Posts Tagged ‘las vegas’
Las Vegas-Style Casinos Could Come to Florida
January 12th, 2011
Can you imagine a casino on this beach? One Florida state senator can.
The state of Florida has experienced a poker renaissance since changing its laws on the game last summer. Now there’s a good chance that the state could be become the next Nevada as legislators prepare to consider a bill that would bring full-on casinos to Florida.
State Senate President Mike Haridopolos authorized a report last year on the possible revenues that could be collected if Florida were to legalize full Las Vegas-style casinos. Yesterday that report was presented to the Regulated Industries Committee chaired by Sen. Dennis Jones, who is currently drafting legislation that would allow the state to build “destination casinos.” The committee heard about the results in 13 other states that approved expanded gambling options, such as the $1 billion generated in Pennsylvania and the $500 million collected by Louisiana each year. It also heard from lobbyists for the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and Wynn Resort Casinos, each of which is interested in building casinos with attached convention and retail properties. Vegas-style casinos would create some 5,000 to 7,000 jobs at each location, for a ceiling of 35,000 new jobs in the state.
Jones’ legislation, which would allow Florida to build four or five casino resorts offering a full range of Las Vegas-style casino games including slot machines, blackjack, baccarat and craps in addition to poker, is expected to be ready in about two weeks. Currently only some of those games are permitted in the state, and even then the locations where they can be offered are highly regulated. Casino companies would have to pay $50 million just to bid for the right to build a casino in the state; in return the winning bidder would receive an exclusive contract to operate casino games in a 75-mile radius.
Earlier this week Haridopolos said he thinks the chances of the legislature approving expanded gambling this year are about even money. However, some fellow legislators think that the state’s compact with the Seminole tribe would prevent non-Indian casinos from being built, while others are convinced the state would have to pass a constitutional amendment to allow to construction of the casinos. The uncertainty means there will be plenty of debate on the bill, but the possibility is an exciting one for those who hate taking a long flight to Las Vegas to get their gamble on.
Hard Rock Las Vegas Settles Drug Charges for $650,000
December 31st, 2010
Las Vegas will Rock a little less Hard for the foreseeable future.
The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has a pretty solid reputation as one of Sin City’s premier party places – and it seems it’s a reputation that’s well-deserved if the hotel’s recent settlement with the Nevada Gaming Control Board is anything to go by.
The NGCB accepted a $650,000 settlement with the Hard Rock yesterday over charges that the casino’s employees sold drugs to patrons and let them use private nightclub bathrooms for sex and drug use. Among the charges included in the case against the Hard Rock were that undercover police officers paid security guards $80 to allow them to smoke marijuana in a bathroom, and that they were able to buy cocaine and ecstasy from nightclub hosts on multiple occasions. One such incident reportedly involved a nightclub host arranging the sale of 7.2 grams of cocaine to police officers in exchange for a kickback.
The $650,000 settlement – $500,000 as punishment, $150,000 to reimburse the NGCB and police for their investigation – didn’t require the Hard Rock to admit to the charges, which allowed it to avoid a hearing where its gaming license could have been revoked. However, the casino was required to state for the record that regulators would have been able to prove their case had a hearing been held. Joseph Magliarditi, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino’s CEO, released a statement saying that the hotel takes the issues seriously. “We remain committed to conducting our operations in accordance with all gaming regulatory requirements,” he said.
Chris Klodnicki Leads WSOP Circuit Regional Championship
December 22nd, 2010
Philadelphia’s Chris Klodnicki seeks his second WSOPC title in Atlantic City later today.
The World Series of Poker Circuit Eastern Regional Championship being held at Harrah’s in Atlantic City has seen its field whittled down from a starting tally of 136 players to just nine. Now it’s time for the players to take their game in front of the cameras for everyone to see just what they’re really made of.
Leading the way when play resumes later today will be Chris Klodnicki, who holds 759,000 in chips and has had an incredible year on the WSOP Circuit. Klodnicki won the WSOPC Main Event in A.C. last December, took fourth place in the WSOPC Main Event at Caesars Atlantic City earlier this year, and finished 15th in this year’s Midwest Regional Championship at Horseshoe Hammond.
Right behind Klodnicki is Chris Bell with 706,000 in chips. Bell won his first WSOP bracelet this summer, and he is enjoying the single best year of his eight-year poker career with more than $650,000 in earnings so far. Other notables at the final table include two-time WPT final tablist Todd Terry (307,000) and reigning WPT Legends of Poker champ Andy Frankenberger (230,000). Just missing out on the final table was 10th-place finisher Matthew Waxman, who last week won the $1,600 WSOPC Main Event in Atlantic City for $117,797. The others who cashed but missed the final table were Beth Shak, Victor Ramdin, Brett Richey, Frank Calo and Eugene Katchalov, all of whom earned at least $21,600 for their efforts.
With the final table lineup now officially set, nine more players have booked their trips to Las Vegas in May for the WSOP Circuit National Championship. Regardless of where they finish, each of them is guaranteed $32,362 for this Regional Championship and a shot at the largest share of a $1 million prize pool at Caesars Palace next spring. In the meantime, though, they’ll all have their eyes on the $358,295 top prize that goes to the winner in A.C. later today.
Poker Reality Show Young Guns Coming in 2011
December 21st, 2010
More reality TV about online poker players could be coming to your cable box soon.
If you loved 2 Months, 2 Million but don’t want to wait for those guys to wrangle up another cable network to follow them around, you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for a new show called Young Guns.
The show follows four online pros – Chris Jackson, Chris Sparks, Jarran Joshu and Seth Otterstad – as they live their lives in the world of professional poker. Sounds familiar, right? Pretty much, though the show’s approach does differ a bit from last year’s big poker reality show sensation. For instance, instead of living in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker like 2M2M, the Young Guns play online poker in Los Angeles when the WSOP isn’t running. And instead of living in a posh, fully appointed Vegas condo, the Young Guns are living in a posh, fully appointed $7 million mansion owned by some dude named Chris Murphy, whose role is apparently “the guy who goes around annoying the hell out of the poker players by having a fit over everything they do.” Seriously, this guy missed his calling when he was born too late to play the square who tries to keep the cool cats from having a good time in a 1960s beach movie.
The show is really pretty standard stuff for reality TV about poker, and it looks interesting enough apart from the jerk landlord. You can check out the trailer for the show, which was apparently linked from Rounders 2 production house Miramax, at the top of this post. The producers are still searching for a network to air Young Guns but there’s a good chance the entire 13-episode run could be at your Tivo-ing fingertips sometime next year.
Man Steals $1.5 Million in Bellagio Chips
December 15th, 2010
Las Vegas police released this video of the Bellagio robbery suspect on YouTube.
A gunman robbed a craps table at Bellagio early on Tuesday, making off with $1.5 million in chips from the world-famous casino.
Las Vegas police say that the man, dressed in a leather jacket and full-faced motorcycle helmet, walked into the casino’s pit area around 3:50 a.m. and demanded the chips from the pit crew. The crew complied, giving him chips of numerous denominations, including the $25,000 “flag” chips. Once he had the chips in hand, he fled the casino and sped away on a motorcycle. “It was a very quick, in-and-out type of job,” Lt. Mark Reddon told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Gordon Absher, a spokesman for MGM Resorts International, which owns the Bellagio, noted in a statement to the Las Vegas Sun that casino chips aren’t the same as cash and that they have no monetary value until they are redeemed. Absher also failed to confirm whether or not the Bellagio uses RFID radio frequency devices in its casino chips, meaning that the thief – or whoever buys the chips from him, assuming he can sell them – might be caught the moment he tries to redeem the chips.
The scene at Bellagio was very similar to that of a robbery at the Suncoast poker room just last week, where a man in a motorcycle helmet made away with some $20,000 in chips. That was the ninth casino robbery in Las Vegas this year, making the Bellagio heist the tenth.
Vanessa Rousso Selling Her Lamborghini on eBay
November 30th, 2010
Buying this car is guaranteed to turn you into one of the top female players in the world.
Vanessa Rousso is good-lookin’, incredibly smart, very good at poker and owns a Lamborghini. And if you think that’s just not fair, don’t worry. She’s still going to be hotter, smarter and better at poker than us, but at least she won’t get to zip around the streets of Las Vegas in that sweet ride anymore.
Yes, the poker pro has put her 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo up for auction on eBay. There’s no reason given and no explanation of any kind, but with over $2.5 million in tournament winnings (and lots and lots in sponsorship earnings), you have to hope she’s not selling it to raise rent money. And it’s most likely not because the car’s worn out – according to the ad it only has 12,875 miles on it. Everything from the dashboard to the trim is rated as excellent, and it’s had no known accidents.
And if you want this car for your own bad self, make your way over to the eBay ad and put in a bid. The sale’s only on for 16 more days, so you better hurry. As far as price goes, the asking price right now is a friendly $126,500. But if that’s too steep, they do have a little spot where you can put in your own lower bid and then cross your fingers.
Larry Flynt Wants to Open a Las Vegas Casino
November 23rd, 2010
One question: can we cash in those G.W. Bush 9-11 bills for chips at Flynt’s casino?
Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt has been playing for high stakes in the casino pits and poker rooms of Las Vegas since the 1970s. Now he says he wants to open his own casino in Sin City.
In a recent interview with Las Vegas television station KLAS-TV’s investigative reporter George Knapp, the longtime Hustler magazine publisher talked about his latest business venture, the Hustler Club. Billed as the most expensive gentlemen’s club ever built – reports say it cost some $30 million to construct – the four-story, 70,000-square-foot strip club towers over the surrounding area on Dean Martin Drive and serves as Flynt’s foothold in the Las Vegas business landscape. As impressive as the Hustler Club might be, Flynt said that he only built the club because the time isn’t right yet for him to build his own Las Vegas casino.
In order to open his own casino in Las Vegas Flynt would have to be granted a gaming license by the state of Nevada. He told Knapp that he doesn’t think he’d have any trouble getting one because his only felony conviction – an obscenity charge in Ohio for publishing Hustler, the battle over which was chronicled in the Academy Award-nominated 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt, starring Woody Harrelson – was eventually overturned.
If Flynt were to open his own casino in Las Vegas, it would be actually be the second casino in his empire – he opened the Hustler Casino in Gardena, Calif., south of Los Angeles, back in 2000. And chances are that any Flynt-owned gambling house in Vegas would feature a sizable poker room to keep the boss man happy, quite likely attracting top poker pros with the lure of the kind of high-stakes action Flynt enjoys. If that sounds like too much of a stretch to believe, consider that the second-largest score of respected pro Barry Greenstein’s 18-year tournament career came back in 2003 when he defeated Flynt heads-up in a seven-card stud event at Hustler Casino sporting a $125,000 buy-in.
For now Las Vegas high-stakes poker pros will have to cool their heels waiting for the prospect of a Larry Flynt-owned casino. In the meantime you can probably find at least a few of them hanging out at the Hustler Club – and odds are they’re won’t be looking for a poker game.
WSOP Parent Harrah’s Cancels Planned IPO
November 19th, 2010
And things were looking so bright just a month ago…
Harrah’s Entertainment, the parent company of the World Series of Poker, has canceled a planned initial public offering of stock less than one month after announcing the move.
The IPO was intended to raise more than $500 million that would pay for a number of projects, including the completion of the unfinished 660-room Octavius Tower at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and an investment in the joint development of two of the four casinos approved last year by voters in Ohio. Some analysts had pegged the value of the proposed IPO at more than $1 billion last month when it was first announced, but either that number was either way too large or the market has shifted dramatically since late October – Harrah’s canceled the IPO over fears that it would be priced too high to bring in the kind of money the company needs.
There’s no word yet on what the company plans to do about the projects it had intended to complete, or whether it will attempt another IPO at any point in the near future. However, at least one private investor is planning to pull its backing of the company – Paulson & Co., a hedge fund which accepted more than 30 million shares of Harrah’s this summer in exchange for giving the company a cash infusion, is planning to sell off its share. At least Harrah’s still has the WSOP and its long-term contract with ESPN.
Joe Tehan Wins Big in Los Angeles
November 18th, 2010
A coin flip here, a coin flip there, and a big LA win for Joe Tehan.
Las Vegas poker pro Joe Tehan entered yesterday’s final table of the NAPT Los Angeles main event squarely in the middle of a pack of highly talented poker players. With Chris DeMaci holding a big chip lead and tournament powerhouse Jason Mercier in second place you could be forgiven for discounting Tehan’s chances and betting the field – but you would’ve ended up on the losing end of that bet, because Tehan eliminated all seven of his opponents en route to his second live tournament win of 2010.
Tehan’s run was the stuff dreams are made of. He got off to a great start when his K-K held against DeMaci’s A-K before he lost part of his newfound chip stack with 7-7 to Anh Van Nguyen’s Q-Q. From there, though, the Las Vegas pro cruised at this California final table. It’s often tough just to win one coin-flip with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, but Tehan won three consecutive flips to eliminate Jake Toole (A-Q vs J-J), Mercier (J-J vs A-K) and Michael Binger (A-J vs T-T). Now holding a commanding chip lead, Tehan took out Nguyen (holding A-Q) and Ray Henson (holding A-J) in the same hand with K-5, eliminated Al Grimes with J-9 vs 8-7, and finished off DeMaci with K-T vs K-4 to grab the $725,000 top prize.
It was fitting that Tehan’s latest big score came in Los Angeles. His first career live poker tournament victory came in LA back in 2006 when he won a preliminary event at the LA Poker Classic for $179,605. Since then he has made six more final tables in the City of Angels, including the recent Commerce Hold’em Series Championship Event. The NAPT win, though, is easily his biggest LA score to date, and the second-largest of his entire career behind his 2006 WPT Mandalay Bay Poker Championship victory.
With his win at the NAPT Los Angeles, Joe Tehan moves over the $3 million mark for career live tournament winnings. That puts him into some select company – right around him on the all-time money list are former world champions Chris Moneymaker and Tom McEvoy, Brazil’s all-time money leader Alexandre Gomes, two-time WPT champ Cornel Cimpan and all-around superstar Patrik Antonius.
World’s Third Largest Bank Opens Vegas Casino
November 17th, 2010
The “Big Stacks of Gold Bars” theme-room at Deutsche Bank’s casino hotel.
In general, huge multi-national banks tend to focus on things like borrowing, lending and giving mortgages to anyone with $200 in a savings account. What they don’t often do is open massive casino hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. But the Deutsche Bank, the world’s third largest, is playing against form and getting into the gambling game.
The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas opens for business on December 15th of this year. It’s a massive two tower, 3,000 room complex that features all the usual restaurants, nightclubs and slot machines. The opening night party will have Jay-Z and Coldplay providing the entertainment. And national TV ads for the new hotel feature, among other things, a bottomless hotel bellboy, and the tagline: “Just the right amount of wrong.”
So, you might ask, what the hell’s going on? Why is a huge international bank pouring their own money into a glamorous Sin City casino? And the answer to that is that it’s all because they were a little free and easy with a loan a few years ago. They lent the original developer of the property about a billion dollars back in the early stages of the project. But that developer defaulted on the loan, leaving the bank in a tight spot. Instead of auctioning off the partially-built property at a loss, Deutsche Bank decided to sink a few more bucks (only another $3 billion or so…) into it and run the thing themselves.
To make sure the hotel is top of the line, the bank hired their own engineers, architects and interior designers. And though they didn’t actually build any rooms out of gold or stacks of hundred dollar bills, the hotel’s definitely going for an upscale vibe. And not a stuffy, bank-esque feel either… according to hotel management, they’re trying for “relaxed luxury”.
