Casino City Times
Online lottery wagers to reach $76 billion by 2022
A study from Juniper Research says that the proliferation of mobile offerings and the opening of markets will cause the increase.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Poker Veteran Wins First WSOP Circuit Gold Ring at Hard Rock Tulsa
Casino News Daily
Poker Veteran Wins First WSOP Circuit Gold Ring at Hard Rock Tulsa
Tittjung was the last man standing from a field of 345 entries who played over two days at the host venue. The event’s field generated $103,500 in prize money, which organizers distributed to the top 36 finishers.
The tournament attracted several WSOP Circuit celebrities including ten-time gold ring winners Maurice Hawkins and Valentin Vornicu. However, an eleventh gold piece evaded them in the $365 No-Limit Hold’em Double Stack. The players were eliminated in 11th and 10th place, respectively, shortly before the end of Day 1, played on Monday at the host casino.
Their swift elimination also set the official nine-handed final table. Tittjung was second in chips at that point with 1.082 million. Micheal Cooper was leading the final 9 players into the final table with 1.2 million.
Day 1 of the tournament was completed with seven players left in contention. Tittjung had managed to emerge as the chip leader by that time. The player had 2 million in chips at the end of Day 1 and was the only finalist to have cracked the two-million mark.
Tittjung maintained his good run on Day 2 to eventually win the tournament and the coveted WSOP Circuit trophy. The player played heads-up against three-time gold ring winner Justin Gardenhire. The latter scooped a payout of $14,717 for his deep run last night.
A Little More about the Winner
While the player may have cashed only twice in the WSOP Circuit series, poker is a game he knows very well. The 72-year Oklahoma-based retiree cut his teeth back in the 1970s on five- and seven-card stud.
Speaking with WSOP stuff minutes after his triumph last night, Tittjung said that he hoped he would continue his good streak throughout the WSOP Circuit series’ ongoing event. The player further noted that he loved the challenge that poker presented to him as a mind game.
The latest member of WSOP Circuit’s winners club is a frequent visitor to his home state’s casinos. With decades of experience, he has completed multiple tournaments and has clashed against poker celebrities, including multiple-time WSOP gold bracelet winner and former WSOP Main Event Champion Scotty Nguyen.
The WSOP Circuit Hard Rock Tulsa is set to run through March 26 when the Main Event will be completed. The $1,675 buy-in event kicks off tomorrow at the host venue. It will feature a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million.
The post Poker Veteran Wins First WSOP Circuit Gold Ring at Hard Rock Tulsa appeared first on Casino News Daily.
Black Oak Casino introduces concert series
Casino City Times
Black Oak Casino introduces concert series
Beginning 25 May and running through October, the concert series will help bolster the casino's image as a premier entertainment destination.
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
The MGM economic indicator is flashing red again
Casino – CalvinAyre.com
The MGM economic indicator is flashing red again
MGM customer volumes are falling again. That means the MGM economic indicator is flashing red. Back in July 2014 I introduced this little technique here as one part of a triangle for predicting a shift in economic trends. As the largest employer in Las Vegas and still primarily a Las Vegas company, customer volumes at MGM can be used as a proxy for the amount of money flowing through Las Vegas as a whole. In turn, the amount of money flowing through Las Vegas can be seen as an indicator of overall economic health in the US. If volumes are rising at MGM, credit is rising and boom times are continuing. If customer volumes are falling, credit is falling and the economy may be in trouble.
Due to the pitfalls of using only a single indicator for assessing these trends, I suggested a triangulation approach back in 2014. The second part of the triangle is the money supply coming out of the Federal Reserve, and the third is economist Andrew Lawrence’s Skyscraper Index, which he proposed in 1999. That is, the construction of the world’s tallest building tends to coincide with recessions.
Last week we discussed how the second part of the triangle, money out of the Fed, is already faltering, and this during a time of the year when it typically is not a problem. Now, the third part of the triangle might be in place as well. In a January article, CNN wrote an expose on one monstrosity of a skyscraper, Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower, what would be the world’s tallest building scheduled to be completed by 2020 and standing just over 1 kilometer high. If and when completed, it will put the Tower of Babel to shame. It will cost about $1.4B to complete.
Interestingly, a modern reading of Biblical story of the Tower of Babel can reinterpret the tale as the world’s first recession. Everyone gets together for an enormous construction project, but it is never completed and the economy breaks up again as people return to more earth-bound interests, AKA the consumer sector. In recessions, grand projects get put on hold and people return to their more basic needs. Granted it’s probably not the intended message of the story, but it fits well enough.
Back to MGM, volumes there have been decreasing for the last half year. In its latest 10-K, the company revealed that Las Vegas visitor volume decreased 2% in 2017. Table drop and slot handle together are essentially flat (up less than a tenth of a percent), and with win percentage slightly higher than 2016, it means that ceteris parabus volume is indeed falling not just in terms of the amount of people going through the place generally, but also in terms of the amount of people gambling.
Further, for the first 3 quarters of 2017, Las Vegas visitor volume decreased 1%. For that number to reach 2% by the end of the year means that the pace of decline is picking up. The reason that this hasn’t shown up yet in MGM’s top line is that REVPAR has increased 4%, making up for the decline.
Back in 2016, this wasn’t the case. For the full year, visitor volume increased 1% and REVPAR was up 6% over 2015. And for the first three quarters, volume was up 2% and REVPAR up 7%. So we definitely have an indicator flashing red here. In 2007, as described in my 2014 introduction to the MGM indicator, volumes were flat for the full year, and the next quarter the situation quickly worsened. Things won’t unfold in exactly the same way this time as they almost never do, but customer volumes out of MGM need to be watched carefully when MGM reports its next earnings at the end of next month.
MGM stock was remarkably resilient to Wall Street’s broad-based fall yesterday March 20th, with shares up 0.8% on the day. Clearly, this time MGM is not part of the speculative mania, which back in 2008 was centered on the Nevada housing market that got absolutely destroyed in the Great Recession, and MGM was very close to the center of the action. If we are indeed closing in on the next recession though, I doubt MGM will suffer the same fate as last time falling sub $3. It’ll fall, but not nearly as hard as it did in 2008. Keep in mind MGM is still about 60% below its 2007 all time highs. It’s not going to reach them, and there is no parabola this time. This time the parabola is in the bond markets all over the world.
Still, there is no fundamental reason to keep holding MGM anymore. While top line is up, operating income is down because of higher SG&A expenses indicating possible price inflation and EBITDA is down 16.5%. The biggest reason that MGM had such a great bottom line in 2017 is the Trump corporate tax cut. But since Trump is not cutting spending but rather paying for that tax cut by further tapping the already extremely overextended bond markets, the benefits to corporations are a short term illusion.
MGM had a good run, and it was a good buy back in February 2016. Shares are up 73% since then. There isn’t much more room to run here if any. The US stock market is getting really shaky and profits should be taken. If the boom isn’t over yet, it will probably be over soon. My call is before the end of this year.
The post The MGM economic indicator is flashing red again appeared first on CalvinAyre.com.
Bulgarian Slot Machine Hackers Arrested after Pulling Off Sophisticated Scam
Casino News Daily
Bulgarian Slot Machine Hackers Arrested after Pulling Off Sophisticated Scam
The operation was carried out by GDCOC’s cybercrime unit. The four arrested individuals were found out to have devised a particularly sophisticated scheme for obtaining remote access to gaming machines at casinos and halls. They were thus able to manipulate the outcome of slot machine games and generate large profits in the process.
Each of the four individuals was assigned to a particular role. One of them had to simulate playing on slot machines, while the others accessed the machines remotely to meddle with the games’ outcome. Another member of the organized crime group had to secure the remote access and thus control the gaming devices.
There was also a person among the arrested individuals who was responsible for crafting the electronic devices that manipulated remotely the gaming machines’ software.
The four individuals were arrested shortly after they had hacked the slot machines at yet another casino and had collected their winnings from it. GDCOC also seized a large amount of money and different devices used by the organized crime group to meddle with the slot machines.
The detained individuals are set to be forwarded to judicial institutions and charged under Bulgarian law.
Other Major Casino Scams
In 2012, a New York crime ring that comprised between 50-70 individuals was found to have devised a roulette scam and to have successfully ripped off multiple casinos across the United States before eventually being caught in Ohio.
In the scam, players (members of the gang) entered a roulette game with extremely low bets. Some of the players pocketed chips of one color or another while another player was tasked with distracting the dealer. A player at the roulette table then excused themselves to hand the chips stolen to another gang member. That another member then used the stolen chips to play at tables where their value was significantly higher. The player was thus able to cash out at the new and higher rate.
The group reportedly acted for years. Its activities were eventually uncovered in Ohio. The Ohio Casino Control Commission said back then that members of the group were able to collect between $1,000 and $2,000 per scam at the state’s casinos. However, it was hard to determine how much exactly the gang managed to rip off casinos across the country over the course of its activities.
The post Bulgarian Slot Machine Hackers Arrested after Pulling Off Sophisticated Scam appeared first on Casino News Daily.
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