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A casino near the north end of the Las Vegas Strip is facing heavy criticism over a poker tournament that began this past weekend. The Westgate Las Vegas Resort & …

The Pennsylvania slot machine revenue reached its largest month-over-month gains since February 2016 with 5.4 percent in revenue in March 2018.

This figure compares to March 2017 for the 12 Pennsylvania casinos is part of a monthly report released by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB).

The combined gross revenue generated in March 2018 was $221,350,220. The prior March, that number was almost $209,984,147.

While annually PGCB brings in $1.4 billion in tax revenue from slot machine and table gameplay, March brought in $115.5 million. On average, 25, 815 slot machines operated throughout Pennsylvania in March 2018. Comparatively, 26, 222 slot machines operated in 2017 for the month of March. That’s a change of 407 machines.

In March 2017, PA was down 0.60 percent with almost $210 million in revenues from slot machine gaming.

10 casinos report gains in slot machine revenue

March tells a different tale than February, where slot machine revenue was down 1.7 percent. Parx Casino led the way with $32.7 million in February 2018, with Harrah’s Philadelphia, Valley Forge Casino Resort, and Presque Isle Downs and Casino also looking back on February favorable. But they were the only ones.

This month is different. Valley Forge Casino Resort experienced 11.53 percent gain in slot machine revenue in March 2018, moving from about $7.2 million in revenue to about $8.2 million. The casino was also the big winner of table games revenue in January. Valley Forge was up almost 46 percent.

There were also more casinos that can call March 2018 a good month. Presque Isle Downs and Casino reported an 11.53 percent change in revenue from almost $9.5 million to $10.6 million.

These casinos also found some March madness:

• Rivers Casino (~$26.6 million in revenue in March 2018, increase of 9.45 percent)
• Parx Casino (~$37.5 million, up 9.01 percent)
• Mohegan Sun Pocono (~$19.1 million, reported change of 6.42 percent)

Beyond these three, five casinos experienced gains under five percent in March 2018.

• SugarHouse Casino (~$17.9 million in revenue in March 2018; up 4.82 percent)
• Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem (~$27.8 million, change of 3.10 percent)
• The Meadows Racetrack and Casino (~$19.8 million, uptick of 2.95 percent)
• Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack (~$19.0 million, increase of 2.33 percent)
• Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course (~$20.0 million, up 1.24 percent)

Two casinos dipped in March 2018

Two casinos reported little change in March 2018: Mount Airy Casino Resort (-1.40 percent) and Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin (-0.08 percent).

 

Racetrack gains incoming?

Another recent report from the PGCB found an uptick in wagers on Pennsylvania races by patrons outside the Commonwealth. he six racetracks posted three percent in gains, with over $700 million waged in 2017.

Slot machines generated $239 million in tax money for the horse racing industry last year, with 10 percent of all revenue from PA casino slot machines earmarked for the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development Trust Fund. That was a 2.5 percent decrease compared to 2016.

More growth could come with pari-mutuel wagering on the horse races and increased marketing.

The post For Once, Slot Revenue Was On The Rise In Pennsylvania appeared first on Play Pennsylvania.

April 1 will go down in the record books for Global Poker. After a month of satellites beginning as low as SC$1.50 and a host of preliminary events, players took to the virtual felt to play in the largest tournament in Global Poker history.

The Global Poker Madness Main Event welcomed 419 players paying SC$540 for the privilege of winning their share of the impressive SC$209,500 prize pool. It easily eclipsed the guarantee of SC$200,000 after some predictions that there would be a massive overlay.

The overlay didn’t materialize as 189 players qualified to play in the SC$540 buy-in tournament by winning one of the many satellites that ran during the entire month of March.

‘Greeen’ sees green

After qualifying for the Nuts Main Event by winning a seat in a SC$77 satellite, it was ‘Greeen’ who was left holding all the chips. His hard-fought victory earned him SC$40,194, the biggest score of his career.

“I’m honestly beside myself,” ‘Greeen’ said after the tournament in the public forums. “I’ve played poker for a year and a half, a losing player, break even at best.”

‘Greeen’ first started playing on the Global Poker website eight months ago. He credits the site as a great place to play poker, especially for someone with a small bankroll.

After a single day’s work at the poker table, ‘Greeen’ is pocketing the equivalent of a year’s salary. “40K is a little less than my annual earnings,” he said. “I work 50-60 hours a week.”

‘Greeen’ is having a hard time believing his good fortune, saying “I have spontaneously broken into tears six times this morning.”

‘Greeen’ concluded with a little inspiration for all those players struggling to make a breakthrough: “The dream is alive boys! Never doubt yourselves.”

‘beatbookie’ is a worthy runner-up

After a river deuce counterfeited the two pair of ‘beatbookie,‘ ‘Greeen’ found himself in a dominant chip position as the final hand took place.

‘Greeen’ held ace-six of hearts and was all in against the nine-eight offsuit of ‘beatbookie.’ ‘Greeen’ made a pair when a six fell on the turn. His pair held and he went on to be crowned the first-ever Global Poker Madness Champion.

“Congrats on the win Greeen,” runner-up ‘beatbookie’ said. “I wasn’t happy when you rivered that deuce to counterfeit my two pairs, but after reading this story, I feel better. It sounds like you deserve the win buddy. Hope you parlay it into even greater success.”

‘beatbookie’ found some green of his own when he ccollected SC$29,925 in real prizes for finishing second.

‘Greeen’ and ‘beatbookie’ are indicative of the kind of social community Global Poker is creating. All players that cashed in the Main Event can use their newly acquires $weeps Cash to enter ring games or tournaments, or they can withdraw it to PayPal.

More dreams are ready for the making at Global Poker

Global Poker welcomes U.S. and Canadian players to play poker for real cash prizes. The social poker community provides plenty of opportunities to win big.

Global Poker returns to their regular tournament schedule this Sunday with SC$55,000 in guarantees in its two signature tournaments:

• 3:00 p.m. (ET): SC$110 buy-in “Sunday Teaser” with SC$15,000 guaranteed
• 5:30 p.m. (ET): SC$218 buy-in “Sunday Scrimmage” with SC$40,000 guaranteed

There are more tournaments with buy-ins ranging from SC$2.20 to SC$218. In fact, there is a full day of tournaments awaiting you.  Click here for the complete schedule.

If you want to play for your share of the green, log on to GlobalPoker.com and take a seat. In the words of the newly crowned Global Poker Madness Main Event Champion, “The dream is alive.”

The post ‘Greeen’ Turns SC$77 Into SC$40,000 At Global Poker Madness appeared first on .

If it ain’t broke, PokerStars will fix it.

The world’s largest online poker site made yet another attempt to reinvent the wheel late last month when it launched a new, limited time only, cash game variant which it says provides a novel twist on Texas Hold’em.

It’s the Cadillac of poker with the new upgrades package. The one including the undercoat you never knew you needed until the dealer sold it to you.

It’s called Split Hold’em, and basically, it’s Hold’em with two boards. There’s two flops, two turns and two rivers. It turns classic Hold’em strategy on its ear. Mostly because it’s a split-pot game where the winner of each board gets half the pot. Be best on both boards, or force folds all around, and you scoop.

A new game with familiar rules

It’s certainly something that will feel familiar to most poker players. It’s got the simplicity of Hold’em. Plus, it combines intricacies many players will understand from a variety of other Hi-Lo split games.

The idea of running it twice isn’t anything new to most players. Cash game players have been agreeing to this kind of thing in an effort to reduce variance increasingly over the past few years.

Of course, outside of some wild and woolly home games, double board games aren’t exactly spread regularly anywhere. And certainly, putting all these rule variations together in one new poker variant has to be considered something new.

PokerStars says Split Hold’em is an example of one of the new type of poker variants they’ve been working on. The kind of games they say provide engaging challenges and opportunities for players to test their wits in a fresh format that is new for everybody.

Is Split Hold’em just another rake trap?

In the past, these have included new gimmicks like Spin & Go’s and Beat the Clock hyper-tournaments. These games have proven popular among the masses, who seem to devour anything that makes the game faster. However, these casino game and poker hybrids have been exposed as rake traps that remove a lot of skill from the game.

Now, anytime PokerStars tries to reinvent the wheel again, it forces the poker community to ask if its another one of these gems.

At first glance, Split Hold’em may very well be. Variance is lower, as is any edge a player enjoys because of the split pot nature of the game. Players tend to try and lock up half the board and get it in. As a result, the average pot does tend to be bigger than your typical Hold’em game. Since it’s a split pot most of the time, the only one really winning is PokerStars. Bigger pots create bigger rake.

According to PokerStars’ Ring Games Manager Dan Price, the game will not be a permanent addition to the PokerStars offering. Although that’s probably subject to change. Particularly if the game proves wildly popular and continues to create bigger average pots and more rake.

Holding on to the title

Amaya, now The Stars Group, paid $4.9 billion to purchase PokerStars back in 2014. As a result, it can do what it wants with the site. However, it would do well to remember how PokerStars became the world’s largest poker site if it wants to hold on to that title.

It did it by offering the best software in the business and the largest poker tournaments anywhere online. Not by inventing new poker variants.

Poker was once a good enough game on its own to help the site attract millions of new players. Perhaps reminding the world of how much fun the original forms of the game can be would be a better use of PokerStars’ new game research and development budget.

Because trying to build a better rake trap and continuing to alienate much of the site’s most loyal customer base as a result isn’t going to work.

The post Building A Better Rake Trap: PokerStars Reinvents The Wheel appeared first on .

The schedule has now been released for the tenth anniversary edition of PokerStars´ Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP X) and it is a cracker. The 183 tournaments guarantee prize money of more than $65 million, plus the site will be giving away five PSPC Platinum Passes during the series.