
Customers enjoy the look at board the tall Roller Ferris wheel, but there must be a lot more of them, says Caesars.
Caesars Entertainment’s High Roller Ferris wheel at the Linq is not quite yet in a deflationary spiral, nonetheless it isn’t proving become the money maker that the business had hoped for either. The 550 foot attraction, which towers over the Las Vegas Strip, is billed as the world’s tallest observation wheel.
It opened very nearly a 12 months ago as an element of a $550 million redevelopment associated with area involving the Flamingo and the Linq, freeslotsnodownload-ca.com previously the Imperial Palace, and represents a trend that is recent Vegas seeks to diversify its entertainment offering away from traditional gambling.
It’s hardly revolutionary: the new generation of visitors prefers a Ferris up to a roulette wheel, the reasoning goes; except which they don’t, apparently.
Caesars stated this week that while numbers were up 10 percent regarding the quarter that is previous just under 5,000 day-to-day cyclists, it was still way short of expectations; the company had predicted that the ride would be attracting between 8,000 and 11,000 visitors a day, or 3 to 4 million a year.
Persuading around 10 percent of the Strip’s 41 million visitors that are annual yield up to $60 million in yearly revenue, the company had hoped.
Happy Half Hour
These figures were extrapolated partly by looking at the 2010 figures for comparable attractions. Almost four million checked out the London Eye that year, whilst the Empire State Building had 3.5 million visitors, and 700,000 individuals climbed the Stratosphere in Vegas.
However, Caesars outgoing Chairman and leader Officer Gary Loveman admitted that the company had underestimated the total amount of teams and visitors that are corporate ride would attract, adding that this is now being addressed through a broader marketing outreach.
The majority that is vast of to date have been leisure tourists or locals, Loveman explained.
An option that now accounts for a quarter of all bookings along with Groupon deals, airline package discounts and half-price tickets for locals, Caesars has begun offering an open bar during the 30-minute ride in a ‘Happy Half Hour’ package.
$1.01 Billion Q4 Losses
Meanwhile, stocks in Caesars Entertainment fell 7.9 per cent to $10.15 in extended trading following the ongoing company reported a $1.01 billion Q4 loss. The organization’s division that is biggest, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co, has filed for bankruptcy protection as the business struggles to reorganize its industry-high debt of over $25 billion.
Meanwhile, Caesars has been involved in months of negotiation and litigation with its creditors that are low-level who argue that its restructuring plan, exercised along with its major creditors, unjustly protects the business’s interests during the expense of their own.
Despite all this, Loveman remained positive: ‘Ongoing strength in the interactive business, new hospitality offerings and sequential improvement in same-store regional results were key motorists of our fourth quarter performance despite the continuation of exceptionally unfavorable hold at Caesars Palace.’
MGM Will No Longer Allow Cash To Relax And Play At Poker Tables
MGM casinos will no longer allow poker players to use cash at the tables before converting it into chips. (Image: highstakesdb.com)
MGM Resorts will stop cash that is allowing be considered ‘in play’ at poker tables in the United States beginning on April 1, a move that will eliminate perhaps the only major way to gamble cash without transforming it into chips in their gambling enterprises.
In accordance with a written report by Online Poker Report’s Chris Grove, MGM has confirmed the change, though they’ve not stated what’s behind the decision to no longer allow cash to be played at the poker tables.
Ahead of the modification, $100 bills which were on the table during money games in MGM poker rooms were regarded as being part of a player’s stack, which could be wagered and might have to be included as part of any all-in bet.
But starting next month, this can no longer be the situation at major Las Vegas poker rooms including at the Bellagio, the ARIA, MGM Grand vegas, and the Excalibur.
The move will also affect the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi, in addition to the MGM Grand Detroit.
Change Likely Built to Enhance Anti-Money Laundering Standards
While there has been no specific word on why MGM has made the change, speculation that is most has suggested that it is related to some type of compliance issue, a typical reason for casinos to change their money-handing policies.
In particular, MGM might be focused on the federal government’s recent interest in cash laundering policies at casinos: cash is more difficult for casinos to track than potato chips, especially at higher denominations, where chips have actually RFID tags embedded they can be traced in them to ensure.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has been more actively speaking about potential problems with anti-money laundering procedures at casinos over the year that is past. In June, FinCEN Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery gave a message in which she mentioned exactly how casinos should be taking a more ‘risk-based approach’ to anti-money laundering efforts, and that gambling enterprises should be more proactive in the Bank Secrecy Act to their compliance.
Choices such due to the fact could be a response to such requests. FinCEN has also recently opened a working workplace in Las vegas, nevada, suggesting which they can be planning on going for a closer look just exactly how the gaming industry protects against money laundering in casinos.
Compliance with IRS standards on reporting could also be an issue that is secondary as chips must be cashed out and therefore can be tracked, while cash can go right into a new player’s pocket without ever being reported.
Players Have Mixed Viewpoints on Cash in Poker Games
As the rules that are new be limiting for some players who enjoy having cash at the tables, only a few poker fans are reacting adversely to the modification. In a thread in the topic in Two Plus Two’s ‘News, Views and Gossip’ forum, player reaction was blended, with a few saying that eliminating cash at the tables will also remove a ways that are few players can attempt to cheat during poker games.
‘Fantastic news,’ wrote NickMPK. ‘I hate playing with cash on the table. It much more difficult to read an individual’s stack size, plus it facilitates passing counterfeit bills.’
Not everybody agreed that cash had been a problem that is real poker tables, nonetheless.
‘[It is] 100x more easier to angleshoot hiding chips that are big $100 bills, and the $100 bills are much easier [to] see from the other end of the table,’ wrote posted sevencard2003. ‘This is wonderful news for angleshooters and cheaters.’
According to Grove, similar modifications will likely visited a great many other Las Vegas casinos within the near future, though it’s not likely that most poker rooms would take up such a ‘no cash’ policy any time soon.
Las Vegas Mob Writer Susan Berman Murder Suspect Robert Durst Arrested
The long-unsolved murder of Susan Berman, Mob daughter and writer, may finally be thawing out of the Las Vegas case that is cold. The man long suspected of her brutal killing 15 years ago is now in custody in a strange twist of events.
Robert Durst has become something of a home name in present months, thanks to an HBO documentary series called The Jinx that step-by-step several ‘mysterious’ disappearances and deaths surrounding the man that is 71-year-old.
Now, perhaps many thanks, at least in part, to evidence uncovered during that documentary, Durst may finally have to handle prices for at least one of those deaths.
Durst was arrested on Saturday night in New Orleans for the 2000 murder of Susan Berman, a crime writer and friend that is long-time of arrestee. She had often written about: the history of Las Vegas and her family’s ties to the Mafia, herself being the daughter Mobster Davie Berman while he was always a suspect in the case because of his propensity for being surrounded with unsolved homicides, there was uncertainty in the Berman case because of what.
Additional Evidence Prompts Arrest
That was enough for many people to suspect that she ended up being killed for one thing she had researched or discussed. But now, police are saying they do have more fodder pointing to the chance that it was Durst behind the killing all along.
‘ As a result of investigative leads and evidence that is additional has arrive at light in days gone by year, investigators have identified Robert Durst as anyone accountable for Ms. Berman’s death,’ the Los Angeles Police said in a declaration released over the week-end.
Durst had been selected up on Saturday, remaining under a fake name at the JW Marriott hotel in New Orleans. Authorities say they believe Durst was about to leave the national country and head to Cuba.
‘Jinx’ May Have Uncovered New Evidence
Provided the publicity surrounding Durst because of The Jinx, many have actually speculated that the makers of the documentary uncovered evidence that resulted in his arrest. While there may be some merit compared to that, police have actually tried to downplay the connection between your program and the decision to arrest him.
‘We based our actions considering the research and the evidence,’ stated LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. ‘We did not base anything we did in the HBO series. The arrest was made as a consequence of the investigative efforts and at the same time it was required. that we believe’
For his component, Jinx director Andrew Jarecki has denied that there was any deal to have the police make the arrest right before the series finale, which aired Sunday night. Nevertheless, he did acknowledge that it was difficult to determine when and how exactly to share information that had been uncovered utilizing the police.
‘We talked a great deal about it with our legal advisors and now we said, look, if we go to the authorities now, we’re missing the ability for us to really get the true story from him, and it may simply take years to allow them to do this because the the fact is, as filmmakers, we have the freedom to do items that perhaps the police authorities wouldn’t have,’ Jarecki said in an interview on hello America.
Durst Also Suspected in Disappearance of Wife
Durst has been suspected, but not implicated, in other cases as well.
In 1982, his former wife Kathie Durst went missing; her family has believed he was involved, but this has never been proven. Berman was set to be interviewed by a Westchester County District Attorney about this disappearance when she was killed, which provided a link between Durst and Berman’s death.
And in 2003, Durst admitted to neighbor that is dismembering Black, but was acquitted after arguing the killing was done in self-defense.
The Jinx might have brought Durst’s questionable participation in these cases back into the limelight. In the penultimate episode, the filmmakers showed Durst a letter he wrote which was strikingly similar to an anonymous note to police that led them to Susan Berman’s human body in 2000.
In the episode that is final Durst had been heard (perhaps unaware that his microphone was nevertheless live) muttering exactly what some have interpreted as a confession to his crimes.