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Wow! Interesting idea. May be time to buy IGT stock. I would think this would definitely attact a bunch of people who thought they were good at Centipede when they were young.
New skill-based casino slots play for video gamers
By HANNAH DREIER Associated Press
Published: Sep 27, 2013 at 7:43 AM PDT Last Updated: Sep 27, 2013 at 10:31 AM PDT
New skill-based casino slots play for video gamers
Gaming industry representatives sit to play the Centipede video game slot machine at the Global Gaming Expo, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Atari's 1981 hit Centipede is an antique in the video game world, but it's the hottest new thing in the casino industry.
Slot machine manufacturers are rolling out a raft of games inspired by the penny arcade, hoping to attract middle-aged gamblers with a dose of nostalgia and the promise of finally cashing in on all those hours spent in front of a screen.
A Centipede slot machine to hit casino floors soon is more than just a clever licensing deal, or a sign of gambling's cosmetic change from one-armed bandits to touch screens and digital music. It's part of a new generation of models that let users show off a rare casino trait: skill.
The game, developed by International Game Technology, the industry's largest slot manufacturer, converts points earned shooting digital insects directly into money. If two gamblers sit down at an identical machine, the better shot will walk away with more cash.
At the gambling industry's annual trade show in Las Vegas this week, a stream of men in suits sat down to try out the new game. Bodies swaying around a joystick, they maneuvered their character on an overhead screen, dodging spider attacks and shooting at creepy insects amid a flurry of "pew pew" sounds.
IGT's competitors are taking note.
Several manufacturers, including WMS and Aristocrat, say they are working on incorporating skill into their own games. Bally Technologies is approaching the trend differently, trying to bring back high score pride. Two of its newer games, Skee-Ball and Total Blast, let players log their initials on a scoreboard. The player doesn't get paid out directly in cash, but can monitor the standings on Facebook.
"The casino would love it if players are like, 'Oh I got beat! I have to go back and play some more to get in the lead,'" Bally spokesman Mike Trask said. "If they were 15 years old in 1985 playing against their friends, trying to get the highest score, that person is almost 50 years old now, and they're right in the demographic."
Industry honchos hope the new breed of games will help slots beat their reputation as "day care for the elderly." The games are normally marketed toward women ages 55 to 65.
"I grew up playing Atari and Nintendo, and I want to believe my skill in these games has some effect on the outcome," said Geoff Freeman, the 38 year-old head of the American Gambling Association. "Let me play Madden football, let me play EA Hockey. We'll put $20 down, the winner gets $15 and the house gets $5."
It's an appealing idea for gamers, but unlikely to come to fruition because casinos make far more money when gamblers play against the house, as opposed to each other.
Skill will still only take you so far even with the new brand of slots. The flashing, singing machines - sometimes called "beautiful vaults" because they are the most profitable game a casino can put on its floor - are only marketable if they can retain a consistent portion of wagers, usually somewhere between 5 percent and 20 percent.
No matter how much of a joystick master a Centipede player may be, he or she will still have to get lucky to reach the bonus round.
Nevada regulators have seen an uptick in the number of slot machines incorporating skilled bonus rounds, according to Gaming Control Board engineer Joel Eickhoff. But the state will only approve games that are more slot machine than video game.
Advocates who work around gambling addiction worry the shoot 'em up bonus rounds could hurt "escape gamblers," who use wagering as a narcotic to forget about real world dilemmas.
"Any design feature that encourages increased play has the potential to affect problem gamblers," said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.
The dynamic has some of IGT's competitors predicting recreational players will tire of video game conceit.
Several years ago, Bally rolled out a Pong slot machine that let players bounce a rudimentary ball during bonus rounds. But the interlude never boosted winnings more than 4 percent.
Skilled Centipede players will be able to increase their winnings far beyond that, and future games may raise the payout for hand-eye coordination eve more, IGT game designer Keith Hughes said.
"We're figuring out how to deliver video games to players in a wagering environment, and this game is helping us figure out the best way to do it," he said.
In 10 years, millennials who played Grand Theft Auto in college dorm rooms in the 2000s might find their old favorite blinking on the casino floor, a perfect storm of vices.
Casinos tap intelligence network to beat cheaters
By MICHAEL MELIA, Associated Press
Published: Sep 22, 2013 at 12:36 PM PDT
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) - The man at the poker table had a ball cap pulled down almost to his nose, but his glance up at a television screen revealed a familiar face to Mohegan Sun's surveillance cameras: A photograph of the known card cheater had been sent by bulletin to casinos around the country.
Within hours, the bettor was arrested, accused of marking cards with invisible ink.
"The officer who identified him, basically she had a 'Holy crap!' moment," said Jay Lindroos, the casino's surveillance director. "She saw the face and said, 'I recognize that guy!'"
Casinos from the U.S. to Australia use their own intelligence network to warn one another about cheaters. As table games spread across the Northeast, resorts are using it more than ever to stay ahead of suspect players - professional thieves and card counters - who can easily hit multiple casinos in the span of a few days.
Mohegan Sun, one of the world's largest casinos, began sharing intelligence a decade ago with its giant, next-door rival in southeastern Connecticut, the Foxwoods Resort Casino. Although it was once less common for casinos to talk with competitors, the online network has evolved through mutual self-interest.
"If something happens at Foxwoods at 1 o'clock, we'll be aware of it no later than 2, 2:30," said Joseph Lavin, director of public safety for the Mohegan Tribe, which owns and operates the casino. "It won't take more than a day or so before that information goes to Atlantic City, goes to Pennsylvania, goes out to upstate New York."
The element of luck makes it impossible to know exactly how much revenue is lost to cheaters, but 100 percent casino surveillance coverage is a security standard for a U.S. industry that generates tens of billions of dollars annually.
Workers at Mohegan Sun monitor feeds from roughly 4,000 cameras, scrutinizing the dealers as closely as they do the players. On a given day, they could be on the lookout for as many as hundreds of faces, some pointed out by other casinos, others by law enforcement agencies seeking criminals who might be trying to launder money.
If a camera picks up somebody who's been flagged for possible cheating, security officials said they'll watch the person play before taking any action.
The man arrested Sept. 15, Bruce Koloshi, 54, was the subject of a security bulletin issued two weeks earlier by officials in Louisiana. He had cheating convictions in Iowa and Nevada and was facing charges in Louisiana that he marked cards last month at the L'Auberge Casino in Baton Rouge.
After the surveillance officer spotted him, Koloshi was seen moving his hands away from the Mississippi Stud poker table, allegedly for the marking substance, and cameras detected the ink that wasn't visible to the naked eye. Koloshi wore special contact lenses to see the ink, authorities said. He was arrested and charged with cheating, conspiracy to commit larceny and being a fugitive from justice. His bond was set at $300,000.
When he was questioned in Louisiana, he surrendered $3,300 in winnings though authorities did not have enough evidence to charge him at the time, according to Capt. Doug Cain, a spokesman for Louisiana State Police. Mohegan Sun officials said Koloshi was arrested at their casino before winning a significant amount.
A person who answered the phone at Koloshi's home in Summit, N.J., declined to speak with a reporter. His defense attorney was not available for comment.
The warning about Koloshi was relayed by the Division of Gaming Enforcement in Delaware, where table games were introduced in 2010. The division's director, Daniel Kelly, said information sharing has increased as Northeastern states have legalized more types of gambling. It also has become more important, he said, because cheaters have so many potential targets in a small geographic area.
"Within an hour, they can be in three or four different states," Kelly said.
High-level casino cheats are considered rare, but Mohegan Sun officials say they frequently see card counters and other "advantage players," people who are not breaking the law but have skills that bend the odds in their favor. Lavin said card-counting techniques were glamorized by the story of a group of MIT students who scored big wins at casinos, including his, in the 1990s.
One tell-tale sign for surveillance workers is gamblers placing higher bets than might be expected with the hands they're dealt. When card counters are discovered, Lindroos says, the casino will restrict their play by keeping them to betting the minimum or suggest they try a different game.
"The professionals, as soon as they see somebody walking over toward them, they'll say, 'OK, I'm out of here,'" Lindroos said.
Because Washington State's Ex Gov. made a deal we get NO revenues from all the casinos here while we the tax payers SUBSIDIZE THEIR ACTIVITIES.
The old saying follow the money definitly comes into play here in Washington State. Other states use common sense & tax them just like any other business.
Moody's: Established gambling markets faltering
By HANNAH DREIER, Associated Press
Updated 1:17 pm, Friday, September 20, 2013
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Established gambling towns like Las Vegas and Atlantic City are hurting as more states start welcoming bettors' dollars, Moody's Investors Service warned this week.
The credit rating agency issued a report describing a shift in casino tax revenues away from New Jersey, Indiana and Nevada to new markets in places like Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio.
The recession crushed gambling revenues across the county, and casino towns have been slow to bounce back.
"The previously recession-proof Nevada gaming market has seen only a partial recovery since the recession," the report stated. Moody's warned that the state general fund could be in trouble if neighboring California legalized casino gambling.
While casino taxes make up less than 1 percent of New Jersey's revenue, they account for a quarter of Nevada's general fund.
In Atlantic City, where the national recession exacerbated an existing drop in visitors, gambling tax revenue has declined every year since 2006. Mississippi, home to riverboat casinos, has seen a 7.7 percent decline in gambling tax revenue over the last 10 years.
Meanwhile, struggling states have opened the doors to games of chance. Among those that have expanded legalized gambling in recent years are Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, West Virginia and Delaware.
All this is more bad news for states that previously enjoyed casino monopolies.
Pennsylvania, which has a casino market a quarter the size of Nevada's, now collects more gambling taxes than any other state. The state took in $1.5 billion in such revenue last year.
Moody's predicts these trends will continue as more states harness gambling as a new source of revenue. The result could be a redrawing of the market share and tax revenue landscape.
Casino owners have been working to draw visitors to their gambling centers with lavish clubs, high-end restaurants and outdoor novelties like the world's biggest Ferris wheel, which is under construction along the Las Vegas Strip.
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Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier .
Federal government indicts 42 in casino case
By Associated Press
Published: Sep 16, 2013 at 5:55 PM PDT
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - More than 40 people have been indicted in Eastern Washington, accused of conspiring to steal more than $100,000 from a Yakama Nation tribal casino through a promotional event.
The federal indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Yakima contends that most of the 42 people collected winnings ranging from $250 to $2,500 in a series of rigged drawings. Prosecutors allege that at least one of those indicted was a casino employee.
Yakama Nation Chairman Harry Smiskin said Monday that the tribe asked the federal government to investigate the case and aided the investigation. He said the arrests were carried out Thursday and Friday.
The Yakama Nation operates the Legends Casino in Toppenish, about 25 miles southeast of Yakima on the Yakama Indian Reservation.
Royal Baby Odds: Betting Agencies Take Bets On Names
By DANICA KIRKA 07/22/13 11:18 PM ET
LONDON — Bookies cashed in big Monday as thousands of Britons placed bets on what Prince William and his wife, Kate, would name their newborn child.
Ladbrokes took 50,000 bets in the hours after the Duchess of Cambridge went into labor Monday morning. Company spokesman Alex Donohue said the public rushed to put small amounts of money, such as a pound, on the royal infant's name because they "want to be involved."
"Never underestimate the British public's obsession with the royal family," he said. "This is such a big story. And besides, it's summer. The weather is good."
For much of the day, the money was on Alexandra for a girl and James or George for a boy. Late Monday, it was announced that Kate had delivered a son, though there was no word on the name.
Betting agency Coral described it as the biggest non-sporting betting event in the company's history, with gamblers racing to wager on everything about the new heir to the throne.
"The whole world has been waiting for Kate to go into labor and now that she has, we have witnessed another betting frenzy," said Nicola McGeady, spokeswoman for the firm, in the hours before the birth was announced.
The betting went well beyond the name.
Paddy Power took bets on the color that Kate's sister, Pippa Middleton, will wear when she comes to visit.
Ladbrokes had odds of 33-to-1 that the new heir, who would be third in line for the throne, would represent Great Britain at the Olympics. It's not that far-fetched – equestrian athlete Zara Phillips, the queen's granddaughter, won silver at the 2012 London Olympics.
The public may have to wait, though, to cash in their betting slips. It is not uncommon for royals to take their time naming babies: Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip waited for a month in the case of Prince Charles.
This guy loses it after losing 6.5K on slots.............
http://www.komonews.com/home/video/Man-takes-axe-to-slot-machines-after-losing-6500-216483691.html
Bill to legalize web poker introduced in Congress
By HANNAH DREIER, Associated Press
Published: Jun 6, 2013 at 4:34 PM PDT
In this Oct. 4, 2011 file photo, casino industry representatives and exhibitors watch an online poker game during industry's G2E conference in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Gamblers who prefer their laptops to blackjack tables could soon get a boost from Washington.
Republican New York Congressman Peter King proposed federal regulations Thursday that would rescue online gambling from the legal gray zone where it currently languishes.
The federal government cracked down on online poker in 2011. But the same year, the U.S. Justice Department issued a ruling making online gambling legal so long as it's permitted on the state level.
Congress flirted with an online gambling bill last year, but industry infighting and partisan disagreement ultimately doomed it. When that legislation failed, states began moving ahead on their own.
Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have legalized some kind of online gambling, and legislatures in other states are weighing the issue.
Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2020, online gambling in the U.S. will produce the same amount of revenue as Las Vegas and Atlantic City markets combined: $9.3 billion.
But a larger, more fluid market is needed to drive up pots and create a robust stream of tax revenue.
King says his measure, called the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2013, would help states and players to navigate the world of online betting with confidence.
"A common federal standard will ensure strong protections for consumers, protect against problem and underage gambling, and make it easier for businesses, players, lawmakers and regulators to navigate and freely participate," he said in a statement.
The bill would create an office of gambling oversight in the Treasury Department, impose uniform safeguards against underage and compulsive gambling, and facilitate interstate online wagering. Individual states could continue to ban the practice, or refuse to collaborate across their borders.
The gambling lobby has been pushing for uniform federal legislation, warning that a patchwork of state laws will make it impossible for the global corporations that run the gambling industry to do business.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., pursued federal Internet poker regulation last year but ultimately gave up before even introducing the legislation.
"We spent the last four years working very, very hard to get in a position to support such legislation if it was introduced," said American Gaming Association CEO Frank Fahrenkopf. "So we're now left in a situation where Kyl, who was very important in the process, has retired, and you've got a multitude of states starting to pass legislation. So we think the urgency is even more important now."
The lobby, which historically supported an online poker only strategy, is expected to decide whether to change its stance and support the King bill at a meeting next month.
This summer could see a relative flood of online gambling bills.
Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton plans to introduce online poker legislation by the end of next month, according to his spokesman Sean Brown.
And Reid, who once called the passage of an online poker bill, "the most important issue facing Nevada since Yucca Mountain," continues to work on new legislation with Republican Nevada senator Dean Heller.
Casinos ban gamblers from using Google Glass
By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press
Published: Jun 5, 2013 at 2:51 PM PDT
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Casinos in several states are forbidding gamblers from wearing Google Glass, the tiny eyeglasses-mounted device capable of shooting photos, filming video and surfing the Internet.
Regulators say the gadgets could be used to cheat at card games.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement issued a directive on Monday ordering Atlantic City's 12 casinos to bar casino patrons from using the device. The directive was first reported by The Press of Atlantic City.
Similar bans are in place at casinos in Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Connecticut, among other places.
"If these eyeglasses were worn during a poker game, they could be used to broadcast a patron's hand to a confederate or otherwise be used in a collusive manner," David Rebuck, the division's director wrote in a memo to the casinos.
That type of use would constitute a crime in New Jersey. But it would be difficult to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the glasses were actually being used to cheat, Rebuck wrote. For that and other reasons, he decided to ban the glasses on the casino floor and anywhere else gambling is taking place.
"Even if the glasses had not been used for cheating ... their presence at a gaming table would lead to the perception that something untoward could be occurring, thereby undermining public confidence in the integrity of gaming," he wrote in the directive.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Google said, "We are thinking very carefully about how we design Glass because new technology always raises new issues." It said its "Glass Explorer" pilot program "will ensure that our users become active participants in shaping the future of this technology."
The New Jersey casinos must ask anyone wearing the glasses to remove them, and can kick out any customer who refuses.
The prohibition against photography or video filming in the casinos is not unique to Google Glass. New Jersey regulators require five days' advance notice — and explicit approval from the gaming enforcement division — for any type of photos or videos to be shot on the casino floor, and Las Vegas has similar restrictions. But as a new technology, the glasses are catching the attention of regulators, who are updating their rules to keep pace.
In Las Vegas, Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts have directed their security workers to ask patrons to remove the devices before beginning to gamble.
Caesars spokesman Gary Thompson said Las Vegas guests will need to take off their glasses when they hit the tables.
"Gaming regulations prohibit the use of computers or recording devices while gambling, so guests can't wear Google Glass while they're gambling," Thompson said. "The devices will also not be able to be used in showrooms."
The edict will also be applied at casinos in Cincinnati and Cleveland.
In Pennsylvania, state regulators plan to advise its 11 casinos that an existing regulation prohibiting gamblers from using electronic devices at a table game also applies to the Google Glass, a Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board spokesman said Wednesday.
Mohegan Sun in Connecticut also bans the devices on the casino floor.
___
Associated Press writers Hannah Dreier in Las Vegas, Amanda Lee Myers in Cincinnati, Marc Levy in Harrisburg and Stephen Singer in Hartford contributed to this story.
Online poker is back: Legal website launches in Nevada
By HANNAH DREIER, Associated Press
Published: Apr 30, 2013 at 8:13 AM PDT Last Updated: Apr 30, 2013 at 11:41 AM PDT
A sample poker game is played on the soon-to-be launched Ultimate Gaming website.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Poker devotees will soon be able to skip the smoky casino and legally gamble their dollars away on the couch — at least in the state of Nevada.
A Las Vegas-based social gambling company is expected to launch the first legal, real-money poker website in the United States on Tuesday morning.
The site, run by Ultimate Gaming, will accept wagers only from players in Nevada for now, but likely represents the shape of things to come for gamblers across the country.
Internet poker, never fully legal, has been strictly outlawed since 2011, when the Department of Justice seized the domain names of the largest offshore sites catering to U.S. customers and blacked them out.
This crackdown, dubbed "black Friday," left poker fanatics with two options: They could either get dressed and visit a visit a card room, or break the law and log into an offshore site.
More recently, the federal government softened its stance on Internet betting, and three states — New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada— have legalized some form of online wagering within their borders.
With Tuesday's launch, Nevada wins the race to bring Texas Hold 'em back to the Internet.
"There was black Friday, and now we're going to have 'trusting Tuesday,'" said Ultimate Gaming CEO Tobin Prior. "Players won't have to worry if their money is safe. They are going to be able to play with people they can trust and know the highest regulatory standards have been applied."
The site, UltimatePoker.com, will look familiar to anyone who participated in the poker craze of the 2000s. Only the account setup and login process have changed. Instead of checking a box certifying they are older than 18, players will have to endure a lengthy account setup process involving a Social Security number and a Nevada address. Only those older than 21 will be allowed to play.
Ultimate Gaming and the two dozen other companies still fine-tuning their Nevada poker sites hope they will win the trust not only of players, but of regulators and politicians.
"It's an opportunity to show the world how to properly run online poker," Ultimate Gaming chairman Tom Breitling said.
Several cash-hungry states are weighing legislation that would allow them to tap into what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar market. Some bills would legalize only poker, as Nevada has, while others would throw open the gates to all casino games, including slots, as New Jersey and Delaware have done.
Earlier this year, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval approved legislation that gives him the ability to sign deals with other governors to facilitate interstate Internet gambling.
Online gamblers around the world currently wager an estimated $35 billion each year, according to the American Gaming Association. A fully realized U.S. online poker market could generate $4.3 billion in revenue its first year, and $9.6 billion by year five, according to London-based research firm H2 Gambling Capital.
Still, with federal efforts to legalize Internet poker stalled, it may be a while before a critical mass of states link together to lure professional players back from overseas and drive up jackpots.
Nevada, a state of just 2.8 million, attracts 47 million visitors a year— more than the population of California. But who wants to go on vacation just to fire up their laptop and play some virtual cards?
"I think the real excitement will be when we get a very populous state like a California or a New York allowing these companies to expand," ITG casino analyst Matthew Jacob said. "But these changes often take longer to occur than people assume. It requires a change in law and then it takes a while from when the law passes until the sites are up and running."
Prior says he intends to make Ultimate Poker profitable within a matter of years, in part through cross-promotion with mixed martial arts giant Ultimate Fighting Championship. The companies share a common owner: Frank Fertitta III and his brother Lorenzo, who also own Station Casinos Inc., an extensive chain that caters to locals in Las Vegas.
The Ultimate Poker logo has enjoyed prime placement in the UFC fight octagon for months. The Ultimate Poker Facebook page, which steers fans to a zero-stakes version of the site, features a mix of UFC glamour shots and stock images of guys in hoodies staring into laptop screens.
"When you look at the demographic of the UFC fan and the online poker player, it's almost a perfect overlap," Breitling said.
In the coming months, Ultimate Gaming will have to prove that its technology and 111 employees can prevent minors and out-of-state players from wagering real dollars, and guard against money laundering.
It will also have to pay 6.75 percent of its revenue in Nevada state taxes.
It's unclear how much of a boon the new market will be to the cash-strapped state. In 2012, the Pew Center on the States analyzed 13 states that had recently legalized new types of gambling, and found that more than two-thirds of "failed to live up to the initial promises or projections."
The gambling industry is hoping the return of Internet poker will revitalize interest in the game and help brick and mortar casinos capture a younger market.
The rise of Internet poker is generally credited with helping spark the poker fad of the last decade. The end of online gambling is thought to have helped quash interest in the game.
In the coming months, the industry will be watching closely to see if poker players come flocking back from their new hobbies, replacement computer games and illegal offshore gambling sites.
"This is a really huge moment for our company, the state of Nevada and the gaming community," Breitling said. "We're hoping to make poker fun again."
If you are so stupid to not know the camera's are focused on where the chips are at least if you going to be brainless do it for more than $5.00 chip.
Watch his lawyer argue it's from taking to many shots to the head in football.
I do think that is his only defense.
$5.00 chip? LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!
Broncos safety Quinton Carter arrested in Las Vegas.
By: Associated Press | More Experts
Published: Mar 14, 2013
LAS VEGAS — Denver Broncos safety Quinton Carter is facing felony charges in Nevada alleging that he cheated at a craps game last weekend at a Las Vegas-area casino, authorities said Thursday.
Carter, 24, was arrested late Saturday at the Texas Station casino in North Las Vegas. Security officials reported he was videotaped adding a $5 chip to three bets after the dice already rolled, according to a police report. Carter denied wrongdoing when police arrived.
Carter faces three counts of committing a fraudulent act in a gaming establishment, a felony in Nevada that carries a possible sentence of one to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He provided a North Las Vegas address when he was booked at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas and released with a Monday court date.
A message left at the North Las Vegas home wasn't immediately returned.
Carter also faces a warrant charging him with failure to complete counseling after pleading guilty in a 2011 misdemeanor marijuana possession case, according to court records.
It wasn't clear if Carter posted bail or if he had a lawyer.
A Broncos spokesman, Patrick Smyth, said in Denver that the team was aware of the matter involving Quinton Carter and was gathering more information.
Carter, who attended Cheyenne High School in North Las Vegas, was an All-American at the University of Oklahoma and was drafted in the fourth round in 2011 by the Broncos.
He started at free safety his rookie year in 2011, but injured a knee last summer and missed most of the 2012 season.
PokerStars Atlantic City bid sparks battle with older casinos
By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press
Published: Mar 11, 2013 at 8:40 AM PDT
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - A bid by the world's largest online poker website to buy an Atlantic City casino is touching off a battle with brick-and-mortar casinos.
The parent company of PokerStars is buying The Atlantic Club.
But The American Gaming Association, representing traditional casinos nationwide, is urging New Jersey regulators to reject the bid, claiming PokerStars "was operated as a criminal enterprise."
The company agreed last year to pay $547 million to the U.S. Justice Department and $184 million to poker players overseas to settle a case alleging money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling. It admitted no wrongdoing, and says it is in good standing with governments around the world.
The New Jersey Casino Control Commission on Wednesday will consider whether to let the gaming association participate in PokerStars' licensing hearing.
As trend wanes, Vegas casinos fold on poker rooms
By HANNAH DREIER, Associated Press
Published: Feb 28, 2013 at 7:54 AM PST
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Tropicana hoped to step back into the big leagues when it opened its poker room in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, touting it as the coolest in town.
But that same morning, federal agents shut down the three biggest online poker sites on the Internet. Last September, less than a year and a half later, the iconic casino quietly swapped out its green felt tables for slot machines.
It's a story that's become increasingly common as the crackdown on Internet gambling weakens poker's appeal, and the casinos that once competed to lure fans of Texas Hold 'Em abandon the waning game in favor of more lucrative alternatives.
Poker has never been a big moneymaker like slot machines or roulette. But when the game's popularity soared during the 2000s, casinos were willing to forgo the extra dollars to get players inside their buildings.
Now the calculus is shifting. In Sin City, epicenter of the poker craze, at least eight rooms have folded in the past two years. The trend is also playing out in Mississippi riverboats, Indian casinos and gambling halls near big cities from California to Florida.
Poker's proponents insist the game remains as popular as ever, and some larger casinos say their rooms are bustling.
In a statement this month announcing the World Series of Poker lineup, executive director Ty Stewart said the summer bonanza in Las Vegas would be an "affirmation about the strength and global appeal of the game."
But the spate of poker room closures on the Strip has some wondering whether the largest gambling trend to sweep the country in 25 years may be losing momentum.
"I just think the allure of poker is lessening," said William Thompson, author of the encyclopedia "Gambling in America" and professor of public administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "That's one reason the smaller casinos would just say, 'Hey it's not worth all the time to set everything up. A slot machine would do a lot better.'"
Poker revenue has been falling in Nevada since 2007, the year after the federal government first cracked down on virtual gambling and forced online companies to close or relocate offshore.
The recession hobbled casinos across the board, but while winnings from other games began to pick back up in 2010, poker revenue continues to slump by an average of 6 percent a year, according to annual reports from the state Gaming Control Board.
Poker revenues stacked up to $123 million last year, down from a high of $168 million in 2007.
Entries in the World Series of Poker's main event also took tumble in 2007, falling by 28 percent from a high of 8,773. Entries have only topped 7,000 once in the years since.
On April 15, 2011, the federal government took its strongest stand yet against the semi-legal world of internet poker, blacking out three major sites on a date later dubbed "Black Friday."
No longer could fresh crops of poker players develop their games online.
The Tropicana hotel-resort, which was remaking itself with several major renovations at the time, opened its new poker room the same spring day.
"Poker had gone through a dramatic popularity phase. It grew really quickly. And we jumped on board," said Fred Harmon, chief marketing officer for the casino that sits on a busy Strip intersection opposite the MGM Grand and New York New York.
The decision to replace the room with slot machines last fall was pure economics, Harmon said.
"I think every company over the last several years have had to look at what they do and what makes money," he said.
Casinos across the country are making the same calculation.
Sam's Town in Tunica, Mississippi, closed its poker room in January, citing the economy. The Seminole Casino Hollywood near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., replaced its room with slots in September.
Indian casinos in states like Minnesota and the Dakotas are also pulling their rooms, according to marketing consultant Theron "Scarlet Raven" Thompson.
"What you're seeing is the mom and pop-sized poker rooms are closing. The larger properties are monopolizing the poker crowd," he said.
Several smaller Las Vegas casinos decided they no longer wanted to bet on the game in 2012, including Ellis Island, which closed its room just two months after opening it. Casino bosses also removed rooms from the Silverton south of the Strip, Aliante to the north, and Fitzgerald's, which eliminated its room when it rebranded as the D.
The Gold Coast, the Plaza and Tuscany casinos closed their rooms in 2011.
Poker has never been a high-profit game for casinos is because players exchange money with each other, not the house. Rooms must employ a dealer for every table and can only collect portion of what players put down, usually about 5 percent.
Yet at the height of the craze, casinos scrambled to install rooms for a new generation of fans.
The game's meteoric run is generally attributed to the rise of Internet gambling, new technology that let viewers see players' hidden cards in televised tournaments and a watershed moment during the 2003 World Series of Poker when an amateur with the unlikely name Chris Moneymaker claimed the $2.5 million first prize in front of a million television viewers.
After Moneymaker's win, the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip reopened its poker room, which had been closed for years, and Caesars Palace announced plans to open its first room in more than a decade. The Venetian followed suit in 2006.
Mega-casinos continue to invest in the game. The Venetian added 17 tables to its room in September, making it the biggest game in town, Caesars Entertainment added a slot-style progressive jackpot element to its games earlier this year, and the expansive room at the Bellagio is still packed most nights.
Venetian poker director Kathy Raymond said the expansion, which was part of a larger casino floor renovation, has drawn more players to the already popular room.
"I think that the love people have for poker hasn't subsided," she said. "It may be part of the economic environment, but I don't think the interest has subsided at all."
She acknowledged that smaller casinos are struggling to claim their piece of the market.
"You really need volume to operate a successful poker room," she said. "The overhead can't be absorbed by just a few tables."
In the end, the very thing that made poker so appealing - its air of tradition and class - may be its undoing, at least on the gambling floor, William Thompson said. After all, casinos make their billions by giving people new and stimulating ways to lose money.
While slot machine developers can roll out a new "Family Guy" or "oodles of poodles" game ever few months, poker remains unchanged.
"With slot machines, you can keep reinventing them, so it's going to last longer. They're throwing new wrinkles in all the time," he said.
Ex-mayor's $1 billion gambling woes stun San Diego
By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press
Updated 9:13 am, Friday, February 15, 2013
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Maureen O'Connor was a physical education teacher who won a seat on the San Diego City Council when she was only 25 years old, later winning two terms as the city's first female mayor as she charmed voters with a populist flair.
But her rapid rise was matched by her fall, culminating Thursday when she acknowledged in federal court that she took $2.1 million from her late husband's charitable foundation during a decade-long gambling spree in which she won — and lost — more than $1 billion.
O'Connor pleaded not guilty to a money laundering charge in an agreement with the Justice Department that defers prosecution for two years while she tries to repay the foundation and receives treatment for gambling.
O'Connor, 66, once had a personal fortune that her attorney estimated between $40 million and $50 million, inherited from her husband of 17 years, Robert O. Peterson, founder of the Jack in the Box Inc. fast-food chain. She is now virtually broke, living with a sister.
O'Connor walked across the courtroom with a cane, appearing frail and struggling to maintain composure at one point as her attorney wrapped his arm around her shoulder and placed his hand on her head.
At a news conference, she said she always intended to repay the foundation and appeared to blame her behavior on a brain tumor that was diagnosed in 2011.
"There are two Maureens — Maureen No. 1 and Maureen No. 2," said O'Connor, who declined to take questions. "Maureen No. 2 is the Maureen who did not know she had a tumor growing in her brain."
O'Connor's game of choice was video poker at casinos in San Diego, Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J. Her attorney, Eugene Iredale, said she played for hours at a time.
She won about $1 billion from 2000 to 2009, according to winnings that casinos reported to the Internal Revenue Service, but lost even more. Iredale said her net gambling losses topped $13 million.
News of O'Connor's gambling troubles and financial ruin elicited sympathy in her hometown. Magistrate Judge David Bartick told her that she left "a very strong legacy in the city of San Diego."
The U.S. attorney's office said O'Connor's medical condition influenced the decision to strike a deal, saying it may have been impossible to bring the case to trial. The tumor was removed but doctors submitted letters detailing significant ailments.
"Maureen O'Connor was a selfless public official who contributed much to the well-being of San Diego," said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. "However, no figure, regardless of how much good they've done or how much they've given to charity, can escape criminal liability with impunity."
O'Connor, the eighth of 13 children whose father was a boxer and nightclub owner and mother was a registered nurse, was elected to the City Council three years after graduating from San Diego State University. She was mayor from 1986 to 1992, San Diego's only Democratic leader over a four-decade span. She promoted community policing, championed the arts and oversaw completion of a downtown convention center.
O'Connor began gambling around 2001 as she struggled with pain and loneliness from the death of her husband from leukemia in 1994 and the passing of several close friends, said Iredale, who called it "grief gambling" in a court filing. Within four years, she was betting heavily.
O'Connor acknowledged taking $2.1 million from the R.P. Foundation between September 2008 and March 2009 to pay gambling debts, wager more and cover living costs. She was one of three trustees of the foundation, a nonprofit organization that supported the Alzheimer's Association, City of Hope, San Diego Hospice and other charities.
Her annual gambling winnings peaked at more than $200 million, said Phillip Halpern, an assistant U.S. attorney. Prosecutors said they didn't know exactly how much she lost but that she also borrowed money from friends and sold property to gamble.
O'Connor sold a home in tony La Jolla for $2.5 million in 2010 that is down the street from former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
She also sold the Heritage House Hotel in the Northern California coastal town of Mendocino for $7.5 million in 2005 to investors who defaulted, Iredale said. She sued and plans to turn over any damages to repay the foundation.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/article/Ex-mayor-s-1-billion-gambling-woes-stun-San-Diego-4281090.php#ixzz2L074aw6j
NJ casino 1st to have betting by TV
By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press
Published: Feb 11, 2013 at 10:59 AM PST
John Forelli, a vice president at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City NJ demonstrates a new in-room gambling system Monday Feb. 11, 2013 in Atlantic City. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Guests at one New Jersey casino won't even have to get out of bed in order to place a bet.
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City said it will become the first casino in the United States to let guests gamble over hotel room TV sets, starting Feb. 18.
Its E-Casino program will let guests with player's cards set up electronic accounts and risk up to $2,500 a day. Slots and four kinds of video poker will be the first games offered.
The casino says the technology can be expanded to include gambling over hand-held devices anywhere on casino property, which New Jersey recently authorized, and full Internet gambling, if the state approves it.
"This puts us in a position to leverage the technology into true mobile gaming and Internet betting later on," said Tom Balance, the Borgata's president and chief operating officer. "We're moving forward with the future of gaming, and this is that first step."
John Forelli, the casino's vice president of information technology, said it is designed not only as an added amenity, but to get them familiar and comfortable with the concept of electronic gambling accounts for the day when Internet wagering comes to New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie last week vetoed an Internet gambling bill, but said he would sign one with some moderate changes.
The casino does not expect in-room gambling to supplant a significant portion of its action on the casino floor. Rather, it views it as an added attraction for customers trying to decide which of many East Coast casino destinations to visit.
Susan Marzetti, a casino patron from Staten Island, N.Y., said she would not take advantage of it.
"I like the ambience of being down here on the casino floor," she said. "I like the noise of the machines. In my room, I'd find it depressing, to be honest."
But William Frawley said he'd definitely take advantage of it during down time.
"I think it would be a great added feature," he said. "I'd be willing to invest $100 and run it through there. Video poker, I'd definitely play."
Borgata officials said they had no estimates of how much they expect to take in through the system, which is subject to a 90-day trial period by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
The system is built by Allin Interactive, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company that specializes in interactive television applications.
There are several controls to prevent the system from being used by minors or people excluded from gambling. A customer would have to have a Borgata player's club card, which would screen them to ensure they are of legal gambling age and are not banned from any casino premises.
The PIN number used for the players' club card would have to be combined with a temporary password provided by the casino's front desk. Patrons would then go to the casino cashier cage and open an electronic account by providing up to $2,500 in cash, the maximum the state allows to be transferred into the system each day.
The system works using the TV remote control. Players can toggle back and forth among a slots game called Rum Runner's Riches and four kinds of video poker. The casino eventually plans to add more games if the test period if successful.
Players who want to cash out just click a button on the screen and the proceeds of their gambling go into an e-wallet that can be stored for future visits, or paid out at the casino cashier cage, just like winnings accrued on the casino floor.
The technology is currently used on large cruise ships. It will be available in all 2,000 of the Borgata's rooms.
Las Vegas allows sports betting on hand-held devices.
Las Vegas sports books take a big hit during NFL season
By Lance Pugmire, Los Angeles Times
LAS VEGAS -- It wasn't the mysterious fan with a briefcase of cash who picked this town clean during NFL gambling season.
Rather, it's been bettors wearing a new orange Peyton Manning jersey, or Packers fans with their cheesehead hats, or Patriots fans -- who loyally bet on their favored teams each week.
The problem for Las Vegas sports books is that many popular NFL teams beat the points spread during the regular season. And with many bettors combining their picks in parlays, $20 wagers turned into payouts of up to more than $1,000, depending on how many winning bets they combined.
The result is what one Las Vegas sports bookmaker called a "staggering" financial hit from the NFL regular season, as bettors handed Nevada sports books their worst year in memory.
"We know the general public now has tremendous sources of information, that the regular player is sharper than the guy 10 years ago, but we've never seen a streak like this before," said Jay Kornegay, a 25-year veteran who heads the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino's 30,000-square-foot Race and Sports book.
The damage was particularly bad in Week 9 of the NFL season, when Vegas-backed underdogs finished 2-10 against the point spread, while seven games that day finished "over" the game's projected total-points-scored line.
Bettors adore backing the "over" and "favored" teams such as the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers. As that Nov. 4 perfect storm hit, MGM Resorts, the city's largest sports bookmaker, was forced to summon emergency stashes of cash to pay off its losses.
"It's like you're a passenger trapped on a train to hell," said Jay Rood, whose 12 MGM Resorts' sports books at properties including Mandalay Bay, Mirage and Bellagio took a seven-figure hit that day.
Kornegay dismissed the notion bookmakers can recover enough money in the NFL playoffs to make up for their losses. "We'll just turn the page on the calendar and continue to evaluate ourselves, seeing if we need to make subtle changes," he said.
Kornegay admitted he doesn't know what those changes may be.
On Sunday evening, Kornegay and a team of bookmakers huddled by text messages to post the first point spreads for this weekend's playoff games.
The number Kornegay most stewed over was how much to favor Green Bay by when they host the Minnesota Vikings on Saturday. This comes on the heels of the Packers' loss to the same Vikings in Minnesota on Sunday. In that regular season finale, the Packers were favored by three points.
This season, the Packers are the favorite NFL team in the Las Vegas, drawing a wealth of emotional bettors who would gamble on the team whether it was favored by 7 ½ or 10 ½ points.
The current line favors the Packers by 7 ½ points in Saturday's game.
"We know people will bet the Packers regardless, but all it takes is one sharp to say, 'Here's $50,000 on the Vikings,' to counteract making a (quick) line simply for the public," Kornegay said.
Sports books also took a beating Sunday on bets made on total wins by a given team in the regular season. Kornegay said LVH took a bath on those propositions - including their line that Manning's Broncos would win nine regular season games. The Broncos won 13.
Now, Rood is sweating out hundreds of Super Bowl winning bets made on teams such as the Seahawks, who opened at 75-1 odds.
The Indianapolis Colts were at 200-1 to win the Super Bowl after Manning left town, and remained at long odds even after Andrew Luck took over, Rood said.
Kornegay finished rattling off his point spreads for this weekend's games and was struck by a stark reality after a season of being gutted by victorious favorites.
"Looking at this, I can tell you we'll need the underdogs to win in every game. Again," he said.
Seattle companies bet big on legal online gambling
Brier Dudley
Seattle Times technology columnist
Seattle-based DoubleDown drew an average 5 million players a month to its digital casinos during the quarter ended Sept. 30.
Seattle’s becoming the new Barbary Coast.
First it legalizes marijuana. Next it’s likely to become the hub for online gambling.
The city’s already on the forefront of online casinos, with Seattle companies building some of the leading virtual-gambling operations on Facebook and mobile devices such as Apple’s iPad and iPhones.
For now they’re using virtual chips — not real money. But the federal government may legalize online gambling within the next year or two as a way to boost tax revenue.
An early sign of this gold rush came in January, when Las Vegas gambling giant International Game Technology (IGT) bought Seattle video-game company DoubleDown Interactive in a deal worth up to $500 million.
IGT paid $250 million in cash and promised another $250 million if revenue and retention goals were met.
IGT’s primary business is making actual slot machines and other gaming systems used in casinos. Last week IGT finally revealed in its quarterly earnings report what a good bet it placed.
DoubleDown helped IGT grow its revenue from interactive games by 302 percent in the quarter and 293 percent in its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, to $144 million.
DoubleDown operates one of the largest digital casinos. It had 5?million players per month on average during the quarter. On a daily basis, about 1.4 million played.
Players may pay DoubleDown $2.99 to receive virtual chips “worth” $150,000 in the casino. It’s like buying digital Monopoly money.
“They were leading when we got them and together we’re moving even faster,” IGT’s chief financial officer, John Vandemore, said last week.
DoubleDown’s growth suggests there’s still good money to be made in the social-gaming business. It helped IGT blow past analyst expectations and its stock rose 5 percent the day after its earnings report. That’s in contrast to social bellwethers Zynga and Facebook, which are struggling to gain investors’ favor.
IGT’s giving DoubleDown everything it needs to keep growing the operation in Seattle, according to DoubleDown Chief Executive Greg Enell, a veteran of Microsoft, Wild Tangent and Big Fish Games.
When I interviewed Enell last month in his office a few floors below Paul Allen’s penthouse near CenturyLink Field, Enell employed 128 people. Now it’s up to 147 and the company’s moving this week into adjacent offices that will double its space.
“There really are no restrictions, any kind of hiring cap for us,” he said. “We’re building out as fast as we reasonably can, without sacrificing the quality of the people we hire.”
DoubleDown started in 2010 with a handful of people in a little office on North Lake Union. Back then it was just another one of the dozens of small startups in Seattle trying to make a go building games.
The venture was more deliberate than a roll of the dice. Enell had previously sold another game company to Big Fish, then started a profitable online trivia-game company that provided funds to start DoubleDown.
“The idea was let’s go build the biggest gambling-oriented audience online in the world. If we do that and online gambling legalizes, we’re going to be really valuable,” he recalled. “We saw a clear exit, and our exit happened a little sooner than I thought it would, but it did happen.”
The team had expected legalization of online gambling to come between 2013 and 2015. Enell still thinks it could happen in the next year or two. But he’s leaving that issue to the experts at IGT and staying focused on building virtual gambling games for Facebook and mobile devices.
IGT has a big library of slot-machine games that DoubleDown draws from to expand its online lineup. It adds about two games a month.
DoubleDown’s also working to extend its global presence by localizing its games in different markets. It’s also been building its own suite of tools to build browser-based games using HTML5 technology.
Meanwhile Enell’s former employer, Big Fish, in August launched an online casino that’s now making more money on Apple devices than DoubleDown.
But DoubleDown still has the lead on Facebook, where it’s the fifth-highest grossing app, behind Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker, FarmVille, ChefVille and FarmVille2.
Since this is all virtual currency, I’ll make a bet of my own: The success that IGT’s having with DoubleDown is going to draw other big gambling companies to Seattle, looking for expertise building online audiences and virtual games. Maybe a gambling company will finally put enough money on the table to buy Big Fish.
It’s hard to predict the future, though. Just ask Enell’s parents, who weren’t enthused about his love of video games when he was growing up in Bellingham.
“My dad always thought it was such a waste of time,” he said.
Brier Dudley’s column appears Mondays. Reach him at 206-515-5687 or dudley@seattletimes.com
24-year-old Maryland pro wins WSOP title, $8.53M
By OSKAR GARCIA
Associated Press
A 24-year-old Maryland poker professional won the World Series of Poker main event, outlasting his final opponents in a marathon card session of nearly 12 hours for the $8.53 million title on Wednesday.
Greg Merson emerged with the title before dawn in Las Vegas after a session that proved a showcase for his skills amid the unpredictability of tournament no-limit Texas Hold 'em. On the last hand, Merson put Las Vegas card pro Jesse Sylvia all-in with a king high. Sylvia thought hard, then called with a suited queen-jack.
"This whole stage is nothing you could ever prepare for," Merson said.
Merson's hand held through the community cards - two sixes, a three, a nine and a seven - to give him the title and put his name alongside former champions including Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan.
After an exhausting session, he's ready to join them.
"I feel pretty good - got all the tears out so now I feel relaxed," Merson said.
Merson also pushed past Hellmuth for the series' Player of the Year honors, proving himself the top performer throughout this year's series of card tournaments in Las Vegas and Europe. Merson also won a tournament bracelet this summer in Las Vegas for a no-limit Texas Hold 'em 6-handed tournament.
Sylvia won $5.3 million for second place.
"That was nuts, man," Sylvia said. "I thought whoever was going to heads-up was going to be much deeper than we were."
Merson's victory over Sylvia, 26, came after the pair outlasted the last amateur at the table, 21-year-old Jake Balsiger. The Arizona State senior hoping to become the youngest World Series of Poker champion was eliminated in third place, more than 11 hours into the marathon.
Balsiger gambled his last chips with a queen-10 and was dominated by Merson's king-queen. Merson's hand held through five community cards, forcing Balsiger to exit the tournament no richer than he was starting Tuesday's finale.
The political science major, who has vowed to graduate, won $3.8 million in third.
"I have some homework due tomorrow, my Supreme Court class," Balsiger said. "I didn't do it last week because I was in a final table simulation, so my professor's probably not the happiest with me."
Even before Balsiger was eliminated, the players set a series record by pushing beyond 364 hands at the final table. Balsiger lost on hand 382, while Sylvia lost on hand 399.
All three players traded chips, big bluffs and shocking hands during their marathon run.
"It was kind of swinging emotionally," Sylvia said. "Thinking that you're going to be heads-up and then to make something on the river, and think you're going to be heads up and someone else hits something."
They started play Tuesday night having already outlasted six others at a final table that began on Monday. But they refused to give in with roughly $4.8 million on the line - the difference between first and third place.
"This is exciting," Balsiger told his tablemates as the game played out as part mental sparring, part plain luck.
Merson took a commanding chip lead early with perhaps his gutsiest play of the tournament - sensing weakness in Balsiger and re-raising a 10 million chip bet all-in with just queen high. Balsiger couldn't call, and Merson moved up to more than 100 million in chips.
He didn't have that chip lead for long.
Several hands later, Balsiger wagered the last of his chips with an ace-10 and was well behind Sylvia's ace-queen with his tournament at risk. But a 10 came on the turn, allowing Balsiger to double up.
Then, Sylvia went all-in against Merson, his ace-king against Merson's pocket kings. A four on the river made a wheel straight - ace through five - and vaulted Sylvia to the chip lead, sending his supporters at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino into a frenzy.
Later in the session, Balsiger doubled his chips before Sylvia took back the chip lead.
And so it went - par for the course in poker, a game where skill is significant, but luck is certainly a factor.
Balsiger eliminated Russell Thomas in fourth place just after midnight early Tuesday to set up the trio's final showdown. Merson went into play Tuesday night with 88.4 million in chips, compared with 62.8 million for Sylvia and 46.9 million for Balsiger
Merson picked up hands and took control of the three-handed table at the start, picking up strong hands and building his stack to more than half the chips in the tournament.
But Sylvia's fold of a strong hand - a nine high flush - likely kept him in the tournament after he finished contemplating Merson's bet of nearly 3 million in chips. Merson held a queen high flush in a cooler-type hand - one that gamblers in Sylvia's spot routinely lose on.
Sylvia went into the nine-handed final table with a chip lead but lost it to Merson after Merson benefited from an opponent's unforced error.
Merson eliminated Hungarian poker professional Andras Koroknai in sixth place, calling Koroknai's all-in bet with an ace-king and finding Koroknai with king-queen - a marginal hand for the situation.
Chips have no real monetary value in tournament poker. Each player at the final table must lose all his chips to lose the tournament and win all the chips at the table to be crowned champion.
The tournament began in July with 6,598 players and was chopped down to nine through seven sessions in 11 days. Play stopped after nearly 67 hours logged at the tables for each player, with minimum bets going up every two hours.
The finalists played Monday night until only three players remained, leaving the top three to settle the title.
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Oskar Garcia can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia
Police name suspect in $1.6 million Vegas chip heist
By MICHELLE RINDELS Associated Press
Published: Oct 23, 2012 at 7:58 AM PDT
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Las Vegas police are looking for a 31-year-old Southern California man they believe sneaked into a restricted area of the Venetian resort earlier this month and stole $1.6 million in high-denomination casino chips.
Akingide Cole of Palmdale, Calif., is wanted on suspicion of burglary, grand larceny, and unlawful possession of burglary tools stemming from the heist at the Las Vegas Strip resort, police said Monday.
But it's unlikely the robber will be able to redeem the high-value chips, which are usually circulated among a small group of high-rollers.
"In any of these thefts of chips, it's very difficult to cash these in," said Nevada Gaming Control Board Chief of Enforcement Jerry Markling. "Licensees generally know who their customers are."
Because of internal protocol that would flag the biggest chips, the redeemable value of the stash is estimated at $10,000, according to Ron Reese, spokesman for The Venetian's parent company, Las Vegas Sands.
Police didn't disclose exactly how the theft occurred, but they said no weapon was involved, and the man didn't confront anyone during the incident, which happened about 6 a.m. on Oct. 10.
The theft was a departure from two high-profile heists in recent months. In May, two men wearing wigs walked up to a table at the Bellagio, pepper-sprayed a blackjack dealer, and snatched $115,000 in chips.
A casino supervisor tackled one of the men, Michael Quinn Belton, and retrieved the 23 chips worth $5,000 each. The other man got away.
Belton, 25, of Nuevo, California, apologized in court earlier this month and was sentenced to two to five years in prison.
In another high-profile case at the Bellagio, Anthony Michael Carleo was sentenced to three to 11 years in state prison for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.
Carleo wore a motorcycle helmet Dec. 14, 2010, as he waved a gun and made off with $1.5 million worth of high-value chips. He was arrested trying to redeem a $25,000 chip.
Casinos typically have a second, differently styled set of chips that can be put into circulation after a theft, Markling said. That way, someone trying to play with stolen chips would stand out.
Meanwhile, police are seeking out information on Cole's whereabouts.
Police describe him as 6 feet tall and weighing about 225 pounds. He last had a goatee and short dark hair in a semi-mohawk, and police also said he has a distinctive fibrous growth on his left earlobe.
Baseball Playoffs Contest Deadline Today at 5:07 PM
Below is link to rules of contest, and please reply to that post when you make your picks please.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=80213438
Vegas casino offers refunds on Seahawks-Packers game
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas casino took an unusual step Wednesday and offered refunds to gamblers who lost money when the Seattle Seahawks beat the Green Bay Packers on a controversial touchdown at the end of Monday night's game.
Derek Stevens, owner The D Las Vegas, seized on the attention being paid to the much-derided decision by replacement officials handling the NFL game and became the only casino in Las Vegas to offer refunds.
"I know exactly how it would feel if I was laying the number and I saw what happened," Stevens said. He declared himself "disgusted" with the ruling and said he just couldn't accept the outcome.
The Seahawks won 14-12 after a Packers defender and Seahawks receiver fought for the ball on a final "Hail Mary" pass play. Officials missed an offensive pass interference call and then decided there had been simultaneous catch by the two players. Under NFL rules, that gave Seattle the touchdown and the win.
Nevada gambling regulators said Stevens could make refunds if he wanted.
Another Las Vegas sports book operator worried the move set a bad precedent.
"Whenever there are bad calls we're going to start refunding? Based on what?" said Jay Kornegay, race and sports book director at The LVH casino. "We're supposed to pay out winning wagers based on official final scores by the league, in this case the NFL."
Some offshore online betting outlets have also issued refunds.
Stevens, who has been renovating and rebranding the high-rise downtown casino formerly called the Fitzgerald, said D Las Vegas will refund straight and money-line bets made on the Packers until Sunday — but only on wagers made at his sports book.
State gambling regulations prohibit a sports book from rescinding a wager without prior approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission chairman.
The chairman, Mark Lipparelli, said a refund is different from rescinding a bet. He said that in his four years on the regulatory panel he couldn't remember a similar move.
"It's not a rescission. It's a refund," Lipparelli told The Associated Press. "That's within their discretion."
Casino to pay off in unshuffled card case
Associated Press
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Hours after a judge ordered the Golden Nugget Atlantic City to let gamblers cash in nearly $1 million worth of chips they won in a card game where the decks were unshuffled, the casino's owner overruled his lawyers Friday and agreed to make the payments.
The judge's decision drew an angry reaction from casino officials, who called it "an ambush" and vowed to file an appeal first thing Tuesday morning.
But Tilman Fertitta, the Texas billionaire who owns the Golden Nugget, said he decided to pay the winners to make the whole thing go away.
"Without question, the mini-baccarat game that took place on April 30, 2012, allowed $10 bettors to realize a gambler's dream and enabled them to beat the house out of $1.5 million," he said. "Even though we can appeal the court's ruling and take full advantage of the appellate process and legal system, and tie the matter up in litigation for a number of years, the Golden Nugget is a people business, and is prepared to allow the gamblers — most of whom continue to gamble at Golden Nugget — to realize the gambler's dream of beating the house."
The casino also will let gamblers keep more than a half-million dollars it already paid them from the same disputed games.
"I wasn't cheating," one of the gamblers, 51-year-old Michael Cho of Ellicott City, Md., said after the judge's ruling. "I didn't do anything illegal. It wasn't right for them to get the money."
The dispute stems from numerous games of mini-baccarat held at the casino earlier this year. Unbeknownst to either the players or the casino, the cards put into use for the games were not shuffled as their manufacturer, Gemaco Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., had promised.
Over a speakerphone in the judge's chambers, the company's attorney, Jeffrey Mazzola, acknowledged the company had erred.
"There was a mistake made at the Gemaco facility, which we freely admitted," he told the judge. "This was a one-time, isolated mistake, but it occurred. It's supposed to be a game of chance. It changed from a game of chance to a windfall for the individual players. What we have now is individual players coming to the court asking for a free payday based on a mistake that took place."
Lawyers for the Golden Nugget said the pattern of cards became apparent to players, who had been wagering $10 a hand and suddenly upped their bets to $5,000 a hand. The cards did not come out of the chute in numerical order, such as 2-3-4-5. Rather, they came out in a predetermined pattern that the manufacturer lists as a proprietary secret, the attorneys said.
But it did become obvious to the players.
"Anybody could see that — that was the dream we all look for," Cho said.
But Cho said he and the other gamblers still faced risk because they had no idea how long the pattern would endure. It lasted at least 41 hands, during which the players won more than $1.5 million. Despite its suspicion that a sophisticated cheating operation was under way, the casino did not stop the games.
"We took a chance on every hand we bet, that it wouldn't change," he said. "We didn't know if it was going to change. That's called gambling."
The Golden Nugget had sought a ruling barring the gamblers from cashing in more than $977,000 worth of chips they won from the game but still have in their possession. The casino also wanted the judge to order the return of more than $500,000 in winnings it paid out to some of the winners immediately after the games.
The judge denied both requests, saying there will be time to address those issues as the lawsuits filed by both sides come to trial. He agreed that the gamblers did nothing wrong, and even though they discerned a pattern, the judge said there was no guarantee it would not change at any moment. Fertitta said the payments to the gamblers would occur on the condition that both sides dropped litigation against the other.
"It was a rigged game," casino attorney Louis Barbone said. "We walked in that day believing everything was on the up-and-up. We walked out $1.5 million in the hole."
The casino claims the vendor's failure to shuffle the cards made them "defective" and in violation of state gambling regulations mandating fair odds for both the casino and its customers.
Fertitta said the proper course for Golden Nugget to recoup its losses was through litigation with the card manufacturer.
"We have a company we can go back against that has admitted fault," he said. "But that's our problem."
Unshuffled cards a costly headache for AC casinos
By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press
Published: Aug 20, 2012 at 9:26 PM PDT Last Updated: Aug 20, 2012 at 9:26 PM PDT
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — At first, it seemed like a coincidence, the kind of thing that happens from time to time at a casino, where the same number or same sequence of cards happens twice in a row.
But when the players at an April game of mini-baccarat at the Golden Nugget Atlantic City kept seeing the same sequence of cards dealt, over and over and over again, their eyes grew wide and their bets grew bigger, zooming from $10 a hand to $5,000.
Forty-one consecutive winning hands later, the 14 players had racked up more than $1.5 million in winnings — surrounded by casino security convinced they had cheated but unable to prove how.
In a lawsuit against a Kansas City playing card manufacturer, the Golden Nugget contends the cards were unshuffled, despite being promised to be pre-shuffled and ready to use.
The April 30 incident was the latest instance of unshuffled cards causing big headaches for an Atlantic City casino. In December, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort used unshuffled mini-baccarat cards for 3½ hours before realizing something was wrong. That episode led to a $91,000 fine against the casino, which fired nine people it said were involved.
It is so basic to the concept of gambling that it often goes without saying: the cards in the deck need to be shuffled before anyone uses them. But in the case of the Golden Nugget, the gamblers did nothing wrong, and deserve to be paid the nearly $1 million they still have coming to them, according to their lawyer, Benjamin Dash.
"The Golden Nugget appealed to gamblers to come in and play games licensed and sanctioned by the state of New Jersey," he said. "My clients did exactly that, and then were denied their winnings. There is absolutely no law in New Jersey that would permit the Golden Nugget to declare the game illegal because it failed to provide shuffled cards."
But in a lawsuit filed against the 14 gamblers in July, that is exactly what the casino seeks, citing state gambling regulations requiring all casino games to offer fair odds — to both sides. The casino's lawsuit asserts the gamblers and the casino both began the game believing it was legal and proper — until the players kept winning over and over again.
The Golden Nugget said it flooded the area with floor persons, managers, supervisors, surveillance and security officers, believing they were watching "a sophisticated swindling and cheating scheme" in progress.
"From the beginning to the end of play, however, plaintiff could not identify any particular act of those players that actually constituted swindling and cheating," the casino wrote in its lawsuit. Accordingly, it let nine of the players cash out $558,900 worth of chips. The other players still have $977,800 in chips that they have not yet cashed in.
The Golden Nugget also asserted in its lawsuit that Gemaco, Inc., a Missouri playing card manufacturer, acknowledged it had provided a defective shipment of cards that were not pre-shuffled. A message left at the company's administrative offices was not immediately returned Monday.
Three of the Golden Nugget gamblers have filed a counter-suit against the casino, alleging the gambling house discriminated against them based on their Chinese heritage. The three are from Atlantic City, Queens and Brooklyn, N.Y. One of them, Hua Shi of Brooklyn claims he was sleeping in his room at the casino when someone knocked on the door. When he answered, he was rushed by four Golden Nugget employees who pinned him against the wall and searched him and his belongings, according to his lawsuit. He said casino personnel held him in a room without food, water or an interpreter for eight hours. After a second search of his room, he was released, his lawsuit asserts.
The casino called the allegations in the gamblers' lawsuit "completely false."
"The Golden Nugget values all of its customers and would never discriminate against anyone, including the Asian community," it said in a statement. "In fact, the Golden Nugget designed and built an Asian gaming area and restaurant to specifically attract Asian guests to the casino. The countersuit has no merit and is nothing more than a ploy by the gamblers and their lawyers to tarnish the Golden Nugget's reputation in order to gain an economic advantage in the lawsuit. We will not let this happen."
Since the December incident with the mini-baccarat cards, the Trump Taj Mahal has installed a $2.2 million digital recording system which it says has greatly improved its surveillance capabilities, and the surveillance department has added eight officers.
Online gambling: Tribes now look to cash in
While still wary that online gambling will cut into their casino profits, many tribes now see legalization as inevitable. So they are lobbying Congress for a say in how online gambling might be regulated.
By Rob Hotakainen
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Fearing they may get left behind in the rush to expand legalized gambling to the Internet, more U.S. Indian tribes are lining up to back online poker and angling for new ways to cash in.
Consider the Tulalip Tribes in Washington state: Eight months ago, tribal secretary Glen Gobin told Congress that the Tulalips opposed any kind of Internet gambling, regarding it as a threat to their two casinos. But on July 26, he told a Senate panel that tribes now "must have equal footing to participate" and that Congress should consult with them before junking a 2006 ban against online gambling.
"Glen is a realist," said W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Washington Indian Gaming Association, which represents 27 federally recognized tribes.
John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, a lobbying group that represents 1.2 million members across the country, said it's "definitely safe to say that the tribes' position is evolving on a federal solution."
Many tribes still oppose Internet gambling because they worry that gamblers would be less likely to go to casinos if they can stay home and play for money on their computers.
But with many of them now regarding legalization as inevitable, Allen predicted that there will be "less reluctant resistance" as tribes realize that there's little hope of stopping the push for legalization in Congress.
"Inevitably, they're going to pass something," he said. "I think tribes as a general observation would prefer that it not happen, but tribal leaders are being realistic."
Oversight alternatives
With online gambling expected to quickly become a new cash bonanza, a feud has already developed on Capitol Hill over who should regulate it.
So far, two competing plans have emerged.
The first, favored by the Poker Players Alliance, would allow the U.S. Department of Commerce to certify states to regulate online poker.
The second, favored by Gobin and many other tribal officials, would leave the oversight to the National Indian Gaming Commission, the federal agency that regulates the gambling operations of 237 tribes. It's headed by Tracie Stevens, a member of the Tulalip Tribes appointed in 2010 by President Obama.
The battle pits two big spenders against each other.
Since 2007, the Poker Players Alliance has spent more than $7.6 million on lobbying, and it ranks fourth overall this year among gambling interests, according to the Center For Responsive Politics. And the alliance has given thousands more to federal candidates, more than $174,000 in the last election cycle alone. When Democrats controlled the House in 2010, the alliance steered 77 percent of its contributions to the majority party, but with Republicans now in charge of the House, its contributions are nearly evenly split between the two parties this year.
The tribes spent more than $20 million on lobbing last year and have contributed nearly $58 million to federal candidates since 1990. More than two-thirds of that money has gone to Democrats.
Jon Porter, a former member of Congress who now lobbies for the Poker Players Alliance, said that legalized online poker could help both commercial casinos and the tribes. And he predicted that both will face a much greater threat from states that move to expand their lotteries to include online slot machines. But he said Congress should accept the fact that Americans will gamble on the Internet.
"It's clear that any industry which fails to embrace the Internet is doomed to failure," Porter said. "Think of the struggles that newspapers have been going through, or how long it took the recording industry to effectively sell digital music."
Online crackdown
The pressure on Congress to act has grown since April 15, 2011, a day the gamblers call Black Friday, when the Justice Department shut down the three largest online poker sites operating in the United States — PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker — and charged their officials with bank fraud and money laundering.
That caused hundreds of professional players who lost money in the shutdown to move to Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere to gamble. On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced a $731 million settlement with two of the companies — PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker — that will require them to forfeit their assets to the government and allow players who lost money to seek compensation.
The issue took on more urgency in December, when the Justice Department said it would apply the major anti-gambling statute, the Wire Act, only to sports events and races. Many said that cleared the way for states to begin legalizing online gaming without having to worry about federal laws.
Since then, two states — Nevada and Delaware — have already approved online gaming.
Pappas said the move by the states has spurred the tribes to rethink their early opposition.
"They are not comfortable with the idea of having to go to a state to get licensed," he said. "But now states ... are beginning to move forward, and tribal casinos could be left in the dust."
At a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on July 26, Bruce Bozsum, chairman of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut, said tribes are likely to get a better deal if the issue is resolved by Congress, not the states.
"Tribes should be extremely hesitant to entrust their economic futures to the tender mercies of the 50 states, many of whom are still in financial crisis and looking for new sources of revenue," Bozsum said.
Action might be near
The issue could come to a head on Capitol Hill in the next few months.
In the House, Pappas said, backers already have enough votes to overturn the six-year-old ban on Internet gambling. A bigger battle is expected in the Senate, where the poker players group is counting on Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to pass a similar bill before the end of the year.
In the latest move less than two weeks ago, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka, the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and a close ally of the tribes, unveiled a draft of his Tribal Online Gaming Act of 2012. It would allow federally-recognized tribes to apply for licenses to operate online gaming.
Akaka suggests that the department create a new Office of Tribal Online Gaming.
But Gobin said that assigning regulation to any federal agency other than the National Indian Gaming Commission would be "burdensome and duplicative."
And Elizabeth Lohah Homer, an attorney and a member of the Osage Nation who served as the commission's vice chair from 1999 to 2002, warned that giving the job to any other agency "could prove disastrous" because of the long time it takes — years, or even decades — to get established.
Allen, who's also the chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in Sequim, said the Washington state tribes have created a task force to study online gaming.
Allen predicted that online gaming would have an impact on tribal casinos, but he said it's impossible to know the full effect. And he said that many people will still want to go to casinos to eat, drink and watch entertainers.
For now, Allen said, there are many unanswered questions: Would a federal law allow only online poker or other games as well? And what would a federal law mean for a 2006 state law that imposes criminal penalties on those who play online poker or place any kind of wager on the Internet?
"Is poker the camel's nose in the tent, or is the whole camel coming in?" Allen asked. "We don't know. And does the federal law trump the state law? The rules would change, but there are some serious unknowns here."
It's career day at school and the teacher instructs his students each to stand up, state their parents occupation, spell it and then tell what their parent would do if they were here today.
Little Rodney stands up and says, "My father is an accountant, A-C-C-O-U-N-T-A-N-T, and if he were here today, he would help you balance your checkbook".
"Good Rodney." says the teacher, "How about you, Johnny?'"
Johnny stands up and says, "My father is an electrician, E-L-E-K-T, no, no, E-L-E-C-K-T no ....L-E-C-K- no....
The teacher interrupts, "never mind Johnny, sit down, how about you Vinnie?"
Vinnie stands up and says, "My dad's a bookie, that's B-O-O-K-I-E, and if he were here today he'd give you ten-to-one odds that there's no way Johnny's ever gonna spell electrician!"
www.mikeysFunnies.com
Former Microsoftie studies his way to world-ranked poker player
By Tricia Manning-Smith
Published: May 28, 2012 at 3:56 PM PDT Last Updated: May 28, 2012 at 4:36 PM PDT
BELLEVUE, Wash. -- The stakes have spiked at Sean Jazayeri's monthly poker game.
The local man's recent world ranking has upped the ante at his amateur at-home event. His buddies gathered around his dining table on a recent evening. They sipped on champagne and relished the chance at beating their homegrown champ.
Jazayeri is currently ranked as the eighth best poker player in the world. Earlier this year, he beat more than 500 of the best poker players in the world to win the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event tournament.
Before his big win, Jazayeri was virtually unknown in the poker world. And perhaps no one is more surprised by his new fame than Jazayeri himself.
Just a few years ago, he barely knew a flush from a full house. He was a bored international Microsoft businessman who took up online poker to fend off travel boredom.
"I thought, you know, I'm pretty good. So I decided to go to Las Vegas and take advantage of my skills," said Jazayeri. But his gutsy bet backfired and he went bust. "I had no idea what I was doing compared to the other people there, and it really frustrated me."
So the high-tech executive started back at the basics. He began home-schooling himself, investing in more than 20 poker tutorials.
"I did a bunch of research on poker," he said. "I understood the math. I understood the strategy. I understood the psychology."
And he still kept losing, but less frequently. So he signed up for a series of classes in Vegas. He admits, poker has become an obsession, one that finally paid off in a royal way.
According to Card Player TV: "The lone amateur at a table of young pros, Sean Jazayeri used his experience and some luck to overcome the tough final table and win the 2012 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event. For his victory Jazayeri earned the prestigious title and the first place prize of $1,370,240."
That was last February. Now back home in Bellevue, around his dining table on this recent night, bragging rights were at stake.
Everybody wanted to beat the champ. Most of them had done just that previously.
"When I beat him, he was not yet a WPT champion. Now it will be much more challenging and much more rewarding to take down the tournament," said poker player Brad Cummings.
Amidst an evening of good natured ribbing and bluffing, luck was not on Jazayeri's side. A different player took the evening's title. But the humble champ knows this is, after all, just a game.
"I also know enough about the game to know that I'm not the best, but I'm good enough. That with some luck, I can do well," said Jazayeri.
WSOP to offer $1 million buy-in
Updated: April 12, 2012, 11:12 AM ET
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS -- A never-before-seen $1 million buy-in tournament at the World Series of Poker this year will generate the richest top prize in poker history at more than $12 million -- and potentially more if additional players get in.
Series officials planned to announce Thursday that 30 players are committed to participate in the Big One for One Drop starting July 1 in Las Vegas.
That number puts the top prize at $12.3 million, which is more than the $12 million Jamie Gold won in 2006 for beating more than 8,700 players at no-limit Texas Hold 'em in the $10,000 buy-in main event.
The final table will air live on ESPN, series spokesman Seth Palansky said. The winner will also earn a specially designed platinum bracelet.
Eight-time gold bracelet winner Erik Seidel has joined the field, along with the chief executives of a private college lender and a stock trading firm.
The field is a mix of high-stakes poker sharks known for their tremendous skills and wealthy businessmen for whom $1 million isn't much to spend. Of the 30 players in the field so far, only 10 are professional poker players.
Players like Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan and Daniel Negreanu are salivating at the chance to match up against lesser players, but billionaires like casino owner Phil Ruffin, and tournament organizer and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte say they won't be as nervous with seven figures at stake.
The 30 confirmed players have already put up their buy-ins, and series officials expect to reach a cap of 48 entries. With that many players, the top prize would be $18.3 million.
The $1 million buy-in tournament includes a roughly 11 percent cut for charity but doesn't include the normal fees charged by the series for holding the tournament.
Laliberte organized the tournament with WSOP officials to raise money for One Drop, a non-governmental organization he founded that pushes for access to water in poor countries.
Bellevue poker player wins $1.4M
Sean Jazayeri, a 53-year-old software engineer and former Microsoftie, pulled off one of the biggest poker wins in Seattle-area history.
Danny Westneat
Seattle Times staff columnist
Every month or two, some friends — computer nerds, mostly — get together at Sean Jazayeri's house in Bellevue to play poker.
It's a typical, low-stakes friendly game. They put in 10 or 20 bucks each, total, and deal around the dining-room table.
"It's not that high caliber of a game," says Brad Cummings, a sales director at a Seattle IT company and also a statistician for the Seattle Seahawks. "There are often guys there who haven't played cards much.
"To have this happen, well ... it's just really, really astounding."
What happened is that Jazayeri, a 53-year-old software engineer and former Microsoftie, pulled off one of the biggest poker wins in Seattle-area history.
He won $1.37 million by beating 548 other players, many of them professionals, in the World Poker Tour's L.A. Classic Main Event, which ended Feb. 29.
"The lone amateur at a table of young pros," was how CardPlayer magazine described the scene.
Jazayeri is not a poker newbie. He's been dabbling at it since 2007, when he found himself on an Alaskan cruise and unexpectedly won a game held for the passengers.
Since 2009, he's played a handful of tournaments each year, including in Las Vegas. He's won some money, and finished first once, at Caesar's Palace. But his prize then was $7,313 — one half of 1 percent of what he scored the other day.
"I'll be the first to say this is lightning striking," Jazayeri laughed. "Poker is only a hobby for me. I was a break-even player. Until now."
He's now ranked fifth in the world on poker's "Player of the Year" list. He says he's "100 percent sure" that won't last.
So was this skill? Or is this guy just off-the-charts lucky?
I asked some of his poker buddies. They all claimed they beat him regularly in their Bellevue home game.
"Is it obvious he's a really good player?" asked his friend and tech entrepreneur Hadi Partovi, repeating my question. "It's definitely obvious he thinks he's a really good player."
Ribbing aside, whether poker is a game of skill is no longer just a parlor topic. It's a big legal fight as the U.S. government continues trying to keep poker off the Internet.
The argument is that if it's a game of chance, then it's pure gambling. But if it's skill, then anti-gambling laws may not apply.
Last year, the economist famous for the book "Freakonomics" reviewed the records of 32,000 Texas Hold 'Em poker players in events like the ones Jazayeri plays. They compared the players' results to their previous records and rankings to try to answer the "luck versus skill" debate.
Their findings were surprising. The poker players who were known to be good (because they were ranked) beat the lesser players at about the same rate that elite Major League Baseball teams beat teams that don't make the baseball playoffs.
"To the extent that baseball would unquestionably be judged a game of skill, the same conclusion might reasonably be applied to poker, in light of the data," wrote economists Steven Levitt and Thomas Miles of the University of Chicago.
They also found that top poker players get far higher returns on investment than Wall Street money managers. Stock-picking may be the real casino gamble.
Jazayeri says he's worked hard to hone the skill part, such as poker strategy. He stuck to it through 50 hours of playing over six days. But he did win when the final card gave him three of a kind to beat his rival's two pair. A miracle on the river, they call that in poker.
"If it was pure skill, I wouldn't have won it. I can assure you of that," he said.
He guesses Texas Hold 'Em is "40 percent math, 20 percent psychology and 40 percent luck." He excels at the math part.
"You can't take the luck out of it, but neither is it pure gambling," he said. "Buying a Lotto ticket, now that's 100 percent chance. That's gambling."
His friend Cummings, the statistician, says Jazayeri has another intangible the young guns don't.
"He's been in plenty of situations, in years of business, where significant money was at stake," he said. "So he doesn't get rattled."
I asked if the siren song of that million-dollar payout would lure him into playing poker full-time.
Nope. Jazayeri, who immigrated here as a kid from Iran, says he's sticking to his career of designing software.
Plus, he's using some of the winnings to set up college funds for his six nieces and nephews. So "they can put themselves in a position for lightning to strike them, too," he said.
Maybe that big poker win was pretty lucky. But life — it sure seems like he's playing that one with some skill.
Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.
98-year-old woman faces gambling charge
By Associated Press
Published: Mar 1, 2012 at 7:13 AM PST Last Updated: Mar 1, 2012 at 8:51 AM PST
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus police have summoned a 98-year-old and about 40 other elderly women to court to face gambling charges after raiding their weekly poker party.
The women, mostly in their 70s, were stunned to receive a court summons this week, more than two years since the raid, said Yioula Diakantoni, the daughter of the 98-year-old.
The women had gathered at a home in November 2009 for a four-hour simplified poker-and-bridge afternoon over sandwiches and pastries when police arrived, she said Thursday.
"They were playing with only very small sums of money, just to make it interesting," Diakantoni said. "It's silly for police to concern themselves with such trivial games when there are more serious things they should pursue."
She said some women were frightened at the police raid in the coastal town of Limassol and attempted to flee. Others didn't realize what was going on — including one woman who asked police to wait until she had finished playing her hand.
Diakantoni said two of the women have since died and another two are in a nursing home. Her mother, Eftychia Yiasemidou, was reluctant to go to court but will if her doctor approves it. Most of the women are simply amused by the affair, she added.
"My mother has never done anyone harm and we hope she continues playing because it keeps her mind sharp," she said.
Gambling in Cyprus punishable by up to six months in jail or a euro750 ($1,000) fine.
Prosecutor Michalis Themistocleous said the summons was procedural but added the attorney general was looking at whether to proceed.
Marine credits karma for $2.9 million jackpot
Updated 06:53 p.m., Saturday, February 25, 2012
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Marine Cpl. Alexander Degenhardt is crediting karma for landing a $2.9 million progressive slot jackpot in Las Vegas.
Degenhardt was accepted as a bone marrow donor to an anonymous patient only a couple of days before hitting the jackpot Sunday at the Bellagio, the Las Vegas Sun reported (http://bit.ly/ABQ02J).
"They asked me if I was sure I wanted to go through with it because it's kind of painful, but what's a little pain if it will save someone's life?" Degenhardt said. "I look at this jackpot as kind of good karma for that."
Degenhardt, 26, said he plans to continue his career with the Marines and go through with the bone marrow donation, which is expected to occur in the next six months after extensive testing.
He and several fellow Marines had flown to Las Vegas from Washington, D.C., where he's stationed, for a week of training at Nellis Air Force Base. He said he decided to kill a couple of hours before the return flight by playing the penny slot, which takes bets from 40 cents to $2, at the Bellagio. He landed the jackpot about 10 minutes later.
"I figured I'd just go lose $100 real quick," he said. "I was overwhelmed and in shock. It's something you always want to happen, but when it does happen you don't believe it."
Degenhardt, who will receive about $100,000 a year over 20 years, said he plans to first help his pregnant sister and his mother catch up on bills.
He decided to buy some clothes after the jackpot — at a thrift store, where he buys all of his clothes. He said he won't part with his car that has rolled up some 250,000 miles, either.
"I plan to keep driving it until I can't anymore," he told the Sun. "No sense in wasting money. I'm really pretty thrifty."
The Bally Technologies' Money Vault slot machine at the Bellagio is linked with casinos across Nevada. It was the second largest jackpot ever for Bally, which makes the machines and pays out the jackpots.
___
Information from: Las Vegas Sun, http://www.lasvegassun.com
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Marine-credits-karma-for-2-9-million-jackpot-3361529.php#ixzz1nW6kMOKB
Yes, I would expect a higher priority on raising campaign funds than on protecting citizens.
GLTA
Bob
IMO the Genie is already out of the bottle and the three wishes will cause unintended consequences.
I expect that most state lotteries will provide some type of online gaming options.
I expect that many states will allow online gaming providers access to their citizens for a portion of the profits.
With that being said, if a state allows online gaming providers access, that state should also require a significant bond from the provider to attempt to guarantee proper corporate behavior!
GLTA
Bob
As soon as they can figure out who gets to be BILLIONAIRES providing the games the government once again will show their cards. Pun intended. LOL!
Online gambling fight now about when - not if
By OSKAR GARCIA Associated Press Published: Jan 3, 2012 at 7:45 AM PST Last Updated: Jan 3, 2012 at 11:57 AM PST
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The fight to fully legalize online gambling in the U.S. is now less about whether Americans will be able to play and more about who will bring the action to them - and when.
A recent U.S. Justice Department opinion opened the door for cash-strapped states and their lotteries to bring online gambling to their residents, as long as it does not involve sports betting.
The DOJ memo also enflamed a battle within the industry over how to legalize online gambling that once generated an estimated $6 billion yearly just from poker: Should each state have its own system, or should there be a nationwide law?
While the opinion sent gambling stocks rising, many players who've been shut out from top online poker sites since April just want games to restart and don't care who profits.
"I don't like this legal limbo. Is it legal, or is it illegal?" said writer Brian Boyko, who plays poker as a hobby.
Boyko of Austin, Texas, has been using a small offshore site since executives and others at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were accused of illegally getting banks to process gambling funds.
Most of the U.S. games disappeared after the indictments.
One lawmaker in New Jersey is pushing to make online gambling legal, citing the DOJ memo. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak said he'll try to get a bill to Gov. Chris Christie's desk by next week.
"We can be the Silicon Valley of Internet gaming," he said. "It's the wave of the future."
Online poker boomed in the U.S. over the last decade, but a 2006 law made it illegal to run most online gambling businesses by forbidding financial institutions from processing transactions related to illegal online gambling.
The law, however, didn't clearly specify what kinds of gambling were illegal.
Some forms of gambling, like fantasy sports and horse racing, got explicit carve-outs, while many poker games kept going online as some operators got differing legal opinions about whether the Wire Act of 1961 applied to them.
Since then, poker proponents have argued that the game is different from other casino games like blackjack or slots because it involves significantly more skill.
Even casino companies - which make far more money from luck-based games than poker - began pushing for poker-only legislation under the assumption that poker regulations would be easier for lawmakers to stomach than other games.
Meanwhile, New York and Illinois officials asked the DOJ in 2010 whether the Wire Act or the 2006 law prevented them from selling lottery tickets online to adults within their states.
Last week, the DOJ answered: The Wire Act only prevents players from wagering on sports outcomes - other bets are OK.
The commercial casino industry's top lobbying group in Washington, D.C., believes the DOJ's interpretation of the Wire Act was correct, but added more confusion than solutions.
"There's probably some staffers at work on (Capitol Hill) now taking a real hard look at this as they figure to bring some sanity," said Frank Fahrenkopf, chief executive of the American Gaming Association.
Fahrenkopf said his group will keep pushing Congress for online poker legislation that establishes baseline rules for Internet poker operators.
Within the gambling world - which includes lotteries, private and publicly-traded companies, American Indian tribes, software manufacturers, offshore sites and others - there are differing visions for ideal online gambling laws.
Mark Hichar, an outside lawyer for the company that runs the Texas lottery, said the memo removes uncertainty and will prompt lotteries to begin running as many different kinds of games as are allowable under state laws.
"This helps lotteries, which are ... determined to remain relevant and to attract a new generation of players," said Hichar, who represents Rhode Island-based GTECH Corp.
Lotteries have generally opposed federal legislation, pushing for states to retain control of gambling laws.
I. Nelson Rose, a gambling law expert, said the opinion's timing and deference to states could mean trouble for commercial casinos that want an inside track on running licensed online gambling.
"They're going to have problems because when the states legalize, their natural inclination is to give it to the locals," said Rose, who regularly writes about online gambling developments at his blog, Gambling and The Law.
And that, he said, is the big question: Who's going to get the license?
"If you're a Nevada casino operator, you don't want to be competing in more than 50 separate jurisdictions against connected, politically powerful operators," Rose said.
Rose said new federal laws are a longshot in 2012, while states could choose to enter into compacts with other states to pool players, making games more lucrative.
U.S. lotteries could emulate counterparts in Canada that run limited online gambling sites in the provinces, he said.
Recreational player Mark Gorman of Austin, Texas, said he's skeptical, because different DOJ officials under a future president could change their opinion, forcing lawmakers to start over again.
"I wasn't terribly excited that this would change the landscape," Gorman said.
In Nevada, where gambling regulators adopted online poker regulations the day before the DOJ opinion, it's not clear whether casinos will try to let gamblers wager on more than just poker online.
Michael Gaughan, owner of the South Point casino in Las Vegas, said his lawyers are looking at how the opinion has changed legal situation as he tries to become the first Nevada casino operator to run legal online poker in the state.
"I don't know what happens," Gaughan said. "This opens up a whole can of worms, now."
He said he'll wait for their analysis before deciding whether to ask Nevada regulators to expand his plans.
Poker may be a baby step, legalized before other games as states argue that gambling creates jobs, said Alexander Ripps, a legal analyst in Washington for independent gambling market analysis firm Gambling Compliance.
"I think you're going to see it coming down to what to they think can get through," Ripps said. "Once you're in with one thing, then, in theory, down the line you can always get something else in."
Meanwhile, Boyko said, he just wants to be able to trust his money online while the game.
"All I want is a safe place to play poker," he said.
The Long, Colorful, Profitable History of Slot Machines
Story Link
GL
Bob
I'm trying to collect and organize as much information as possible on a board I have started on IHUB:
Find it here.
GL
Bob
I think that companies that provide electronic products to casinos, like slot machines, are going to have a good run over the next two or three years. Several of these companies also cater to state lottery boards which will also help as states resort more and more to gambling to balance budgets.
Part of the dynamic that I am expecting is an increase in M & A activity with an effort by the larger companies to acquire intellectual properties such as patents.
The big winners may be the stockholders in small companies that have a good portfolio of intellectual properties.
GLTA
Bob
Yep. I think he is the guy the local radio guy here has had on a few times. Always interesting conversation.
They credit Chris Moneymaker for the huge explosion. He was the first "amateur" to show anyone could win.
I missed it. Just amazes me how much $$$ is involved these days. Age matters not in this game.
Geez! I tried staying up to watch the finish last night, but it seemed both players were so cautious, no one wanted to make a move. I finally gave up and went to bed around 12:30 our time. I wonder what time it finally finished?
I was rooting for Staszko, but after he got a big lead and quickly gave it back, I knew he was destined to lose.
Pius Heinz becomes the first German to win the World Series of Poker.
AP Feed
Updated Nov 9, 2011 7:29 AM ET
LAS VEGAS
Earlier this year, Pius Heinz was deciding whether to play cards full-time.
Now that the 22-year-old German has won the $8.72 million prize at the World Series of Poker, he can steer his life in pretty much whatever direction he wants.
"Honestly I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the money," Heinz said early Wednesday after winning the main event in a marathon session of Texas Hold `em. "Probably my family is going to get a couple gifts."
Heinz won with an ace high, just nine hands after using the same hand to boost himself from a nearly insurmountable disadvantage against 35-year-old Martin Staszko.
Heinz, of Cologne, Germany, called an all-in bet from Staszko with an ace and a king. Staszko held a seven-10 of clubs.
The board was a five of clubs, deuce of diamonds, nine of spades, jack of hearts and four of diamonds, helping neither player but cementing Heinz's win in the $10,000 buy-in tournament that started in July.
Staskzo won $5.43 million for second place, a nice consolation prize, but it comes without a bracelet - the prize given to WSOP event winners and coveted by all serious card players.
"Have you ever worn it?" Heinz asked 2010 title winner Jonathan Duhamel as Duhamel handed him the bracelet.
"It's got to be the happiest day of my life," Heinz said. "But I can't believe what happened - it's unreal."
Staszko, a chess whiz who once worked for three years at an auto paint shop, said he thought his finish would help poker in his native country.
"I'm never happy if I don't win," Staszko said. "But it's not too bad. Second place is OK."
Staszko, who mainly plays online, said he'll be back to Sin City and the series.
"I'll come back next year," he said. "I hope I can win a bracelet."
Asked before the final table began whether they'd accept second place money right then and forgo a shot at the title, Heinz said yes; Staszko said no.
Now, Heinz is happy they played the game.
Once it was down to the two players, they exchanged the lead nine times over 119 hands. At one point, Staszko had a nearly 4-1 chip edge on Heinz.
But Heinz, who started the day with just over half the chips in play, convinced Staszko to gamble with less-than-ideal hands in an attempt to put the no-limit Texas Hold `em tournament away.
"I tried not to lose my nerve," Heinz said. "At some point I was not making a hand. I was getting frustrated, honestly. I just tried to play my game."
Las Vegas poker professional Ben Lamb was eliminated early Tuesday night in four hands. He pushed all-in on the first hand of play with a king-jack, hoping to induce Staszko to fold pocket sevens.
But Staszko called and kept his marginal advantage as the five community cards were dealt.
"I got the sense he wasn't like super strong, but he actually was stronger than I thought he was," Lamb said.
That left Lamb very short on chips, and he pushed all-in again three hands later with a queen-six. This time, Staszko had pocket jacks and eliminated Lamb.
"Every poker player dreams of having the year I had, so I don't want to sit here and have people like cry for me," he said. "I'll be OK."
The 26-year-old Lamb won $4 million for finishing in third place.
Each player must lose all his chips to be eliminated from the $10,000 buy-in tournament, and win all the chips in play to take the crown.
Heinz, who said he had a rough six-month run in poker before the series and was thinking about whether to go back to college, aggressively stormed from seventh in chips to first at the nine-hand final table on Sunday.
He went from 16.4 million in chips to 107.8 million in just more than 7 1/2 hours of play, propelling to a higher finish than at least six of his competitors.
Lamb, an experienced professional who made his mark at the 58-tournament series this year by winning Player of the Year honors, had a large contingent of rowdy supporters and a smaller group of friends and poker experts feeding him information about his play and his opponents.
For the first time, every hand at the final table was playing out nearly live on ESPN, including tense stretches of several minutes during which players mulled difficult decisions.
The play was aired on a 15-minute delay with hole cards revealed once hands ended - enough time to ensure gambling regulators that players couldn't cheat.
The game was played in front of a crowd of hundreds at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino near the Las Vegas Strip, in the same theater where magicians Penn & Teller regularly perform.
"It was just awesome to have so many of your friends and family following you, cheering you," Heinz said.
Anyone watching this? On right now. I love to watch this type of show.
You might hear about it if I spelled it right. LOL!
Ucluelet.
If you are into salmon fishing it is a beautiful place on the west side of Vancouver. I have done my homework and you get best bang for your $$$ here...............
http://www.canadianprincess.com/
Never been skunked. The scenery is unreal. Great service. Friendly people in the shops. Restaurants are great. Fishing great. Love the place.
BTW.............
It was so funny first time I went there I took my employee up there for a trip and we were only Americans on the boat.
Rest were Canadians.
So on the way out to where we fish you have time to shoot the breeze and I was just enjoying the scenery listening to them.
I started laughing at them and of course they said what is that about.
I said you sound just like us in the US talking about our government. We all had a good laugh and that broke the ice and we all got to know each other better.
You hit it on the head. All thesae little extra "costs" or de facto taxes - money for passports, extra time for security, etc., really add up for the average person, and especially families.
Where is "Ukelet"; I've never been or even heard.
It would be fun just watching him give away his hand. Just a gut feeling he would. Either that or his acting actually helps him have no tells.
Was thinking about going up to Canada to go fishing but now you got the additional costs of passport for the whole family thanks to the US and Canada not understanding how much that adds up for a family of four it really sucks. Additional costs make me go elseware.
Love Canada around Ukelet. Would love to go see more of it.
Brad Garrett Vegas Celebrity Poker....
....Charity Tournament/Event. A chance to hang with celebrities. Get lots of anedotes for small talk for a good price, and a enjoy few weekend days in Vegas, and play some poker if you like. (There's a non-player option, I believe).
http://www.canadianpokertour.tv/images/stories/highlights/brad_garrett_fully.jpg
America's gambling addiction threatens the nation's soul
Today's economies and politics are fueling the push to universalized gambling, writes Neal Peirce. State governments struggling with monster deficits are desperate for any new form of revenue. It's a fatal mistake — not just because of long-term social costs, but for its assault on our national soul.
Neal Peirce / Syndicated columnist
WASHINGTON — What if all of America were like Las Vegas, with gambling as near as the closest convenience store? Or if states offered blackjack, poker and other casino-style games online, as accessible as your personal computer?
Those are the intriguing questions that struck me while reading journalist (and self-confessed gambling addict) Sam Skolnik's new book, "High Stakes: The Rising Cost of America's Gambling Addiction" (Beacon Press).
Currently, the Washington, D.C., government hopes to install an Internet gambling hub by the end of this year. California and Massachusetts have bills pending. Other states are watching with interest to see if the federal Justice Department chooses to enforce existing law that seems, at face value, to prohibit online wagering.
Today's economies and politics are fueling the push to universalized gambling. State governments struggling with monster deficits are desperate for any new form of revenue. And the nation seems seized by weirdly irrational politics that equates any tax increase with original sin.
Already, government-countenanced (or directly run) gambling is at a historical high-water mark. All but seven states have lotteries. Casino gambling, both state-countenanced and run by Indian tribes, is spreading like wildfire, especially in the Northeast. Each year, at least half of America's states consider new gambling outlets. "There is a legalized gambling avalanche in progress in America," Skolnik concludes.
And at a high price, he adds: Newly legalized gambling opportunities invariably create new gamblers. A small but significant percentage get hooked. Gambling addiction leads to unemployment, bankruptcies, divorces, illnesses — and in some of the severest cases, suicide. Addicted gamblers, estimates Baylor University scholar Earl Grinois, cost the United States as much as $50 billion a year.
Aware of the downside, state officials usually agree to set aside some small portions of the new lottery or casino profits for public awareness and gambling-treatment programs. But what that really signifies, Skolnik notes, is that state governments are willfully creating a new class of addicts.
Las Vegas provides, inevitably, the ultimate example of a society — and possibly a future America — hooked on gambling.
Most Americans think of Vegas' gambling as the tourist-oriented Strip, with its more than two dozen huge casino resorts. But there's much more, Skolnik notes: 25-plus full-service neighborhood-based casinos, specifically designed to lure the "locals," not tourists.
Net result: Gambling is Las Vegas' dominant lifestyle theme. Clark County has 14,000 video poker and slot machines chiming 24 hours a day. They're located in some 1,400 restaurants, bars and retail outlets ranging from chain grocery and drugstores to 7-Elevens. Shopping centers routinely offer gambling opportunities. Slot machines are right beside pizza parlors and child-care centers. There's no way to escape them.
On top of all that, Vegas' locally focused casinos advertise relentlessly, by mail to residents and on billboards across the region. A 2002 statewide study, commissioned by Nevada's Department of Human Resources, found that 3.5 percent of the state's population could be classified as "probable" pathological gamblers, and another 2.9 percent slightly less serious gamblers — in other words, one of every 16 adult Nevadans, or roughly 115,000 people.
On average, University of Nevada-Las Vegas scholars William Thompson and William Epstein have found, Clark County adults incur gambling losses averaging $1,511 a year, compared with a U.S.-wide figure of $391.
Can it then be by sheer happenstance that Nevada leads the nation, year by year, in such crimes as murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery and burglary? That Nevada tops the 50 states in rates of personal bankruptcies and home foreclosures? That the state's suicide rate regularly doubles the national average?
Message to legislators in the other 49 states: Is the Las Vegas/Nevada model — and price — one you seriously want to emulate?
Not surprisingly, the Las Vegas Valley leads the world with nearly 100 weekly meetings of Gamblers Anonymous, the nonprofit organization that provides support for problem gamblers.
Allowed to sit in on a Gamblers Anonymous meeting last year in Vegas, Skolnik heard repeated stories of personal gambling-based tragedies. One woman, in her mid-70s, had been a poker dealer on the Strip and in downtown for some 30 years. She gambled frequently off-duty, often to excess. Eventually she "maxed out" eight credit cards, sold most of her possessions, and purchased a gun. She aimed for her heart, but missed by an inch. And she told of how she's been in recovery for three years.
Overall, Thompson has estimated, wagering in Las Vegas results in social costs of $900 million a year — and that's just for local residents, not tourists.
Bottom line: Broadening gambling to relieve states' budget headaches may be a fatal mistake — not just because it triggers long-term social costs, but for its ugly assault on our national soul.
Neal Peirce's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His email address is nrp@citistates.com
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