Archive for May, 2010
Bet365 is one of the most popular online casinos with blackjack enthusiasts for a number of reasons, the latest of which is the Blackjack Bonanza tournaments that take place regularly at this website. With this tournament, players can win comp points depending on the amount that is wagered. The wager does not depend on the game and is offered for every blackjack game at Bet365.
The terms of the promotion are very simple. Whenever a player wagers £10 on a blackjack game, then they player receives one comp point. At the end of the day, the player with the most number of comp points is the winner. Players have a chance to win a total of £5,000 in cash prizes in the bonanza and the top prize that can be win is £500. Players who get the second, third, fourth and fifth places will each receive prizes of £200, £250, £300 and £350 respectively. The best part is that even the player ranked 200 receives a prize that is worth at least £10.
This Blackjack Bonanza is being regarded as one of the best tournaments for online blackjack players and it is offered to players once a month. For details on exact dates on which the tournament is offered, visit the Bet365 website.
The long wait is over, RTG casino software are launching slots tournaments. The first casino to run a slots tournament is Rushmore Casino.
They will be running a free $10k slots tournament this weekend. The slot tournaments start on Friday and will end on Sunday May 23rd. They are currently registering slots players with 500 seats available and they will be given to the first players to sign up.
This is a huge promotion with no risk and $10k worth of prizes given out to players! There is absolutely no buy-in fee and it is a great chance to play slots tournaments on rtg casino software.
There will be more slot tournament announcements shortly but we suggest players register asap to play in the free promo because of the limited space. Slot Tournaments are becoming very popular with only 1 buy-in and players are then left to accumulate the most money in a set amount of time at a particular slot machine. It’s that easy!
Play now at Rushmore Casino and get a $888 Deposit Bonus for first time players.
Blackjack players in Chicago were thrilled when the government of the Illinois metropolitan area lifted a ban on video blackjack. This ban was imposed last year when the board of the Kane County district of Illinois voted to ban video gaming machines such as those that feature video blackjack and video poker games from being hosted in public places like restaurants, pubs, bars and truck stops. At that time, the board was strongly against video gambling and the vote stood at 12-11.
However, the new vote seems to have swing in favor of video blackjack, much to the surprise of blackjack enthusiasts. The tally of the vote was 17-7 and succeeded in lifting the ban of video gambling machines in the area. According to the law, blackjack is allowed everywhere but counties in Chicago have the option of not allowing these machines in their district should their local governing body not want approve of them.
It is believed that the ban was lifted in an effort to bring in more revenue to the region from gambling networks. Many counties and states appear to be changing their laws on gambling after the recession once they realize the amount of tax revenue that these enterprises can bring in.
As the government continues to try and crack down on online gaming in the United States, a federal investigation has been launched to determine if any Las Vegas casinos are dealing directly with online casinos to offer services.
Under the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (or UIGEA), it’s illegal for online gambling and poker rooms to operate in the United States, but there dozens of such companies that operate offshore and accept U.S. players.
Recently, the government began an investigation in Washington State to determine if American-owned and operated casinos were working with the online casino and poker rooms, which would be a violation of the UIGEA. That probe has been expanded to include Las Vegas casinos that the government apparently believes have developed relationships with online casinos; relationships like that might violate the online gambling laws.
One casino that experts believe might be center to the probe is Harrah’s Casino, which owns the World Series of Poker tour. The tour features players who have qualified to play through online tournaments and other online events. Through the relationships Harrah’s has developed with the online casinos, it partners with them to create tournaments to help players qualify and that might be the element that has drawn the attention of the government.
Although gaming revenue was down the first quarter of 2010, Las Vegas’ Stratosphere Hotel & Casino will invest in major improvements in an attempt to bring some of the booming revenue from the south part of the strip up to the north.
The recently opened SkyJump thrill ride has performed well above expectations since its April opening and sees as many as 90 jumps per day. It sends riders 855 feet from a platform above Las Vegas Boulevard. The ride itself costs $100 per ride, but merchandise related to the ride generates 25 percent in additional revenue.
American Casino & Entertainment Properties Chief Executive Officer Frank Riolo said the ride isn’t even fully functional yet, but has had a strong showing.
“(The number of jumps) far exceeds expectations for the startup,” Riolo said. “We actually don’t have a fully trained crew and we’re not open to the extent of the hours that we will be in the middle of the summer when we are in full operation.”
The ride was a $1.1 million investment for the company, an investment that Riolo says will likely be recouped quickly.
The renovations planned for the hotel involve 909 of the hotel’s 2,427 rooms. Renovations include new carpet and furniture in the rooms along with new bathroom floors and vanities. Flat-screen televisions will also enhance the new rooms. Beds throughout the hotel were replaced last year.
Overall, Stratosphere’s revenues were down 11 percent. If you aren’t ready to travel to Las Vegas try any of the online casinos on our site for a great online gaming experience.
Poker players are sharp and are usually financially savvy, but sometimes table smarts don’t extend to street smarts. Michael Mizrachi, who has nearly $7 million in poker career winnings, is an example of that. He owes $340,000 in back taxes and is facing foreclosure on two homes.
Mizrachi is facing a $339,711 lien by the Internal Revenue Service and a Hollywood condo he owned with his brother was foreclosed recently and sold in an online auction Wednesday. His home in Miramar, Florida, was foreclosed in March. It will be up for sale next week, according to court records.
For his part, Mizrachi says he fired his accountant and plans to hire someone he can trust.
“They were doing a bad job,” he told reporters.
While Mizrachi is considered one of the great poker players – he was named CardPlayer Magazine’s 2006 Player of the Year – he admits he’s not as smart when it comes to the handling of his personal fortune. The condo in Hollywood, for example, was an investment property he and his brother rented out.
“But people weren’t paying their rent and we were advised that the best thing to do was foreclosure,” he said. “Obviously, I’m a better poker player than a businessman, but I’m getting better.”
Like many industries, poker is an ebb and flow proposition and Mizrachi hasn’t had a winning year in a few years now. He says he mostly stays home with his three children, ages 2 to 5.
Pro poker player Marc Levy, a friend of Mizrachi’s who has seen other poker player struggle periodically, said that professional poker players are essentially running a small business and they have to learn how to manage overhead and expenses.
“If you’re in a $10,000 event every other week, that’s $240,000 just for buy-in, not to mention all your expenses,” he said. “There are plenty of guys I know who do well playing poker but still go through their money. (But) all it takes is one win and you’re back on top again.”
The schedule for the seventh season of the PokerStars European Poker Tour was announced Wednesday. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, will host the first tournament on Aug.11, and the tour will continue until next spring.
“The EPT just gets bigger and better every season and it shows the passion and enthusiasm players feel for our events,” said John Duthie, PokerStars pro and the founder of the EPT. “Season 6 had a thousand more players than in season five and we expect the numbers to keep on growing.”
Duthie said he expects that attendance at the various side events during the tour will also increase this season.
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is also a stop for the North American Poker Tour and the Latin American Poker Tour, but it will also be included on the European Poker Tour schedule. That event will begin Jan. 8 in the Bahamas.
The tour will also make a stop at the casino in Berlin that was robbed by armed and masked gunmen earlier this year.
Some other stops on the European Poker Tour include: Portugal, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Czech Republic, France, Denmark, Austria, and Germany.
Dates for a tournament in Italy are not yet set and the dates and location for the grand final are also not firm. There are no stops at any Casinos in the United States.
Bwin, Europe’s biggest online gaming site, reported a 1.2 percent increase in gross revenue in the first quarter of 2010. This bucks a current trend during which some gaming companies are reporting a loss in the first quarter of 2010.
The company, based in Austria, reported the largest increase in sports betting, but online casino revenue was also up.
Not surprisingly, Bwin reported in increase in poker revenue, with a substantial 22% increase in the first quarter of 2010
“Competition is still being distorted by poker providers offering real money games for U.S. customers, who due to the high number of U.S. poker players enjoy economies of scale in terms of player liquidity and financial advantage,” said Konrad Sveceny, head of investor relations at Bwin.
Many of the European gaming sites have seen a decrease in their poker revenue due to the fact that major players like Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars continue to accept U.S. players. This has created a competitive environment that many of the European companies can’t compete against.
Bwin, however, says it is looking forward to the World Cup of soccer, which will present new gaming and betting opportunities for customers worldwide.
Doyle’s room has brought back the $150K Extreme Points Race, which was a popular contest in April and which the site has brought back for May.
The second race of the month began May 10 and will continue until May 16. In essence, the site will spread $25,000 among the players who earn the most Frequent Player Points during the contest week. The top 200 players will share in the $25,000 prize.
In all, Doyle’s room will run four separate $25,000 points races, each one a week long. One final race, the fifth, will be worth $50,000, and that prize will be split among players who earn the most points in the previous qualifiers.
Doyle’s room (www.doylesroom.com) has been a popular point for online poker players since it was founded in 2004. The brainchild of famous poker player Doyle Brunson, the site is one of two run by the Doyle Brunson family of sites. The other is Doyle’s USA Online Casino (www.doylescasino.com).
Doyle’s room offers some unique elements not available in other online poker rooms, like free poker lessons, but it also offers the usual tournaments and site-specific software.
Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem handed layoff notices to 80 employees at the end of last month. Of the 860 employed, 9 percent of the workforce was eliminated, food service employees taking the hardest hit. According to Sands casino President Robert DeSalvio, the past nine months have amounted to less revenue than expected.
Sands casino projected $347 million in revenue after all winnings are deducted, but did less then $250 million in the first 39 weeks.
Although jobs were lost in all of the casino’s departments, the restaurants—including Emeril’s Chop House and the Carnegie Deli—experienced a majority of the layoffs.
Workers who lost their jobs might be considered for rehire in July. 89 table games, such as blackjack and craps, will require 400 more employees, along with 100 jobs when the hotel opens in May 2011.
“It’s unfortunate that we have to do any reduction,” DeSalvio said today. “But we will be hiring 400 to 500 people in the next year, and everyone impacted today will have first consideration for those jobs. Hopefully, most of them (will be) back to work very soon.”
News of casino layoffs in the first year of business is not uncommon. Gaming board spokesman Richard McGarvey says that almost every casino in the state has cut down its work force by 50 to 100 people within the opening nine to 12 months.
Source: mcall.com
