Gaming - VEGAS INC

Budget resorts, locals casinos struggle in third quarter

Tourists play video poker at Green Valley Ranch Resort in Henderson. Owner Station Casinos led the locals market in profits during the third quarter of 2012.

Third-quarter financials are in for the Las Vegas gaming industry, and they show continued difficulties for two of the valley’s three main casino sectors. While most high-end Strip resorts saw profits in the quarter ending Sept. 30, mass market Strip casinos struggled, as did locals casinos. The Strip’s budget properties faced an uphill battle trying to get recession-weary customers to part with their dollars. Some of the casinos also played unlucky, meaning they didn’t win as much as usual from gamblers.

3 December 2012

By Steve Green

This week's stock performers: The best and the worst locally

With negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff having reported ups and downs, the broader stock market rose slightly and stocks of Las Vegas-based companies mostly increased this week from their closing prices on Nov. 23.

30 November 2012

By Steve Green

Notorious Macau gangster Broken Tooth Koi set for release from prison

When the notorious Macau crime boss known as Broken Tooth Koi is released from prison Saturday after serving nearly 15 years he will hardly recognize the city he terrorized in the late 1990s with a brutal gangland war. Wan Kuok-koi is scheduled to walk free from Coloane Prison in the Asian gambling mecca between midnight Friday and noon Saturday, the Macau government said. Wan was convicted of loan sharking, money laundering and being a gang leader in November 1999, a month before Portugal returned control of Macau, its colony for more than four centuries, to Beijing.

30 November 2012

By Kelvin Chan, Associated Press

L.A.-area firm buys Lake Las Vegas hotel, gaming property

People browse the streets of MonteLago Village during the grand reopening of Casino MonteLago at Lake Las Vegas on Thursday, May 26, 2011.

Newage Lake Las Vegas LLC has purchased the Ravella at Lake Las Vegas hotel and the adjacent Casino MonteLago in Henderson, Clark County records show. The company bought the 13.84-acre Ravella site and the 1-acre Casino MonteLago site on Nov. 21 for $46.859 million from a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, records show.

29 November 2012

By Steve Green

New Cantor sports book opens at the Silverton

The sportsbook at Silverton held its grand opening celebration Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. The 2,000 square-foot sports book features a 2.35 million LED pixel video screen that can show four feature sporting events at once.

The Silverton opened a new sports book today. Cantor Gaming will run the 2,000-square foot space, which includes 38 viewing carrels and a high-definition video screen with 2.35 million LED pixels.

29 November 2012

By Ron Sylvester

Bill's Gamblin' Hall to close in February for yearlong renovation

Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon on the Las Vegas Strip will close Feb. 4 for renovation into a boutique property and is expected to reopen in early 2014, owner Caesars Entertainment Corp. said today. Caesars has lined up $185 million in financing to renovate the 199-room property.

29 November 2012

By Steve Green

Study: Many slot players more interested in killing time than winning big

Casey Condrom plays the Aladdin video slot machine in the WMS Gaming booth during the first day of the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) convention at the Sands Expo Center Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011.

For people who play slot machines, time is more important than money. Instead of focusing on hitting a big jackpot, they spin the reels to relieve stress, entertain themselves or just kill time. That’s according to a new study from Oregon State University. The results are important because they help gaming executives understand — and market to — the slot players who provide the most profit to casinos.

29 November 2012

By Ron Sylvester

Winning Arizona Powerball ticket sold at suburban Phoenix store

Powerball numbers are chosen in the drawing at the Florida Lottery on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012, in Tallahassee, Fla. The numbers drawn in the $579.9-million game were: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6.

Two lucky ticket holders — one in Arizona and another in Missouri — are waking up Thursday to new lives as multimillionaires after the largest Powerball jackpot drawing ever.

28 November 2012

M. Spencer Green, Associated Press

Bacon, basil among 150 flavors of vodka offered at new Strip bar

More than 150 vodkas in flavors from bacon to peanut butter will be served at a new martini bar set to open next month on the Strip.

28 November 2012

By Ron Sylvester

Casino titan says Las Vegas court ruling could scare away foreign investors

The unfinished Fontainebleau is shown Thursday, July 28, 2011.

Australian billionaire James Packer and his casino company say they got a raw deal from a Las Vegas judge and they want the Nevada Supreme Court to make things right.

28 November 2012

By Steve Green

Record Powerball jackpot sends Nevadans packing to Arizona

As the jackpot in the multi-state Powerball lottery passes $500 million, cashier Lynn Rosati sells tickets to Denise Trout at the Arizona Last Stop in White Hills, Ariz. Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012. Trout was buying tickets for about 20 family, friends and office workers who had promised her a 30% cut if they won.

After selling a car Tuesday morning, Thurston Simpson decided he’d take the rest of his day to head out to Arizona to buy a few lottery tickets for a chance at the $550 million Powerball jackpot. But before Simpson could make it out the door, his co-workers at Fairway Chevrolet began reaching into their wallets, asking him to buy tickets for them, too. One co-worker even went to the bank to take out money.

28 November 2012

By Conor Shine

Las Vegas company pleads guilty in $2 million illegal sports betting case

After a long and secretive investigation involving federal agencies and Nevada gaming regulators, a defunct Las Vegas company pleaded guilty last week to an illegal gambling charge related to offshore sports wagering.

28 November 2012

By Steve Green

Hopes dim for online poker legislation

It’s sad times for online poker in the Senate. A few months ago, Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and Dean Heller were talking big about the Internet poker bill they would be sure to pass before the year was out. Now they are hinting, in noticeably deflated tones, that a big poker bill may once again be a political impossibility.

27 November 2012

By Karoun Demirjian

Compared to winning the Powerball lottery, what are the chances of other things happening?

The odds of winning the estimated $550 million Powerball jackpot are long. Really long. One in 175,223,510, to be exact. So how does that compare with other occurrences? Here's a look.

26 November 2012

Hundreds line up for 1-in-175-million shot at Powerball lottery

Despite long odds — one shot in 175 million — of hitting the jackpot in Wednesday’s record $425 million Powerball lottery, hundreds of people are lining up at stores just inside the Arizona border to buy tickets.