Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Putin's law closes casinos in Moscow - 1st July 2009

Casinos and slot-machine halls across Russia have closed as a new law took effect that imposes sweeping new restrictions on the gaming industry.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to lose their jobs as a result of the law, signed in 2006 by then-president Vladimir Putin in a bid to contain gambling addiction.

"The hall will be closed as of 7pm on June 30, 2009," said the notice on one shuttered slot-machine hall in northern Moscow.

Other casinos are expected to refashion themselves into poker clubs under a quirk of Russian law that officially recognises poker as a sport rather than a game of chance.

The law marks the end of the era when businessman and gangsters who acquired fantastic wealth in the chaotic 1990s gambled it away in lavish casinos in central Moscow.

A special taskforce to ensure compliance with the law has been set up in the Russian capital, a spokeswoman for the Moscow city government, Maria Sokolova, told RIA-Novosti news agency.

From July 1, casinos may only operate in four remote regions of Russia, each of them at least 1,000km from Moscow and some much further.

The four designated legal gambling zones are in Russia's western Kaliningrad exclave; along the Azov Sea in the south; in the Altai region of Siberia; and in the far eastern Primorye region, near North Korea and Japan.

But the gaming industry has been reluctant to move there, given the regions' undeveloped infrastructure and difficulty of attracting customers to the far-flung locations.

The gambling law is expected to have the biggest impact on Moscow, which had 524 casinos and gaming halls until the law took effect, and the northern city of Saint Petersburg, which had 109.

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Monday, June 29, 2009

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Royal high rollers, by Paul Edwards - Fairfax - 13th November 2008

Paul Edwards follows the trail of beautiful people - and mere mortals - to the world's most glamorous casinos.

Sometimes it seems Lady Luck has lost a few of her beauty spots. These days casinos are a dime a dozen, particularly in Victoria, where many of our pubs resound to the banal music of poker machines and the blare of racing telecasts.

A true casino conjures up visions of European royals and aristocrats - many displaced - beautiful blondes, playboys, despairing dowagers down to their last dollar and an ensemble of raffish travellers spending their days in cheap hotels and their nights in glamorous gambling palaces.

That's how Somerset Maugham and F. Scott Fitzgerald saw the world of high rollers and low losers, and it's a world that still exists if you know where to look.

The beautiful people are still there - although outnumbered by mere mortals - and while the despairing dowagers might look more like desperate housewives, nowhere else on earth will you see triumph and tragedy wrapped up in such a glitzy bundle.

Here is the rundown of the royal list when it comes to roulette, baccarat, blackjack and poker - the world's top 10 glamorous casinos:

MONTE CARLO CASINO

There may be bigger, better, more luxurious casinos, but the grande dame of Monaco still clutches her blueblood eminence with a grip nurtured by old money and new technology.

The last time I was here, the Cary Grant-lookalikes had morphed into more laid-back Brian Ferry impersonators and the Grace Kellys seemed to have turned into Paris Hiltons, but discounting the odd loudmouth who would be better positioned in his/her native land, the in-crowd would still be recognised by Graham Greene.

The casino has a stunning position - below the palace of the ruling Grimaldi family and above the harbour that shelters the floating mansions of the rich and famous. Some of Europe's most expensive and desirable real estate clings to the cliffs and the casino's interior reflects the vast wealth of this most exclusive of principalities.

The gambling palace was built in 1863 and was designed to attract the world's richest people. It still does its job, luring the kind of people who regularly dine at the nearby Louis XV, which has a wine cellar with more than 300,000 bottles, none of which costs less than $100 and many of which are more than $1000.

The casino has the inevitable poker machines in the American Room but the European Room is just for roulette, baccarat, chemin de fer and other traditional games. Then there are the private rooms for the very private people who don't want anyone to see them adding to or subtracting from their seriously vast wealth.

CLERMONT CLUB, LONDON

Addresses don't come any better than 44 Berkeley Square, Mayfair - but there's no Monopoly money changing hands here. London's conservative gambling laws decree that if you want to visit any of the city's casinos, you have to apply for membership at least a day ahead of your proposed big plunge.

I'm not sure if that rule applied to HRH Princess Margaret or 007 Roger Moore, who used to add a bit of colour to the place in the early days. The Clermont was once a Playboy Club, but these days it's the punters rather than the staff who lose their shirts. Baccarat, blackjack and the English version of roulette are played here.

The club is in a lovely old mansion that was opened as a casino by eccentric entrepreneur John Aspinall. As a sideline to gambling, Aspinall kept a private zoo for which he found it increasingly hard to get staff - perhaps because five of his keepers were killed by elephants and tigers.

This is an understated place compared with garish facilities in Las Vegas and elsewhere, and its membership includes many British bluebloods. It is understood that missing murder suspect Lord Lucan is way behind with his membership payments.

ST JAMES'S CLUB CASINO, ANTIGUA

People who know a lot about casinos say this is as good as they come. The smallish facility - just 50 gaming machines and eight tables - attracts the kind of enthusiasts who want to keep their chips high and profiles low. Most are high-fliers from the US, with Chicago and New York providing many of the players.

The American version of roulette is the star attraction here, together with blackjack and craps.

Visitors are happy if they break even - the deluxe hotel has been judged for four consecutive years as the best in the Caribbean and has a beautiful setting on a sliver of sand fringing Mamora Bay.

The gaming rooms are styled on those at Monte Carlo - all rich timbers, murals, ankle-deep carpet and a wide range of opportunities for the endless battle with Lady Luck.

The crowd here is international, with a heavy sprinkling of New Yorkers, and if your luck is in you may catch a glimpse of Antigua's most famous son, Sir Vivian Richards.

BADEN-BADEN CASINO, GERMANY

Marlene Dietrich, who knew a bit about such things, declared this was the most beautiful casino in the world. Certainly it has a distinctive style, stemming from its history spanning almost three centuries and the workmanship of Europe's greatest designers.

Baden-Baden is in the Black Forest of south-west Germany and was well known to the Romans for its mineral springs. As is common with European spa cities, the wealthy visitors wanted something to break up the long hours of bathing and drinking medicinal waters. The first mention of gambling is in advertising leaflets dated 1748. Today's casino was founded in 1824, when the Kurhaus was built.

New gaming rooms were created by architects, designers and artists from Paris, which had lost its own leading casino. Extreme opulence was built into the Winter Garden, the Red Room, the Florentine Room and the Salon Pompadour and, over the years, new rooms have been opened: the Baccarat Terrace, the American Salon and the Austrian Room.

From 1872, there was a 60-year break during which German casinos were closed - Hitler's regime reopened them.

MANDARIN ORIENTAL, MACAU

Up there with the best of them, this luxurious casino continues to flourish despite political and techno-logical changes. It has a bewildering assortment of gaming machines and sumptuous rooms housing roulette, boule, blackjack and baccarat. Macau has perhaps the widest range of casino games in the world, including fan-tan and hungry tigers - the local version of one-armed bandit.

The casino is part of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which is part of the glitzy Chinese enclave along the Pearl River delta. This strip is roaring ahead with competitors for the Oriental, including seven casino resorts due to open on the Cotai Strip. At last count there were 14 casinos here, attracting high rollers from Japan, China, Taiwan and other rich and developing nations.

The former Portuguese colony of Macau is now, like Hong Kong, part of China, but in many aspects it's more like Las Vegas. The Oriental may lose its position as the gambling pearl of the East when the US-funded Venetian casino resort opens, at a cost of $3 billion and with about 3000 guest rooms.

It seems there will be no shortage of punters - the mainland has well over a billion Chinese who, historically, have not been averse to chancing their luck.

CASINO METROPOL, MOSCOW

The doors never close at this big casino resort, where occupants of the 450 guest rooms are given special privileges over local punters in the fight for a place at the tables. The Metropol has 11 table games, including five-card stud, blackjack, American roulette, punto banco and poker.

There are nearly 50 licensed casinos in Moscow, including the well-named Casino Desperado, but aficionados say the Metropol still has the edge for class and service. How long this will last may depend on the whims of the Russian bureaucracy, which claims casinos are run by criminals and has started to rip out the slot machines that have sprung up in almost every public place.

Moscow's deputy mayor has stated there should be no gambling establishments at all, but the Metropol has friends in high places and brings in eagerly accepted foreign currency. Odds are it will stay.

SUN CITY, SOUTH AFRICA

Africa's premier resort, Sun City, has four major hotels: the Cabanas, Sun City Hotel, Cascades and the Palace of the Lost City. Their existence came about when Bophuthatswana was declared an independent state by the former apartheid regime and could provide entertainment such as gambling and topless revue shows, which were banned in the rest of South Africa.

Sun City is a 90-minute drive from Johannesburg and is that city's major weekend destination. Entertainers including Queen and Elton John have worked the Sun City Super Bowl, Africa's largest entertainment venue.

The Sun City Hotel was the first of the super resorts and is famous for the huge jackpots on its slot machines, with one lucky punter picking up $1.2 million.

Trying to find your machine won't be easy - there are almost 900 of them. There's also punto banco, American roulette, craps and blackjack, with reserved rooms for sky's-the-limit gamblers.

BELLAGIO, LAS VEGAS

In the modern home of garish gambling dens, the Bellagio is perhaps the best of the best. The casino is part of the amazing Bellagio resort, with its 4000 rooms and suites, 30 restaurants, bars and cafes, shops including Tiffany, Gucci, Dior and Chanel, an art gallery with originals by Picasso, Degas and Monet, and a nightly performance by Cirque du Soleil.

Bellagio is owned by MGM, one of the major players in this sizzling city, and has a Players Club offering deals on seven resorts and casinos, 100 restaurants, 10 shows, seven-day spas and salons and three golf courses. There are almost unlimited events and free promotions.

There's an enormous range of gambling machines and a spread of table games including blackjack, Caribbean stud poker, craps, keno, Let It Ride, poker, Pai Gow poker, roulette, slots, big six, baccarat and megabucks. There's also a global service offering bets on sporting events - see if you can get set on the Yarra Glen trots.

You can enjoy much of this opulence for nothing - many of the amazing public rooms are open to all comers - and if you're a guest the resort expects to take your money at the gaming tables rather than the dining version. In other words, it's surprisingly affordable.

BORGATA CASINO, ATLANTIC CITY

Atlantic City is where the players from New York and other US eastern seaboard cities go to get their gambling fix. Serious wealth mingles with the hoi polloi and although the sky is the limit to what you can spend, the Borgata offers a range of accommodation packages starting around $100 for bed and buffet breakfast.

There are 14 table games and the usual range of jangling machines. You can have a flutter on races and other sports events around the world - in fact almost everything except two-up. The Borgata is big on entertainment and coming up soon are acts including Rod Stewart and Pearl Jam.

ATLANTIS RESORT, BAHAMAS

The largest casino in the Caribbean, Atlantis has 1000 slot machines, all linked to a system that offers rewards such as accommodation discounts each time you play. The salons are over the top in design - all gold plate and blown glass - and offer both French and American roulette.

There are 18 restaurants, buffets and cafes here and a range of non-gambling activities including water sports, golf, marine eco-exhibits, theatre and escorted island tours. But gambling aside, the marine attractions are what bring the punters here - Atlantis claims the largest artificial marine habitat in the world, with 11 lagoons and an estimated 200,000 sea animals.

There's a big choice of accommodation and you'll hear stories of punters who've started off in a $500 standard room, had luck on the tables, moved into a $4000 suite, lost the lot and moved back to their original accommodation.

But then, life's a gamble, isn't it? (Credit: Fairfax)

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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Hard Rock Intl Signs Deal To Build Hotel, Casino In Hungary

26th June 2009

Hard Rock International signed an agreement with EuroVegas Hungary Ltd to open Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hungary.

The move is part of a plan announced in 2007 by the company's owners, the Seminole tribe of Florida, to expand the restaurant chain aggressively in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. The group said at the time it planned to open 25 to 30 hotels.

But the company's bid to lend its name to a theme park in the U.S. recently failed, as the park closed less than a year after it opened and was eventually sold in bankruptcy proceedings.

The Hungarian hotel will be in the northwest part of the country, near the Austrian and Slovakian borders, and is expected to open in early 2012. It will have more than 600 guest rooms.

Alfred Supersberger, co-chairman of EuroVegas Hungary, said his company was convinced Hard Rock was its ideal partner for the project, citing its expertise in operating large hotels and casinos.

Hard Rock has hotel and casino properties in several U.S. cities and in Macau, Pattaya and Bali, and has announced others in Malaysia, Singapore, Atlanta, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, among other locations.

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

New Landmarks For PartyCasino.com and PartyBingo.com More Additions To World's Largest Online Casino As Number Of Games Doubles In Six Months

Gibraltar -- 16th June – www.partycasino.com and www.partybingo.com are both currently offering record jackpots that are waiting to be hit! The PartyCasino.com Gold Mega Jackpot is at a record level and stands at over $2.4 million, while the PartyBingo.com jackpot in the Lillac Lounge is industry leading at over £63,000 and is rated as highly winnable by independent comparison checks.

Gold Mega Jackpot games on PartyCasino.com include The Godfather, Super Star, Super Joker, Super Fortune Wheel, Super Mystic and Mega Fortune Wheel. PartyCasino.com now offers over 120 games and pays out well over $10 million EVERY DAY to players. The world’s largest online casino continues to expand rapidly - in fact the number of games on PartyCasino.com has DOUBLED in just six months and there are a lot more to come! The latest release has seen dozens of new games added with the highlights being the in-house developed dinosaur themed Raptor Island and online casino classic Cleopatra. They join the group of Cryptologic licensed Marvel games, Wagerworks games like the very popular Monopoly and Next Gen slots such as Dolphin Reef.

With rights acquired from Frank Sinatra Enterprises (FSE), a joint venture of the Sinatra Estate and Warner Music Group, PartyCasino.com has also developed the Sinatra Slot - a five-reel, 20 line slot game with a Sinatra Big Band feature. Play through the three ages of Frank in Hollywood, Las Vegas and New York, collecting and writing big band tunes on the way. The game features an accumulating bonus trigger; collect a Treble Clef for each reel to build up a Sinatra track at the top of the screen. Complete the track to see Frank sing a classic track and then get a chance to write your own number in the Big Band Bonus feature. The minimum bet is $0.01 and maximum is $1,000. To celebrate the recent introduction of this innovating slot, PartyCasino.com is offering the chance to win trips to New York, Las Vegas or Hollywood and free spins until July 7 – see http://www.partycasino.com/news/newsletter for more details. Other highlights include film themed slots such as Mission:Impossible, The Terminator, Top Gun, Saturday Night Fever, Gone with the Wind and Rambo.

The PartyBingo.com jackpot in the Lilac Lounge is now over £63,000, the largest in the industry at the current time. It is rated by independent adjudicators to be one of the most ripe to be hit and the ball count has been increased to 37 make it easier to hit!

A PartyGaming spokesman said: “PartyCasino.com is a completely different product to what it was six months ago with so many great new games added. The Gold Mega Jackpot just continues to grow and grow past previous record levels – we’re surprised it hasn’t been hit yet. At the same time jackpot hunters are going to find PartyBingo.com very attractive, £63,000 would be a seriously big bingo win!”

PartyGaming Plc is the world’s leading listed online gaming company. Founded in 1997, the Group is a constituent of the FTSE 250 share index and the FTSE4Good Index Series, which measures the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards. PartyGaming’s shares are listed on The London Stock Exchange under the ticker: PRTY. PartyGaming’s principal brands are: PartyPoker.com, PartyCasino.com, EmpirePoker.com, PartyBingo.com, PartyGammon.com, PartyBets.com, PartyMarkets.com and Gamebookers.com.

PartyGaming is regulated and licensed by the Government of Gibraltar and is certified by GamCare as a responsible gaming operator. For more information, please visit www.partygaming.com

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Sunday, June 14, 2009

SkyCity chases the world's high-rollers, by John Drinnan - The New Zealand Herald - 15th June 2009

One of Ejaaz Dean's roles as executive manager for table games for SkyCity Entertainment is attracting big-spending international clients to casinos here and in Australia.

But the 24-year industry veteran says the company would get nowhere if it mainly focused on the really big spenders - the so-called whales.

"Whales are the sexy part of the casino business.

"People want to hear about these people with millions to gamble dropping $1 million in a day - or even in an hour.

"But there are probably only 100 whales in the world and if people are bidding $50,000 a hand they could lose a million dollars very quickly. We don't really want to be in that space."

Dean joined SkyCity Entertainment 12 months ago as part of the revival and new blood under chief executive Nigel Morrison.

Because of the economic downturn international gamblers at SkyCity's casinos were down 15 per cent at the start of this year.

Dean is looking to the significant but less extravagant spenders - people who might bet, say, $5000 a hand in a game of poker.

To attract them, Dean and SkyCity provide packages including tourist jaunts, accommodation, food and entertainment.

The bid is a part of the reason for SkyCity increasing its entertainment profile in Auckland - making it a more attractive destination.

Those international clients are commonly seen as coming from Asia, but Dean is also looking closer to home.

"We are trying to get more Australians from the eastern seaboard to Auckland.

"We convince them with a three-to-five day trip and that gambling is not enough - we will say we'll take you to the Orbit Restaurant, take you to Queenstown for jetboating, or jumping off the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere."

The big challenge, he says, is that Asian gamblers he coaxes to New Zealand literally fly over Australia to get here.

Calculating margins is a complicated part of a complex business, says Dean, who fell into the casino business by accident, wanting a break after studying mathematics and computer programming at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

He aimed to stay six months but after six months in his first job dealing poker at Perth's Burswood casino, knew he was there for the long haul.

There are fundamental differences between table game players and those who play the machines.

Tables game players like the interaction with the dealer and with the gaming community - they like there to be other players.

"The machine player likes the one on one - customer versus machine. Whatever their decision it affects them and no one else." (Credit: The New Zealand Herald)

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Friday, June 12, 2009

Crown's Las Vegas punt comes a gutser, by Vanda Carson - The Sydney Morning Herald - 11th June 2009

James Packer's $US250 million ($A315 million) investment in a US casino development company has evaporated after three of its subsidiaries including its Las Vegas arm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Crown's investment in Fontainebleau Resorts is its largest single investment in the US, aside from the $US320 million it has agreed to pay for a stake in the Cannery Resorts.

The privately owned company has been struggling to stay afloat since April when 11 of its lenders withdrew their $US800 million financing for the company's Las Vegas project.

Its chief executive and co-founder, Glenn Schaeffer, left a month later and was not replaced.

In response to the bankruptcy filing by Fontainebleau yesterday, Crown last night announced that it had written down the investment to nil at the end of the 2008 calendar year.

This contradicted what the company told Bloomberg on June 1, when it denied that the carrying value was nil: "Investments in Fontainebleau, Harrah's and Stations Casino Group have been written down … Crown Limited has never indicated to The Australian Financial Review or to anyone else that the investment in Fontainebleau Resorts has been totally written off."

At the company's half-year result in February, chief executive Rowen Craigie declined to reveal the carrying value of the Fontainebleau investment.

Crown invested $US250 million with Fontainebleau Resorts for a 19.6 per cent stake last year. UBS valued the investment at $A75 million on June 1.

The company is part way through construction of a $US3.5 billion hotel and casino project, complete with apartments and upmarket shops, across the road from the famous Circus Circus casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

The 3815-room mega-resort was due to open in October but is over budget by $US375 million. It is majority owned by Miami developer Jeffrey Soffer.

A spokesman for Fontainebleau's Las Vegas arm told Associated Press that some of its lenders had agreed to let the company use cash during its bankruptcy. It was also in talks to obtain financing to restart construction at the resort.

Crown has had a bad run of luck in trying to break into the coveted Las Vegas market. Attempts to build the world's tallest casino in Las Vegas failed last year due to financing problems and in March, Crown pulled out of a deal to buy the Cannery casino group at the 11th hour, settling instead for a much smaller stake.

Crown had also been burned by its previous investment alongside the Californian private equity firm Colony. It paid $242 million for a 4.9 per cent stake in Station Casinos at the top of the market in 2007, which the company now concedes is "pretty much" worthless.

Station Casinos, which owns 13 casinos in Las Vegas, is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. (Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)

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Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Others could follow us, says Virgin Games chief executive - This Is Guernsey - 9th June 2009

Guernsey has become the central hub for all Virgin Games online gaming services.

The company moved to Guernsey last year and took on four people, according to Virgin Games chief executive Simon Burridge (pictured).

‘We started as a marketing operation, which meant we had to outsource all operations except marketing,’ he said.

That has now changed and the company has centralised its casino, poker and bingo services in the island.

Making all the operations in-house had always been the intention when moving to Guernsey, according to Mr Burridge.

He said he was pleased with how the company was operating here.

‘It is a lovely place. It has fantastic infrastructure and we wanted to employ people with financial experience. It is also close to the UK and we are regulated nearby in Alderney.’

He said he could definitely see more online companies moving to the island. (Credit: This Is Guernsey)

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