Месяц: Февраль 2014

Gaming companies blazing the trail for online poker are starting to generate revenue from their Internet investments.

It’s still too early to determine exactly how much they have made and how sustained the results will be, but frontrunners Caesars Entertainment and Station Casinos both have realized proceeds from online gaming.

Caesars began generating online poker revenue during the third quarter of the year in Nevada and the fourth quarter in New Jersey. The company’s third-quarter earnings included only 11 days of online poker revenue. Caesars unveiled its World Series of Poker site Sept. 19. The company didn’t specify online poker revenue in its earnings report.

Station got an even earlier start, having already managed more than 1 million hands here, and is ready to roll out its product in New Jersey. Both companies take a percentage of gamblers’ money for every hand played.

Overall, Caesars reported revenue of $2 billion, down 0.7 percent from the third quarter last year. The company reported $112 million in casino revenue, a 7 percent decline offset by lower promotional expenses and increases in nongaming revenue.

Will the company’s tide turn with four online gaming outlets debuting in New Jersey? Caesars is teaming with 888 Holdings and Amaya Gaming Group for online poker offerings on the East Coast. But the company also is reeling from losses it assumed when it withdrew its bid to build one of Massachusetts’ first casinos.

Online poker also could be profitable for the Boyd Gaming Corp. and MGM Resorts International, co-owners of Atlantic City’s Borgata, who are teaming up with Internet gaming provider bwin.party.

During the third quarter, Boyd saw its losses widen to $37 million despite a 20 percent increase in revenue. Executives were happy with the results at Borgata but disappointed in spending by customers at Southern and Midwestern riverboat and racino properties.

MGM, meanwhile, is aggressively gearing up for online play in New Jersey. MGM’s losses narrowed in the third quarter due to a 9 percent increase in revenue.

MGM has the comfort of having a cash cow Macau property in its back pocket while waiting for New Jersey online revenue to roll in.

Two more companies have a similar luxury.

Wynn Resorts saw its earnings climb 63 percent to $182 million, up 7 percent from a year ago, due to revenue generated in Macau.

Las Vegas Sands also had a record quarter, with revenue up 32 percent to $3.6 billion and earnings up 82 percent to $809 million, thanks to earnings in Macau.

But neither Sheldon Adelson nor Steve Wynn has any interest in pursuing online gaming.

Wynn says he’s satisfied sitting on the sidelines as others pursue cyber opportunities. He is focused on a casino bid in Massachusetts after backing out of plans to build in Pennsylvania.

Adelson, on the other hand, has actively battled for a nationwide Internet poker ban, to the chagrin of most of his colleagues.

Another bellwether of the success of Internet poker will be Station Casinos. Station was the first company to offer online poker in Nevada, and its Ultimate Gaming is teaming with Trump Taj Mahal for Internet gambling in New Jersey.

Station posted a loss of $4.7 million during the third quarter, although revenue was up 3 percent to $305 million. The company focused much of its attention recently on opening a tribal casino it is managing near San Francisco.

American Casino & Entertainment Properties, operators of the Stratosphere and two Arizona Charlie’s properties in Las Vegas, hasn’t launched a real-money online poker play but is marketing a free product in advance of a pay site.

ACEP had a rocky third quarter due to increasing losses, a bid to refinance, reduced player volume and lower casino hold percentages. Revenue was down 1.6 percent to $84 million and losses soared 185 percent to more than $9 million.

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CARSON CITY — Nevada casinos ended 2013 with a strong win of $1 billion in December, up 9.6 percent from the same month in 2012.The state Gaming Control Board reported today that the industry’s gross win for the year was $11.1 billion, an increase of 2.5 percent from 2012 and the most since 2008.

The board reported that 58.4 percent of the 2013 statewide win came from Strip casinos, the largest percentage recorded.

“It’s been increasing every year,” board analyst Michael Lawton said. In 2004, the Strip accounted for 50.5 percent of the state’s gaming win.

He attributed the growth to the increasing popularity of baccarat. In 2003, the baccarat win amounted to 7.6 percent of money won on the Strip; last year it was 24.4 percent.

Lawton said the increase in December was paced by baccarat, which registered its second-highest win ever of $242.9 million. In December, Las Vegas Strip casinos reported revenue of $664.2 million, up 12.9 percent. The win at the baccarat tables was up 32 percent and the slot machine win was up 16.4 percent.

The win was down 12.5 percent for blackjack, 16.3 percent for craps and 22.9 percent for roulette.

For the year, the winnings at Las Vegas Strip casinos was $6.5 billion, a 4.8 percent increase from 2012.

The win in December was up 12.9 percent to $41.7 million at downtown Las Vegas casinos, 24.3 percent to $24.1 million at North Las Vegas casinos and 15.5 percent to $67.4 million at Boulder Highway casinos.

The board said winnings in Laughlin dropped 8.9 percent to $30.2 million, in Mesquite increased 0.5 percent to $9.2 million and in the balance of Clark County increased 7.2 percent to $86.2 million.

Winnings in Washoe County fell 0.9 percent to $55.3 million, in South Lake Tahoe fell 24.6 percent to $15.7 million and in the Carson Valley area dipped 1.8 percent to $7.7 million.

For downtown Las Vegas casinos, the gross win for 2013 was $500.9 million, down 1.6 percent; Laughlin was off 1.5 percent to $455.1 million; casinos on Boulder Highway reported a decline of 1.2 percent to $786.9 million; North Las Vegas fell 5.3 percent to $259.1 million; Mesquite was off 3.7 percent to $113.1 million; and the balance of Clark County had a 1.9 percent increase to $1 billion.

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Poker is a competitive card game between players. In this game, the dealer will not interfere with the game play; he will just deal the cards and pay winnings. The casinos or poker venues make money out of this game by taking a percent of the winnings or charging players with a fee. Of course, there are poker versions that have been adapted in order for them to become casino games where players play against the dealer who is representing the house or the casino but the original poker games that are widely known and played by millions of players are the competitive versions between players.There are different versions of Poker, they all share the same main concept, which is having a better poker hand and they also have the same poker hand ranking. The showdown will occur at the end where the remaining players will show their hands and a comparison will take place between the different hands & the highest poker hand in-play will be the winning hand. The things that are different are the dealing order, the betting system and the wagering rounds between the dealing procedures.

So in order to master the game of poker and understand the poker ranking, we provide you with this tutorial that will help you understand the game and its rules. This tutorial includes the history of the game, the rules, the odds and the strategy that will help you become a professional poker player.

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Slot machines, also referred to as slots, 1-arm bandits, fruit machines and poker machines. These machines are gambling devices in which players will place wagers in the form of coins (or virtual coins if it is an online slot) in order to spin the reels of the game. Any slot machine will have a minimum of 3 reels and players can start spinning these reels by pulling a lever (or clicking on Spin if it is an online slot machine). The symbols on the reels will start to spin until they stop. When they stop, players will be awarded according to the combination of symbols that they achieved on the payline. The payline is a virtual line on which players must get certain symbols in order to get paid.Players will be paid based on the bet that they have placed, the combination of symbols and the paytable of the game. The paytable is a table that shows players the different combinations and their respective rewards. This paytable is usually found at the top above the reels of the slot machine. The symbols appearing on these reels are usually cherries, bells, watermelon and sevens, this is why they were called fruit machine. Other advanced slots might have a certain theme. For these games, the symbols will be inspired by that theme. For example, Thunderstruck is an online slot which is themed around Thor and Norse gods. On this game’s reels, players will see symbols that include Thor, Thor’s Hammer and Odin among other related symbols.

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Rakebacks are important to casinos, and really don’t affect the player too much. They are only really prevalent in poker rooms since the casino doesn’t earn any money off of a hand like they do in blackjack where the house actually participates. When you pay a buy-in to a tournament, the casino takes a percentage of all of the buy-ins, which is called a rake. Since there are usually a large number of tournaments going on, they can earn a substantial amount of money without really taking away from the player’s winnings. Another way a casino can make money is by taking a certain dollar amount, instead of a percentage. The only drawback to this is the amount doesn’t change, so if the pot is small, it will get even smaller, and may not be worth playing because of that. Players tend to want to win the big pots, not a bunch of small ones. VIP and loyalty programs are a great way to earn back some of the money that has been lost in rakes, and don’t require anything more from you as a player other than clicking a few buttons. While you may not see the rewards immediately, they will absolutely show up over time and are well worth the few minutes it took to sign up.

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Poker rooms online vary greatly than the land ones as well. First off, they are more conveniently located, and don’t require travel or hotel stay to access them. All you need to do is fire up your computer in your favorite internet accessible location and you’re good to go. If you are a non-smoker, you won’t have to worry about breathing in smoke-filled air for hours, and then having to get that out of your clothes. You don’t even have to get dressed if you don’t want to, since no one can see how you look when you are playing. Getting started in a poker room is really easy too. Just pick the one that you think fits you best, create an account, put some money in it and off you go! Some sites have free rooms to play in, which are perfect for those still learning the game or that are unsure of their abilities.

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