A Valley Forge Casino dealer is out of a job and in trouble after passing $4,000 in counterfeit bills via the casino’s Spanish 21 table game.
The post Fake Bills Result In Some Real Consequences For Valley Forge Dealer appeared first on PA Online Casino News.
Several major casinos on the Las Vegas Strip continue to make it more expensive to gamble by raising controversial resort fees and parking rates.
MGM Resorts International became the latest operator to hike the price of a visit to most of its Las Vegas Strip properties, raising resort fees at 10 of its 13 casino hotels this week.
MGM’s mid-range properties, including MGM Grand, The Mirage, and Mandalay Bay, will see resort fees go up up by $2 to $37. Lower-end properties including Luxor and Excalibur will see resort fees raised by $5 to $35. Plus, resort fees at Circus Circus on the North end of the Strip are going up $2 to $30.
Resort fees at MGM properties including Vdara, Bellagio, and Aria are not going up.
Caesars Entertainment also raised resort fees at many of it’s Las Vegas Strip properties March 1. Resort fees went up $5 to $35 a night at Bally’s, Flamingo, Harrah’s and The Linq. The fees were also raised $2 to $37 a night at Cromwell, Paris and Planet Hollywood. Plus, resort fees were hiked to $39 at Caesars Palace.
This marked the third year in a row Caesars Entertainment has raised resort fees. Las Vegas Sands has also increased resort fees at its properties twice over the past two years.
Resort fees have become a source of controversy because they can be misleading. Although unavoidable, the fees are not often included in published room rates. Particularly on internet booking sites, where they may not appear until after a room has been selected.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports attorneys general in 46 states, as well as the District of Columbia, are currently investigating the legality of imposing resort fees. Nevada is not among those states.
Additionally, the newspaper also claims a class-action lawsuit has been filed against several Las Vegas Strip properties in regards to internet fees.
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Free parking was once a staple perk of the Las Vegas Strip casino experience.
MGM changed that in 2016 when it became the first group of properties to begin charging visitors for parking. Caesars Entertainment properties soon followed suit.
Now, both are raising the parking rates as well. MGM, announced in January it was increasing parking fees at 11 of its 12 Strip properties.
Self-parking at Caesars Palace went up by $2 from $10 to $12 for 1 to 4 hours March 1. Parking rates were also raised at:
Self-parking is still free at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino just off the Strip. Plus, Caesars properties do not charge to park for 60 minutes or less.
The move to these fees coincided with casino resorts starting to earn a majority of revenue outside of gambling.
With 70 percent or more of Las Vegas Strip resort revenues now being derived from restaurants, shops, shows, and nightlife venues, the properties are no longer offering free parking or waiving resort fees to try to attract gamblers the same way they once did.
The post Pretty Soon Only High Rollers Can Afford Rising Vegas Resort Costs appeared first on Play USA.
The business transactions in the Pennsylvania casino industry just keep coming. On Feb. 28, Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) announced it is acquiring Presque Isle Downs Casino and Racetrack in Erie, PA.
This is the third acquisition in as many months in the Keystone State. Penn National is in the process of acquiring Pinnacle Entertainment, which owns The Meadows Casino. Additionally, Boyd Gaming purchased Valley Forge Casino in December.
Unsurprisingly, Churchill Downs cited the online gambling opportunities as the major reason the Kentucky-based company is expanding operations to northwest Pennsylvania.
There is a second property in Louisiana that comes with this sale. For a combined cost of $229.5 million, CDI is purchasing both Presque Isle Downs and Lady Luck Casino in Vicksburg, LA. CDI already owns another casino in Vicksburg, the Riverwalk Casino.
Pennsylvania is new turf for CDI though. It also means new potential opportunities for the company. The PA gambling expansion laws mean CDI can now potentially pursue several new options, including:
Presque Isle is the home to 1,600 slots, 32 table games, and a poker room. There is also a thoroughbred racetrack that runs around 100 race days a year.
The Vicksburg sale will close in the second quarter of 2018. CDI needs to finalize the Lady Luck sale as a condition of the Presque Isle sale. the current timeline has the PA sale wrapping in the final quarter of this year. Another stipulation of the deal is approval of the sale by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB).
In the press release announcing the acquisition, CDI CEO Bill Carstanjen readily admitted online gambling was a major reason why the company purchased a Pennsylvania casino:
“We are excited about welcoming both of these properties to the Churchill family. Presque Isle will give us a foothold in Pennsylvania which has recently passed legislation authorizing real money online gaming. The Lady Luck Vicksburg is immediately adjacent to our Riverwalk facility and offers us operational efficiencies in a stable region. Both properties fit our investment criteria and will be immediately accretive to our shareholders.”
The online gambling angle is something CDI pursued in the past. In 2011, it acquired BLUFF Media, a company with a poker-focused magazine and website. The assumption was CDI wanted to leverage the BLUFF name to launch an online poker site.
Additionally, the company’s Twin Spires product allows customers to place horse betting wagers online in 30 different states, including Pennsylvania.
However, what is interesting is the software element of CDI. The company has Twin Spires, which uses in-house technology. There are currently no online casino software partnerships.
In fact, Churchill Downs actually unloaded its social gaming company, Big Fish Games, in December of last year. The company sold for $1 billion to Aristocrat Technologies in Australia.
For now, it seems like CDI is keen to develop in-house. However, given the timeline in PA, inking a deal with a software company could certainly speed up the process to get
Photo by Thomas Kelley / Shutterstock.com
The post Welcome To Pennsylvania, Churchill Downs! appeared first on Play Pennsylvania.
There is a growing concern that New Jersey online gambling revenues are approaching their ceiling. These concerns are a bit premature. Here’s why.
The post New Jersey Online Casinos Still Have Plenty Of Room To Grow In 2018 And Beyond appeared first on Play NJ.
888 In New Letter: PA Should Allow Online Casinos To Offer Multiple ‘Skins’
888 has written to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to make the case for casinos to be allowed to operate multiple online gaming branded websites.
The post 888 In New Letter: PA Should Allow Online Casinos To Offer Multiple ‘Skins’ appeared first on Online Poker Report.
California accountant Dennis Blieden emerged from a field of 493 players to win $1 million at the $10,000 Los Angeles Poker Classic WPT Main Event. Blieden held the chip lead for most of the latter stages of play and used an aggressive style to conquer a final table worth of the high buy-in. A live-streamed audience watched Blieden earn his title on PokerGO.
This year’s LAPC marked the 25th anniversary of the event and the 16th trip for the World Poker Tour to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California.
Blieden showed no signs of inexperience in winning his first-ever WPT event in only his third career tournament cash.
Seat 1. Peter Hengsakul – 1,065,000 (36 bb)
Seat 2. Marc Macdonnell – 1,695,000 (57 bb)
Seat 3. Dennis Blieden – 4,125,000 (138 bb)
Seat 4. Manuel Martinez – 985,000 (33 bb)
Seat 5. Toby Lewis – 5,390,000 (180 bb)
Seat 6. Derek Wolters – 1,520,000 (51 bb)
The LAPC final table finished in an efficient 79 hands. In the sixth hand of play, Spaniard Manuel Martinez exited in sixth place at the hands of Blieden.
Martinez opened under the gun with pocket queens and Blieden defended his big blind with eight-six offsuit. Blieden flopped trip eights, turned a full house, and all of Martinez’s 30 big blinds were in before the river. No queen came for Martinez and Blieden jumped into the chip lead.
Eight hands later, local favorite Peter Hengsakul departed in fifth place. The real estate investor fell to Blieden. Hengsakul shoved for 19 big blinds over a raise from Blieden with nine-eight of hearts. Blieden called with ace-seven of hearts and faded any trouble to bust Hengsakul.
2018 Aussie Millions Main Event winner Toby Lewis and Blieden wrestled for the chip lead for the first half of the final table.
In Hand #35, Blieden took it for good. Blieden raised to 80,000 under the gun and received a call from Lewis on the button and Marc Macdonnell in the big blind. The flop rolled out ace-king-seven with two spades and a bet of 205,000 from Blieden left Lewis as the only opponent remaining in the hand.
Blieden bet 405,000 more when the five of spades hit the turn and put 1,215,000 in the middle on the ten of hearts river. Lewis called to see Blieden show jack-eight of spades and Lewis’ two pair was second-best. Blieden held half of the chips in play and closed out his win a few hours later.
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Three established pros stood in front of Blieden including Season XVI WPT Montreal final tablist Derek Wolters. Blieden proved too much to overcome and Macdonnell was the first to fall from that group.
With the blinds up to 25,000/50,000, Macdonnell moved all-in on the button for 1,105,000 with ace-seven offsuit. Lewis woke up with wired nines in the blinds and flopped a set to send out Macdonnell.
Wolters attempted to best his third-place finish from Montreal but wound as the low man on the podium yet again. After getting his kings cracked by Lewis, Wolters was on the short stack. He shoved for six blinds with queen-seven suited and could not beat the king-deuce of Blieden.
The 1,100 WPT Player of the Year points earned by Wolters put him into second-place on the leaderboard behind Art Papazyan. The 1,800 points of Wolters means he is one final table away from potentially passing Papazyan’s 2,400 should the current leader fail to cash before then.
Lewis started heads up play against Blieden with a fighting chance but their match ended in only two hands. Blieden finished off his amazing run in dramatic fashion.
Lewis raised with two tens to 120,000 and Blieden three-bet with ace-queen offsuit to 300,000. Lewis opted to four-bet to 750,000 and Blieden called to the six-six-three flop. With two spades on board, Lewis bet 400,000 and Blieden called. The queen of hearts peeled on the turn and Lewis shoved for 2,200,000.
Blieden thought it over and called to put Lewis at risk. No ten came for Lewis and the Brit was denied his second major victory of 2018. He did earn a $600,630 consolation prize.
Blieden is the World Poker Tour’s newest millionaire and he has a seat waiting for him in the $15,000 Tournament of Champions.
1st Place: Dennis Blieden – $1,000,000
2nd Place: Toby Lewis – $600,630
3rd Place: Derek Wolters – $430,210
4th Place: Marc Macdonnell – $319,310
5th Place: Peter Hengsakul – $244,430
6th Place: Manuel Martinez – $186,235
The West Coast trip for the WPT is in Lincoln, California this weekend. WPT Rolling Thunder starts Friday with the first of two Day 1 flights and wraps up on March 6 with a live-streamed final table.
Photo courtesy of WPT/Flickr
The post Dennis Blieden Wins WPT L.A. Poker Classic for $1 Million appeared first on .
There are almost four million more people living inside of Pennsylvania than New Jersey. That means the online poker market that opens up in the Keystone State later this year will likely be a bigger one than the Garden State currently hosts.
More people generally means more players. That creates bigger tournament prize pools and more cash game action.
Unfortunately, bigger doesn’t always mean better. In fact, there are already some clear indications that PA online poker may not end up being as much fun as it is in NJ.
As Steve Ruddock reported on Online Poker Report this week, PA will have a prohibition on online poker play at land-based casinos in the state when the market launches.
According to Ruddock, the ban was put in place to protect against land-based casinos pushing their customers to online games where taxes on operator revenues were originally planned to be much less.
In the end, the state passed laws that will see online gambling operators pay the same taxes as land-based casinos. However, the state never lifted the online gambling prohibition at live casinos.
Now, online poker players in the state will start out stuck with this situation. Where the chance to multi-table live and online tournaments simultaneously won’t be available to them.
That means less fun inside poker rooms.
Back in the Fall of 2016, about six months after launching online poker operations in New Jersey, PokerStars held a live tournament series in Atlantic City. It actually started the same time the PokerStars New Jersey Championship of Online Poker was wrapping up.
Since there are no regulations in the state preventing it, this gave those in attendance the chance to multi-table live and online tournaments simultaneously. Many had a blast doing it. Including Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin, who happened to run deep in the $500 PokerStars NJCOOP Main Event, and the PokerStars Festival New Jersey $300 PokerStars Cup opening event, at the same time.
2003 World Series of Poker champion, fellow Team PokerStars Pro, and good friend Chris Moneymaker also happened to make it down to the final two tables in the live event. He was sitting across the room and Ramdin kept shouting over with updates from the online event.
It wasn’t long before a rather awkward situation arose.
There were 16 players left in the NJCOOP Main Event online. Ramdin was relatively short and got it all in preflop with two kings versus two nines. Winning the pot would put him in a spot among the leaders. He had lot more chips in the PokerStars Cup live event, and also happened to be in a hand at the time.
It was heads up on the flop and Ramdin’s opponent had just checked to him.
“I’m all in, Chris,” Ramdin shouted across the room.
He was clearly referring to the online game. However, in live poker, verbal declarations are binding.
Ramdin’s opponent called. The tournament staff was forced to hold Ramdin to his verbal declaration, despite him having just queen-high, and he lost a good chunk of his stack.
There was a lot of good news though. Ramdin’s kings held online and he soon moved on to the final table of the NJCOOP Main Event.
He finished 10th in the live PokerStars Cup event, bubbling the final table. However, he was able to laugh off the entire situation. Mostly because the prize pool in the live event was so much smaller.
In the end, Ramdin, who is originally from Guyana, but calls New York City home, was just stoked to have been able to play online poker in the United States. Plus, doing it at the same time he was playing in a live PokerStars event was a major bonus.
Who could blame him? He said he had a great time doing it. Even the multi-tabling faux pas didn’t put a damper on it.
Unfortunately, at this point, it looks like he and others won’t be able to do the same thing in Pennsylvania anytime soon.
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There was a massive crackdown on underground poker in Oslo Thursday evening, per a translated report from nrk.no. According to the report, around 100 police officers arrested the operators of …