LAS VEGAS – (Associated Press) – Lower gambling revenue and continuing costs of opening its newest casino, Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, punished Wynn Resorts Ltd., but the 91 percent drop in profit it reported Thursday topped forecasts, and its shares soared. The company, run by billionaire and major stockholder Steve Wynn, reported profit of $25.5 million, or 21 cents per share, down from $272 million, or $2.42 per share last year. Adjusted to exclude one-time items, net income totaled 9 cents per share, beating analyst expectations of a penny loss per share. "All in all, we’re satisfied as you [ Read More ]
Archive for July, 2009
Online gaming laws are in a constant state of confusion these days. In the United States, the debate has been raging on for years ever since the creating of the Unlawful Internet and Gambling Enforcement Act. It seems sometimes as though companies are engaging in a massive shell game just to remain legally compliant while maintaining profitability. Events this week however, show that the issues are not just limited to America. Yesterday, PokerStars customers living in Italy discovered something unexpected when they logged into their accounts. Rather than logging into the main Poker Stars portal, they were instead re-routed into [ Read More ]
The £5 million land version of online casino, poker, sportsbetting and mobile operation CasinoRed.com appears to be in dire financial straits only eight months after it opened its doors in Huddersfield, UK. The Huddersfield Daily Examiner reports this weekend that the premises remains deserted with no sign of relief for the 100 employees who were laid off after the first two months of operations following a plush opening in September 2008. Adding to the gloom, the window displays have apparently been removed in the last few days. The newspaper reports that the owners have remained silent, although the Gibraltar-licensed and [ Read More ]
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) wrote a letter to US Attorney-General Eric Holder, asking him to vigorously oppose a suit challenging the Federal law banning the expansion of state licensed and regulated sports wagering, brought by the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA). iMEGA, et al v. Holder, et al, filed in US District Court in New Jersey in March of this year, seeks to overturn the Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1991 (PASPA). That Federal law barred all but four states – Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon – from offering state licensed and regulated [ Read More ]
This week saw a strong Poker Players Alliance presence in Washington DC as the one million member poker organisation flew in state directors and top poker personalities to interact with politicians and sell the idea of legalised online poker in the United States as part of the National Poker Week initiative. At a dinner kicking off the week’s activities, Florida Representative Robert Wexler, author of the Skill Game Protection Act and a supporter of the move to legalise the game as one predominantly of skill, addressed delegates, backed by PPA chairman Alphonse D’Amato and executive director John Pappas. Wexler described [ Read More ]
A few months ago, I had dinner with some prospective investors in High Stakes Entertainment. They were also poker players and wanted to go to the high-stakes poker room at the Bellagio to play poker. When we got to Bobby’s Room, there weren’t enough high limit players to start a game. A nice looking kid in his early 20′s walked by and someone said there’s that guy that just won two tournaments, back to back. So I ran outside and asked the young man if he was interested in playing with some tourists. He said he wasn’t comfortable playing so [ Read More ]
Bet on Tiger Woods now! His 2009 British Open payout odds are the best we have ever seen Tiger listed at: The payout would be an astonishing $550 for every $100 bet at Sports Interaction. And so what if he’s playing terrible golf. In the past Tiger Woods has shown he can come up from behind down the stretch, although that hasn’t exactly translated into wins the last few Major Tournaments. "Well, I certainly made a few mistakes out there today," he said. "Realistically I probably should have shot about 1- or 2-under par today. But I made a few [ Read More ]
Just over eight hours of high-pressure poker whittled the remaining World Series of Poker Main Event field of 64 players down to 27 on Day 7, with the chipleaders at the 10.45pm Vegas time close almost the same as the previous day despite fluctuations in fortunes during the day’s action. Again heading the chip counts going into Day 8, when the final nine player table will be decided, is the remarkable Darvin Moon, an amateur player and owner of a Maryland logging company who has only been playing for three years. If he wins the Main Event, he may have [ Read More ]
Soon you might be able to bet on a new sports: Cheerleading. The St. Petersburg Times broke the story this weekend that a Florida-based group was attempting to have Cheerleading classified as a sport, and presumably cheerleaders would be viewed as athletes. The clash began in April after football and cheerleading were exempt from FHSAA scheduling cuts, which the FHSAA thought would comply with Title IX. But Florida Parents for Athletic Equity argued there were far fewer cheerleading competitions and competitors, thus disparate treatment. Numbers released Thursday by the FHSAA show opportunities for girls (5,522 for cheerleading) were far fewer [ Read More ]
Congressman Barney Frank’s bill HR 2267 aiming to regulate and license online gambling in the United States has acquired two more sponsors, bringing to 42 the number of politicians now on board. The latest supporters to sign up for the bill are Representative Paul Hodes from New Hampshire and Representative Edolphus Towns from New York. The bill is currently on hold in the House Financial Services Committee until September this year due to pressure of more urgent work connected with the global economic crisis, but as recently as last weekend Congressman Frank, addressing players at the World Series of Poker, [ Read More ]
