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Aid Over For Staff At Beau Rivage

by Howard Stutz

Las Vegas Gaming Wire

MISSISSIPPI -- After today, MGM Mirage will no longer pay wages and benefits to the displaced employees from the company's hurricane-shuttered Beau Rivage casino in Biloxi, Miss.

The 90-day program in which the Las Vegas-based casino operator agreed to pay the resort's 3,100 employees their lost paychecks expired. The workers were among 17,000 casino employees who lost their jobs when Hurricane Katrina ripped the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. The storm destroyed or heavily damaged 13 casinos in the Mississippi communities of Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis.

MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said Monday about 1,000 of the former Beau Rivage employees had found work with the company. More than 100 transferred to other MGM Mirage casinos while a small staff will remain employed to oversee the resort's reopening team.

Feldman said more than 700 Beau Rivage workers were placed in jobs with construction companies working to rebuild the damaged casino.

Feldman said MGM Mirage would give the former Beau Rivage workers first preference to be rehired when the casino reopens sometime next year. Beau Rivage, which opened in 1998, had been Mississippi's largest gambling resort with 1,740 hotel rooms and an 80,000-square-foot casino.

The storm surge associated with the hurricane washed seawater from the Gulf of Mexico into Beau Rivage's public space, destroying restaurants, gaming areas, the main hotel lobby, and entertainment venues.

MGM Mirage executives have stated publicly that it would take 12 to 16 months to rebuild the casino. Beau Rivage officials told the Mississippi Gaming Commission last month they hoped to reopen Aug. 29, the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

"That would be poetic justice, but that would also be the most optimistic of dates," Feldman said. "In reality, it will take 12 to 16 months to rebuild."

Feldman said the displaced workers still have access to money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government programs.

"We're happy that we were able to place so many with the contractors rebuilding Beau Rivage," Feldman said. "Of course, when we reopen, we would love to have all of our employees back."

MGM Mirage had been the last of the major casino companies still paying their hurricane-displaced employees. Harrah's Entertainment ended payments to its workers at the end of the November. Several smaller gaming companies, such as Pinnacle Entertainment, offered severance packages to its workers at Casino Magic in Biloxi in October.

Many of the smaller privately held Gulf Coast casinos, such as the Copa Casino in Gulfport and the Treasure Bay in Biloxi, didn't have the resources to pay employees after the casinos closed and the workers were laid off without any benefits.

Smoking Still Allowed in Westin Casino Floor

by Chris Jones

Las Vegas Gaming Wire

LAS VEGAS -- A major hotel chain's plan to ban smoking at many of its North American resorts received a warm welcome Monday from antismoking advocates.

But the pending policy change at more than 70 Westin Hotels & Resorts won't force its Las Vegas patrons to squash their cigarette butts -- as long as those smokers' butts remain firmly planted on the casino floor, sources said.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide said all of its 77 Westin Hotels & Resorts in the United States, Canada and Caribbean will ban smoking in guest rooms and public areas beginning Jan. 1. Eight already have similar bans in place.

Customer feedback shows most guests prefer a smoke-free environment, said the White Plains, N.Y.-based hotelier.

Smokers' only loopholes will soon be designated outdoor smoking areas, or within leased space where operators allow smoking. And there's the rub, at least as far as Las Vegas is concerned.

Though the hotel and casino share the same owner -- Fort Mitchell, Ky.-based hotel conglomerate Columbia Sussex, controlled by the Yung family -- The Westin at 160 E. Flamingo Road leases its 20,000-square-foot casino to an operator called Wimar Horizon.

Because that company is separate from Westin Hotels, it will continue to allow smoking as casino customers demand.

"The trend nationwide is toward a nonsmoking environment, but we know that trend is everywhere but in Las Vegas," Sig Ortloff, general manager of The Westin, said Monday.

Smoking will be banned in the property's lobby, meeting areas, hotel rooms and restaurants, Ortloff said. He said a few casino tables near the hotel lobby will also be smoke-free.

Only 10 percent of the hotel's 825 rooms allow smoking, so next month's change should have minimal effect on the resort, he added.

Guests caught smoking in a nonsmoking room are now subject to a $35-per-stay "cleaning fee," Ortloff said. But Westin senior Vice President Sue Brush told The Associated Press fines will soon increase to $200.

The chain's 2,400 smoking rooms are undergoing deep cleaning and air purifying before the Jan. 1 changeover, "and once you smoke in there you've violated that entire environment, and we have to clean it all over again," she said.

Joseph McInerney, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, praised Starwood for being "far ahead of the curve" as many U.S. cities adopt tougher smoking prohibitions.

Westin's policy was also praised by Cindy Roragen, executive director of the Nevada Tobacco Prevention Coalition, who said second-hand smoke is a health risk that annoys hotel-casino customers and workers.

Southern Nevada casinos have previously banned smoking, albeit with mixed results. The Silver City, which closed in 1999, banned cigarettes for nearly three years before declining revenue led the Strip gambling hall to ditch the ban.

Separately, Harrah's Entertainment has banned smoking at one of its two Harrah's Laughlin casino areas since the resort opened in 1988. That policy will continue, a Harrah's spokesman said Monday.

Starwood's decision will not affect Harrah's policy of providing smoking and nonsmoking rooms, he added. An MGM Mirage spokesman also said it will continue to offer smoking and nonsmoking areas to its guests.

Wynn, Who Has an Early Winner, Plans an Encore

by Jeff Simpson

By Our Partners at the Las Vegas Sun

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Business at Wynn Las Vegas has been so strong that Steve Wynn says he'll begin building his next Las Vegas hotel in the spring.

Wynn said Monday afternoon that he'll begin building the Encore soon after he agrees with his builder on an exact price for the $1.5 billion project, which he expects to submit to his bankers by the end of March.

Encore, which will take about two years to build, will have about 2,030 suites, with the smallest room encompassing 738 square feet -- the biggest rooms on the Strip, Wynn said.

The casino will have 40,000 square feet and four restaurants, its own pool and spa and a parking garage.

"Adding 2,000 rooms to this place is like spittin' on the floor," Wynn said. "You can't miss."

Borrowing the money to build won't be a problem, he said.

"They were eager to give us $1.4 billion before we opened (Wynn Las Vegas in April)," Wynn said. "After our opening success, don't you think they'll be even more eager?"

The combined properties will give Wynn almost 4,800 rooms and more than 150,000 square feet of casino space.

There will also be a nightclub -- "a big sucker by the pool," Wynn said.

The new tower, with 48 floors, will have three more floors than Wynn Las Vegas, and the tower will be wider as well, to make space for the bigger suites.

The new hotel will have the same exterior look as Wynn Las Vegas and will connect to the existing property at its north end, near its showrooms.

Like Wynn Las Vegas, the Encore tower will curve, but the inside of the tower's curve will look north, with the end of the tower opposite its connection to Wynn Las Vegas pointing toward the Stardust.

Wynn said the $251 million in net revenue Wynn Las Vegas reported in the quarter ending Sept. 30 made the decision to expand easy.

"We did some research, and Bellagio in its first six years never got to $251 million in net revenue until the first quarter of this year, after it was expanded to 4,000 rooms," he said. "We did it in the summer of our first year."

The third quarter is traditionally a slow revenue period, much weaker than the first quarter, which includes big conventions and the New Year, Chinese New Year and Super Bowl weekend frenzies.

Longtime gaming executive Patty Becker, now executive director of UNLV's International Gaming Institute, said Wynn's success opening properties is undeniable.

"He's the best or one of the best," Becker said. "He's a leader in that regard -- with the Mirage, with Bellagio and now with the Wynn."

UNLV public administration professor Bill Thompson said Wynn is at the forefront of the change in Las Vegas toward wealthier, bigger-spending visitors and gamblers.

"He sets the standard, and others catch up to him," Thompson said. "He understands these high rollers better than anyone."

Thompson noted that the Encore addition would differ from the 1993 opening of Treasure Island four years after Wynn opened the Mirage, because Treasure Island was a lower cost alternative than the top-of-the-line neighbor.

"With all suites and bigger rooms, this will probably be where Wynn keeps some of his best casino guests," Thompson predicted.

Wynn first announced plans to expand Wynn Las Vegas in February 2003, and the plans have grown from a new half-billion-dollar tower of about 500 rooms to a much bigger concept in a separate, albeit connected, hotel.

Wynn said his plans for the expansion grew as his evaluation of the market changed. The power of Wynn Las Vegas and its reception surprised him, he admitted.

But working against expansion was the recent spike in building costs, which made him think that it might be better to wait until costs cooled down. He blamed the rising costs on the number of projects now under way in Las Vegas and the rising price of steel and concrete.

Wynn said Tony Marnell, who built Wynn Las Vegas, Bellagio, Treasure Island and the Mirage, would not be building Encore. He said Marnell will be busy with other projects, probably including Marne

Harrah's Focuses on Foreign Affairs

By Liz Benston

By Our Partners at the Las Vegas Sun

Harrah's Entertainment, the world's largest casino company since it swallowed Caesars Entertainment this year, is turning some of its attention to distant shores.

Opportunities for continued casino growth in America have not come to fruition recently. In the past few years, new potential markets in several states, such as Maryland, Nebraska and Kentucky, were thwarted as proposals to legalize slot machines failed to win approval. And in some other states with casinos, tax rates were raised.

So Harrah's executives have reached for their passports.

In recent weeks, Harrah's has announced joint venture deals to build casinos in the Bahamas, Spain and Slovenia. The company recently applied for one of two coveted licenses to build a major resort in Singapore, and it is eyeing other prospects in the United Kingdom, the Chinese province of Macau and the Netherlands.

"The opportunities are certainly bigger (abroad) because the circumstances are so prominent," Harrah's Chief Executive Gary Loveman said. "You have a large population of underserved customers, not nearly as many competitors and the ability to construct attractive facilities at a reasonable rate of taxation."

Harrah's is particularly interested in Europe and Asia -- places with large populations that gamble and governments that are open to using casino resorts to boost tourism.

Besides the opportunity to acquire more properties in its key markets -- Las Vegas and Atlantic City -- a primary justification for the Caesars acquisition was the opportunity to build Caesars-brand casinos worldwide, Loveman said.

"The brand became a platform for international growth at the luxury end of the business," Loveman said. "As we came close to the completion of the deal we began to look internationally. Caesars is enormously well known and is by far the most powerful brand in gaming."

Caesars was well under way with an expansion plan that included Singapore, Macau and the United Kingdom before Harrah's bought the company. But Harrah's intends to be much more aggressive than its former competitor in securing deals.

Harrah's recently announced plan to build a Caesars resort in Spain, for example, resulted from a deal that Caesars Entertainment was previously working on in the region. The Slovenia agreement, though, was generated by Harrah's.

In a research note to investors last week, Morgan Stanley analyst Celeste Mellet Brown said that given the relative lack of competition in some foreign markets, she expects Harrah's to generate returns on its European projects that are similar to or greater than those available in the United States.

"(T)he company's already large size in many U.S. markets could limit its ability to grow domestically through acquisitions and new projects," Brown said.

The Innovation Group, a gaming industry consultant with offices nationwide, has many clients who are looking abroad for a number of reasons, including competitive pressure from a growing number of casinos in the United States.

"The trend for operators to raise capital in public markets has forced operators to seek out consistent growth," consultant Matthew Landry said. "I think there's always been interest (abroad), but now there's opportunities."

Loveman said while there is strong interest in gambling abroad, "there's no Vegas-style casino destination resort anywhere in Europe today."

As in the United States, regulatory restrictions have prohibited the spread of casinos in Europe. And in many European countries that already allow casinos, language, culture and prohibitions on direct ownership pose barriers.

Harrah's intends to pursue foreign projects with partners -- a lower-risk strategy that analysts say makes sense for a company breaking cultural barriers.

Harrah's is proposing luxury resorts in Spain and Slovenia with 800 rooms or more and 50,000-square-foot casinos -- properties that are bigger than existing ones. Spain allows local communities to regulate casinos, but Harrah's hopes some restrictions on casino marketing and advertising will be lifted so the company can lure customers the same way it does in the United States.

And before Harrah's can participate in Slovenia, the country must change a law prohibiting more than 25 percent ownership by non-European Union countries, Loveman said.

The company also expects Slovenia to lower a tax rate that now hovers at about 50 percent of gambling income. Spanish casinos are taxed at rates ranging from about 20 percent to 55 percent. By contrast, Nevada's top tax rate is 6.75 percent, the lowest in the United States.

Harrah's expansion plans are part of a natural evolution for the industry, said Jonathan Galaviz, a Las Vegas-based gaming analyst who specializes in Asian markets.

Harrah's is one of a few companies with the ability to make large-scale capital investments worldwide, Galaviz said. With the Caesars acquisition, Harrah's is in a better position to expand abroad with a more desirable brand.

"Consolidation now enables these companies to have economies of scale to levels that have never been experienced before," Galaviz said.

"And the industry has evolved to where the senior management teams of these companies are very sophisticated. It's one more indication of how Las Vegas is becoming corporate and multinational in nature."

AIAS Ups the Ante for 2006 D.I.C.E. Summit

CALIFORNIA – (PRESS RELEASE) -- The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) has raised the stakes for the 2006 D.I.C.E. Summit February 8 - 10 by adding a celebrity poker tournament to its schedule of activities. Following the opening reception Wednesday, February 8, 2006, the tournament will be held in the new Tournament Poker Room at Caesar's Palace, the largest private poker room in the United States. Slots are limited; registration for the tournament is $25 with a $200 buy-in and open to all registered D.I.C.E. Summit attendees.

Some of the top card sharks from the World Series of Poker are scheduled to appear:

Thomas "Thunder" Keller - Keller is a World Series of Poker (WSOP) champion, winning in his first attempt at the WSOP $5,000 No Limit Event in 2004 against one of the toughest No Limit Hold'em fields in history.

Edward Moncada - A three-year veteran of the WSOP, Moncada won the World Series of Poker $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em tournament held earlier this year.

Scott Fischman - At 24, Fischman is the youngest player to win back-to-back WSOP titles. He also owns thefishtank.com, an online poker site, and is a featured player in the World Series of Poker video game.

Perry Friedman - A frequent competitor on the WSOP circuit, Friedman placed third at the $2,000 No Limit Hold'em tournament held in Las Vegas this past June.

Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori - Pescatori recently won the WSOP Circuit Limit Hold'em event in Atlantic City, NJ.

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - Ferguson is a three-time WSOP champ and Ferguson is the lead technical designer of the Full Tilt Poker online website.

"In the World Series of Poker, these players are used to being the hunters; in this tournament, they'll be the hunted," said Joseph Olin, president, AIAS. "The AIAS has placed a 'bounty' on them all, and tourney participants have a shot at winning some great prizes if they can land one of these big fish."

The 2006 D.I.C.E. Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) takes place at the Green Valley Ranch Hotel in Las Vegas February 8 - 10 and includes two-days of seminars by some of the most celebrated and creative minds in the video game industry as well as a few surprises from other entertainment fields. The D.I.C.E. Summit also serves as the home to the Academy's annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony. The peer-based awards recognize the outstanding products, talented individuals and development teams that have contributed to the advancement of the $30 billion worldwide entertainment software industry.

Online Poker Tool Raises Concerns

Poker bots are raising eyebrows among serious online poker players, as they become concerned they may be matching wits against a computer program that has an unfair advantage. With the surge of poker popularity still growing around the world, concerns are raised not only on the ethical nature of poker bots and similar tools, but about their effect on the character of the game. By reading all visible cards on the table and then running the information through a poker odds calculator, the software will indicate hand strength and cue a player when they should call, check, raise, re-raise, or fold. One such product is called “The Poker Advantage” and is being billed as a poker players best friend. CMM Enterprises, the seller of The Poker Advantage, has no qualms in advertising that the product gives players an “unfair advantage when playing poker.” They go on to describe it as a stealth tool, software that makes it easy to win at online poker, making it “a lot more fun and profitable.”

European Small Town Poker Tour Timetable Moved Up

The Small Town Poker Tour has been such a success for its owners that they have decided to move up the timetable for the European version. "The amazing interest in the upcoming USA Tour has lead us to push up the date for the European Small Town Poker Tour Championships," said Mark Fracalossi Executive Producer of the STPT. "The format will be the same as the US Tour, raise money for charity along the way and crown one champion. We are working on a few European sponsors and a television deal, as soon as we finalize the details we will have an announcement." "We have been visiting possible sites the last few months. There are so many unique sites in Europe we can't wait to put this on film," Fracalossi added. "We are looking for unique small towns and local charities to play for. We urge all people to email us with their ideas," Fracalossi added.

Small Town Poker Tour Heads Down Under

On the heels of its recent announcement that the Small Town Poker Tour will be moving up its start date in Europe, AMT Media LLC, just announced that it will be heading down under as well. The CEO of AMT Media, Mark Fraacalossi, said that the format will remain the same, the idea that has sparked so much advanced interest in the US Small Town Poker Tour. Portions of the proceeds from the Tour will go to support local charities in the towns that the events are held, as the Tour seeks to find the best amateur players around. STPT is also being managed by The Division, bringing some of the top players together like tournament director Mike Savage. Fracalossi encourages everyday folk to contribute to the tour by nominating their hometowns and charities. By visiting the site online people can send emails to the Tour organizers and get their voices heard: www.smalltownpokertour.com Related Links European Small Town Poker Tour Timetable Moved Up

Card Player Magazine Advocates Online Poker Play

With the proliferation of online poker play it pays to stop and consider whether or not it is having a positive or negative affect on the world or poker in general. Putting aside for the moment the argument centered on the moral rightness of gambling, there are other aspects of the subject to be considered, such as value and education, not to mention entertainment. According to Justin Marchand, the managing editor of international poker magazine Card Player, there are plenty of benefits to online poker. Online poker gives people the opportunity to play for free, including tournament games. While many poker players will argue that free play gives no value in strategy when it comes to money play, new players can learn the rules of the game and tournament structure before venturing into real money games.

Florida Poker Rooms Investigated

This Tuesday the Director of the Florida State Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering announced that certain groups are under investigation for possible rules violation in regards to recent poker rules. The director, Mr. David Roberts, would not single out which groups were being investigated, but expressed concern over racetracks and jai alai frontons might not be adhering to poker room regulations. When the Department of Business and Professional Regulation repealed the initial ruling that regulated how tournament-style poker games, specifically the super popular Texas Hold'Em, could be run is when the investigation began. When an appeals court supported a judge’s decision that the law did not give regulators the needed powers to make rules for tournaments it prompted the repeal of all the rules. Steve Andris is one of the business persons affected by the Florida happenings. The owner of the Jefferson County Kennel Club speaks for many when he says that he doesn’t really understand what is going on, due to the complication of the rules.