Archive for October, 2007.
October 30, 2007
(PRESS RELEASE) — 32Red, the online gaming company are offering players the chance to play their way to the Bahamas with the new WPT Bootcamp competition. The lucky winners will be flown to the Bahamas for a week of top poker schooling from the game’s leading professionals, play in tournaments and attend amazing VIP parties, and will also have the opportunity to win a slice of a combined prizepool of £210,000 in competition money whilst there.
The 32Red competition winners will be based in the luxury Crystal Palace Casino. Qualification also means automatic entry to two big poker tournaments at the WPT Bootcamp tournament, where players can practice what they’ve learnt from the poker school.
The poker package prize is worth over $7,000 and includes a 7 night stay at the Cable Beach Resort in Nassau Bahamas, $2,500 for travel expenses (arrangements to be made by winner), entry into the 3 day Deep Stack “Season Pass” Tournament, the 2-day “Bust-Out” Tournament, and entry into a single-table tournament, two days of live learning labs with the pros, two private VIP parties, all meals, entry to the award ceremony, VIP poker room with extended hours and games just for battle attendees.
32Red have five places to fill, and new players can take advantage of the $500 dollar welcome poker promotion. For a chance to win, players must qualify through a series of 32Red Poker poker games.
October 30, 2007
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Some 20 months after Nevada casino regulators approved rules governing wagering on wireless hand-held gambling devices, mobile gaming remains an uncharted mystery.
But some of the questions may start finding answers in November.
Cantor G&W, an affiliate of New York-based financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, hopes to begin testing a wireless gambling device on a small scale at The Venetian. The company is asking the Gaming Control Board to allow customers frequenting the semiprivate lounge inside The Venetian’s high-end slot parlor to wager on a device no larger than a personal digital assistant.
At the very least, Cantor G&W executives plan to allow attendees to the upcoming Global Gaming Expo who visit The Venetian play the mobile gaming devices for free to show their capabilities. The G2E in mid-November is the casino industry’s largest trade show.
“We’re trailblazing here,” said Lee Amaitis, president of Cantor Fitzgerald’s gaming division in London. He is also overseeing Cantor’s efforts in Nevada. “We have basically done more than is required for testing this technology and we want to make sure everybody is comfortable with (the concept). People want to see the living, breathing thing. Once it gets into action, I’m optimistic it will be well-received.”
Conceivably, mobile gaming would allow casino patrons to wager on blackjack, bet on the spin of a roulette wheel and play slots machine from public areas away from the traditional casino, such as poolsides, buffet lines or outside convention areas. Gamblers would set up accounts with casinos for mobile gaming. Firewalls would shut down the devices and prohibit gamblers from wagering outside of a resort’s public area, including hotel rooms or away from the property line.
Cantor spent more than $400 million to develop technology used for wireless interactive bond trading on Wall Street. The company then led the initial charge to transfer that same technology into the casino environment. Cantor officials lobbied state lawmakers in 2005 to approve mobile gambling and offered comments when regulators wrote the standards.
The company became Nevada’s first licensee approved to manufacture and distribute hand-held gaming devices in May 2006, two months after the regulations were approved. However, it’s taken more than a year to get its products through the Gaming Control board’s testing laboratory.
In addition to Cantor, slot machine giant International Game Technology and Fortunet have also been granted manufacturer and distributor licenses. Only Fortunet, however, has a mobile gaming device in the control board’s laboratory along with Cantor.
IGT spokesman Ed Rogich said the slot machine manufacturer, which was approved for mobile gaming in August 2006, is concentrating most of its efforts on developing server-based slot machines, which industry analysts believe will be the next wave in retooling casino slot floors. Server-based gaming potentially would allow slot machine players to pick and chose which games to play from a menu. Casinos would also be able to customize their slot floor.
Rogich said IGT might unveil some mobile technology during G2E.
“We’ve showed some of the technology privately,” Rogich said. “We see the mobile gaming applications fitting into the whole suite of products that will be part of our server-based gaming initiative. Right now, we don’t see a huge demand for mobile gaming.”
Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski said server-based gaming will dominate G2E.
“Many investors are still trying to get their hands around this technology and we believe the focus for most manufacturers will be where they are in terms of deployment and pricing,” Wieczynski said.
Mark Clayton, the control board member overseeing the implementation of mobile gaming, agreed mobile gaming is a server-based gaming system. He said the behind-the-scenes technology for the devices needed initial approval from the laboratory before the devices could be tested. He said concepts have been presented where mobile gaming devices could also be used for casino promotions or to advertise restaurants.
“There has been some concerns about the speed of bringing the gaming product to market, but the newness of the technology has driven the process,” Clayton said. “Right now, we are just looking at the gaming aspect.”
Amaitis hasn’t been too concerned with the time element. In the past year the company signed a deal with Las Vegas Sands Corp. to place the mobile gaming devices at The Venetian and the soon-to-open Palazzo. Also, the company signed gaming content deals with several slot machine makers and gaming equipment providers.
“Because this is brand-new, the regulators need to get comfortable with the idea,” Amaitis said.
Cantor’s mobile gaming device has nine different casino games; blackjack, roulette and baccarat, three types of video poker and three different slot machine games. The slot machine and video poker games have 5 cent, 10 cent and 25 cent denominations. Cantor Chief Technology Officer Ron Rushin said low denominations are being used during the testing period to stay under Internal Revenue Service reporting guidelines.
When Cantor is approved to conduct a 90-day test of the mobile devices at The Venetian, the company will restrict wireless gambling to the casino’s high-end slot area. If the device were taken outside the room, it would shut down.
Amaitis said additional games, such as Texas Hold’em Bonus Poker and Carribean Stud, will be added in the second phase.
“Right now, this is pretty vanilla,” Amaitis said. “It’s both educational and gimmicky. The next stage will have a different type of experience.”
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HOW IT WORKS
Customers set up an account and are given a wristband with an imbedded microchip and a password. Both are needed to log onto the device. Every 20 minutes or so, the gambler has to logon onto the device anew, but doesn’t lose credits doing so. During the test, the device will log off if a customer leaves the high-limit slot area.
October 30, 2007
LONDON, Ontario — (PRESS RELEASE) — It might seem as if this year’s X Factor has been on our screens for an eternity already, but with ten finalists left we are still many weeks away from finding out which act has the daunting task of following last year’s winner Leona Lewis.
Leona took the competition by storm 12 months ago and after not being rushed into striking while the irons hot, Simon Cowell chose to take his time with her in a bid to make her a long-term superstar. A gamble that looks as if it’s paid off! After singing live on the show a few weeks back and then releasing the first single, ‘Bleeding Love’, off her debut album she outsold the whole of the top five put together, including Take That and McFly, to go straight into number one last week.
So, are there any acts amongst this years hopefuls that can equal Leona? Well, so far judged on what we’ve seen the simple answer to that is NO! The finalists are, however, only two weeks into their live performances so surely must get better.
As we know the show is going head-to-head, like it does every year, with Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC, and already to boost the ratings we’ve had the normal rows between the judges, with Sharon Osbourne even walking out on the show last week because she had two acts in the bottom three. However, in typical X Factor style she’s back, but with only two of her 14-24 girls left can she break her duck and win the show for the first time? Not a chance! Alisha Bennett has now been in the bottom two for the opening two weeks and it looks only a mater of time before she goes, with her odds of around 50/1 reflecting this. Emily Nakanda, her other runner, has also not had the best of reactions off the judges after her opening songs, but the fact she’s the youngest in the competition might just keep her in a bit longer than she should, but even at around 40/1, to me those odds still don’t look big enough.
Because of this, however, both figure prominently in the ‘Next to go’ market, along with Simon Cowell’s Same Difference, but at around 12/1 solo artist Leon Jackson could be next for the firing line. To us he’s looked nervous and a little out of his depth and although it’s ultimately the public who vote if he’s in the final two, it’s hard to see Sharon having another act kicked out at this early stage.
The ‘Winning Manager’ market is an interesting one with all the judges; expect Sharon, looking to have at least one banker that should take them to the final three. Simon Cowell is blessed to have Hope and Futreproof, both, who have looked solid groups, sure to get the teeny bopper votes, while his other act, Same Difference, despite being outsiders in the betting, might just surprise a few people. Louis Walsh’s ace up his sleeve is Niki Evans. She’s belted out a couple of ballads in her opening performances, and can certainly sing but we just think she might just be a one trick pony and at around 3/1 in the outright betting looks too short. Despite hating his original audition Danni Minogue’s trump card is the theatrical Rhydian Roberts. He’s certainly a bit different, but there’s no doubt he’s a talented act and whether he goes all the way in this or not he looks set for a bright future on the stage. Because of these strong acts spread across three of the four judges the winning manager market is as tight as they come, with Louis, Simon and Danni all around the 2/1 mark, with Sharon seemingly already well and truly out of it around the 25/1 mark.
Overall the best bets at this stage to us look to be backing both Hope and Futureproof, both around 4/1 in the outright betting, in the view that at least one of Simon’s decent looking groups will make it to the final three and therefore hopefully give punters a perfect trading opportunity if they wanted. While although short odds the 4/7 on offer for Rhydian Roberts being the top male in the 14-24 category looks an absolute steal. Love him or hate him, we think he’s starting to win over the public after his initial arrogant and over confident performances. He’s up against the shy looking pairing of Leon Jackson and Andy Williams, who have both, so far, not impressed the judges, and look some way behind Rhydian, so grab the 4/7 on offer, sit back and hopefully your winnings should be with you just before Christmas.
October 30, 2007
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey — (PRESS RELEASE) -– Follow five friends on their night out for a wild time! The Atlantic City Hilton will present Girls Night: The Musical in the Hilton Theater, Sunday, November 11 through Thursday, November 15, 2007.
Written by the eminently talented playwright, Louise Roche, Girls Night: The Musical is a hilarious romp where five girlfriends get together for a wild night out at their local karaoke club. In this engaging production, the ladies examine the past, celebrate the present and look to the future all while singing the songs known as the ultimate female anthems. From the high-energy “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” to the empowering “I Will Survive,” the audience will enjoy hit after hit of electrifying music. Other songs performed throughout the play include “We Are Family,” “I’m Every Woman” and “Man I Feel Like A Woman.”
Girls night: The Musical is at once funny and touching. Get ready to laugh, dance in the aisles, and maybe even shed a tear. The stellar cast includes Sonya Carter as Liza the one with “issues”; Jennifer Jane as Sharon, the angel who isn’t such an angel; Deborah Radloff as tell-it-like-it-is Anita; Janine Smith as Carol the party girl; and Danielle Wetzel as “boring” Kate.
Louise Roche decided to write Girls Night after watching a comical musical by Shane Richie. She was inspired by Richie’s work, which was geared towards women. At first, Girls Night was a hit at her local community theater. But after instant success, the production has come a long way from its humble beginnings. Girls night out is a can’t-miss evening of fun for everyone – even the guys.
Girls Night: The Musical will perform in the Atlantic City Hilton Theater, November 11, 13, 14 & 15 at 7 p.m., and on November 12 at 2p.m. Tickets are priced at $45 and can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-736-1420 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.
October 30, 2007
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — (PRESS RELEASE) — Arizona Charlie’s Decatur is earning a city-wide reputation as the luckiest place on Earth thanks in part to four major jackpots this year! Recently a lucky Las Vegas local woman won $50,000.00 playing Aristocrat’s Zorro(TM) penny slot, and became the fourth player so far this year to hit the jackpot playing Aristocrat Technologies themed Zorro(TM) game at Arizona Charlie’s Decatur!
The third major win was just over a month ago, and now just a few weeks later, Frazenia Hines walked away with $50,000.00. No other casino in Las Vegas or in all of Nevada can boast such a high hit frequency for the Zorro game.
Hines had played just $20 in the Zorro game when she hit the jackpot. She says she always knew one day she would hit the jackpot on the game, and now that she’s a big winner, she intends to use the $50,000.00 on a “much needed vacation.”
Arizona Charlie’s Decatur Director of Slot Operations Jim Pelletier said, “We’re so excited to have Zorro on our floor. Our players love it, and now everyone knows what we’ve known all along — that Arizona Charlie’s Decatur is the place to play and win!”
Aristocrat’s Zorro linked progressive slot combines the excitement of a four-level progressive jackpot with six bonus events and four bonus features. This rich feature set is augmented with two unique, Zorro-themed MKVI(TM) 20-line penny slots, amazing graphics, and hi-fi sounds. The four-level, second-screen progressive features three linked progressive jackpots and a fourth top jackpot with a static $50,000 award that can be won on any game.
Arizona Charlie’s Decatur is one of the top local casinos in Las Vegas. Featuring more than 1,400 ticket-in/ticket-out slots, video poker and Keno machines and a wide variety of table games, Arizona Charlie’s Decatur offers some of the best gaming choices in town. They also have an exciting, full-service Race & Sports book and is the only casino in Las Vegas to host a 24-hour bingo parlor.