Last year, nearly $2 billion was bet on sports in Nevada.

Atlantic City wants to follow but lawmakers need to overcome several hurdles before wagers can be placed on games.

Some New Jersey lawmakers believe the increased revenue from sports betting would boost state coffers and make Atlantic City more attractive as a tourist destination. Casinos worry that increased competition from nearby states, including those that offer slot machines at racetracks, will cut revenues.

Federal law bans sports wagering in most states. However, lawmakers here are pushing sports betting as a way to stave off a budget deficit and to help Atlantic City casinos fight competition.

Federal law allows sports betting in Nevada, Oregon, Delaware and Montana, but only the first two states offer it. Nevada has full-service sports books, while Oregon has a state-run pro football pool during the season.

The federal government gave New Jersey the opportunity to legalize sports betting in 1994, but proponents could not gather enough support and the issue never made it to the ballot for voter approval.

Legalizing sports betting seems to be a longshot but supporters say the state could overturn the federal law and they are urging the attorney general to contest the issue.

However, State Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew wants to give sports betting a shot. “The prize is worth the extra effort” according to him and Agent Neo…

Read More » Atlantic City sportsbooks still waiting at starting gate but odds are getting better

It used to be that Stanley Ho was the only face of casino gambling in Macau.

His gaming company, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM), held a monopoly of the region’s casinos, including Casino Lisboa, the largest Macau casino for the longest time.

Ho’s monopoly ended when the Chinese government opened Macau to other, especially foreign investors in the hopes of further boosting its casino gambling economy.

SJM’s share of the region’s gambling revenue has since plunged from 100% to 50%, and continues to spiral down. Foreign investors are staking some $20 billion on the new casino gambling Meccah; local investors have begun to join the battle. Casino Lisboa is suddenly beleaguered by competing casinos all around it, and they do not only woo with gambling but apply the Las Vegas mantra of fusing wagers with wow.

Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands (Sands Macau). Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts (Wynn Macau). Kirk Kerkorian of MGM Mirage (MGM Grand Macau). They are big wigs of Las Vegas casino gambling, and invested heavily in new Macau casino hotel resorts that come complete with celebrity chefs, luxury shopping, and the requisite Las Vegas style hodgepodge of tourist attractions, replicated landmarks, and…

Read More » Macau Casino Gambling: Meet the Cashing Titans

Forget fearless. This Indian tribe never signed the US peace treaty, and is now going rock n’ roll.

Meet the Seminole Indians of Florida. Newest owners of Hard Rock. Earliest ancestors of Native American Indian casino gambling. And as the so-named Unconquered People, the only Native American Indian tribe to never actually sign a formal peace treaty with the United States. Maybe it’s something about feeling invincible when in a ‘sunny state‘ but these folks are the baddest overachieving mofos of all.

Seminole Indian Casinos of Florida

The Seminole Indians are originally from Florida, where some 300 of them stayed to fight colonizers and have grown into a population of 3,100. Another 3,000 driven west of the Mississippi River set up a second home in Oklahoma, where there are now 6,000 of them. The tribe is so rooted in Florida that Florida State University sports teams are christened ‘Seminoles‘, plus a city and a county are named after them, and another county is named for tribe leader Osceola.

Peace treaty refusal is one in several historical what’s-what attributed to the Seminoles. Another is that they started…

Read More » Indian Casino Gambling – What’s Your Reservation? (Part 4)

Presenting the fiercest rock n’ roll makeover: Hard Rock transforms into an Indian casino.

The Seminole tribe of Florida, fathers of Native American Indian casino gaming — now a $22 billion a year business, is buying Hard Rock. The very expensive purchase includes Hard Rock casinos, hotels, restaurants, and what is reputed as the world’s largest collection of rock n’ roll memorabilia.

The Hard Rock acquisition is believed to be the record first by any Native American Indian tribe of a major international corporation of its size, a groundbreaking $965 million deal with a British company, Rank Group PLC. Indian casinos Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun have previously made similar if less costly partnerships with two separate non-Indian casino gaming entities.

The sale, scheduled to be completed in March 2007, entitles Florida’s Seminole Indians to owning 124 Hard Rock Cafes, four Hard Rock Hotels, two Hard Rock Casino Hotels, two Hard Rock Live! concert venues, and stakes in the Hard Rock business’ three unbranded hotels. For its part, London-based Rank has retained the Hard Rock London Casino and rebranding it into Rank Gaming.

The purchase excludes Hard Rock business owned by Morgans Hotel Group, which are the Hard Rock Las Vegas Casino and Hard Rock intellectual property in Australia, Brazil, Israel, Venezuela, and many US regions west of the…

Read More » Hard Rock Becoming Highest Paid Indian Casino

How does a card room go from pioneering to non-existent to poker celebrities hotspot?

The fate of poker at Golden Nugget Las Vegas Hotel and Casino is as dramatic as cinema; little wonder it is now attracting poker celebs as the setting of a hot new poker movie. The story so far involves Sin City history, a changing of hands, and Shannon Elizabeth.

Golden Nugget casino hotel was the place that would change the way Las Vegas poker is played. From 1946, when it opened in what is now Downtown Vegas, to 1950, it was the gamblers who dealt their own cards in no-limit poker games here. Golden Nugget was the first to introduce the center deal, in which a dealer deals the cards to players. Hence, the leap from home poker to casino poker involving dealers.

Poker had a long good run in Golden Nugget Las Vegas, and then it was dropped. For close to 18 years until April 2004, the casino hotel did not have a poker room, which makes it an even bigger deal that the card room has returned. New owners Landry’s Restaurants, which acquired Golden Nugget in 2005, spurred on a wave of improvements that includes a new poker room as well as casino, high limit slots salon, sports and race book, and keno room, plus hotel amenities.

The new Golden Nugget poker card room has relocated from the…

Read More » Las Vegas Poker Stars Now Playing at Golden Nugget

Baccarat’s winning number is the lucky 9 but Asian casino gamblers are way crazier about number 8.

Chinese gambling superstitions, like lucky number 8 and unlucky number 4, hold a key to gaining Asian casino gamblers, the newest ‘it’ group of customers in Las Vegas, Macau, and Native American Indian casinos. Combine that with popular Asian casino gambling games, like baccarat, pai gow, and sic bo, and casinos just might have a winning formula to justify their Asian dragon pits and Chinatown buses.

Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino, the world’s second largest casino, is upping its draw to Asian players with a $740 million expansion opening in summer next year. It will add 12,000 sqft of casino gaming space with 46 Asian gaming tables, and a 4,000 sqft Hong Kong style food outlet.

A new 5,000 sqft bus lobby will boost current marketing in which 50 buses transport 45 customers each daily from the nearby Boston and New York Chinatowns. For $10 round-trip, a player gets a coupon package worth $35 including a free bet and meal.

Asian & Chinese Casino Games

“20% is driven by our Asian American patrons, and that is how we run the floor. That is the same percentage of table games we are putting out there that are geared toward the Asian player,” says VP Rocco Santoro of the 2,000-plus Asian Americans gambling daily at Indian casino Mohegan Sun. Baccarat is easily the casino game of choice for Asian highrollers, but how about those who’d rather wager less? Santoro has more than a few answers.

Baccarat & Mini Baccarat are a hit among Asian gamblers with a high bankroll. The object is to…

Read More » Baccarat, Other Secrets to Winning Asian Casino Gamblers (2 of 2)

An American Indian encounter these days means yanking armed bandits in the state of California.

Las Vegas and Atlantic City are the US cities most synonymous with casino gambling, but that’s hardly the big picture. Native American Indian casino gaming is a $15 billion a year business, exceeding the combined revenues of those two cities. If you want some, your best bets are Connecticut, California, and just now, Pennsylvania.

Connecticut is Indian gaming’s reigning royalty, the wealthiest US state per capita and home to the world’s largest and second largest casinos — respectively, Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino, Indian casinos both. Pennsylvania is the newest entrant: it recently opened its very first casino, the Indian-run Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs.

And California? It is a seat of power at the West Coast, which represents the fastest growing sector of Indian casino gaming.

Pechanga Resort and Casino is not only the state’s largest Indian casino but the largest hotel casino in California, Indian or otherwise. The $262 million hotel resort is run by the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. Built in 2001, it is located on the Pechanga Indian Reservation in Temecula Valley, where it is the No. 1 employer, giving jobs to some 7,500 people.

The 188,000 sqft Pechanga Casino is also California’s biggest. It comprises 2,000 slot machines and video poker machines, over 160 gaming tables offering…

Read More » Indian Casino Gambling – What’s Your Reservation? (Part 3)

Pennsylvania, known as the Quaker State since 1776, breaks new ground with its historic first casino.

And what a first it is — legit, all hours, and from the same Indian tribe that runs the world’s second largest casino. Pennsylvania’s new Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs is a sister casino of Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino at Connecticut, next in size to Foxwoods Resort Casino (another Indian casino, also in Connecticut).

With the establishment of its first casino, is Pennsylvania poised to become another casino gambling capital of the US — just like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or Connecticut?

Recreational facilities in Pennsylvania mostly comprise zoos, like Philadelphia Zoo — incidentally, the first ever US zoo, and amusement parks, like Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom. Add casino gambling to the list now, what with the recent arrival of a casino to boost the swapping of free harness racing tips at Pocono Downs harness racing complex, located in Plains Township just outside Wilkes-Barre.

The new Indian casino is initially a $70 million slot parlor. It is two casino floors’ worth of some 1,100 slot machines, including Pocono Pennies, Lucky Lemmings, and Triple Stars. Pennsylvanians can bet anywhere from a penny to $25 per spin at the slot machines.

Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs also happens to be the…

Read More » First Pennsylvania Casino – Making a New Las Vegas?

Bodog.com’s Founder & CEO, Calvin Ayre knows using celebrities is a sure bet.

While hitching your brand to a celebrity star may be old hat in most industries, in the gambling world it is revolutionary.

Rocky Balboa Star and Philly’s adopted son Sylvester Stallone has joined the list of Hollywood stars who asked Pennsylvania state regulators for a casino license in Rocky’s hometown.

One of Stallone’s partners in Planet Hollywood International Inc., actor Bruce Willis, also recorded a video message to board members, promising that “you can expect to see me at the casino plenty.”

Casino marketing companies have found the benefits of including celebrities to their marketing list. The use of celebrities in land-based casinos can generate this already huge business into something even bigger.

Casinos are notorious for using huge marketing and people everywhere are excited to see what casino’s will do next.

The interest in marketing that online casinos have is the fact that it has done so much for the online casinos that have been using it since they were established. The financial benefits of such a thing are huge in numbers and people have obviously responded to celebrity advertising in different industries.

Gambling and celebrities have been intertwined for decades. Statistics will show what it has meant for the different units of the gaming industry including casino, poker and bingo as well as…

Read More » Casino hopefuls depend on Hollywood stars to get gambling license

Macau is pirating Las Vegas highrollers, but Vegas is hijacking middle-class Macau gamblers.

Fiercer than the upcoming Pacquaio vs. Morales boxing match, Macau vs. Las Vegas rages on as the gambling bout of the year. The world’s two busiest casino gambling destinations have been battling over Asian and Chinese highrollers, who bet big and bring in money, but no one’s forgotten about middle-class Asian and Chinese casino gamblers, who wager often and bring in money.

Newsflash: Las Vegas is reeling in Macau’s non-highrollers by developing Chinatown.

Competition heated up with this year’s forecast that Macau casinos will supercede Las Vegas gambling revenue by 2007. The deciding factor has been highrollers, known for betting in the several thousands per hand on gambling games like baccarat and blackjack. Apparently, they are regular gamblers on the Las Vegas Strip who are now being drawn to its Asian version, the Cotai Strip in Macau.

Las Vegas Strip casino hotels like Wynn, The Venetian, and MGM Grand are long the favored venues of highrollers. The same casino operators are now branching out to Asia, counting on brand loyalty to keep gamblers playing with them. That is, when in Macau, highrollers are hoped to…

Read More » Las Vegas Chinatown Steals Back Macau Gamblers