End of an era

The merciless fist of progress must destroy before it can build. Within the past year, lesser-known Strip landmarks like the La Concha and Glass Pool Inn have fallen prey to the developer's backhoe. The latest victim, apparently, will be the Algiers, one of my personal favorites. From the LV Sun:

The owner of the Algiers Hotel, a Las Vegas landmark for almost 50 years, has agreed to sell the property to a Florida developer who plans to build a 45-story condominium-hotel in its place.

The Algiers Hotel, which opened in 1955, is currently in escrow. The buyer plans to raze it this year to make way for the new development.

The price for the 3.6-acre parcel at the corner of Las Vegas and Riviera boulevards was not released and will not become public record until the sale is final. The Clark County Board of Equalization in February valued it at $5.9 million -- though Algiers appraisers valued it at more than $20 million during land-swap talks with Clark County in 2002.

"It is in escrow right now, but in real estate nothing is over until the fat lady sings, and she's only humming now," Larry Kifer, president/chairman of the Algiers Hotel, said Thursday.

Kifer said the 105-room hotel, with a video poker bar, is scheduled to close between June and September. The property, featured in films such as Leaving Las Vegas and the Austin Powers movies, employs 25 non-union workers, Kifer said.

Marion B. Hicks built the Algiers Hotel after building the original Thunderbird hotel-casino on the Strip and the El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas, Kifer said. Kifer is a partner in the hotel with his ex-wife Marianne Hicks Kifer.

Florida-based developer F.W. "Freddie" Schinz plans to build the Krystle Sands condominium-hotel, an estimated $400 million project. Plans are to begin construction this fall with a summer 2006 opening.

The Clark County Commission already has approved plans for the 510-foot-high tower, to be built by Perini Construction Co., Schinz said.

Algiers deal to make way for condo project on Strip

It's too bad to see a cool place like the Algiers go, but I guess that's the cost of progress. While the preservationists might put up a fight, there are certainly worse cases. After all, Caesars Entertainment tore down my high school to build a parking lot.
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posted by Dave at 2:25 PM

Notes on Macau

Today;s Las Vegas RJ had an article about the opening gaming frontier of Macau. While much of it dealt with the Sands/Venetian's operation, there was also some interesting information about the general market:

The opening of the Sands Macau casino will break up a monopoly on casino operations in Macau that Stanley Ho, 82, and his gambling cronies have enjoyed for almost 50 years.

Two years ago, authorities approved breaking the monopoly on casino operations by awarding gambling concessions to three groups -- Adelson, Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts and Ho's group of companies.

The Sands Macau is next to the $60 million Galaxy Waldo Hotel-Casino, a smaller property with 38 tables and 100 slot machines being developed by Galaxy, a company started by Hong Kong property tycoon Lui Che-woo, who shares a casino license with Adelson. It is run by Francis Lui and is set to open in June.

A $122 million waterfront entertainment and retail complex called Fisherman's Wharf is being built on the other side of Adelson's casino by Ho and David Chow, his partner, and is set to open before year's end.

Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn is also planning to build a $500 million hotel-casino, which is expected to open in 2006, although he is hoping for reforms to the enclave's gambling laws before he commits further.

In addition to opening the Sands Macau next to the ferry terminal, Las Vegas Sands is obligated to open the Macau Venetian Casino Resort, a second and permanent casino, by June 2006, and invest $550 million in its Macau developments by June 2009.

Adelson's long-term plans to develop the $10 billion, so-called Cotai Strip, a strip of reclaimed land between the Macau islands of Taipa and Coloane, includes a 1,500-room resort and casino. He is inviting others to join in building the 20 casinos and 60,000 hotel rooms that will constitute the new Las Vegas Strip East.

The Galaxy operation, a group of Hong Kong investors that has teamed up with Adelson, also plans to build a 3,000-room resort casino on separate land in 2006.

In all, these projects will require 22,000 additional workers and increase the number of jobs in Macau by about 10 percent.

All the development is transforming Macau. The latest boom helped push Macau's economy ahead by a 15.6 percent last year, with growth hitting a 21.1 percent in the fourth quarter.

Gambling on Macau

I still can't figure out what the correct spelling is. Some places say Macau, others Macao. I'd like someone to clear that up, at the very least.
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Once more, if you like poker, you should tune into the History Channel this Sunday, May 9, at 8 PM, and catch "The History of Poker." You can chase it with "Breaking Vegas," the hyped up story of the MIT blackjack team, which is airing at 9PM.
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posted by Dave at 4:22 PM

History of poker

On Sunday May 9, the History Channel is airing THE HISTORY OF POKER, an hour-long condensation of poker's fascinating past. It is going to be on at 8PM, and may air again as well. It will be well worth your time.
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posted by Dave at 4:47 PM

Windy City casino

Imagine a giant casino in the middle of the nation's third-largest city--run by the city itself. Gaming expansion in Illinois seems inevitable, but the possibility of the city of Chicago owning and operating a casino seems somewhat strange. Still, Mayor Daley hopes to see this happen:

Mayor Richard Daley on Monday skirted questions about whether he wants a downtown casino, but a sly smile tipped his hand a bit about lobbying on the city's behalf in Springfield as the legislative session enters its final weeks.

"I don't put any cards on the table. I basically will sit down and talk to people," he said. "This is the last few days of the session. We'll find out."

What is clear is Daley will pursue a Chicago casino only if the city owns it and if taxpayers, not private investors reap the profits.

Chicago wants a casino

I guess they'll probably do what some Canadian government-owned casinos do, which is hire a management company to run it. I just can't see the municipal Department of Works adding a slot cashiering department.
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posted by Dave at 4:32 PM

Hold 'Em comes to the casino

What do you get when you take a wildly popular poker game and turn it into a house-backed casino game? Big money, Lakes Entertainment hopes. The gaming operator, which owns 80% of the World Poker Tour, is launching "World Poker Tour All-In Hold'Em," which will pit players against the house rather than other players:

In WPT All-In Hold 'Em each player is required to bet the blind ante on every hand. That's the ticket into the game. Then the player has other betting options, including an optional bonus bet on the hole cards. For example, two red aces pays 50 to 1, while a pair of deuces pays 2 to 1.

Once he or she has seen the hole cards, a player can fold, raise the blind ante by betting five times or even ten times the ante bet (placed in two easily visible marked circles in front of each player.) Then the action turns to the dealer, who will fold and pay off the bets, or call. If the dealer qualifies to play on (based on specific rules), the play continues with the flop, turn and the river. If the player's best five-card poker hand beats the dealer's, the player wins his ante and the raise bets.

Lakes Entertainment Introduces New Casino Game Based on World Poker Tour Television Show

This is another variation on the poker games (Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride, 3-Card) that have become popular in casinos over the past decade, cleverly designed around the poker variant with the most exposure today.
Lakes has a few other casino games: Bonus Craps, Rainbow Poker (1 of each suite wins!), and Pyramid Poker, which seems to be a natural for the Luxor based on its name alone.
I have a feeling that WPT All-In Hold 'Em might catch on, but I have a question. Is it really "all in" if the player can only bet 10X the ante? What about truth in advertising?
If you want to see the layout, visit the Lakes Entertainment site.

One final note: you've got to love a game that promises that players can "Play the game of big time Hold 'Em without the intimidation of facing poker’s top players." Isn't that the whole point of poker, to face off against other players? It seems kind of like no-contact fighting or something, a contradiction in terms.
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posted by Dave at 9:39 AM

Cheating the odds

The New York Daily News had an article yesterday about casino cheats:
New York Daily News - Crime File - Casino rogues who have beaten the odds

I have two points of correction: 1) they're not rogues, they're criminals. 2) They aren't "beating the odds." They're cheating, which means that it is no longer a game of chance. To say that they are "beating the odds" is tantamount to saying that shoplifters get great value when they steal.

The article itself is the usual, although it portrays the cheaters in a favorable light and does not quote any gaming enforcement personnel or current casino security professionals.
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posted by Dave at 11:48 AM

California slot initiatives

The Contra Costa Times has an excellent article about two competing propositions California voters may face this November:

With two competing gambling initiatives poised to make the November ballot, Indian tribes, card clubs and racetrack owners are laying big early bets in a showdown over the future of California gaming.

If a flurry of early TV ads and mailers offers a clue, the battle for the elbows and purse strings of slot machine players could far eclipse the record $89 million spent on Proposition 5. That 1988 initiative sparked a burst of Indian gaming in the state.

At stake is how expanded gambling in California will take shape, where and who will lead it. One measure could bring about 5,000 slot machines to the East Bay. The other would allow Indian tribes limitless gaming on their lands.

The initiatives have yet to make the ballot, and Election Day is six months off. But gambling interests have raised nearly $23 million already. Both sides say the spending could far surpass $100 million.

The potential payoff is in the billions of dollars. Indian gaming, most of it in rural areas, now generate an estimated $5 billion in revenue for the tribes. The tribes pay about $140 million a year into two state funds, some of it for nongaming tribes. None goes to the state's general fund.

A campaign funded by card rooms and racetracks has turned in more than a million signatures to qualify an initiative asking the 61 California gaming tribes to pay 25 percent of their slot revenues to a government fund or lose their monopoly.

All of the tribes must agree to the fee for it to take effect. If they don't, 11 card clubs and five racetracks would divvy up a maximum of 30,000 new slots. They would pay 33 percent of their net revenue on those to a fund for local police, fire and education programs.

The five tracks, which include Golden Gate Fields in Albany, could each run about 3,000 slot machines. The designated card clubs, including California Grand in Pacheco, could house up to 1,700 slots apiece. Only a few Las Vegas casinos operate as many as 3,000 machines, gaming analysts say.

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, owner of Palm Springs-area casinos, has countered with an initiative, also expected to qualify, to authorize unlimited gaming on Indian land only, with tribes paying 8.8 percent -- the corporate tax rate.

The tribe has put up $6.9 million so far for the campaign.


Contra Costa & Alameda News

This is a huge issue that may be a barometer of gaming expansion throughout the US. Are voters so strongly opposed to new taxes that they will approve new gambling to balance budgets. Interestingly, the original Prop 5 was about Indian self-determination, and it made for an effective campaign. This fall, look for a much more bottom-line oriented campaign.
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posted by Dave at 10:40 AM