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

February 19, 2013

Stratosphere Owner Launches Completely Free Online Poker Website

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 3:15 am

It is absolutely no secret that online gambling is going to be the way of the future, whether it is done through the states, or done through free enterprise and allowing businesses to capitalize on the opportunities that are available to them. However, depending upon the company, there are multiple ways in which they are going about capturing a user base on the Internet in order to expand well in the future. Recently, the owner of the Stratosphere, who also owns Arizona Charlie branded casinos in the Las Vegas area have taken their first dip into the online realm. They recently launched a website which is going to allow anyone that would like to the ability to play online poker, completely for free on their website. Although this is a unique strategy, especially for a company that has made their living from paid poker, it certainly will be a great way for the company to attract a user base that is going to be interested in the services that they offer.

The company, American Casino & Entertainment, which owns the Stratosphere and various other properties throughout the Las Vegas area have announced the launch of their new online website, acePlayPoker.com. The companies have launched a number of different poker sites over the course of the last year, in anticipation of laws within Las Vegas that are going to allow for companies to conduct a limited amount of online gambling. Although nothing is set in stone at this time, it is thought that after some deliberation the laws will be approved in some manner, allowing companies to utilize the user base is that they are able to generate now by offering free games, and offer them upgrades into paid poker games, generating revenue for both the state, as well as the companies themselves. There’s also some word out there on the horizon about federal legislation that could be coming down at some point as well. Although many companies are in the dark at some point, most are expecting some form of legislation to come down the gives them the ability to offer poker and some other games with limitations attached to them. This is because the states themselves are not going to want to develop the poker software, and if the companies are able to put themselves in a good place with a solid user base, the transition to the legal online gambling is going to be a simple one.

Players are going to be able to win prizes including tickets to a variety of different shows and rides at the Stratosphere. Other prizes that are going to be offered include free hotel stays, and a variety of other prizes that are going to entice players to utilize the website. Although there’s no way to earn money by playing on the website at this time, it is thought that after legislation is passed that will be something that the company is looking to do in the future. The Nevada gaming commission has approved American Casino & Entertainment Properties as an interactive gaming operator, which means that once the legislation comes that allows them to utilize the online poker to their advantage, they are going to be one of the first companies that is allowed into the space.

February 17, 2013

Grocery Store Casinos Announce Expansion of Games and Promotions

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 3:12 am

Grocery stores with casinos have become increasingly common throughout the Las Vegas area in recent years. However, the grocery stores that have gaming facilities are going to be undergoing a major overhaul at some point in the very near future. In the Las Vegas Valley, Golden Gaming is preparing to spend millions of dollars for the purpose of renovating all of the regions supermarkets that have casinos that are contained within them. The company is planning on upgrading more than 10 different locations that contain the gaming facilities. Some of the facilities that are going to be revamped by the company include Vons at South Durango Drive, and East Horizon Drive. In all, after the first 10 renovations are complete the company is looking to renovate more than 70 different locations over the course of the next two years and upgrade all of them.

This is not to be an extremely significant investment for the company, and is going to cost them millions of dollars, sometimes millions per site in order to do the proper renovations. The company is been making a number of changes to their structure, including the recently launched “Checkout Rewards” branding for their gaming salons. The salons are going to be aimed at offering greater privacy to the gamers that play there, rather than the level of privacy that is offered at their current locations.

Many of the supermarkets that contain these games actually contain older machines, which is thought to be one of the main upgrades that they are looking at changing. The new salons will have completely enclosed rooms along with updated games in modern decor. The ideas to make for a more comfortable and relaxing environment for the people that are going to be playing there.

The company first acquired the market share on the grocery store gaming parlors last year. Prior to their ownership, the stores had been known by their biggest competitor at the time, Affinity Gaming, which was formerly known as aHerbst Gaming. Golden Gaming as a company is also the largest owner of bars and pubs throughout the entire state. In all, it owns more than 40 bars and taverns with gaming equipment throughout the Las Vegas area. Most of the company’s locations have Artie received an update to the software and the machines, greatly improving them over what was there previously.

However, they are planning to make new adjustments to the machines and software in order to make the environment is comfortable as possible for the people that enjoy playing some games while they are out doing their shopping. The addition of the new software will make it easy for people to trade the points that they earn for the ability to spend at the grocery store. Even the stores that the company owns that do not currently have any gaming equipment are going to be receiving at least a few machines themselves, in order to entice more players to play while there at the grocery store, and earn a little bit fo extra money for all of your shopping efforts. This is a practice they are looking to grow moving forward.

February 16, 2013

Facebook Graph Search To Impact Casinos

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 3:21 am

The new Facebook Graph Search may impact many online and off-line casinos. The new Facebook Graph Search links social media users to possibly millions of opinions of people that have had experience with some service or product. This would, of course, include casinos. The danger, experts say, is that the Facebook Graph Search could cause negative reputations for companies.

Casino marketing experts seem to agree that casinos will need to spend more time on customer service than ever before unless they want to be at risk of losing business due to a bad rep. In the past, a few unhappy customers could post on Twitter or Yelp and, generally, not too many people would see the post. With the new Facebook Graph Search, a new type of search tool that actually goes through people’s Facebook profiles to see what they are saying about companies, all of that has changed.

In simple terms, until now, someone could read some casino reviews and then decide as to whether or not they valued those reviews. Now, because of the way Graph Search works, those same people will see what all of their friends on Facebook say about a casino. The average Facebook user is estimated to have about 130 listed friends. And those friends have friends and so forth and so on. A few negative comments about a particular casino can explode into a huge mess in no time at all.

One of the problems that many casinos have is that they are behind in their customer service technology making it difficult for customers to voice their displeasure about something directly to the casino. Now, they can take that displeasure and post it to Facebook profiles and the issue could be read by potentially thousands of other people. Many modern casinos still use paper cards for customer feedback and this could mean trouble for them as more and more people turn to the Internet to voice their opinions. Casinos that want to fight back will need to make it much easier for their guests to give them feedback.

According to casino marketing gurus, casinos will need to act fast to take measures that will improve their customer and guest service. The key, of course, is providing great service to every customer so they have nothing but good things to say. But, the other key is making it easy for those who have issues to get those issues addressed quickly. This is really the only way to combat what might be a huge problem for some casinos in terms of their reputations. Those who act fast will probable be able to avoid a lot of the possible consequences. But for those that put it off, remember, once a negative comment is posted it is there forever! This is one time that being proactive can really pay off for casinos, both online and brick and mortar establishments. On the other hand, great comments about a casino will remain online as well, and that can mean a lot of new business.

February 15, 2013

Pinnacle Entertainment Sees Record Revenue Throughout 2012

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 3:12 am

Pinnacle Entertainment is celebrating a record turnaround after reporting record revenue throughout the year of 2012. After a few down years following the 2008 financial collapse, the company is happy to see their revenue rising at a rapid rate once again, leading to this record year. The company also announced that they are going to continue to move in on plans that would allow them to acquire Ameristar Casinos later in the year. That would allow the company to own its first properties throughout Nevada, which is a goal that the company has been attempting to achieve for the better part of the last decade.

Pinnacle, a company which currently operates out of five different states at this current time reported a net loss despite the record revenue that they posted. Their net loss was a total of $42.2 million, or $.72 per share. The total revenue that the company was able to generate was $301.6 million for the fourth quarter. The company had earnings of $25 million or $.40 a share and revenue of $275.8 million during the same quarter of last year.

In 2012 as a whole, the companies lost a total of $31.8 million, which comes out to about $.52 per share. Total revenue of $1.2 billion was seen by the company throughout the year, which was nearly a 5% increase over the previous year. Although many analysts tape that the company vastly under perform the expectations that have been set by them, pinnacle attributed many of its gains to record revenue performances.

The company is thought to be acquiring AmeriStar for a total of $869 million. The deal was first hinted at during the month of December, and since that time there has been a bit of a stall in the negotiations between the two companies. With a property in Nevada, Pinnacle would increase the number of properties that they own, and add a very important state in Nevada to their list.

The earnings report had a number of different highlights including the fact that executives say that their due diligence of the deal with AmeriStar currently indicate that the acquisition of the company would be a very good fit for Pinnacle Entertainment , the company that is looking to expand in hopes to become profitable at some point here in the very near future. In the earnings report, the company also said that they are beginning to see some real customer loyalty throughout the Louisiana market, which has been incredibly noticeable during the opening of a few recent properties there in the state.

The company also signed an agreement to sell off all of its current land owned by the company in the Atlantic City area for a total of $30.6 million overall. This was not a choice by the company, and instead was part of a financing contingency that the company had signed in previous years. That land sale is expected to go through near the end of the first quarter of 2013, although no exact date has been placed on the sale. The company also opened a new covered parking area at its River city property in St. Louis, as was reported on the earnings report.

February 14, 2013

Illinois Casino Revenue Continues to Suffer

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 3:20 am

It was not a good year for Illinois casinos. The reported revenue from the state’s casinos (they have 10) does not meet pre-recession levels. In a report that was sent out by the Illinois Gaming Board, the revenue for 2012 was $1.6 billion. This is up just slightly from 2011 numbers, but it is down by nearly 38 percent from the year 2007.

Illinois Casino Gaming Association Director Tom Swoik, which represents Harrah’s, has reported the 2007 smoking ban as well as a weak economy to blame for the downturn. If the economy begins to improve, he says, he is confident that casino revenues will begin to improve as well. However, he also said he thinks it might be a long spell before casinos are able to see numbers that match the 2007 figures. This he reasons is due to the current smoking ban which was not in effect back in 07.

He went on to say that neighboring states which also have casinos allow smoking. He estimates that Illinois may have lost as much as 20 percent of its business in 2008, and estimates that they may have lost 19 percent more on top of that due to the struggling economy.

Of the 10 casinos in the state, the new Rivers casino, which is located in Des Plaines, is said to have earned the most revenue. The casinos that are located downstate Illinois are said to have earned a combined total revenue of some $38.5 million. The East Peoria Par-A-Dice casino says that it was able to earn $116.2 million in 2012. This represents less than one percent of an increase from 2011 numbers of $115.5 million. Rock Island Jumer’s was able to earn more than $87 million, which is an increase of 2.3 percent over 2011. As for the Metropolis Harrah’s casino, they came in with $97.6 million for the year 2012, and that represents a 2.3 percent increase from 2011. The Metropolis casino has a lot of competition that it has to contend with from bordering states, including the new Isle of Capri casino which is located in nearly Cape Girardeau.

Some believe that these numbers will have an impact on efforts that are being used to expand gambling within the state. Currently, there is a plan to bring in five more casinos which will include one for Chicago. This is now pending before Pat Quinn, Governor of Illinois. In the plan are ideas for horse tracks to be allowed to add slot machines.

Many lawmakers say that they are willing to consider anything that will bring in needed revenues to the state’s coffers. What objections there are seem to involve adding slots to horse tracks as tracks are usually very close to existing casinos and adding slots may siphon off casino players.

No further details were released as to what, if anything, the state plans to do to help increase casino revenues for the year 2013. One thing is certain, though, something needs to be done and done as soon as possible.

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