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January 2, 2013

Pennsylvania Lottery Considers Expanding onto the Internet

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 2:54 am

The Pennsylvania Lottery, a very successful lottery system which is currently state ran and located in Pennsylvania is considering expanding their presence onto the Internet, to offer online ticket sales and Keno opportunities.

Recent comments from state officials suggest that the expansion could actually increase revenue for the system and provide significant benefits for its long-lasting success. In fact, they even said that it would benefit seniors substantially, since they would be able to play the lottery while they are sitting at home and the money generated from the system would be put toward senior welfare. However, state employee unions are speaking up and saying “Not so fast!.” Some of the critics to this opportunity say that Governor Tom Corbett is secretly trying to privatize the lottery industry. Of course, some of these claims are far-fetched, but others have been supported with well-documented research.

If the expansion were to happen for the Pennsylvania Lottery system, then people would be able to purchase online lottery tickets. It would also allow businesses to have terminals for Keno and online lottery tickets within their business. This is something that the state of Illinois actually did last year, and it has been very successful for them and other states are expected to follow in their footsteps, but these complications are holding them back.

Lawmakers are saying that they just aren’t sure what the governors plan is here. Is he really trying to privatize the lottery system and why does he think that would be successful? They are also wondering whether or not outside vendors even have means to take over something that has previously been ran by the state, and has been successfully generating over $1 billion a year. They use some of this money for senior services and other types of welfare, so if it were to get privatized, where would all of this money go and what would it mean for the state of Pennsylvania?

Governor Corbett of Pennsylvania says that privatizing the lottery system would actually make it a better system, and it would be far more profitable. There a lot of free-market economists and politicians that believe that privatizing as much is possible is a better route for our government, but the government often holds back to retain control. A recent statement from the office of governor Corbett said that: “If we can ensure increased funding and protect our seniors who are the recipients of the lottery…then we have our obligation to take a look at privatizing.”

At the moment, there is no word on whether or not this issue can get resolved responsibly. Certainly privatizing the Pennsylvania lottery could be a good direction for the state. Often times, businesses are able to generate more profit and far more revenue than the government can. Governments do not run businesses successfully, they are not profit driven, and therefore, the amount of money that they can make off of running it through the state is far less. If they were to get privatized, more money could be made and jobs could be created throughout the industry, which is more than you can say for the lottery industry today.

January 1, 2013

Gaming CEO Takes Lawsuit Into Own Hands, Releases Open Letter

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 3:16 am

Galaxy Gaming Inc., is a gaming supply company that is responsible for supplying many of the casinos in the Las Vegas area. They are also a company that recently had a lawsuit filed against them by Bank of America. In order to respond to the lawsuit, the CEO of the company released an open letter on their website they complained about the legal action. The company, which makes table games and other gaming supplies, was sued in October in the Clark County District Court, by Bank of America. The bank claims that it was involved in a fraudulent transfer of assets, totaling $1.1 million. False information was submitted to the company, which caused them to be approved for a loan, that Bank of America says they otherwise would not have been approved for. The allegations have been strongly denied by both Galaxy Gaming Inc. and the CEO of the company, Robert Saucier, but the release of the open letter shows that they are looking to take their fight to the public.

The letter that was posted on the website was addressed to the Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. In the letter, he complained that the company had been up-to-date with all of the payments on the loan, and there were no miss payments at the time. He also stated that the allegations that they raised were misrepresentations of the truth, claiming that no fraudulent transfer had taken place. The suit also cited the declining property values in Las Vegas, to show that the collateral that the company had placed in the backing of the loan was not worth nearly as much as once was. The collateral that they had used include the Galaxy Gaming Inc. headquarters office space, that the company had been leasing from a trust.

Saucier, in the letter, went on to detail various aspects of why he believed the lawsuit to be needless. Nevada had the local real estate crash in 2008, which resulted in many foreclosures. The company, he said, was staying in a building that became worth a fraction of its former value, which greatly change the collateral that they put forward. He also stated that he was extremely troubled by the choices that Bank of America had made, given the conversations that he had had with executives at the company prior to the loan.

Saucier argues that since they had been able to keep up with the loan to this point, and had been loyal to Bank of America, there should be no issues between the two companies. He argued that the loyalty that his company had shown to Bank of America was not returned, when they decided to follow through with a lawsuit, despite the fact that Galaxy Gaming Inc. had never missed a payment on the loan, and were contributing to the growth of the local economy as best they could. Bank of America quickly responded to the letter stating “It would be inappropriate to comment because we are involved in litigation against Galaxy Gaming seeking payment of defaulted debt.”

It looks as though the lawsuit is destined to move forward despite the pleas from Saucier and the case that he laid out in the open letter that was released. It is clear that Galaxy Gaming Inc. would like to get ahead of the story, and shape the public opinion of the lawsuit moving forward.

December 30, 2012

iGame Has Now Been Launched on the Microgaming Network

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 2:52 am

The Microgaming poker network has now incorporated iGame. All three of their poker brands, including iGame poker, 24hr pokrer, and PokerHuone now have iGame available, allowing you to play poker with your very own poker lobby, through the Microgaming network.

The release of iGame is significant because this is the first time that multiple casinos have launched a unified poker lobby, which is called the MPN poker lobby. This lobby has introduced the network management board, which was developed by designers and engineers.

A recent statement from Tommi Maijala, who is the Managing Director for iGame Holding Ltd. said that the transition has been easy: “The transition to the MPN has been seamless and problem-free. We are very happy to be a part of a network with such commitment to continual software development and strong player ecology.”

The MPN poker network, developed by iGame has seen a lot of interest in their platform and there are many other operators that are joining in. The software platform has also been incorporated into online casinos like Betsson and Win2Day. iGame says that this is not something that is going to be unique to Microgaming, they are building partnerships with online casinos all across the globe. They’re intending to expand the MPN poker network and they will do it they can to make it widely available across all of the most popular online poker casinos.

The MPN poker network provides a poker lobby where players can connect with one another, communicate, and engage in conversations and games. It’s one of the few poker lobbies to be successfully integrated with multiple casinos at the same time. Microgaming expects that the MPN poker network will be something they stick with, their agreements with iGame are solid and securable, so they don’t expect it to go anywhere anytime soon. They also say that they think it’s good that other casinos are integrating the MPN poker network. This allows lots of casinos to create unified platform that is shared across many different types of websites, so that no matter where you choose to go for your online poker experience, you’ll have a platform that is familiar and comfortable for you.

Betsson and Win2Day, the two other casinos to join Microgaming with the integration of the iGame MPN poker network say that there transition went very successful as well. They were able to integrate the software into their poker network without complications or challenges. Now, users and gamers throughout their community can enjoy the poker network with utmost satisfaction. It is this type of software that is going to improve the experience that poker players have across the world, it will allow them to compete and connect with one another through a unified interface. One day, the software may even make it possible for multiple casinos to compete together, to challenge one another with online casino competitions. This would be an exciting event if it were to take place, surely iGame and the poker lobby software they have could be further expanded to provide this capability.

December 29, 2012

Bill Hornbuckle Now President of MGM Resorts After Announcement Made

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

Bill Hornbuckle has been handed down a promotion, becoming the president of MGM Resorts International of Las Vegas. He was given the position, which was only recently created, along with chief marketing officer. He will report to only CEO Jim Murren, and will be taking on a number of new responsibilities including gaming development, as well as other marketing related materials. He had been the chief marketing officer for the company since 2010, when he received a promotion to the position. Prior to that, he had been the chief operating officer of Mandalay Bay from April 2005 through his commitment to MGM. He had previously been the chief operating officer of the MGM Mirage, which was located in Europe, from July 2001 through April 2008. Following the promotion of Bill Hornbuckle, the company released a statement from their CEO, Jim Murren, regarding the promotion of one of their most trusted assets.

“Bill Hornbuckle is widely regarded as one of the most strategic and effective leaders in the hospitality and entertainment industry,” Murren said in a statement. “Since assuming the newly-created role of CMO for the company in 2010, he has been focused on growing the company’s relationships with our customers and guests. He has achieved this with significant success.” He also went on to say that one of the greatest achievements that Bill Hornbuckle had been able to secure during his time with the company, was the growth of the customer loyalty program, which has been extremely profitable for the company.

Along with the expanded duties that Bill Hornbuckle will be undertaking, Murren also announced expanded duties for Corey Sanders, who is currently the chief operating officer of the company. Bobby Baldwin will also be seeing a number of expanded responsibilities within the company, as well as Dan D’Arrigo, who is currently the chief financial officer. Sanders will have increased oversight of the company’s operating functions. These functions include retail, corporate advertising, and sales on the floor.

Baldwin will be taking over the leadership role at CityCenter for the Aria hotel and Mandarin Hotel.

This expansion in responsibility for a number of the highest executives within the company, shows that the profits of the company have reported have created additional tasks, and that they feel that their current executives are best equipped to handle these tasks in a way that makes sense for the company. As a number of executives within the company have received promotions, it is clear that the company believes that they have the right leadership team in place, and that they will be recognized as one of the best teams within the industry.

“I am proud to have such strong finance, development, marketing and operational leaders as we continue to grow the company as a leader in the hospitality and entertainment industry,” Murren said in his statement.

It will be interesting to see if the company continues on its path toward growth, after having a year that was much better than expected, after the previous years that the company had faced immediately following the financial collapse of 2008. As Las Vegas continues to struggle, some companies are finding their recovery in the form of upgraded leadership, like MGM Resorts.

December 28, 2012

RTG Announces a Santa Rudolph Sequel Slot Game For Players

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 2:52 am

RTG recently announced that they will be introducing a four slot game into their Santa versus Rudolph’s series. The slot machine game has actually gone live, you can find it at any Realtime Gaming online casino such as Slots Jungle, Sloto Cash, and Club World. In this new slot machine game, the elves have joined sides, that is why the game has been appropriately named The Elf Wars. The Elf Wars is actually more feature-rich and exciting than any of the previous Santa versus Rudolph games. It is extremely visual, and it has exciting features that some of the other games failed to incorporate.

Santa and Rudolph serve as the wild symbols for the game, they provide line payouts and they appear randomly throughout the pay lines. Rudolph is actually dressed up to look like a military dictator, while Santa is a bit more untraditional. Santa is tattooed up, he’s got muscles and big biceps, but of course, he is still dressed up in his usual red and white colors. There are also two scatter symbols that serve throughout the game, one of them is the good elves, which of course are on Santa’s side, and on the other side is the bad elves. These two scatter symbols present an opportunity to enjoy some of the coolest animations you have ever seen in slot machine games. There is also black humor present throughout the game, which has been almost trademarked to this series of Santa versus Rudolph games. You’ll find Rudolph has sent Santa a special gift for Christmas, it’s a little bit of pudding that he should enjoy eating, except that it is actually a bomb. Santa retaliates by giving Rudolph a ton of free food, except that it’s actually wired explosives that are hidden behind delicious looking carrots. They’re actually mean looking snowmen, Rudolph’s naughty list, and gift wrapped card icons that serve as other symbols throughout the game as well.

They’re also good elves that appear randomly throughout the game. These good elves activate special features, such as with Santa Strikes Back, you can get seven free spins and an initial multiplier of one. There are also certain symbols throughout the game that contain candy cane and lit up stars, which you will find located above the reel. If any reel happens to have five stars that are lit up, all of your free spins will reset back to seven and the multiplier will actually increase by one point. You’ll find in the Jackpot Spins, Rudolph is spreadeagled, located across the wheel. There is six segments throughout the wheel, five of them are known to multiply the total bets, and the sixth will activate the progressive jackpot.

There are also three, or possibly more than three bad elves that are scattered randomly throughout the game. These bad elves activate Rudolph’s revenge, and seven free spins will be awarded to you. The multiplier that you will find for each spin is 2, but you have to add the number of Rudolph symbols that you see on the screen as well. This new game is exciting and Christmas spirited and it’s a warm welcome to RTG fans.

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