7Spins Online Casino has announced the release of four new games: Electronic Roulette, Baccarat and two video slots titles "Tea Garden" and "Grand Tour" the games are still under development and will be released progressively during the next month and in the following month.

 

The new games will feature superior quality graphics in high resolution to stimulate even the most critical online gamer along with classic casino atmosphere allowing gamblers to enjoy the look and feel of a real casino.

 

"We are pleased to announce the production of these great new games and are sure gamblers will be delightful to play them as soon as they will be released, it's a fascinating phase for us to deliver these unique games to all players, we're bringing something new something that captures people imagination and I'm glad we're breaking industry's limits so often" Commented Peter Huxley, Operation Manager at 7Spins Online Casino.

 

Electronic Roulette will let the players experience a fast and intensive gaming environment, just like in a real casino, players will be able to start playing immediately by choosing the type of chips to play with from $1 to $100 then choosing the numbers or combinations that they'd like to bet upon and simply wait and see if their numbers came up. They will see the winnings credited on screen. Winnings will be collected at the touch of a finger using the friendly 7Spins Casino Cashier.

 

Baccarat will be featuring a clean and elegant table interface with a classic game environment that will let senior and new players at 7Spins Casino the ability to experience a brand new table that presents the higher game satisfaction level in the industry.

 

"Tea Garden" is a five-reel and 25-payline video slot title that brings players into the world of ancient and modern Japan at the same time, a Samurai as the 'wild' symbol alongside a dragon as the 'scatter'. The rewarding Samurai is accompanied by a beautiful Asian lady acting as a bonus feature that is triggered when three or more scattered symbols appear.

 

If A player lucky enough to see three or more dragon symbols anywhere on the reels he will win up to ten free spins, "Tea Garden" features the best from Japan, Bonsai trees, Green Tea, Sushi Clothing and style and everything else that is unique to the Japanese tradition.

 

"Grand Tour" is five-reel and 15-payline video slot title that takes players to an exciting adventure around the world, touching and feeling any piece of the globe, anyone can be attached to this game quickly as it features many of the famous countries, continents flags and coins.

 

The Kremlin, Venice, Bullfights in Spain, Stone Age, Big Ben, Tower of Pizza and Eiffel Tower are just small part of the symbols available in this stirring game that features exclusive bonus stage, free spins and 5 wild crown symbols combination on max lines to win the JACKPOT!

 

"At 7Spins Casino, we pride ourselves in having some of the best customer service in the industry. But this is the moment I must say we top every video slot machine in the industry with our new unique games and style" Mr. Huxley concluded.

A collaboration by two of the world's most respected news organizations reveals how online poker players suspecting cheating were forced to successfully ferret out the cheaters themselves. That's because managers of the mostly-unregulated $18 billion online gambling industry failed to respond to their complaints.

 

The results of the four-month investigation by 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, producer Ira Rosen and The Washington Post’s two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Gilbert Gaul will appear this Sunday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT on 60 Minutes.

 

"He was raising, just really, really bad hands against very good hands. He seemed to play crazy," says Todd Witteles, a computer scientist turned poker player who believed he was losing too much to the same person. "It seemed like he was giving his money away. Except the only thing was, he wasn't losing. He was playing in a style that was sure to lose, but he was killing the game day after day," Witteles, who played a key detective role, remembers.

 

Michael Josem, a player and a computer security expert, plotted the odds of such consistent success. "We did the mathematical analysis to find that they were winning at about 15 standard deviations above the mean…approximately equivalent to winning a one-in-a-million jackpot six consecutive times."

 

The cheating, which netted the cheaters more than $20 million, occurred on two of the Internet's most popular sites, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. The two sites operate out of a shopping mall in Costa Rica and run their games on computer servers housed on an Indian reservation outside of Montreal.

 

They are licensed by a Mohawk tribe that has no background in casino gambling, a tribe that previously made the majority of its money selling tax-free tobacco. Though such gambling is illegal in both Canada and the U.S., the betting laws in those countries have no jurisdiction on the sovereign reservation.

Nia Glassie a reminder of the link between neglect and Gambling.

 

Nia Glassie's mother Lisa Kuka was found guilty of manslaughter in the High Court in Rotorua.

 

During the trial the Rotorua High Court jury hearing the case of Nia was told that Nia's mother was seen at the pokie machines past 1 am, a couple of nights every week.

 

"Pokie machines certainly were a factor in Nia's neglect and they appear to be playing a significant role in adding to our tragic child abuse history in addition to our overall crime statistics" says Graeme Ramsey, CEO of the Problem Gambling Foundation.
A British research journal has reported that children of problem gamblers were reported to be two to three times more likely to be abused by both the gambler and his or her spouse than by their peers.

 

This follows closely a report by the Northern Advocate in early October where a Whangarei mother had been charged after allegedly leaving her baby boy alone in a car while she played pokie machines in a hotel bar.

 

In a recent report from the Department of Internal Affairs, poor parenting and family violence are cited as harmful side effects from problem gambling. The sections of the community most at risk are people living in high deprivation areas.

 

"Our commitment as a community must be to eradicate child abuse in New Zealand. What is clear is that reducing the impact of pokie machines on New Zealand families will make a significant contribution in doing this".

Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment could recoup gaming revenue it will lose to Maryland slots sites if Delaware legalizes sports gambling, said a Wall Street analyst Sunday.

 

In an analysis of Dover stock, Lawrence Klatzkin of Jefferies & Co. said the stock price will not move upward "until the prospect of sportsbetting becomes more viable."

 

Although it would be "be at least another two years before anything substantial could be operational, Maryland gaming being legalized will likely have an extremely negative impact" on Dover, the analysis added.

 

Klatzkin did upgrade his rating on Dover stock from underperforming to hold because "the Maryland threat has been priced in."

Maryland voters passed a ballot referendum that would legalize slot machines earlier this month. And Delaware, which legalized slot machines in 1994, draws from a significant Maryland player base. Klatzkin's analysis said roughly 50% of Dover's players alone come from Maryland.

 

Delaware, Nevada, Oregon and Montana are the only states allowed by federal law to offer sports gambling. The four were "grandfathered in" when Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 1992, which outlawed sports betting in the rest of the U.S.

 

Klatzkin also said that the only thing stopping the legalization has been the Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's opposition. This might change in 2009 after Jack Markell takes office.

 

Another factor that suggests legislation legalizing sports gambling would pass is the "$200m-plus state deficit and the hit Delaware will take due to the Maryland legalization," according to the analysis.

 

A study cited by the analysis says legalized sports betting in Delaware would generate $26.3 million in tax revenue annually for the state.

The last Friday in August was a particularly humid evening and the women among the socialites bound for Macau shimmered in strappy dresses, while the men wore their shirts tieless and open-collared beneath designer suits. A flotilla of ferries embarked on the quick jaunt from Hong Kong one after another, from early evening until well after the lights were out on the city's trading desks and its high-end stores had closed for the night.

 

In Macau, limousines and buses delivered the glitterati from the Cotai Strip ferry terminal to the party. It was a lavish affair to celebrate the opening of the 110,000-square-foot DFS Galleria Macau, a flagship "all-luxury" mall in the Four Seasons Hotel next to the Venetian, the third-largest building on the planet and surely one of the most spectacular. The evening had all the glitz of a London premiere or Hollywood award ceremony: red carpets, paparazzi, dancers bathed head-to-toe in gold paint, not to mention models wearing borrowed diamonds, magicians performing tricks for the guests, cocktails and canapes, and the opening of the world's only Moet Champagne bar.

 

"It was a very glamorous party," said an event planner who made the cut. "My friends all wanted me to get tickets for them."
Barely 10 weeks later, the fizz has gone from the Macau party.

 

After new regulations and a slowdown in Southern China's economy, visitor numbers and gaming revenues have started to slide.

 

Retail sales, too, are missing targets.

 

The run of bad luck culminated last week when Las Vegas Sands Corp., in trouble with its bankers and struggling to come to terms with the global financial crisis, halted building on the next stage of the Cotai development.

 

Las Vegas Sands, one of the biggest investors in Macau's development, mothballed a half-built 6,400-room resort, leaving 11,000 construction workers out of a job and placing the future of the island's economy in doubt.

 

Steve Wynn, of Wynn Resorts Ltd., points an accusatory finger at Sands' executives.

 

"If someone tries to build six hotels at once and finds the market can't accommodate it, there's a problem with the planning,"Wynn said recently.

 

Not surprisingly, William Weidner, Sands' chief operating officer, has a different view.

 

Macau, because of what has happened, has"kindofcreatedforitselfunfinishedor semi-finished projects,"Weidner said.

 

"I don't think we're alone in not completing developments," the Sands' executive added.

 

For a while, it seemed like everything the casino developers touched turned to gold.

 

Mainland visitors flooded across the border from neighbouring Guangdong province, where they had grown rich on the backs of factories producing cheap Chinese exports for the West.

 

By 2006,Macau's gaming revenues had surpassed those of the mighty Vegas and the number of casinos had more than doubled in just two years, to 31. With dozens more casinos coming on line, the American operators and the local economy looked set for a windfall.

 

Today, visitors to the Cotai Strip are confronted by a different future.

 

Sands' executives, forced to focus on maximizing cash flow to meet loan covenants, conceded they must suspend construction on the Cotai sites.

 

A syndicate of Western banks had once backed Sands' plans in Macau -- including Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia -- but some among the banks apparently threatened to pull the plug on the entire corporation.Weidner, the group's COO, said work will begin again, "at an appropriate time in the future, to the extent capital becomes available on acceptable terms."

 

Fornow, theVenetianandFourSeasons are surrounded by half-finished buildings, empty concrete shells flagged by bamboo scaffolding and encircled by a 2.5-metre-high fence. Cranes stand idle, workers have been sent home and everyone connected with the Cotai Strip is counting the cost.

 

Even before last week's sour news from the money men in Vegas, there was trouble in the cards for Macau. An October report from S&PRatingsanalyst Ben Bubeck warned "current economic weakness across several global markets, includingthelocalHongKongandShanghai exchanges, could lead consumers to pull back on discretionary spending, including gambling in Macau."

 

In fact, gaming revenues that had grown by a compound annual growth rate of 26 per cent between 2004 and 2007 fell 10 per cent in three months this year.

 

Beijing is taking much of the blame for the slump. In an effort to stop mainlanders from frittering away their savings on card tables, Chinese authorities began clamping down on granting Macau visas in June. Visitor arrival growth slowed to two per cent in September, down from 17 per cent for the first eight months of 2008.

 

Profits have also fallen as casinos fight each other with costly incentives to at-tract high rollers responsible for the biggest proportion of gaming revenues.

 

The non-gaming side of Macau--the retail, restaurants and shows--are also a concern.

 

Thereare legendarystories ofbusloads of gamblers from Guangdong province staying in the resort for 36 hours without ever checking into a hotel or even leaving the gaming tables, while a quick stroll around the Venetian's massive mall is enough to see that lots of staff are twiddling their thumbs in stores empty of customers.

 

Longer term, there are some compelling demographics to support Macau's development. One hundred million people live within a three-hour drive and one billion more can get there in three hours by plane, noted Bubeck.

 

"Gaming,"he added, "is an extremely popular form of entertainment in the Asian markets."Tapping the mass-market will also help Macau's profitability, "because, unlike high rollers, these customers are likely to make longer visits and take advantage of the non-gaming amenities at the newer resorts."

 

Meanwhile, Sands' auditors now say the company has no going-concern issues after raising $2.1 billion US of new capital earlier this week.

 

The Macau government has responded to recent problems by insisting the future of the Macanese people is its top priority. But with so much committed to the gaming industry, the stakes are very high.

 

"We will not allow any casinos to shut down," said Edmund Ho, the territory's chief executive, last week. If necessary, he admitted, the government could even backstop a bankrupt casino until a suitable buyer could be found.

 

"We were looking forward to working on these upcoming portions (of the Cotai Strip development) which are now on hold," said Meier, who at any one time had employed between five and 30 highly-qualified artists on the intricate design at the Venetian. "That is the construction business, and these delays happen."

 

Retail and hotel workers are also going to have to look elsewhere, and at least one international event planning organization is exiting Macau, where there seems little chance of a big-budget store debut or hotel launch in the near future.

 

Cirque du soleil has also postponed production of its second show, scheduled for one of the unfinished hotels. The Quebec company is considering other options for the production.

 

"We do not know how long the construction hold will last," said Cirque spokeswoman Chantal Cote. "The work onthissecondshowiswellunderwayand the creative material is of very high quality. Other partners are showing interest for the production outside Asia. We are confident that we will soon find a venue to host the creative contents."

Viva Macau announced another outstanding addition to their online casino this week. Themed around an ancient Egyptian odyssey, Cleopatra slots is an online slots machine that allows players to search for ancient treasures on one of five spinning reels. Players can place wagers on up to twenty paylines and win jackpot payouts as high as 20,000 credits on any spin.

 

The new online slots machine features a free spin bonus and two bonus games. When a player discovers three ancient scrolls they receive a trigger payout between three and five times the total credits wagered on all active paylines. The player then receives twenty free spins that pay double profits. Should the player discover three more scrolls they receive another twenty spins. There is no limit to the number of free spins the player can accumulate during these free spin sessions.

 

The first of two bonus rounds is triggered by uncovering three pyramid symbols to reveal the hidden entrance to Cleopatra's ancient tomb. Players choose from one of ten priceless artifacts and, if they choose correctly, they continue on to the final adventure and search for untold treasures.

 

"Online slots continue to be one of the most popular products with Viva Macau's online casino customers. We will continue to expand our online casino with great games and cutting edge features," says Sam Casteel, the company's public relations director. Cleopatra slots will be the third new online slots machine released at Viva Macau Casino this year.

 

Free online slots are available in a play for fun format with no download and no registration at Viva Macau Casino. New depositing players will also be pleased find out that they can win some free cash with this new online slots machine. Each month Viva Macau chooses a featured casino game for its monthly new player casino tournament. New depositing players have the opportunity to compete in a tournament format for cash prizes. As the newest addition to Viva Macau Casino, Cleopatra online slots will be December's featured casino game.

 

Viva Macau is a premier online gambling site offering online casino games, sportsbook action and access to a poker network with thousands of players from around the world. Viva Macau has one of the finest customer loyalty programs in the online gambling industry and has established an outstanding reputation since their launch earlier this year.

Every year slot machine manufacturers gather to discuss their industry's version of global warming — a dramatic shift in customer tastes with long-term implications for survival that are still years away.

 

Every year they confer about what they're doing to attract young customers — people raised on video games who aren't impressed by spinning reels and blinking lights.

 

This year's Global Gaming Expo, which wrapped up last week, was no different. The Big Four — International Game Technology, Bally Technologies, Aristocrat Technologies and WMS Gaming — showed off more breakthroughs to interest younger players while still appealing to their core audience of over-65 gamblers.

 

"You're talking about a demographic that's dying," said Al Thomas, executive director of research and development for WMS Gaming.

 

Next year several U.S. casinos will offer machines that use server-based technology, which allows casino managers or gamblers to select games that are downloaded onto a particular machine. The technology allows casinos to offer games on demand and other services, including custom coupons and impromptu tournaments — a leap forward for a slow-to-evolve industry.

 

International Game Technology introduced slots with a library of about a dozen games to choose from. The process of switching to a new game takes about 20 seconds.

 

Bally and IGT also are using such technology to interact with gamblers. Some Nevada casinos offer Bally's iView — a small screen below the game that displays a gambler's account and offers casino promotions — and will soon offer touch-screen games from IGT that allow players to order cocktails, view and print coupons and make show reservations.

 

Knowing that younger players prefer a more interactive experience than the typically solitary act of pushing a "spin" button, manufacturers also are racing to create so-called community games that allow groups of gamblers to, say, play a bonus round together or win a series of jackpots. These include WMS' Reel 'Em In, where players at a bank of machines can compete in a boat race, and Bally's "Two for the Money," a two-player game featuring armrests, cup holders and a love seat.

 

This year's new games were bigger, brighter and more elaborate. And while they are starting to look more like souped-up arcade games for an XBox generation, manufacturers are careful to appeal to the older side of the generation gap.

 

IGT, WMS and Bally featured games with layered displays to create a 3-D effect. The games' cartoonish images would look familiar to longtime slot players.

 

IGT even has a digital reel game that makes a clicking sound like a mechanical device, no doubt appealing to older players who prefer actual reels to digital ones.

 

Some themed games appear aimed at a younger crowd, like Aristocrat's "Jaws" and "Sopranos" slots, with big-screen displays. Bally introduced advanced versions of its Playboy, Breakout! and Pong games. IGT unveiled another "Star Wars" game. And WMS showed off an arcade-like "Star Trek" machine, which allows players to progress through different levels of the game over time.

 

Manufacturers are attempting to strike a balance between young and old, whose tastes don't appear to overlap much.

 

"Just because I like video games doesn't mean they (older gamblers) are going to like video games," said Thomas of WMS, who came from the video game industry.

 

As a joke, Thomas once dyed his hair blue to show a casino manager that he identified with the casino's older, "blue hair" players. The casino manager cares less about younger players because they have less time and money to gamble, but that's changing.

 

Just the same, "you can't expect this group of young players to ... like what you do," he said.

A panel of casino company chief financial officers, reflecting a cross section of the gaming industry, on Wednesday painted a bleak picture for businesses looking to raise money over the next few years.

 

The sinking national and global economies aren't going to cooperate, panel members said.

 

The panel, which included representatives from MGM Mirage, regional casino operator Penn National Gaming, Macau casino operator Melco PBL and the Mohegan Sun Indian casino, all said money for expansions and other projects is tough to secure.

 

"It's not a gaming or hospitality industry issue alone," MGM Mirage Chief Financial Officer Dan D'Arrigo told an audience at the Global Gaming Expo during a discussion on the state of the economy. "This is a wider issue that cuts across many other industries as well."

 

D'Arrigo said he didn't believe any new resort development on the Strip, beyond projects under construction and expected to open next year, will be started for another five to seven years.

 

"That's my own opinion." D'Arrigo said. "The cycle we're currently in, we'll eventually get out of. The incumbent companies that have properties today will be much stronger."

 

MGM Mirage operates 10 Strip resorts and is building the $9.1 billion CityCenter development that is opening next year. However, the company recently halted development of a resort in Atlantic City and a joint venture on the north end of the Strip with Krezner Holdings International.

 

D'Arrigo said CityCenter completed $1.8 billion of financing for CityCenter, but it's one of the few financing arrangements taking place now.

 

"Lenders are picking their spots," D'Arrigo said. "Each case comes with its own challenges that are unique and different."

 

Mohegan Sun Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Hartmann said the tribe postponed a new hotel tower for a year or two because of the tight credit markets.

 

"From a tribal perspective, we've had good relationships with the banks," Hartmann said. "The markets are just not there."

 

Melco PBL CFO Simon Dewhurst said his company financed the $3 billion City of Dreams project on the Cotai Strip, which is expected to open next year. The company raised about $1.6 billion through a public offering last year on the Nasdaq National Market before financing opportunities dried up.

 

The company, which is headquartered in Hong Kong, also operates the Crown Macau resort.

 

"Nearly two years ago, the dollars were out there for everyone," Dewhurst said. "That's no longer the case."

 

Dewhurst was also critical of Macau competitor Las Vegas Sands Corp., which has said it will seek financing to complete its now-halted Cotai Strip resorts, which encompass 6,400 hotel rooms. He said there was no way Las Vegas Sands will complete that process.

 

"There's no way those sites are completed," Dewhurst said. "There are 15 people in the world who do project financing, and in this climate, it's impossible to get done."

 

The only panelist not worried about liquidity issues was Penn National CFO Bill Clifford.

 

The company has about $1.48 billion in cash from an aborted buyout attempt. However, Penn National pulled out of the bidding for a casino site in Kansas after it was rejected for another site. That project was awarded to Harrah's Entertainment, which dropped its plans this week because of financing issues.

 

Clifford said jurisdictions need to do their homework on a casino company's finances.

 

"They need to do a better job in the application process," Clifford said.

This highly anticipated 5th edition of the mobile gambling report provides the most comprehensive analysis of the mobile gambling environment to date. It segments the market by casinos, lotteries and betting and provides vital analysis of national and international regulations and legislations pertaining to mobile gambling service.

 

Featuring extensive one to one interviews with senior executives within the mobile gambling industry and profiles of the leading application and service providers, this in-depth report investigates key hurdles such as payment processing, network coverage and age verification and projects the market for 8 key regions and the UK, up until 2013.

 

Data is presented in easy to understand forecast tables and charts and provides mobile gambling adoption level forecasts, average wager per user, total wager and gross win for both the current market for 2007 and future market up to 2013.

 

Key questions that the report answers:

 

- Who are the leading players in the mobile gambling market today?

 

- What is the current value of the mobile gambling market?

 

- In which markets are mobile gambling services currently legal?

 

- What are the prospects for the mobile gambling services in the US?

 

- How have operator attitudes towards mobile gambling services changed?

 

- Which gambling services will generate the highest level of wager, and which the highest level of gross win?

 

- What are the remaining hurdles to mass adoption of mobile gambling services?

 

- Which regions will see the highest adoption levels of mobile gambling services?

 

Online gambling services are now a well established sector of the global gambling market. The first online gambling offering was launched in 1995, and there are now several thousand such sites worldwide. Hence, as with other successful forms of online entertainment, there have been attempts to transfer this success into the mobile environment. However, it is perhaps fair to say that the hurdles (social, cultural, regulatory and technological) faced by mobile gambling are more significant that with any other form of mobile entertainment.

 

Thus far, 2008 has been an encouraging year for a number of mobile gambling service providers, with many seeing total wager increasing by more than 100% y-o-y. That said, the rollout of such services has been limited to a few key markets, most notably the UK: elsewhere, growth continues to be hampered by the complex national and state legislation which impacts all forms of remote gambling.

A Hong Kong man has been jailed for eight years in China for running the nation's biggest online gambling racket which hauled in more than $1,25-billion in bets, state media said on Thursday.

 

Tam Chi-Wai employed more than 3 000 people to run his illegal websites and perform other duties such as hiding the profits in clean bank accounts, Xinhua news agency said, citing the High Court in southwest China's Yunnan province.

 

The court upheld an eight-year sentence handed down by a lower court in June, and fined him 20-million yuan, Xinhua reported, without saying when the final judgement was delivered.
Tam's online gambling network earned more than 278-million yuan from about 8,68-billion yuan in bets before it was busted, making it the biggest such racket detected in China, Xinhua said.

 

He began his empire nearly 10 years ago in Myanmar, which borders Yunnan and where many Chinese go to bet in casinos as gambling is illegal in China.

 

Tam then started developing his Internet gambling network in China with servers based in various southern Chinese cities.

 

He oversaw many websites, with one alone attracting 5 198 registered users between August 2006 and March last year, Xinhua said, without giving further details about other sites or the types of betting.

Gambling, which some Kansans saw as a golden goose for state revenue, is looking more and more like a horse that's been ridden hard and put away wet.
Those who supported legislation to build as many as four destination casinos in Kansas touted the industry as virtually a guaranteed money maker for the state.

 

And until recently, it was hard to argue with them.

 

After all, the book on gambling was that it was recession-proof. While an economic downturn might cause consumers to scale back spending on new cars, furniture and other items, the thinking went, they would keep gambling under the justification that they deserved to wager a few dollars as a tradeoff for having to deprive themselves of other purchases.

 

Increasingly, though, it's looking like the state placed a long-odds bet when it turned to the casino business as a source of revenue.

 

First came news in September that Penn National Gaming Inc. had withdrawn its proposal to build a casino in Cherokee County.

 

Then came reports that gross revenues in the nation's 12 commercial casino gambling states were down 4.6 percent in the first three quarters of this year compared to the same period in 2007.

 

But the most recent, and most bracing, blow came this week when a Topeka investment group and Harrah's Entertainment pulled out of plans to build a $535 million casino in Sumner County.

 

The partners cited poor financial markets behind their decision to scuttle the project.

 

With that, a potential goldmine vanished.

 

The casino was expected to generate first-year revenues of $186.5 million, 22 percent of which would have gone to the state. In other words, the state would have raked in $41 million had the operation generated as much money as expected.

 

And the state needs all the revenue it can get, especially considering it is facing budget shortfalls that could grow to as much as $1 billion by the end of fiscal year 2010.

 

Now, though, it's unclear what will become of Sumner County's hopes for a casino. Bids will be reopened, but only time will tell how much interest the opportunity will draw from investors.

 

If there's any good news for the state in the casino industry's downturn, it's that so-called "drive-to" casinos are doing better than major "fly-to" resort destinations such as Las Vegas.

 

That was the assessment from Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., American Gaming Association president and chief executive, who said riverboats and regional casinos, such as those in Kansas City, Mo., aren't suffering as much as operations in major markets.

 

So maybe the outlook isn't all snake eyes for casinos in Kansas.

 

Still, it's clear the state's decision-makers shouldn't count on gambling as a magic bullet to solve the pending budget shortfall.

 

Rather, the solution should lean more heavily to activities that are a lot less glitzy and fun, like prioritizing projects and services, rooting out wasteful spending and finding efficiencies.

Sneaker-clad tourists aren't the only ones to stop making tracks to Las Vegas casinos. Wall Street-types in wingtips have also tired of losing money on the Strip.

 

That leaves gambling operators to fend for themselves and turns talk of the next gleaming tower into chatter about who may be the first to turn off the lights.

 

At least that's what three Wall Street analysts had to say Wednesday during the Global Gaming Expo, the gambling industry's biggest trade show and conference.

 

"A year ago everybody was begging people to take money and build new buildings, build, build, build," said Joe Fath, an associate portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price. "Most people didn't factor in the cost of financing, that financing is a real cost of doing business."

 

Now the money spigot is closed and managers will learn the hard way that running a successful resort isn't as easy as it looked when the cash was pouring in.

 

"You look great in a bull market," Fath said. "Unless you are 90 years old and managed in the Great Depression, you never managed through something like this."

 

Wall Street is jilting former darlings such as Las Vegas Sands Corp., a company that was once swimming in enough easy money to complete the $1.9 billion Palazzo in January while simultaneously building an Asian gambling empire in Macau.

 

Now Las Vegas Sands has halted development of building projects in China and on the Strip and is facing a pay-as-you-go existence, at least in the near term.

 

"Las Vegas Sands is the poster child for waiting too long to raise capital," Fath said. "They didn't pay attention to the signs."

 

Empire-builders like Las Vegas Sands aren't the only types of companies expected to suffer withdrawal without easy money from Wall Street.

 

Harrah's Entertainment scooped up Caesars Entertainment in 2005 and dialed up the debt late in 2006 with a $17 billion deal that took the firm private.

 

Within a few years the company had grown from a regional, midmarket casino operator to one of the biggest players in Las Vegas that came to include Caesars Palace, Imperial Palace, Bill's Gamblin' Hall, Rio, Flamingo and Harrah's Las Vegas.

 

Now the company is cutting corners to keep everything afloat, a situation that could lead to lost market share if customers don't cotton to the frayed edges.

 

Deutsche Bank analyst Bill Lerner told the G2E audience that Harrah's maintenance budget could shrink from around $350 million to as little $40 to $50 million.

 

"Some of (Harrah's properties) are already stale," Lerner said.

 

Stronger companies will eventually pluck customers from the weak. And companies that can't right their balance sheets will be forced to shed assets.

 

"I actually think there will be more of a de-consolidation," said Bryan Slotkin, vice president of Goldman Sachs & Co.

 

Slotkin says as the cost of assets falls and hedge funds stabilize there's a good chance big money will return to Las Vegas as quickly as it skipped town.

 

"Maybe it is just because hedge fund guys like to gamble they are at the forefront of this," Slotkin said.

The construction tsunami that was meant to bring a classy luster to this place has slowed to a trickle thanks to the credit crisis.

 

While a new $3.5 billion casino is starting to take shape next to Showboat on the Boardwalk, it is the only one of four huge projects moving forward.

 

Both MGM Mirage and Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. have stated publicly that their $5 billion and $2 billion casinos, respectively, were indefinitely on hold because of the difficulty in obtaining credit in the midst of the economic slump.

 

Now, the $1 billion development, tentatively called the Gateway Project, planned by former Casino Reinvestment Development Authority executive director Curtis Bashaw and former Caesars Entertainment Inc. chief executive officer Wally Barr has also moved to the sidelines.

 

"It's an ongoing project whose timing is clearly impacted by the state of the credit markets," Bashaw said today. "It's a function of getting financing. None of these deals can be done on all equity. We have to get financing, and right now, there's not the financing to do this type of project."

 

Bashaw said construction had been postponed.

 

"This isn't the time when people are going to be putting shovels in the ground or getting financing for multibillion-dollar projects," he said. "We're going through an assessment, in terms of the size, scale and timing of the project as it relates to the credit markets . . . and seeing how this shakes out."

 

The casino resorts by Pinnacle, MGM and the Bashaw-Barr group were part of this town's big push to become an overnight resort destination like Las Vegas. All three were to include gleaming hotel towers, upscale retail, opulent spas, and convention meeting space, and all three were scheduled to open by 2012. That timetable is no longer attainable.

 

"Current economic conditions and the impact of the credit-market environment have caused the company to reassess timing for the project," MGM chairman and CEO Terry Lanni said last month.

 

In October 2007, MGM announced the development of the $5 billion MGM Grand Atlantic City Casino next to the Borgata on a 72-acre site in the city's Marina District.

 

While the company has made extensive progress on design and other predevelopment activities, Lanni said, it has had to postpone additional development work.

 

"We intend to resume development at such time as economic conditions and capital markets are sufficiently improved to enable us to go forward on a reasonable basis," he said.

 

Watching all of this nervously is Jeffrey Vasser, executive director of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority, the resort's chief marketing arm.

 

"For the future, as we are booking conventions for 2012 and 2013, we are certainly going to need more rooms by then," he said.

 

In February, Pinnacle, of Las Vegas, first announced its plans to delay its Boardwalk gambling palace where the former Sands Hotel Casino stood. A lack of financing was given as the reason. That wait-and-see attitude has not changed.

 

"We are just going to sit in Atlantic City," Pinnacle chairman and CEO Dan Lee said earlier this month during a third-quarter earnings conference call.

 

The only company that's inching along on its casino is Revel Entertainment Group L.L.C., of Atlantic City.

 

But it is doing so unconventionally. For most of this year, Revel has squeezed by on interim loans and has staggered construction work, according to company CEO Kevin DeSanctis. The Revel casino is set to open in summer 2010.

 

Despite the credit problems, Bashaw said he remained bullish on Atlantic City, which this year added more than 2,500 hotel rooms with new towers at Harrah's Resort, the Borgata and Trump Taj Mahal. Bashaw's Chelsea Hotel accounted for an additional 330 rooms.

 

"This whole climate is actually underscoring the need for Atlantic City to do what it's been doing," he said. "If they get finished with Revel, it's going to be a second Borgata and make the others anxious to get going."

Galaxy Entertainment Group (0027.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will delay the opening of its new casino in Macau to 2010 from the middle of next year because of a difficult market, the firm said on Thursday.

 

 

Some analysts have speculated that work on the Galaxy Macau casino could be stopped because of problems financing the project, following a move by troubled U.S. rival Las Vegas Sands (LVS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to halt its projects in the territory.

 

But in a statement, Galaxy said it was "well capitalised" with about HK$6 billion ($774.2 million) in cash.

 

"Construction work on Galaxy Macau continues and we have revised the development schedule to better align the opening with market conditions as they improve," the statement said.

 

"This is in no way a change in our strategy for Cotai. It is a commercial decision motivated by our objective to achieve a balance between development and the optimization of shareholder returns."

 

Last week, Las Vegas Sands laid off nearly 11,000 construction workers while it tries to secure a syndicated bank loan of up to $2 billion to finish a stretch of casino-hotels.

 

The U.S. firm's problems are likely to hamper development of the whole of the Cotai Strip -- a planned Asian "neon alley" to rival Las Vegas -- because the hotels were meant to feed customers to the casinos.

 

Galaxy said it was confident of funding its new casino on the Cotai Strip because of its cash on hand, credit facilities, income generated from its operations and cost cuts.

 

Galaxy's existing casino, StarWorld, notched up earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of HK$136 million in the third quarter, compared to HK$112 million in the previous three months, the statement said. ($1=7.749 Hong Kong dollars) (Reporting by Dominic Whiting, editing by Mike Nesbit)

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. is moving all corporate functions and its data center to Las Vegas eliminating 310 jobs in Memphis, the company announced late Wednesday in a news release.

 

Of the 310 affected employees, the company will relocate 50 employees to Las Vegas. The remaining employees will be offered job placement assistance.

 

Departments affected include accounting, information technology, treasury, strategic sourcing, risk management, legal, passport travel, human resources and facilities.

 

The company will close its corporate office in the Goodlett Farms office complex in Cordova, the company said.

 

The closure should be complete by the second quarter of 2009, Harrah’s said.

 

Harrah’s Entertainment is the 10th largest employer in the Memphis area based on a local full-time employment of 5,541, according to the 2008 Memphis Business Journal Book of Lists.

 

Harrah's is the owner of Harrah’s Tunica, Sheraton and Horseshoe casinos in Tunica, Miss.

A Harrah's Entertainment-led partnership on Monday dropped plans to develop and operate a state-owned casino in south central Kansas.

 

The casino company blamed the "current economic conditions and the unprecedented disruption in the financial markets" for the decision not to proceed with plans to build the proposed $535 million resort, according to a statement.

 

The statement said it "was impossible" to finance the project now.

 

Harrah's Vice Chairman Chuck Atwood said in August when the contract was awarded that the partnership was confident the project could get financed.

 

"The appeal of the project was helpful as we talked to lenders," Atwood said. "They recognize the project has a lot of appeal, so we're confident it can be financed."

 

The announcement comes less than three months after the state Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board chose Sumner Resorts-Harrah's Kansas by a 4-3 vote over proposals from Penn National Gaming and Marvel Gaming.

 

MGM Mirage withdrew its bid proposal in May.

 

Harrah's was awarded a 15-year management contract that calls for 22 percent of the casino's revenue to go to the state.

 

The proposed 175-room resort and neighboring golf course, which was scheduled to open in late 2010, was slated for Mulvane, a small town 15 miles south of Wichita and 150 miles north of Oklahoma City.

 

Also on Monday, Harrah's Entertainment said it offered a private exchange for some of its near-term debt to take advantage of depressed bond prices and free some equity.

 

The company hopes to issue $2.1 billion of new 10 percent notes due 2015 and 2018, pushing current maturity dates back at least five years.

 

Harrah's will also offer up to $325 million in cash for near-term maturities instead of notes.

 

The bonds involved in the offer are prioritized beginning with $2.1 billion worth of prebuyout notes maturing between 2010 and 2013, followed by $2.5 billion worth of notes maturing between 2015 and 2017. Notes maturing in 2016 and 2018 representing $6.8 billion worth of debt have lower priority.

 

KDP Investment Advisors bond analyst Barbara Cappaert said in a note to investors that Harrah's debt load could be reduced by $3 billion if the exchange is successful.

 

The bond exchange comes as Harrah's co-owner Apollo Management is trying to avoid default on Harrah's debt during an economic downturn that has hit casino companies hard.

 

"The idea is to get through a financial squeeze," Martin Fridson, chief executive officer of money management firm Fridson Investment Advisors in New York, told Bloomberg News.

 

Although the exchange would give the company more time on its debt obligations, it would have little effect on the company's cash flow and would still leave Harrah's heavily leveraged.

 

The company reported $24.1 billion in debt at the end of the third quarter on Sept. 30.

 

Harrah's spokeswoman declined to comment on the exchange, referring to the company's filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

Private equity companies Apollo and TPG Capital purchased Harrah's and took it private this year.

The Pittsburgh Steelers walked off the field Sunday just happy they had won.

 

A lot of bettors in this gambling city were more concerned by how many points they ended up winning by.

 

 

Winners turned into losers and losers ended up winning when a game that should have ended up 17-10 or 18-10 instead went into the record books as the first 11-10 final in NFL history. Though the score made no difference in the win and loss column, it did in the wallets of bettors.

 

"People who had a bet on Pittsburgh and thought they had won weren't too happy," said John Avello, director of the race and sports book at the Wynn resort.

 

A mistake by the officials on the final play of the game between the Steelers and Chargers led to the confusion.

 

The Steelers were favored by 4 points, meaning the apparent touchdown scored by the Steelers' Troy Polamalu on the last play made the difference between Pittsburgh covering the point spread or not. When the touchdown was disallowed, Pittsburgh bettors who thought they had won on a fluke were left holding worthless tickets.

 

"After an instant replay review and crew conference, the on-field ruling of touchdown was incorrectly reversed to no touchdown due to an illegal forward pass by San Diego,'' the league said in a statement Monday.

 

Sports books paid off on the final 11-10 score, not what the score really should have been.

 

Avello said there might have been $10 million bet on the game statewide, and many times more than that in illegal bets around the country and in offshore Internet betting sites. There was more money bet on Pittsburgh, he said, so a lot more losers who felt cheated by a botched call.

The owners of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas have signed a licensing agreement with an American Indian tribe to brand a hotel-casino near Tulsa, Okla.

 

The agreement with Nation Enterprises will rebrand the current Cherokee Casino Resort as the Hard Rock Casino Tulsa, pending National Indian Gaming Commission approval.

 

The new name will be unveiled as part of a $155 million expansion that includes a new casino floor opening in December, and a 19-story, 350-room hotel tower opening next spring.

 

Terms of the deal were unavailable.

 

Tropicana owners aim to regain casino license

 

The former owners of the Tropicana Casino and Resort are rolling the dice with the New Jersey Supreme Court in their long-shot bid to regain their casino license.

 

But if questions Monday from the seven justices were any indication, the ex-owners may be looking at snake eyes.

 

Several of the justices asked a Tropicana lawyer why the company failed to have an independent audit committee for six months as required by law. The judges also wanted to know whether concerns about filthy hotel rooms and bathrooms weren't serious enough to consider.

 

The state Casino Control Commission stripped the casino's license last December, determining its owners were incapable of running the kind of "first-class facility" required by state law. A state-appointed trustee is searching for a buyer, and the casino has remained open.

 

Shuffle Master names chairman of the board

 

Gambling equipment provider Shuffle Master said Monday that Phil Peckman has been elected chairman of its board of directors, replacing Mark Yoseloff, who retained his duties as chief executive officer.

 

Peckman, a member of the Las Vegas-based company's board since June 2007, is CEO of an outdoor media company and former CEO of The Greenspun Corp.

 

Shuffle Master also named three long-time employees as executive vice presidents to aid senior managers.

For almost a decade, Macau has been Asia's gambling Mecca, riding a
surge of Chinese prosperity and Las Vegas investments that have turned
the city into "Las Vegas East."

 

 

Last year, gaming income grew 30% in the past year, according to the
Times of London. But in the third quarter of this year, the impact of
the financial crisis facing much of the world hit Macau hard.

 

 

Gambling revenue dropped 10% to $3.2 billion in the third quarter, according to the New York Times.

 

 

The decline in revenue, combined with the global credit crunch,
prompted the Las Vegas Sands, which owns and operates the Venetian
Macao, to lay off as many as 11,000 construction workers in Macau this
month after suspending construction on a $12 billion casino in the
Cotai District of Macau. Las Vegas Sands' shares are down 95% since its
peak last December, according to Time magazine.

 

 

The Chinese government has also taken steps to slow down the growth
of gambling in Macau. In April, Macau's chief executive, Edmund Ho,
announced that no new gambling licenses would be issued, according to
Time. And the government in mainland China has imposed stricter visa
policies for Chinese residents visiting Macau.

 

According to the Times
of London, the new policies will limit visits by mainland residents to
six times a year. And that's not good news for Sheldon Adelson's Las
Vegas Sands, or Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage, which also have built huge
resorts in the former Portuguese colony.

 

 

As the Times of London reports, casino developers were counting on
visitors to Macau spending 3.5 nights a visit. Right now, visitors are
spending 1.4 nights. And with the Chinese economy slowing down, it
doesn't look that number is going turn around anytime soon.

Opponents of the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino say the National Indian Gaming Commission is trying to circumvent a federal judge’s ruling that gambling at the temporary casino is illegal, and they want the judge to shut down the casino and hold the gaming commission in contempt of court.

 

Cornelius D. Murray, representing Citizens against Casino Gambling in Erie County, filed a 10-page motion before U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny, saying it’s time to shut down the casino.

 

“Four months is more than enough time to obey a court order,” said the Albany attorney.

 

Murray disputed the arguments by Indian Gaming Commission attorneys, as well as Seneca Nation attorneys, in a friend-of-the-court brief filed earlier this month, that Skretny lacks jurisdiction because his August ruling has been appealed.

 

The Indian Gaming Commission, Murray said, “is allowing the Senecas to continue to operate a flagrantly illegal casino and is doing nothing to stop it.”

 

Murray’s filing was made Friday in U. S. District Court.

 

Construction on the $333 million casino and hotel project in Buffalo’s Cobblestone District has been halted by the Senecas because of the tightening credit market. The nation has so far spent $47 million erecting the casino’s steel superstructure.