Despite a soft Q3 performance, Boyd Gaming remains serious about their intentions to acquire the bankrupt Station Casinos’ assets. While Boyd’s multi-billion dollar Echelon Place project remains on hold (for at least 3-5 more years according to recent reports), Boyd Gaming has been aggressive in their pursuit of a Stations buyout.

On Sunday, Boyd Gaming filed a new motion that would support the acquisition of an examiner. Station Casinos have, up to this point, refused to entertain offers. In October, they filed an extension of their exclusivity period which gives them an additional three months in which to design and present a viable reorganization plan. Boyd’s motion would bring in a third party that would weigh the reorganization plan against competing bids.

Boyd Gaming currently represents 16 casinos throughout the United States, including the four Las Vegas Coast casinos that compete with the Station Casinos for local business. Many analysts have suggested that Boyd Gaming’s weak position in the local market has been the company’s downfall and that their acquisition of the Station Casinos would give them an obvious leg up in the local sector.

Don’t be fooled by advertisements offering free casino cash, because the truth of the matter is that it’s not free. Some bonuses are more “free” than others. For example, all online casino bonuses require players to wager a certain amount of money before becoming eligible to cashout any winnings. This “wager-requirement”, also called play-through, generally ranges from 10x to 50x. Furthermore, most of these bonuses only permit wagers at certain games - mainly slots and other games with higher House Edges.Blackjack is usually excluded from the list. And of those that do allow blackjack to meet the play-through, it is often just a small percentage of the wager (2-10%), in essence making the play-through that much larger. A true blackjack bonus, therefore, should be one that allows 100% of Blackjack wagers to meet the play-through requirement, which although will be higher than play-through requirements for slots bonuses, should still be reasonable.

Rushmore Casino get’s our vote for best online blackjack casino because they offer an astounding true blackjack bonus. It’s a 200% Special Blackjack Bonus, worth up to $1,000 Free (Claim code: DOUBLEDOWN). The play-through is 50x, and all blackjack wagers go toward it. Just keep in mind that other games are excluded and should not be played while still meeting the play-through so as to not void any winnings.

Dating back to the big seizure of Neteller funds shortly after the passing of the UIGEA, the State of Louisiana has clearly been no friend to online gambling. Despite forward progress in liberalizing the U.S. facing online gambling industry to better protect citizens and impose strict tax guidelines which could very well help fund costly projects like public option health insurance (to the tune of $62.7 billion over the next decade, according to Price Waterhouse Coopers), Louisiana continues doing all it can to impede online gambling in the U.S. Recently, they were successful at seizing $365,000 from a bank account apparently used by Golden Casino to pay players their winnings. This basically means one thing. 1) Don’t gamble at Golden Casino if you reside in Louisiana. Not only is Louisiana doing nothing to reimburse Louisiana residents affected by the seizure (despite claims that their actions are motivated to protect citizens and NOT Louisiana’s land-based casino gambling institutions), they are blotching things up for players in other states. The good news is that Golden Casino is a fully licensed, insured and regulated online casino in the jurisdiction of The Netherlands, Antilles (Curacao). $365,000 is a small dent for a place like Golden Casino - and players needn’t worry about not getting paid. Golden Casino has an impeccable track record for paying players their rightful earnings, albeit delays do sometimes occur. Residents of Kentucky, Oregon, Maryland and Missouri should also use caution when gambling online.

Everyone will agree, even the online casinos themselves, that it’s always good news when a player wins a big jackpot. And when I say big jackpot, I mean really big jackpot. In the online gambling world, there are millions up for grabs at any given moment, and the reality of actually becoming a millionaire gambling at an online casino does indeed exist.

Take, for example, the recent Ј1,031,985 progressive jackpot win by a player in the UK. Struck on the popular Microgaming software network, which quite frankly, has the largest aggregate jackpots of any other online casino software network in business today, the news wasn’t that surprising considering just how many millionaires have been spawned over the short 10+ years online gambling has been in existence.

Details of the win show that it was hit on the popular King Cashalot video slot, which can be played from any Microgaming Casino (so long as you are not from the U.S.) See the OCS Microgaming Casinos page for our top picks. Currently, the largest aggregate progressive jackpot is the wildly popular Mega Moolah video slot, no valued at approximately $/Ђ/Ј 5.25 million.

The player, who is known only as Mr. S. due to privacy laws, made a Ј2.25 wager to get the reels to relinquish their prized wares. Not a bad return at all. While he most likely spent more than that leading up to the jackpot, Mr. S. surely got his money’s worth and should be considered very lucky being in the right place at the right time.

Now, all he has to do is wait patiently for his one-time payment. While the typical procedure at online casinos is to pay out large jackpots in installments, since this was a true progressive jackpot, the player receives all the cash up front. Not even tax money is taken out, although it is highly advised players do so on their own. It’s safe to say that after winning a Ј1 million plus jackpot, hiring an accountant would hardly make a dent.

According to a preliminary press release, the player is on record saying that he wasn’t just shocked when he saw the payout, but that he was flabbergasted. He called in the nighttime early morning hours to verify if it was true and when told, yes, Mr. S. he was going to enjoy a celebratory brandy nightcap.

Moneybookers, the popular European web based money transfer service provider, has selected Tero Pollanen, to act as the chief of its anti-fraud department, one of the many new engagements undertaken by Moneybookers’ to double its workforce since the start of the year 2008.

Before the current undertaking, Pollanen was a senior Manager, employed in the Fraud and Strategy Department at Lloyds TSB, which is one of the UK’s largest high street banks. He will be charged with the onerous task of heading Moneybookers Risk and Anti-Fraud Team, spearheading the steady expansion and accomplishment of fraud deterrence.

Due to an unprecedented escalating expansion, Moneybookers has had to double it’s workforce from one hundred and fifty employees at the beginning of 2008, to close to 300 by March of 2009. There are also plans underway to increase the workforce by an extra 100 recruits, by the end of 2009 to meet the demands occasioned by the exponential online casino business growth. The online money transfer provider has lately posted the highest records so far for 2008, featuring staggering amounts of Euro 2.4 billion in trade volumes, and revenue amounting to Euro 18.7 million. The company is also projecting another great year, by building on that thrust, throughout the current year. This year Moneybookers customer base hit the seven million mark.

The co-CEO of Moneybookers Nikolai Riesenkampff has shown his delight to welcoming to his team Mr. Tero Pollanen, since he believes that he is taking with him lots of experience, which he will be employing to improve the security of the system currently being used. Mr. Riesenkampff also added that Mr. Pollanen will be a welcome supplement to his team of anti-fraud experts, which will be leading the industry, as Moneybookers looks for new ways in which to improve its business.

The online company Moneybookers has been established in London in the year 2001 and the Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom is the authority that regulates its processes. It runs a global online payment system offering business an amalgamated access to more than 60 payment choices, in more than 200 countries around the globe.

The participants at the final table of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker event in Los Angeles will get their chance at the US$1,000,900 first prize.

One of those fortunate finalists is “November Nine” member Kevin Schaffel. Mr. Schaffel leads the final six players with 2,234,000 chips. He will be sixth in chips when the World Series of Poker Main Event final table reconvenes on 10 November.

Since the inception of the “November Nine” format last year, Mr. Schaffel is the first player to make both the November Nine and a World Poker Tour final table. Last year, Russian poker pro Ivan Demidov finished third at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, and then finished second behind eventual champion Peter Eastgate at the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas.

Mr. Schaffel’s closest rival is Day 3 chip leader Todd Terry with 2,219,000, followed by online poker pro Prahlad Friedman with 1,476,000. Mr. Friedman is probably best known for his altercation with Jeffrey Lisandro during the 2006 Main Event, as well as the “rap” he performed for a segment of the ESPN television coverage. He also made a deep run in this year’s Main Event, finishing 64th and earning US$90,000.

The short stack at this table is poker pro Toto Leonidas with 580,000 chips. Mr. Leonidas won the 2003 United States Poker Championship in Atlantic City, New Jersey, earning US$388,000. He also has a WSOP bracelet from winning the US$1500 buy-in Seven Card Stud event in 2003. Although he has won several preliminary WPT events, he has never been on the TV table.

Another November Nine member and former chip leader in this event, Steven Begleiter, made the final nine, but missed the TV table when he finished in ninth place. He attempted to bluff off Todd Terry with king-three of hearts. Mr. Terry called with ace-queen of clubs, neither player connected with the board and Terry’s hand held up. Mr. Begleiter earned US$39,240 for his efforts.

In an interesting twist, none of the six players who will compete for the title have ever made a WPT final table before. The combination of familiar faces in new places, along with amateur players Sam Stein and Mike Krescanko, will make for entertaining viewing when the episodes air early next year. The final table will start 26 August at 4pm PDT.

In addition to such Las Vegas landmarks as Bally’s, Caesars Palace and the Rio, Harrah’s Entertainment has expanded their casino empire across the American Midwest. Harrah’s casinos can be found in states such as Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Indiana. Now the gambling giant has its sights set on expansion into Ohio. An e-mail that Harrah’s marketing department sent to customers in Ohio asked them for their opinions on a potential new casino site near the city of Cleveland.

Gaming options are expanding at an accelerated pace in the state. In addition to the seven horse race tracks and the state lottery, Governor Ted Strickland authorized a bill allowing for slot machines at the racetracks. A recent amendment to the state’s constitution up for a vote this November could bring as many as four full-scale casino gaming sites to the state.

Harrah’s spokesman Gary Thompson said that the e-mail approach is a normal part of new market research. He also stated that, while such an approach does not mean that plans to build a new casino are imminent, it is a method the firm uses to get a better idea as to how full-scale casino gaming will be received by customers, as well as if those customers would prefer the site to be built in a certain area of the city. Two of the areas under consideration would include racetracks Thistledown and Northfield Park.

The moves by both the state and by Harrah’s have not been met with unanimous approval. One industry expert claims that the introduction of slot machines to the state’s horse tracks will make them more lucrative targets for out-of-state companies such Harrah’s to buy out or partner with the track owners. In addition, a group of conservative activists has filed a motion with the state Supreme Court questioning whether either the legislature or the governor has the legal power to authorize slot machine gaming without a referendum.

Dan Gilbert, owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, also opposes Harrah’s entry into the state. He, along with one of the racetrack owners, has a stake in potentially building casinos all over the state if a different amendment receives voter approval. Both ballot measures go to the voters on November 3.

Online gambling group Party Gaming’s agreement with Intralot SA three months ago to provide an Italian online poker operation (see previous InfoPowa report) came to fruition this week when the gambling group announced the launch of the new Intralot.it poker site. Following the receipt of certification from the Italian regulator, AAMS, the Intralot poker service is now being rolled out and will join Party’s Italian poker network.

While the group’s Italian poker network has only been operating a few weeks, with the expected introduction of poker cash games before the end of the year, the Board is hopeful that Italy will prove to be a profitable and exciting regulated online gaming market in the medium to long-term, the company said in a statement.

Party Gaming took the opportunity to additionally deliver a pre-close trading update, revealing that since 6 April 2009, revenues have remained robust and in line with that achieved in the first quarter of 2009.

Online casino revenue has shown a significant increase from the first quarter despite a fall in casino active player days due to seasonality and lower levels of cross-sell from poker. This revenue growth has been driven by the group’s main casino site, PartyCasino.com, which accounts for over 70 percent of the Party group’s casino revenue.This operation continues to perform strongly on the back of a substantial increase in the number of games offered as well as the launch of a dedicated affiliate programme and major international marketing campaign, both of which commenced last (June) month.

There has been a marginal reduction in active player days in the poker operations compared with Q1, but this due to the summer months in Europe, where online activities are quieter. Rivals who continue to offer poker to US clients continue to provide very strong competition. The company reports that its enhanced player loyalty programme, improved player promotions and a new offline marketing campaign saw each of these metrics improve last month. As a result of these initiatives, poker yields have been softer than in the first quarter due to increased bonus and player loyalty costs, resulting in a reduction in poker revenue versus the first quarter.

Sports betting revenue was down on the previous quarter, reflecting a reduction in betting volume due to the end of the season for European football, which remains the single most popular sport for betting customers.

Whilst bingo is currently small in the context of the Party group, management says that it believes it represents a significant opportunity with the global online bingo market estimated at $1.5 billion per annum. The B2B deals signed over the past few months with CIRSA, DM plc and Channel 5 (see previous InfoPowa reports) are expected to benefit bingo revenues during the fourth quarter of 2009.

Party appears to see the recent New York US Attorney’s seizure of online poker funds with US e-processors as an opportunity to take players away from the US-facing poker rooms, and it has increased its marketing spend in certain territories.

Whilst this has already had a positive impact on player numbers, it is also expected to lead to distribution costs being slightly higher than the firm’s previous full year guidance of 38-40 percent of net revenue. However, continued cost savings and favourable currency movements have meant that lower staff and overhead costs have mitigated the increase in marketing costs and consequently, clean EBITDA margins for both the half year and the full year results are still expected to be in line with that achieved for the full year in 2008.

The group’s interim results will be announced on 28 August 2009.

Jim Ryan, Party Gaming’s CEO said: “The Group’s strategy remains on-track and I am pleased that many of the seeds we have sown over the past year are now beginning to bear fruit.

“The improvements to our poker product and loyalty programme, the addition of Intralot to our Italian poker network and the launch this week of bingo and casino facilities for DM plc are clear examples of this. We look forward to the rest of the year with confidence.”

Online gambling software developer CTXM, which provides games to many of the major companies in the industry, has released two new casual slots for the popular iPhone. Both slots are derived from proved casino slots already published by CTXM through its partners.

The offerings includes FreakyFruits Slots and Totem Quest Slots, a slot extension of the Totem Quest puzzle game.

Udy Yosha, CEO of CTXM, says: “Currently gambling is not available to iPhone users. However, to take an emerging market opportunity created by this popular mobile communications device, we used our game mechanics and rich graphics to appeal to the casual players among users.

“In addition, we linked the games to our social applications where they can share their achievements.”

This week, CTXM also plans to launch the full version of Totem Quest puzzle game and a Safari based version of FreakyFruits Slots.

“Undeniably, iPhone is a phenomenon of the contemporary gaming industry, which is transforming the gaming world to a new level, said Yosha. “We perceive gaming on iPhone as an essential part of our business strategy in future and we plan to work seriously to extend our gaming offering through this medium.”

Since 2004, CTXM has developed over 20 titles to PC, XBOX live and iPhone, and has co-published over 100 casual game titles from Central and Eastern Europe.

The Global Gaming Almanac describes each segment of the gaming industry including casino and card room gaming, race wagering, sports betting, commercial bingo, lotteries, charitable gaming, and online gaming. Annual financial statistics are provided in tables and charts, where avaialable, along with the historic and current regulatory environment in each jurisdiction, an overview of pending legislation, and major trends. Counts and distribution of gaming properties, devices and tables are given along with profiles of properties, owners and regulatory agencies.

As an added bonus, the Almanac appendix provides country-by-country Consumer Price Index (CPI) tables and currency conversion information.

The Global Gaming Almanac CD gives you the entire contents of the printed almanac in electronic format, a Global Gaming Property Map, more than 180 annual reports of international gaming business, plus our unique Gaming Market Analyzer tool using radius searching to allow you to define custom geographic markets to analyze.

The almanac has five main areas of focus within each jurisdiction. First, the major market segments are described, including casino and card room gaming, lotteries, commercial bingo, race wagering, sports betting, and online gaming. Information on recent financial statistics, the historical and current regulatory environment, an overview of pending legislation, and major trends is included.

Second, summary tables show the distribution and total numbers for types of gaming facilities, gaming devices (including slots, video lottery terminals, and electronic Bingo), and gaming tables (including poker) within the jurisdiction. Other summarized statistics include casino square footage, convention square footage, number of rooms, restaurants, entertainment venues, parking spaces, and number of employees.

Third, more than 2,600 gaming properties are covered across the jurisdictions. Details provided for individual properties include physical address, phone and fax numbers, website and e-mail address, property owner, types of table games, restaurant names and cuisines, entertainment venues, attractions, and hours of operation. All of the summarized statistics listed above are also provided for individual properties.

Fourth, for each gambling activity in a jurisdiction, the appropriate regulatory body is shown with name, location and contact information.

Finally, this edition of the Global Gambling Almanac is the first to include current and historical activity-specific revenue charts and tables. As this is the first year for which this type of data has been collected, it will not be included for many jurisdictions. We hope to see the number of jurisdictions providing revenue figures increase with each edition. This data is collected from regulatory agencies and commissions around the world.

Specifically, the new data includes
Four years of calendar year net gaming revenue by gaming activity. The four calendar years of data are presented in local currency and U.S. dollars for all jurisdictions. The data is also presented in inflation-adjusted terms using December 2008 as the base when the consumer price index is provided by the jurisdiction. See the appendix for details of the calculations required to produce the revenue data presented in this book.
Five-year revenue bar charts for each gaming activity in each jurisdiction. Inflation-adjusted and U.S. dollar charts are included for each available jurisdiction as well.
Summary tables with four years of revenue, revenue change since prior year, inflation adjusted revenue and inflation adjusted revenue change since prior year for each gaming activity.
Raw revenue data tables and, when obtainable, tables of taxes collected per gaming activity.