There will be no casino in Foxborough, Massachusetts – at least, not anytime soon. The plans to bring a $1 billion casino resort to the New England city have been halted after Tuesday’s election showed strong anti-casino backlash. On Tuesday, Foxborough voters elected two members of the board of selectmen who opposed the casino plans. Selectman Lorraine Brue was re-elected while Virginia Coppola, a former state representative, was elected for the first time. Both not only opposed the casino, but made it part of their election platform. As a result, there may not be enough support in the board of [ Read More ]
I saw something recently that set off my rant meter. Don’t worry, you’ll get the abbreviated version here. Anyway, I was on the homepage for casino-slotsonline.com and was looking at the chart of the Top Online Casinos. It listed the casinos, their welcome bonus, and payout rate, and then had a download button that said “play & win.” Now, I have nothing against casino-slotsonline.com. It’s a legitimate website. But the “play and win” thing bothers me because it seems to imply that if you play you will win. You might. Here’s the dirty secret, though: you probably won’t. I’m not [ Read More ]
One of the Las Vegas Strip’s more venerable casinos is closing its doors on April 30, with O’Sheas three decade run coming to an end as it moves to the new Linq project. O’Sheas had carved out a niche for itself with cheap drinks and low minimum wagering at its blackjack and craps tables but it will temporarily close with its current location demolished before returning with a new look and location as part of the $500 million Linq project that Caesars is building on the Strip. The Linq project will create an entertainment district next to the Flamingo casino [ Read More ]
Las Vegas-based casino equipment maker Shuffle Master has agreed to buy online poker software provider Ongame Network for €19.5 million, with up to €10 million in additional payments depending on whether or not online poker is legalized in the US in the next five years. Shuffle Master is purchasing Ongame from bwin.party, as bwin acquired Ongame back in late 2005 for nearly $600 million and the poker network operator was considered a surplus asset after bwin and PartyGaming merged in 2011. The deal is slated to close no later than nine months from the annoucement, with CEO Gavin Isaacs of [ Read More ]
U.S. gambling laws have gotten a lot of attention lately. Some in Congress want to repeal UIGEA. Some want to strengthen it. Online poker companies were seized and indicted late last year on Black Friday. Last week, it was Bodog, which will likely lead to jail time for founder Calvin Ayre and three others. There have been the multiple efforts to regulate online gambling at the state level. There was the Washington, D.C. regulation that quickly came and went. There was the Department of Justice finally admitting what the courts decided long ago: that the Wire Act bans only online [ Read More ]
Some of the women busted in Cyprus during a gambling raid two years ago are finally being hauled into court, including a 98 year-old woman as well as forty other women in total. most of the women are in their 70s and would gather once a week for an afternoon of poker and bridge for very small stakes. The raid occurred in November 2009 but the women are just now being required to appear in court; unfortunately two of the women have since died with several others now in a nurse home, according to the daughter of the 98 year-old [ Read More ]
Andrew Lang — who ran transaction processing companies that helped online poker companies send and receive money from clients in the US — pleaded guilty to charges in US District court including conspiracy to commit tax fraud and violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charges stemmed from the US government’s crackdown in April 2011 on three of the world’s largest online poker sites — including PokerStars and Full Tilt — that saw company executives and other middlemen such as Lang swept up in the prosecution and charged as well. Lang admitted [ Read More ]
It seems that everyone is one Facebook now. Heck, even Gambling Review is on Facebook (so look us up). It’s gotten to the point that someone saying they’re not on Facebook is the new someone saying that they don’t own a TV. You don’t believe them and think they’re a jerk for trying to sound superior. The online gambling industry was admittedly a little slow to jump on the Facebook bandwagon. The industry seemed to be waiting out, seeing if it was a fad that would soon end, like most social networking websites. With over 750 million users and counting, [ Read More ]
Stories surfaced over the weekend that one of the last obstacles in the sale of online poker site Full Tilt Poker to Groupe Bernard Tapie involves millions of dollars that Chris “Jesus” Ferguson held in personal accounts that were used for corporate purposes. Groupe Bernard Tapie agreed to acquire the troubled company on November 17th in a deal struck with the permission of the US Department of Justice and that would ultimately see Full Tilt’s assets sold to GBT for $80 million. The complicated deal included the US government taking responsibility for repaying an estimated $150 million owed to former [ Read More ]
An ongoing spat between CEO Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts and Japanese gambling mogul Kazuo Okada has turned into a very public fist-fight, with Wynn accusing Okada of fraud and forcibly buying back the 20% stake Okada owned in Wynn Resorts at a deep discount. Okada has denounced the move as “outrageous” and is threatening legal action of his own and asking for new oversight of the board of directors for Wynn Resorts — a surprising turn in a friendship and partnership between the two billionaires that had stretched out for more than a decade. This escalation of tensions between [ Read More ]
