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Capacity cut in half again As daily new cases of COVID-19, as well as hospitalizations and deaths resulting from the virus, continue skyrocket around the country, Nevada casinos are facing a new round of restrictions. Beginning a minute after midnight on Tuesday, casinos are required to drop their capacity limits from 50 percent to 25… Read more »
No, Bally’s didn’t buy itself Bally’s Corporation announced on Wednesday that it has completed its acquisition of Bally’s Atlantic City from Caesars Entertainment. The two companies previously agreed to the $25 million (yes, only $25 million) deal in April. If it sounds strange that Bally’s has acquired Bally’s, don’t worry. Bally’s was very recently called… Read more »
Not much fingernail biting needed Every week, I read about massive sports bets people make. I get jealous when they win. I might even get more jealous when they lose, knowing they are in a position to be comfortable losing gigantic sums. But mostly, reading about horrifically wonderful bets is like window shopping to me:… Read more »
Detroit casinos going dark On Sunday, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced new, wide-ranging restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19, including the closure of the state’s casinos for three weeks. The public health order will go into effect on Wednesday. Three commercial casinos are affected by the shutdown mandate: MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino, and… Read more »
Last call comes early On Tuesday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced new restrictions on casinos as the state and the country as a whole suffers through a massive new surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Per Executive Order No. 194, casinos will not be permitted to serve food or drinks from 10:00pm to… Read more »
Brick-and-mortar limits tax potential Last Tuesday, the attention of the world was on the U.S. presidential race (and still is, frankly), but in addition to president and other legislative races, residents of six states had the opportunity to cast their votes for or against gambling expansion measures. One such state was Louisiana, which saw 55… Read more »
As sports betting spread throughout the United States, New Jersey is sitting back, grinning. It was the Garden State’s years of persistence that eventually got the Supreme Court to strike down PASPA and make sports betting legal in 2018. After eons of Nevada being the only place one could put a few bucks down on… Read more »
Customer says he was promised cash-back If I won £1.5 million, I’d be over the moon. But if I thought I should have had another quarter million, well, there is a chance I’d feel a bit perturbed. Such is the case with Croatian businessman Juste Puharic, who wagered £27,057,621 at The Park Lane Club in… Read more »
Might as well go for the gold There is a chance that we might get legal sports betting here in Georgia some day – a bill was actually introduced in the legislature – but until then, I am going to have to live vicariously through people who make mind numbing bets. Such was the case… Read more »
Bank didn’t think about gambling problem The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has been fined AUD$150,000 (USD$107,580) after a Federal Court ruled that it had violated the National Credit Act for increasing a customer’s credit limit, even after that customer told the bank that he had a gambling problem. The bank also did not bother… Read more »
Pandemic roller coaster The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously been devastating to casinos, but things are about to get worse for the few in Massachusetts. This week, Governor Charlie Baker announced a slew of “targeted measures” to slow the spread of the virus. The United States is in its “third wave” of the pandemic right now,… Read more »
MGM Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust (REIT), indicated on Monday that it could be interested in acquiring another property on the Las Vegas Strip. During a third quarter earnings call, CEO James Stewart said that his company was definitely looking to expand, but only with large casino properties that would “move the needle.”… Read more »
Forever dark According to a report from CardsChat, three MGM properties on the Strip – the Mirage, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay – are closing their poker rooms for good. All of the card rooms have been closed since mid-March, when casinos in Nevada were ordered to shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Casinos were… Read more »
Welcome to Indiana Twin River Worldwide Holdings has made yet another move to expand its casino footprint, agreeing to acquire the Tropicana Evansville casino operations from Caesars Entertainment for $140 million. This will be Twin River’s first entry into Indiana. Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. (GLPI) is also going along for the ride. While Twin… Read more »
Circa, the first casino built from the ground-up in downtown Las Vegas in forty years, officially opened just after midnight on Wednesday. From all first-hand reports at the invitation-only celebration, the new, glitzy gambling beacon is a glamorous venue that looks like it belongs on Strip. “I’m feeling great,” Circa owner Derek Stevens told the… Read more »
U.S. not a large part of Sands’ portfolio Sheldon Adelson might finally be bugging out of the United States. Well, from a business standpoint, at least. According to Bloomberg News, Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. is looking into selling its properties in Las Vegas, including the Venetian Resort, the Palazzo, and the Sands Expo Convention… Read more »
Neither side loses! The Big Ten’s college football season finally began this past weekend and with it came a controversial ending to the game between the eighth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions and the Indiana Hoosiers. Because of how the game ended – Indiana won 36-35 — DraftKings Sportsbook decided to refund all bets on the… Read more »
In August, the Sahara Las Vegas filed a defamation lawsuit against a popular local blogger. On Tuesday, Judge Trevor Atkin dismissed suit, granting Scott Roeben’s special motion to dismiss, citing Nevada’s anti-SLAPP laws. Roeben, founder of VitalVegas.com, a resource I myself have used several times for articles on this site, tweeted that he was “elated,… Read more »
Any which way you slice it, they stink The New York Jets are easily the worst team in the National Football League. They’ve been crap for a while, but so far this year, they are one-upping (or one-downing?) themselves. Yet, according to ESPN, people are still placing bets on the Jets to win the Super… Read more »
Sports betting continues to be embraced by professional sports organizations. The latest evidence: for the first time, the PGA Tour will integrate betting odds in its telecasts. Starting Thursday during the broadcast of the CJ Cup @ Shadow Creek on the Golf Channel, BetMGM will provide betting odds for viewers. The telecast will display odds… Read more »
If you are planning on playing poker at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas starting next week, you will need to change course slightly and head next door to the Wynn. Wynn Las Vegas, the company that owns both casinos, announced on Tuesday that Encore is will only be a part-time property beginning Monday. Its poker… Read more »
Grabbing a solid name Twin River Worldwide Holdings announced on Wednesday that it has acquired the Bally’s brand from Caesars Entertainment for $20 million. It has not purchased any property from Caesars, just the brand name. Caesars still owns Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, but will not have to rename it. As part of… Read more »
Just a few million, no biggie Per a report from ESPN, a DraftKings customer placed the bet of the decade, perhaps the century. Apparently extremely confident, this bettor placed a three-team futures parlay: the Green Bay Packers to take the NFC North, the Georgia Bulldogs to win the SEC East, and the Alabama Crimson Tide… Read more »
Almost all of the nearly 1,000 casinos in the United States have reopened and most of the world’s casinos have done so as well after months of lockdowns because of the COVID-19 pandemic. All major casinos, though, are still enforcing health and safety measures such as mandatory mask wearing, social distancing, severe capacity restrictions, and… Read more »
Episode 11 of the seventh season of Seinfeld was “The Rye.” While it also brought the fictional Beef-A-Reeno into our lexicon, its main plot revolved around the need to acquire a loaf of marble rye in order to avoid a potential lifetime of strife between George’s parents and his fiancée Susan’s parents. Jerry attempted to… Read more »
