManchester won’t be getting a Golden Nugget-sized “supercasino” anytime soon, thanks to the House of Lords (not the Sahara’s quondam steakhouse). From the Sun: PLANS to build Britain’s first supercasino in Manchester were THROWN OUT by the House of Lords yesterday. In a disaster for Prime Minister Tony Blair and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, peers
Manchester not so super Read More »
news about gamblingI guess I’ve got to change my take that it’s impossible to successfully rob a major casino and get away. From IHT: Four masked robbers stole at least €600,000 (US$800,000) from a Brussels casino early Sunday, Belgian television reported. The men, armed with a machine gun, forced staff at the Grand Casino Brussels to open
Casinos are spreading to new places in the US, but they are also becoming bigger. Those who think that Las Vegas is the end-all and be-all of American gaming might be surprised to hear that the top 4 biggest casinos–at least as far as slot count goes–aren’t anywhere near “the Boulevard.” From the Boston Globe:
Rhode Island mega-slot casino Read More »
news about gamblingThis came up last week, but I’m just getting around to it today. It’s from the Sun-Herald: The three-member Mississippi Gaming Commission ruled unanimously Thursday that a gambler should be paid $1 million in a jackpot dispute, but a lawyer for the IP Casino said he expects the decision to be appealed. The slot machine
IP jackpot dispute Read More »
news about gamblingHere’s a welcome story for those who like to gamble online–and those who just want to study it. From the LVRJ: Two Nevada lawmakers, hoping to repeal a crackdown on Internet gambling, are working on legislation that would require the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an 18-month study of online wagering. Reps. Shelley Berkley,
A friendly reminder from the LV Sun: If $5,000 casino chips could talk, what would this one say? It might explain its recent travels and how it has ended up in the custody of a cashier at the MGM Grand, who questioned whether it really belonged to the gambler who turned it in. The gambler,
Chips aren’t cash! Read More »
news about gamblingEarlier this week, the CBC broke a disturbing story: three Konami video slots are briefly flashing winning combinations as players spin the virtual reels. Programming bug or subliminal ploy? You be the judge. From CBC: Ontario’s provincial gambling operator has pulled 87 video slot machines out of service or physically removed them from its casinos
Sgt. Fritter’s Lonely Jackpot Banned? Read More »
news about gamblingEven though it seems like casino legalization is a steady wave sweeping across the planet, some nations have chosen to outlaw casinos. Turkey is one of those, though it appears that gambling is still flourishing. From Sabah.com: It is forbidden to open casinos in Turkey; however, casinos are abundant in Turkey. Only in Istanbul are
Illegal Turkish casinos Read More »
news about gamblingThere’s a great piece on Sol Kerzner in the Wall Street Journal, appearing here via projo.com: Most succession dramas involve the sudden death of a company patriarch, not the successor. The elder Kerzner now faces the prospect of coming back to fulfill his company’s growing global ambitions, just as it must deal with new private-equity
In the early 1990s, competiton from Foxwoods forced many changes on the Atlantic City casino industry, most of them good: new games like keno and poker, 24-hour gaming, and several others. Now, Foxwoods, arm-in-arm with MGM Mirage, might–might–be coming to the World’s Favorite Playground. From the AC Press: The American Indian tribe that struck it
I’ll get some interesting Google hits from that headline, I’m sure. In any event, Stanley Ho has opened his new casino, the Grand Lisboa. It’s next to his old flagship, the Casino Lisboa, and is dressed to impress. From the Washington Post: Thousands of gamblers on Sunday jammed into a new casino owned by a
Even though I’ve never been to Blackpool, England, I’ve always had affinity for it–at least since I heard people describing it as the Atlantic City of the UK. Like AC, the city has had some bad beats in the past. Also like my hometown, it has been looking to casino gaming to rejuvenate it. But
It’s been a busy few days–I had class yesterday, and spent a few hours today in a Caesars Palace hotel room (In the Augustus Tower) shooting a commentary section for an Ocean’s 11/12 DVD set that’ll be out later this year. They mostly asked me questions about casino security and surveillance. I had to delicately