Plans for a new resort headed by Crown Resorts‘ James Packer and former Wynn Resorts president Andrew Pascal on the north end of the Strip have been disclosed.

Details came out after Alon Leisure Management LLC filed papers with Clark County in May for various permits and land entitlements. The partnership includes Packer and Pascal as co-chairs along with investment firm Oaktree Capital Management as an equity partner.

Plans showed a two-tower, 1,100-room project called Alon Las Vegas to be built on the vacant 34.6-acre site just north of Fashion Show mall, where the New Frontier once stood. Packer’s group acquired the property almost a year ago.

The architectural drawing shows that two buildings will be built—the VIP Tower and the Resort Tower–as well as the villas, the “Black Box Theater,” a nightclub, a ballroom and a pool. Other details such as the property’s main features and amenities and the cost estimate were not disclosed.

We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there. A bottom in Macau could come in the next few months. We can take follow the broader Chinese indexes for clues. Once China bottoms, Macau will probably bottom with it, if not on the same day, then probably very close together.

If we take a look conceptually at what has happened in Macau, it has basically been a legislative liquidity drainage as opposed to one dictated by monetary policy from above. Corruption crackdowns, capital controls, money laundering investigations and the like, these are all legislative or executive methods of accomplishing the same thing that Central Bank monetary policy accomplishes with the printing press and the vacuum. While the People’s Bank of China can accomplish it at the source by controlling money flows, the government can only accomplish it by sticking itself in between business exchanges and trying to stop the flow of money once it’s already out of the hands of the PBOC. In the end, what matters is money supply. Whether it’s being choked off by anti-corruption police or by the PBOC doesn’t matter.

For too long the PBOC has been schizophrenic on its monetary policy. It has not committed to print or to drain, but has essentially been doing both for about 2 years now. The Wall Street Journal documents the latest confused moves, when last week the Central Bank drained funds from banks by selling debt in order to prevent excess cash from flooding stocks, and then yesterday moved to lower interest rates when they suddenly discovered (amazingly) that stocks were crashing.

It seems too late now to stop the decline. There will be major up days and major down days, but the trend from here is more likely down. Macau will be taken down further with it.

PokerStars All-In Kitchen are back with a second course of culinary delights, after deciding to open a pop-up kitchen in Bristol, designed to give winning punters a free gob of grub.

PokerStars piss me off sometimes.

I often think of that monochromatic spade claiming its red as it’s driven into the head of the less superior. I am not alone. But when it comes to innovation you have to say that they produce a glint in a constellation of online poker rooms that is matched by none other.

At the turn of the year, some bright spark decided to mix the delights of poker and food when they created the first PokerStars All-In Kitchen experience. The largest online poker room in the world partnered with Jones & Sons, and the temporary abode would be a pop up kitchen in Haggerston, London.

Keven Stammen defeats Joe Serock in heads-up action to win the Season 3 Hollywood Poker Open Main Event at the M Resort in downtown Las Vegas.

Keven Stammen is a giant both in terms of his physicality, and his ability to dominate a poker table. He is a Triple Crown winner in waiting, and yesterday added another major title to his resume after winning the Hollywood Poker Open

[Image Credit: PokerNews]

(HPO) Season 3 Championship Main Event at the M Resort in Downtown Las Vegas.

Bitcoin online gambling site Primedice has revealed how a scammer exploited a software flaw to take the site for over $1m worth of bitcoin last year.

In a confessional post on Medium, a Primedice principal identified only as Stunna revealed that the heist took place shortly after the site debuted the third version of its software last August. A new user named ‘Hufflepuff’ quickly became the site’s biggest betting whale, wagering up to $8k worth of bitcoin “every second for hours on end.” Even more surprising was that Hufflepuff continually managed to beat the 1% house edge.

Convinced something was amiss, the site delayed Hufflepuff’s cashouts while they attempted to figure out what angle he was playing. Unable to pinpoint any overt chicanery, they reluctantly released the funds, and on it went. Hufflepuff kept betting and winning big. All told, Hufflepuff won and withdrew over 2,400 bitcoin, worth over US $1m at the time.

Eventually, Primedice’s digital detectives discovered the exploit. Primedice offers one simple game in which a bettor essentially wagers on whether the roll of a dice will be above or below a certain value. The site shows players an encrypted random value before the players submits his own value and decides how much to wager. Once the bet is made, the encrypted value is exposed to the player and the outcome of the wager becomes clear.

Lee Davy chucks a green juice down his throat whilst bringing you news from the 33rd day of the 46th Annual World Series of Poker: including a bracelet win for Kevin MacPhee, Jacqueline Scott becomes the second female winner of the series, and Daniel Colman is on familiar ground in the One Drop.

Kevin MacPhee is one hell of a poker player.

He has won titles all over the world, amassed over $4.1m in live tournament earnings and close to $7m playing online; but he badly wanted a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet. He came close a few weeks ago, finishing fourth in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event, and now he finally has one.

MacPhee topped a field of 454 players in Event #56: $5,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold’em. It was a new event, it created a total prize pool of $2.1m, and the 34-year old from Idaho walked away with $490,800 after beating Igor Yaroshevskyy in heads-up action.

The Philippine Court of Appeals has dealt a body blow to Robert Gustafsson’s criminal conspiracy.

In November 2013, Manila police raided several business process outsourcing (BPO) companies that provided support services to Philippines-licensed online gambling operator Bodog Asia.

The search warrants were obtained using information provided by Gustafsson, the company’s ex-CEO, who claimed the operator was taking wagers from Philippines residents in violation of its gaming license.

The company, which claims Gustafsson was dismissed earlier that year for incompetence, flatly rejected the allegations. It requested and was granted a temporary restraining order preventing police, prosecutors and the judge who issued the warrant from pursuing any further legal action using the evidence seized during the raid.