Monthly Archives: January 2015

Full Tilt Announces $60K "Cash Knockout" Promo

New promotions created by online poker sites often fall somewhere between standard and amazingly creative, but a recently announced promo at Full Tilt is nothing short of a knockout.

A total of $60,000 is on the line in Full Tilt’s “Cash Knockout” promotion that offers payouts in three separate leaderboard races. But the leaderboard winners are not determined by player points racked up, as has been the industry norm. Instead, points are earned by knocking out opponents on ring game tables.

Players need to opt in to the promo that gets underway on Friday, February 6 and runs for 10 days through Sunday, February 15. Each player that you bust on the No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha ring game tables is good for one point. That includes action on the Rush Poker cash tables.

A knockout is counted when you leave a player with $0 in cash at the conclusion of a hand. But each player can knock out a particular opponent only once, even if they reload and end up hitting the canvas with $0 in cash again due to your winning hand.

The Aussie Millions Main Event Roundup

The Aussie Millions Main Event is underway, but much of the action at the hottest poker festival Down Under has already wrapped up. Early events have been underway since January 14, providing plenty of drama and big wins in the run-up to Australia’s largest poker tournament. Gill Finally Scores a Win One of the most […]

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Nevada casinos have downer December, stop reporting online poker revenue

Nevada casinos had a downer December, with gaming revenue falling 8% to $950.7m. Things were much worse on the Las Vegas Strip, where revenue fell 16.4% to $555.2m thanks to declines in both turnover and win rate at the baccarat tables.

This marks the fifth straight month Strip gaming revenue has declined, while statewide revenue has fallen for four out of the past five months. For 2014 as a whole, the Nevada Gaming Control Board reported statewide gaming revenue fell 1.1% from 2013′s figure to just over $11b. Again, the Strip posted a larger decline, falling 2.1% to $6.37b.

December’s baccarat revenue was down 38% year-on-year to $150.2m as win rate dropped four points to 11%. Blackjack revenue rose 9.4% to $89.9m, while roulette brought in $34.8m (+21.4%) and craps earned $30.8m (+2%). The rest of the table games ranked as follows: three-card poker ($12.2m, +2.8%), pai gow poker ($10.2m, +2.5%), mini-baccarat ($3.8m, -63%), let it ride ($3.3m, +10.6%), keno ($2.1m, -6%), pai gow ($1.3m, -1.6%) and bingo ($1m, +92%). Slots revenue was flat at $559m.

Poker games earned $9.2m, down 4.4% year-on-year. The mid-November withdrawal of Ultimate Gaming from the state’s regulated online poker market means the number of licensed operators fell to two: Caesars Interactive Entertainment‘s WSOP.com and SouthPoint’s RealGaming.com. The Nevada Gaming Control Board requires three operators to be actually dealing cards in order to report revenue stats, so there is no December online poker revenue figure to report.

In a recent interview with Vegas Inc., Nevada Gaming Commission chairman Tony Alamo offered a frank assessment of his state’s ability to host a viable online poker market. Alamo said online poker needs liquidity and “we do not have the population base to do it just within our state.” Alamo said Ultimate Gaming’s demise suggested “the writing’s on the wall that it’s very pessimistic right now” unless the federal government were to allow interstate online gaming. “Until you do that, it’s not financially viable.”

Nevada’s sportsbooks did not have a great December, but the books set new records for win ($227m) and handle ($3.9b) in 2014. Football wagers topped $1.74b, of which the books kept $113.7m. In contrast, basketball win fell 8.4% to $54.2m and baseball win fell 27% to $21.2m.

December’s football revenue was down 16.2% to $16m on a 5.8% hold, but the books are up $98m on football since September. December’s basketball numbers were up 22.2% to $8.3m but laggard baseball bettors cashed in $1.5m worth of winners, parlay cards fell 6.9% to $2.6m and the race books dipped 8.4% to just under $3m.

Donaco International pays $360m for Star Vegas casino in Poipet

Australian-listed casino operator Donaco International has officially agreed to acquire the Star Vegas Resorts & Club (pictured) in Poipet, Cambodia. Donaco, which operates the Aristo International Hotel and casino in Lao Cai, Vietnam, teased the markets in November with an announcement that it was eyeing a Cambodian acquisition. Donaco says the acquisition should be complete by April.

Donaco will pay US $360m for the Star Vegas property, consisting of $40m in cash-on-hand, $120m in equity issued to the vendor, a $100m new bank debt facility and $100m in equity financing. Donaco offered scant detail on the identity of the vendor, saying only that “key casino management staff are ex-Genting.” Donaco itself is headed up by two nephews of K.T. Lim, the CEO of the Malaysian-based Genting Bhd conglomerate.

The vendor will continue to manage the property for the next two years and has agreed to provide a warranty that Star Vegas will generate at least $60m in EBITDA in each of the next two years following completion of the acquisition. The vendor has agreed to make up any shortfalls in this guarantee in cash. The vendor won’t be paid the usual management services fee but, assuming the property meets its $60m EBITDA target, the vendor will receive a 25% chunk of net profit after tax. The vendor has also agreed to sign a non-compete clause with Star Vegas.

Star Vegas was launched in 1999 and features four hotels with 385 rooms in total. The casino boasts 109 gaming tables and 1,284 electronic gaming machines (EGM), of which 288 are owned outright by the property and 976 are subject to profit-sharing deals. The casino hosts an average of 5k visitors per day and has a database of 3,500 “premium-rated” players. It also features a licensed sports bar, online gaming and lotto licenses plus multiple restaurants and retail facilities.

Star Vegas is one of nine casinos in Poipet that offer a combined 768 gaming tables and 3,874 EGM. Poipet is located on Cambodia’s border with Thailand and thus represents a wholly different market from the Lao Cai casino, which primarily draws customers from China. Thai gamblers don’t require visas to enter the Poipet special economic zone and the casinos use Thai baht as the default currency.

Donaco generates annual earnings of around AUD $16m (US $12.5m) from its newly expanded Lao Cai property and Donaco believes Star Vegas will boost annual revenues by 480% and earnings around 300%. Donaco CEO Joey Lim called the acquisition “a compelling opportunity for Donaco shareholders” given Star Vegas’ status as “a well-established and highly successful business with an enviable market position and excellent growth prospects.”

Donaco also provided a trading update on its Aristo property, saying revenue had risen 50% to $11.7m in the December quarter. Aristo expects to turn a small profit but corporate activity will result in a small loss at the group level. Aristo inked three new junket operators from Malaysia in December and two more junkets from Macau and Shanghai commenced operations in January. Aristo now has 33 approved junkets and management hopes to “more than double” that number in 2015.

Sen. John McCain wants congressional hearings on legal sports betting

Legal sports betting shouldn’t be the sole property of Nevada, according to US Senator John McCain (R-AZ). During an interview on Thursday with EPSN Radio (listen here), hosts Andy Katz and Rick Klein asked McCain whether Nevada’s monopoly on legal sports betting in the US was appropriate. McCain said the hosts had “an excellent point and that’s why it is a national issue.”

McCain said he had “no problem” with the idea that states which had already authorized legal gambling, including on Indian reservations, should have the option of offering legal sports bets as well. McCain said “we need a debate in Congress. We need to have a talk with the American people and we need to probably have hearings in Congress on the whole issue so that we can build consensus.”

McCain’s stance will be welcomed by New Jersey’s federal representatives, who have been proposing legislation for three years running that would lift the 1992 PASPA federal prohibition on single-game sports wagers outside Nevada but their efforts have up to now gone largely unnoticed by their Washington peers. The American Gaming Association (AGA) recently stated that the betting prohibition was “clearly failing” and even National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver has been beating the drum for a federal rethink of Nevada-only betting.

McCain, a known fan of craps games, qualified his betting support by saying he was against online betting, whether on sports or other forms of gambling like poker (although he does enjoy the free-play variety). McCain also voiced concerns over how to protect gamblers from “corruptive influences that could take advantage.”

Finally, McCain said he’s picking the New England Patriots to win this Sunday’s Super Bowl, noting that he had “mixed emotions about [Seahawks cornerback Richard]. Sherman,” given the Seattle team’s rivalry with the Arizona Cardinals.

NMSU agrees to offset tuition left unpaid by Lottery scholarship

LAS CRUCES >> More than 2,000 students at New Mexico State University breathed a collective sigh of relief on Thursday when the university announced that it will pay the difference between tuition costs of the spring semester and the amount covered by the state’s Legislative Lottery Scholarships for students attending NMSU’s Las Cruces campus. Because of changes enacted in the 2014 state legislative session, NMSU students who qualify for the Legislative Lottery Scholarship now receive only 95 percent of the average tuition for four-year comprehensive universities in New Mexico, leaving NMSU students to pay as much as $129 out of their own pocket, or though other means of student aid.

Lindsey Graham 2016 Presidential Bid Could Impact Online Poker

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced on Thursday that he has formed an exploratory committee to examine his chances at securing the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election. Graham’s organization, officially known as “Security Through Strength,” will test the waters to see whether the 59-year-old senator has the popularity and fundraising ability to challenge the […]

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