Monthly Archives: July 2016

Larry Flynt’s new California casino logo draws fire from local prudes

A provocatively dressed woman perched above the entrance of Larry Flynt’s latest California casino is drawing fire from local prudes.

Last week, Hustler adult entertainment founder Flynt was revealed as the buyer of the Normandie Casino in Gardena. The Normandie’s former owners were forced to sell out after being caught engaging in some questionable financial transactions with high-rolling customers.

When the sale was announced, Flynt’s team confirmed that its new property would be rebranded as Larry Flynt’s Lucky Lady Casino when it opens this Monday (18). But now that the rebranding is underway, local Gardena City Council members have found their knickers in an uncomfortable bunch.

The logo features a cartoon woman wearing what appears to be either a one-piece swimsuit or a low cut cocktail dress. The woman sits astride the two upturned stems of the “Y” in the word Lucky, hands on her knees, legs visible only from the side.

UK gambling operators can’t advertise on Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload reboot

Tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom plans to relaunch his Megaupload file-sharing site but UK-licensed online gambling operators better not be caught advertising on it.

The New Zealand-based Megaupload.com was shut down in 2012 after Dotcom was indicted by US authorities for allowing US-held copyrighted material to be stored on the site. Dotcom, who continues to fight extradition to the US, recently tweeted that he plans to relaunch the site on Jan. 20, 2017, five years to the day that the original site was shut down.

The new site will reportedly feature encrypted storage and involve Bitcoin technology. Specifics weren’t disclosed, but Dotcom claimed that “Megaupload and Bitcoin had sex. There is a pregnancy and I have a feeling that the baby will be such a joy.”

Before Megaupload was unceremoniously yanked offline, online gambling operators had been among its biggest advertisers. The PartyGaming brand of UK-listed online gambling operator Bwin.party (since acquired by GVC Holdings) spent over $3m advertising on the site between 2009 and 2011, accounting for roughly 1/8 of Megaupload’s total advertising revenue.

UK gambling operators can’t advertise on Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload reboot

Tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom plans to relaunch his Megaupload file-sharing site but UK-licensed online gambling operators better not be caught advertising on it.

The New Zealand-based Megaupload.com was shut down in 2012 after Dotcom was indicted by US authorities for allowing US-held copyrighted material to be stored on the site. Dotcom, who continues to fight extradition to the US, recently tweeted that he plans to relaunch the site on Jan. 20, 2017, five years to the day that the original site was shut down.

The new site will reportedly feature encrypted storage and involve Bitcoin technology. Specifics weren’t disclosed, but Dotcom claimed that “Megaupload and Bitcoin had sex. There is a pregnancy and I have a feeling that the baby will be such a joy.”

Before Megaupload was unceremoniously yanked offline, online gambling operators had been among its biggest advertisers. The PartyGaming brand of UK-listed online gambling operator Bwin.party (since acquired by GVC Holdings) spent over $3m advertising on the site between 2009 and 2011, accounting for roughly 1/8 of Megaupload’s total advertising revenue.

WSOP Day 41 Recap:  Phil Ivey Joins the Mainstream, “SLARKDUCK” Wins Online Bracelet

If you’ve been waiting all summer for Phil Ivey to show up in Las Vegas to compete in a World Series of Poker event, you were sadly disappointed. Until now. Ivey finally came to the Rio on Monday to play in the Main Event, Day 1C, which was also the last day for entries. Ivey […]

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Mass. Lottery may offer online games

In response to declining sales among digitally savvy young adults, the Massachusetts State Lottery is calling on lawmakers to open a new gambling frontier — lottery games offered around the clock on mobile devices and computers.Massachusetts, Legislation, Technology, Online Ticket Sales, Government

Paradise Co. Ltd’s profit likely to bounce back in Q3 after slumping

Profits of South Korea’s largest casino operator Paradise Co. Ltd. is likely to bounce back in the third quarter of 2016 after seeing losses last year.

This was the prediction of Seoul-based brokerage Shinhan Investment Corp. as it said that Paradise will post “sharp earnings improvement” in the third quarter based on a low comparison base from the prior-year period.

Analyst June-won Sung expects Paradise to report consolidated sales of about KRW189.9 billion (US$165.5 million) for the third quarter of 2016, which is 33 percent higher than the KRW 143 billion (US$124 million) it posted in the third quarter of 2015.

He also believes that Paradise’s operating profit will surge by 139.9 percent year-on-year to KRW 27.5 billion (US$ 23.99 million).

High court orders sale of stranded HK casino ship to pay off crew’s wages

The casino cruise ship that brought a sea of troubles—pun intended—in Hong Kong will soon be sold in an auction.

On Tuesday, the city state’s High Court ordered the New Imperial Star to be put up for auction and its proceeds will go towards the unpaid wages of the cruise ship’s 46 crew members, the South China Morning Post reported.

The 12,586-tonne casino ship was used to shuttle Chinese clientele from Hong Kong into international waters where gambling was legal, but the cruise business nosedived in 2015 after Beijing announced its crackdown on corruption and the gambling sector. In October, the ship was detained in the harbor near Kai Tak Cruise Terminal for failing inspections, and that’s where it remained anchored until this day.

The ship’s 46 crew workers—20 from Ukraine, 18 from Myanmar, and eight from China—were stranded on board since November because the ship’s owner, Arising International Holdings, failed to pay their wages or airfares.

Former Yomiuri Giants pitcher admits to betting illegally

Shoki Kasahara, a former pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants, has admitted to participating in illegal gambling.

The 25-year-old arrested in April on charges of placing wagers on 15 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Japanese high school games. Kasahara admitted to the charges during Monday’s hearing at the Tokyo District Court, Reuters reported.

The former professional baseball player allegedly helped Satoshi Saito, a former restaurant operator, with his betting scheme by collecting money from several former Giants players, including Satoshi Fukuda and Ryuya Matsumoto. Kasahara reportedly encouraged Kyosuke Takagi to bet on eight or nine games between April to May 2014, while he himself bet on between 10 and 20 professional and high school baseball games that year as well as played mahjong and golf for money.

Kasahara, Fukuda, and Matsumoto were banned indefinitely from playing after admitting to betting on games, while Takagi received a one-year ban—a relatively lighter sentence “due to the brief period of his involvement after cutting off ties with Kasahara,” according to Japanese media outlets.

The World Series of Poker Will Not Save Caesars

In March 2004, Caesars Entertainment Corp, then Harrah’s, bought the Horseshoe Club Operating Company for $37 million. That acquisition included the World Series of Poker brand, the growing and immensely popular annual poker party beloved by gamers and for good reason. That’s perhaps one of the saddest things about the ongoing Caesars bankruptcy mess. The company really does have some good assets, and one cannot blame them for the black hole they are currently in. Caught red handed by the central bank-induced business cycle they had no hand in creating, they initiated a leveraged buyout just at the exact time that money supply was collapsing and that is what caused Caesars to fall from grace. Now they have great assets surrounded by debt fuelled by years of profligacy aided and abetted by money printing that unfortunately stopped just as Caesars was making its major moves.

Can the WSOP save Caesars from what’s to come? Namely the stripping of their assets at some point in favor of creditors who are equally justified in demanding their money back? A look at the numbers and the assets in play in this bankruptcy case says no. How much is the WSOP worth today? Based on current market valuations and offers already made, here’s the math.

Harrah’s made a very good investment in buying the WSOP brand name. There is no dispute regarding that. But much like a portfolio where losses outweigh gains, a handful of good moves cannot make up for one big blunder. The WSOP is part of Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE), one of the segments that Caesars is fighting tooth and nail to hold on to in exchange for dumping the worthless Caesars Entertainment Operating Company on everyone else, the bankrupt shell with all the bad debt.

CIE revenues for 2015 were $766 million. Legendary investor Jim Rogers once said that 99% of professional investors do not read public filings, and 99.9% of them do not read the footnotes on public filings. If you read both, says Rogers, you are automatically in the know above 99.9% of professional investors who are supposed to make money picking winners. Since the WSOP is not its own segment, there is no direct number that can be quoted out of Caesars 10-K annual report to anchor the value of the WSOP. But there is a footnote that 99.9% of people, according to Rogers, did not read. Of the $766 million in CIE revenue for 2015, $616 million was foreign revenue. That means anything other than US dollars.

Iowa Bucks Trend with Gambling Profit Growth

Iowa’s commercial gambling industry is bucking the downward revenue trend of other U.S. States as its revenue grew by $21.6 million in fiscal 2016.

Citing annual reports filed before the Racing and Gaming Commission, news website Globe Gazette reported that the Hawkeye State’s 19 state-licensed gambling operation posted a total of $1.437 billion-worth of gross adjusted revenue.

The newly opened Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson – which adds a full year’s worth of business of nearly $26.9 million – and the $13.1 million profit surge of Sioux City’s Hard Rock Casino helped fuel the modest fiscal revenue growth of Iowa. Iowa gambling revenue peaked at $1.466 billion three years ago.

Commission Administrator Brian Ohorilko pointed out that Iowa’s commercial gaming industry has exceeded expectations since the Hawkeye State launched the first modern-era riverboat casinos 25 years ago.

How Fedor Holz Was Able to Win the ONE DROP High Roller And Why You Can Too

As Fedor Holz breaks into the Top 10 All Time Live Tournament money earners, Lee Davy investigates how he was able to achieve this feat in only four years.

Fedor Holz has achieved more in poker in four years than most of his peers will achieve in a lifetime.

Does this mean he is a savant?

Was he born with a freakish genetic disposition to play poker?

Big One For One Drop Moves to Monte Carlo Proving Charity is the Star; Not Poker

The World Series of Poker and the One Drop Foundation has announced plans to host the third iteration of the Big One For One Drop but with a twist. The event will be held in Monte Carlo, it will be an invitational, and professional poker players will not be invited proving that charity is the star; not poker.

In 2007, Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, created the ONE DROP Foundation, a Montreal based non-profit with a vision to provide every inch of this planet with a clean and accessible water supply.

“One person dies every 20-seconds from not having access to clean water. That is how and why the ONE DROP was born,” Laliberte told Green Global Travel during a 2013 interview.

In 2012, Laliberte, a keen poker player, teamed up with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) to create an ambitious plan to host the largest buy-in event in the history of poker – a $1m buy-in event called The Big One for ONE DROP with $111,111 from each buy-in being donated to the ONE DROP Foundation.

Sweden’s largest gold dealer’s bank accounts shut down: Is it time for bitcoin?

Another opportunity for bitcoin use has emerged.

Tavex Guld and Valuta is considered to be the largest gold and silver dealer in Sweden. However, the dealer announced that its bank account had been closed by Swedish bank SEB without its consent, leaving the dealer without any way of accepting payments.

“This decision has, unfortunately, been made without first consulting us, and in addition to state in its notification letter that the decision to close our account due to “a general business decisions,” they have not yet given us any concrete reason why they decided to take this measure,” Tavex said in a notice posted on its website lasted June 30.

Tavex, the largest wholesale supplier of physical notes and investment metals in Sweden, believes it has become a target for the Swedish bank, which has been working towards a “cashless society.”

US gov’t defends decision granting MA tribe casino lands

Casino opponents and state representatives have locked horns during Monday’s court hearing of a petition challenging the Department of Interior’s September 2015 decision to award a disputed land to the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe.

The Associated Press reported that opponents of the $1 billion First Light Casino project accused the federal government of misconstruing the federal Indian Law in order to grant the 300 acres of casino land to the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe.

First Light Casino, a project of the Cape Cod-based tribe and its Malaysia-based partners the Genting Group, broke ground in Taunton in April, months after a group of local residents filed suit seeking to block the project.

Critics argued that the court should strike down the decision of the federal government to award the casino land to the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which they claimed was anchored on an “ungrammatical” reading of the federal Indian Law.