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(PRESS RELEASE) -- Global online cash payments provider, Ukash has today announced that Betfair has signed up to their popular service which enables customers to use cash to transact online with Betfair.

From today, Betfair customers who pass strict verification processes will be able to make cash deposits into their account through Ukash vouchers, which are available from over 50,000 sale points in the UK, with a reverse process being available to make cash withdrawals. The service is available on both desktop and mobile.

David Hunter, CEO, Ukash said “Betfair was the world’s first successful betting exchange, and is a company respected for its innovation and values. Like Ukash, they are a great British success story and this makes our cooperation even more satisfying.”

Ian Chuter, Group Operations Director, Betfair, said “Ukash offers a secure and easy method of deposit and withdrawing, supporting our wider on-going aim of making it easier for customers to transact with Betfair.”

Ukash enables players to spend cash securely online. Ukash codes are purchased with cash in retail outlets such as shops and petrol stations. The unique 19 digit codes can then be used to pay directly on thousands of websites that accept Ukash transactions worldwide.

LAS VEGAS -- Regional gaming operator Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. on Wednesday dismissed an investor proposal to spin-off the company’s 14 casinos into a real estate investment trust.

During a conference call to discuss the Las Vegas-based company’s first quarter earnings, Pinnacle officials said they are focused on consolidating the casinos the company acquired last year in its $2.8 billion buyout of rival Ameristar Casinos.

Pinnacle CEO Anthony Sanfilippo said the company wants to reduce its $4.35 billion in debt, much of which was taken on because of the Ameristar transaction.

However, Sanfilippo said the company might consider the idea in the future. Earlier this month, Orange Capital, a New York-based investment fund, suggested the REIT split, which is similar the split performed last year by Penn National Gaming, as a way to increase shareholder value.

REITs don’t pay federal income taxes, but return 90 percent of their taxable earnings to shareholders.

Sanfilippo said Pinnacle was keeping its options open in regards to continued expansion. He told analysts it was unlikely the company would pursue a potential casino development in Japan but was interested in one of the four available casino licenses in upstate New York.

Pinnacle submitted a refundable $1 million application fee to join the New York process, even though the company hasn’t designated a site preference.

“It has to be compelling to move forward and compete for a license,” Sanfilippo said.

Pinnacle said results in the quarter, which ended March 31, were helped by inclusion of the Ameristar properties, which doubled the size of the regional company.

Pinnacle reversed a first quarter loss from a year ago by reporting net income 0f $19 million and earnings per share of 31 cents. A year ago, the company lost $85.4 million or 31 cents per share. Net revenue grew 100 percent to $532.8 million.

Pinnacle conducted the earnings call from its Belterra property in Northern Indiana. On Thursday, the company opens the remodeled $209 million Belterra Race Track and Casino in nearby Cincinnati. Sanfilippo said the properties will address two different audiences.

Analysts have worried about diminished gaming revenue from regional gaming markets over the past few months. Pinnacle’s results, however, buoyed the company in the eyes of the investment community.

“We expect these results to help Pinnacle remove itself from others in regional gaming who have fewer margin opportunities,” said Macquarie Securities gaming analyst Chad Beynon. “Pinnacle’s strong portfolio of assets continues to outperform the market.”

LAS VEGAS -- MGM Resorts International released details Wednesday about the $80 million transformation of the The Hotel into the Delano Las Vegas, which includes remodeling all aspects of the 1,100-room nongaming hotel into a boutique-style luxury property.

The transformation began this month and the renovations are scheduled to be completed by September. The change is a collaboration between MGM Resorts and the Morgans Hotel Group, which owns the Delano brand.

Changes include new designs and furnishings to the property’s guest rooms and suites, including redesigned hallways and corridors.

The property’s public spaces the property’s restaurants will also be changed to include a new lobby area, 3940 Coffee + Tea, which is a new 24-hour coffee bar; and a new restaurant concept on the lobby level. The hotel’s bar and lounge area will also be remodeled under a new name, Franklin, and will feature nightly entertainment.

The current Mix on the property’s 64th floor, will be renamed Rivea and serve French and Italian cuisine from chef Alain Ducasse.

LAS VEGAS -- Stop the presses. Steve Wynn declared Las Vegas is on the road to recovery Thursday.

At the outset of a first-quarter conference call with analysts, the Wynn Resorts Ltd. chairman and CEO said he was “feeling good about Las Vegas, better than I had in the past.”

Wynn based his opinion on the company’s results from Wynn Las Vegas and Encore during the three-month period that ended March 31.

The resorts’ overall revenue total — $380.9 million — was a 1.5 percent decline from a year ago and accounted for just 25 percent of the company’s overall first quarter revenue of $1.51 billion.

It was the nontraditional reporting numbers that Wall Street uses to gauge profitability that caused Wynn to proclaim the Strip’s recovery.

The average daily room rate at the two resorts increased 6.2 percent to $275 per night. Revenue per available room, often referred to as RevPar, grew 12.6 percent to $214.

“That makes us the most profitable hotel in Las Vegas,” Wynn said. “Las Vegas is growing into the additional capacity that it added in the past. CityCenter and Encore opened at the worst possible time in the national economy.”

While other gaming industry CEOs have said the Strip was on the road to recovery, Wynn was reluctant to do so.

Until Thursday.

“I see Las Vegas getting a footing that it hasn’t in the past,” Wynn said.

Still, Wynn Resorts is a company that relies on Macau.

Fueled by its two Macau casinos, Wynn Resorts said its net income for the first quarter was $226.9 million, or $2.22 per share. A year ago, the company’s net income was $203 million or $2 per share. Wynn’s overall revenue increased 9.8 percent over the 2013 first quarter.

In Macau, the revenue produced by Wynn Macau and Encore at Wynn Macau increased 14.2 percent to $1.13 billion.

During the conference call, Wynn executives focused much of the discussion toward Macau.

The company is building the $4 billion Wynn Palace on Cotai that is expected to open in 2016. The 1,700-room hotel-casino includes a performance lake, meeting space, spa, retail offerings, and restaurants.

Wynn described the property as “an entertainment experience from outside” with features like flower sculpture of a 25-foot-tall Fabergé egg and restaurants that have theaters with full stages.

The property, “will be the photo-op of South China. And that’s just to get everybody in,” Wynn said.

A second phase will more than double the size of the hotel with all-suite product.

Meanwhile, the company is now re-configuring of the original casino inside Wynn Macau so it doesn’t lose business to the new resort. Wynn said the changes will be completed before the opening of Wynn Paradise.

Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and MGM Resorts International are all building new resorts on Cotai in order to increase their footing in the world’s largest casino market, which produced $45.2 billion in gaming revenue last year.

Wynn credited his Macau casino rivals, saying “our competitors have lifted the game. It caused us to lift our standards as well.”

However, a question about the company’s prospects with winning a casino license in Japan — which is considering legalizing gaming — Wynn was gracious toward the chances of other companies with one exception, Caesars Entertainment Corp.

“They have other problems. Money problems,” Wynn said.

Separately, Reuters reported that Universal Entertainment Corp. and its billionaire founder Kazuo Okada filed a criminal complaint against Wynn Resorts and Steve Wynn in Japan on allegations of defamation.

The complaint is the latest salvo in a long-running feud between the two former business partners.

Universal said in a statement it submitted the complaint with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on April 24, accusing the casino operator and Wynn of “defamation, harm to public trust and circulation of rumors” in relation to the publication of an investigation into Universal’s conduct in the Philippines.

The investigation was commissioned by Wynn and made public in early 2012.

In an emailed statement, Wynn said the criminal complaint was an attempt by Okada “to create a distraction from the investigations pending against him.”

LAS VEGAS -- Increased business from its three downtown Las Vegas casinos helped Boyd Gaming Corporation offset poor first-quarter results from the company’s regional jurisdictions hurt by weather issues and market softness.

The Las Vegas-based company said Wednesday it had its best first quarter in five years from Main Street Station Casino Brewery and Hotel, Fremont Hotel & Casino and California Hotel & Casino, all of which benefited from a cavalcade of market-changing events downtown.

“It’s really a combination of all the things happening downtown combined which has led to a little bit of a renaissance on Fremont Street,” Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith said following an afternoon conference call with analysts to discuss results for the quarter that ended March 31.

The opening of the Zappos headquarters in the former City Hall, improvements on East Fremont Street, such as the opening of Container Park, and the opening of the Downtown Grand inside the former Lady Luck, have all worked to boost downtown visitation.

Smith said the opening this week of the Slotzilla zipline attraction on Fremont Street would also bring more visitors downtown, which benefits Boyd Gaming’s properties.

“It ends right at the Fremont,” Smith said.

Boyd said its net loss for the first quarter was $6.2 million, an improvement from the loss of $7.3 million in the same quarter of 2013. Boyd told investors the company lost 6 cents per share in the first quarter, compared to a loss of 8 cents per share a year ago.

Total revenues companywide declined nearly 4 percent to $708.3 million.

In addition to weather issues in the Midwest and South, the company’s Borgata resort in Atlantic City recorded a $3.2 million operating loss related to its launch of online gaming operations in New Jersey.

From its locals segment, which includes the Coast casinos brands and Sam’s Town, Boyd Gaming said its revenues declined less than 1 percent to $151.4 million. However, cash flow from the properties increased 2 percent, the fifth consecutive quarter of cash flow gains.

On the conference call, Boyd chief operating officer Paul Chakmak said the company is looking at upgrading its restaurant offerings in its locals properties. The company renovated hotel rooms at the Gold Coast last year and is now upgrading convention space. Chakmak said Boyd would also finish hotel room renovations at The Orleans and Suncoast.

In downtown, Boyd Gaming’s net revenue grew 3.1 percent to $55.7 million, and cash flow increased 31.2 percent. The company also credited yield improvements in the Boyd’s Hawaiian charter service.

“The refinements we have made to our operations are paying clear dividends in all segments of our business, and we expect additional benefits as the economy recovers,” Smith said in a statement.

Smith said Boyd repaid $55 million of debt during the quarter. Boyd’s total debt was $4.37 billion, of which $1.14 billion was related to its purchase of Peninsula Gaming more than a year ago and $809.3 million was related to Borgata.

Smith didn’t have much to say about the investment in Boyd in March by a New York hedge fund. The stock purchase led to speculation the investor might seek for Boyd to spin off its casinos into a real estate investment trust.

“We spend time thinking of ways to create shareholder value in the company,” Smith said on the conference call. “We consider all such alternatives, but we don’t comment on them until we make a decision. It’s like making an acquisition.”

Boyd declined to bid on one of four casino licenses available in upstate New York, but Smith said that process was still early and there was still a possibility Boyd could be brought in as part of a management deal.

"Back in my day, they'd throw ya in the clink for bein' a lousy bum!"

That quote is not real, but it must have been what was going through a 72-year-old Ohio man's mind when he reportedly called the police on his 17-year-old grandson for being lazy.

The man told police that his grandson, whom he has custody of, is lazy and "does nothing around the house." According to the report, he asked his grandson to help with chores, but the boy continued to play on the computer, so the old man cut the Internet cable cord. Following that brilliant decision, the grandson reportedly became enraged and punched a hole in the kitchen wall and left the house to scurry into the woods.

This is one of the best "get off my lawn!" moments in Internet history. There are just too many senior citizen fails in this story for it to fall through the cracks. The Reel Life will not allow that to happen.

Note to old people everywhere: The police cannot force your lazy grandchildren to do chores. This is not Soviet Russia. The best you can hope for is that they waste taxpayer resources to come to your house and send a message. Because there's literally nothing better for them to do.

(Actually, in Ohio, there might not be.)

Get in the fast lane, Grandma, this bingo game is ready to roll!

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