Online Casino Edition – Casino News News about online casinos and gambling

October 7, 2012

Atlantic City Casino See Some Light At Last

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 2:23 am

August of 2012 saw many Atlantic City resorts and casino increasing their revenues. This was the first increase in revenue for the struggling industry since December of last year. Some suggest that calm, pleasant weather may have played an important role in bring more people to the seaside area, which, in turn, led to more gambling profits.

In total, the 12 current hotel casinos saw profits of just under $314 million for the month of August. This is a 13 percent rise when compared to the same period of last year. These numbers were issued by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. The numbers broke down as follows: slot revenue rose to a little over $226 million or up by17 percent; table games revenues increased to $87.8 million or up by 3 percent.

The numbers for August also included new revenue from the $2.4 billion dollar Revel luxury casino and resort. This facility was not in operation during August of last year. According to records, the new resort casino brought in about $20 million from its table games and slot machines during the month of August. It July, the Revel brought in $17.5 million. Its current revenues put it as eighth on the list among all Atlantic City casinos. It was also reported that the Revel’s hotel occupancy leaped into the 90 percent range, which is a full 20 percent higher than what it saw in July.

The Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa is reported to have the best revenues for this time period with gambling revenues of some $55.3 million for the month of August. This is an increase of 1 percent. The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel saw its August revenues go up by a whooping 25 percent, representing some $14.8 million. The Atlantic Club, which was once known as the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, has rebranded itself recently allowing for more low stakes gambling. It has also invested in remodeled its casino floor to include overhauling all of its slots, adding penny games as part of its effort to bring in more people.

In addition to the above, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort saw an increase in revenues by 21 percent. The Golden Nugget Atlantic City was up by 16 percent. Harrah’s Resort saw an increase of 15 percent during August.

Not everyone was a winner during August. Some casinos actually saw a drop in revenues. These include Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and Bally’s Atlantic City, both of which saw a decrease of about 3 percent. The Tropicana Casino and Resort saw a loss of 2 percent. Caesars Atlantic City only saw a slight decrease in revenues for August, less than one percentage point.

As to why so many facilities saw an increase in August? As mentioned above, good weather was perhaps the biggest reason, but the area has also been hosting many events lately which may be bringing in more people. In August alone, there were 64 events hosted, all open to the public. For August 2011, there were only 33 public events.

October 5, 2012

Mayor of Springfield Wants Casinos NOW

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 2:22 am

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno (along with his advisors) has made it clear to the Massachusetts state gambling commission that he does not want them to slow down plans to build casinos in his town. The commission has asked the mayor to cut proposals for new casinos from four down to one or maybe two. The mayor is saying, No!

In remarks Sarno made to the commission at a recent meeting between the two, he said: “It’s very difficult to say to residents who are hungry to work that you have to wait another six months, a year, 18 months.” The commission has said that it concerned that Sarno is moving too fast and that Sarno’s plans conflict with the commission’s plans which require writing new regulations for the incoming gaming industry. They also said they needed more time to review the various casino proposals that they have received. The state gambling commission controls the state’s three resort casino licenses.

For his part, Sarno and his staff have proposed instituting a speedier process that would allow for faster action in terms of evaluating the current competing proposals. These proposals have come in from Penn National Gaming, MGM Resorts, Hard Rock International, and Ameristar. Currently, the city plans to have these proposals presented during the upcoming months with December being the date when Sarno would choose at least one, but perhaps more, to negotiate with.

At that time, any agreements made would have to go before the voters for their approval. This would be accomplished through a referendum which is already planned for next spring.

At issue here is that the town of Springfield had wanted to start its competition earlier this month and planned to do so by asking developers to provide their basic information concerning their various companies as well as information on their individual proposals. More detailed information was scheduled to arrive in October, but, at the request of the state gambling commission, the city delayed the beginning of this process. The commission is worried that the town will select one or more of the proposals before it has time to finish its own investigation which would include looking into each applicant’s moral character of essential employees and company finances. Under current law, any company that does not qualify is not allowed to have a casino license in the state.

The commission said that it will take until sometime in 2013 before it can complete drafting and writing its criteria that will be used to judge each casino proposal. If Springfield moves too quickly, they reason, the town may select a project that does not meet the future criteria that the commission has yet to write.

Springfield officials want to move faster as approval of the projects will bring in work and revenues that the town needs. Slowing the pace will also cause large areas of land within the city to be held in limbo as gambling companies, some of which have already put in options to buy, wait for the commission’s decisions.

October 3, 2012

Las Vegas Sands Chooses Madrid Over Barcelona

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 2:20 am

It was recently reported that Las Vegas Sand Corp. has selected to build its new multi-billion dollar casino resort in Madrid, Spain. At one time, it was thought that the new venture known as EuroVegas would be located in Barcelona, Spain. After much discussion and negotiations, Madrid finally won out on the massive deal that is expected to bring in billions in revenues once the project is completed.

According to the CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp Sheldon Adelson, the best option for the new venture was the capital city of Spain, which is also the largest city in Spain. He also said that the local Madrid government worked hard to secure the deal for its city and that he and the company were grateful for all the effort that went into the deal. Adelson also said that making the decision of Madrid over Barcelona was not an easy one as Barcelona has a lot to offer both in terms of visitors to the city and its local residents.

The new deal to build in Madrid was welcome news to Spain. As is true with many EU countries, Spain is struggling financially and has seen an increase in jobless rates over the last few years. The multi-billion dollar project is expected to bring to the area thousands of jobs in both construction as well as in service jobs once the project is up and running.

It has been reported that Adelson wants to see an investment of around $22 billion in the new project, but a company statement has made it clear that Las Vegas Sands is not willing to go above 35 percent of that amount. It is not yet known how this difference in cost will be resolved. Also, it was reported that Adelson wants certain local laws changed such as one that would allow smoking inside the casinos as well some new zoning changes which would allow for high-rise construction.

The project will be constructed in phases and is expected to take ten years for its completion. Considering just how massive the project is that only makes sense. Currently, the project calls for 12 hotels with a total of 36,000 rooms, six casinos, three golf courses, a convention center, various shopping centers, as well as several bars and restaurants. It is estimated that this will be one of the the largest complexes in Madrid once it is completed.

Last year, Las Vegas Sands Corp. surpassed giant Caesars Entertainment Corp. as the world’s largest casino corporation. It also posted profits of some $1.27 billion in 2011. The company currently owns Las Vegas based Venetian and Palazzo resort casinos and the Marina Bay Sands which is located in Singapore. In addition, through its subsidiary, Sands China Ltd, the company also owns the Sands Macau casinos, Venetian Macau, the Plaza Macau (which includes the hotel, shopping complex and restaurant) and it also owns the Sands Cotai Central resort which has two casinos and three hotels.

More information concerning the new project will be released as it becomes available to the public.

October 1, 2012

Nokia to Get New Zynga Mobile Poker App

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 2:19 am

There is a lot of news happening around Zynga these days. To start, Zynga, which is one of the most popular social gaming providers, is offering Nokia Asha Touch owners the ability to join Zynga and its social poker mobile app. Zynga is probably best known by Facebook fans of the game. The poker app is suitable for all Nokia Asha Touch devices.

It has also been reported that Zynga brought onboard Maytal Ginzburg who was senior VP at 888 in charge of new markets. This addition to Zynga is being touted as one of the first steps the company is taking toward real money gaming sometime in the future. With the hire of Ginzburg, some analyst suggest that getting into the real money gaming business is a top priority for Zynga. 888, for those who do not know, is one of the largest online poker, casino, and betting providers.

But there is more news for Zynga as well, and when all of this news is digested as a whole, it may seem that Zynga is up to some big plans in the very near future. For instance, it has been announced…

Zynga is planning to make available its ever popular poker game Draw Something for the Nokia market as well. This poker app is expected to land in Nokia app stores around the fall of this year. Draw Something is one of the most popular mobile games being played today and has many fans who simply love it. Nokia users will be happy to learn that both of these planned games will be free to download.

The move toward mobile poker gaming was not unexpected. Social gaming, and this includes poker and other games, have become extremely popular with those who use mobile devices. Because of this, many online game developers, as well as established online casinos, have begun to offer more options in terms of mobile gaming. To illustrate just how relevant this new trend is concerns Playtech, a leading casino software development company. Playtech just recently signed onto a deal that will have its company develop a variety of social games such as casino games, bingo, poker, and rummy. All of these will be developed for use on mobile devices and will be developed with real cash wagering in mind.

According to Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, Zynga is preparing itself for real money gaming and expects to have its products out to the public sometime in 2013. These real money products will launch in certain international markets, the names of which are not known at this time. Zynga Poker already has more than 30 million users (on average) each month. The new program would still allow for free, social play but would also allow those players who are able to do so legally in their home countries to play for real money. With a potential client base already in the millions, it would seem this next step forward is simple common business sense for Zynga and for Nokia as well.

September 29, 2012

Macau Gaming Revenues Impressive Indeed

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 2:17 am

There has been a lot buzz and press focusing on tiny Macau lately and for good reason. The small piece of land, a part of China still, has surpassed all expectations in terms of its success with it gaming and resort efforts. In fact, it has become one of the top gaming destinations on the globe, according to industry experts. In just the last three years, Macau has seen an increase in its gaming revenues when other areas that offer gaming have seen dramatic losses.

One has to be careful when assessing expert opinions these days. During the last six months or less, many experts suggested that Macau would begin to lose revenues just as other areas offering gambling opportunities were doing. It is true that Macau did see a drop in its revenues during this period, but its drop was far less than what experts assumed would happen. These same experts expected that Macau’s drop in revenues would last at least until fall or into winter, but that simply did not happen. Revenues for gaming establishments in Macau actually went up in August of this year. When compared to the same time period for 2011, revenues are up by 5.5 percent. This represented in real money an increase of some $3.3 billion.

One should be too harsh with the analysts, however. It is true that in 2010 and ’11 Macau revenues were soaring (at times) to 70 percent over the year prior. This, of course, is a rate that is simply unsustainable, which is what the experts based their opinions upon. By the middle of the year, revenues had dropped into the single digits. But in August, those revenues began to soar again.

Many analyst consider Macau’s popularity to be due to the fact that this tiny piece of land is the closest thing to Las Vegas that Asian populations have at their immediate disposal. Macau itself spent considerable time and energy in making sure that it did things right in terms of accommodations, dining, entertainment, etc which brought it into the spotlight of all international travelers, not just those living in Asian countries. They have done such a good job at it that many of those who would be visiting Vegas are actually taking the extended trip to Macau, if for no other reason than to see what all the hoopla is about. Few are disappointed, it seems.

Just a couple of years ago, the government of Macau was rethinking its position on gaming as it was beginning to feel that Macau was becoming too dependent on the gaming industry. Local casino owners at the time agreed, but for other reasons, one suspects. The plan was to attempt to diversify the local economy, and much of that has happened. However, the success of casino and hotels in the area brought any plans for a complete halt to new establishments to a halt itself.

In addition to Macau being a success, other nearby countries are also seeing an increase in casino and hotel construction. Singapore and Malaysia are just two areas that are actively seeking new facilities, and many established casino owners are investing in these areas.

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress