
Customers enjoy the take on board the tall Roller Ferris wheel, but there needs to be a lot more of them, says Caesars.
Caesars Entertainment’s High Roller Ferris wheel at the Linq is not exactly yet in a deflationary spiral, nonetheless it is not 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 almost a 12 months ago included in a $550 million redevelopment of this area involving the Flamingo and the Linq, formerly the Imperial Palace, and represents a trend that is recent Vegas seeks to diversify its entertainment offering away from traditional gambling.
It is 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 on the quarter that is previous simply under 5,000 daily riders, it was still way quick of expectations; the company had predicted that the ride would be attracting between 8,000 and 11,000 visitors per day, or 3 to 4 million a year.
Convincing around 10 percent of the Strip’s 41 million visitors that are annual yield up to $60 million in yearly revenue, the organization had hoped.
Pleased Half Hour
These figures were extrapolated partly by looking at the 2010 numbers for similar attractions. Nearly four million visited the London Eye that 12 months, although the Empire State Building had 3.5 million visitors, and 700,000 people climbed the Stratosphere in Las vegas.
However, Caesars outgoing Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman admitted that the business had underestimated the amount of teams and visitors that are corporate ride would attract, adding that this is certainly now being addressed through a broader marketing outreach.
The vast majority of cyclists so far have been leisure tourists or locals, Loveman explained.
Along with Groupon deals, airline package discounts and half-price tickets for locals, Caesars has begun providing an open bar through the 30-minute ride in a ‘Happy Half Hour’ package, an option that now accounts for a quarter of all bookings.
$1.01 Billion Q4 Losses
Meanwhile, stocks in Caesars Entertainment fell 7.9 % to $10.15 in extensive trading following the ongoing company reported a $1.01 billion Q4 loss. The business’s division that is biggest, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co, has filed for bankruptcy security as the business struggles to reorganize its industry-high debt of over $25 billion.
Meanwhile, Caesars is involved in months of negotiation and litigation with its low-level creditors, who argue that its restructuring plan, resolved using its major creditors, unjustly protects the business’s interests at the expense of their own.
Despite all this, Loveman remained positive: ‘Ongoing strength in the business that is interactive new hospitality offerings and sequential improvement in same-store regional results had been key motorists of our fourth quarter performance despite the continuation of extremely unfavorable hold at Caesars Palace.’
MGM Will No Longer Allow Cash To Relax And Play At Poker Tables
MGM casinos will no allow poker players longer to use cash during 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 america beginning on April 1, a move that will eliminate possibly the only major way to gamble money without transforming it into chips in their casinos.
According to a study by on the web Poker Report’s Chris Grove, MGM has confirmed the noticeable change, though they’ve not stated what is behind the decision to not any longer allow cash to be played at the poker tables.
Ahead of the change, $100 bills that were on the table during cash games in MGM poker rooms were considered to be part of a player’s stack, which could be wagered and could have to be included as part of any all-in bet.
But starting next month, this will no longer be the case at major Las Vegas poker rooms including at the Bellagio, the ARIA, MGM Grand nevada, and the Excalibur.
The move will affect the Beau also Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi, in addition to the MGM Grand Detroit.
Change Probably Designed to Enhance Anti-Money Laundering Standards
While there has been no specific term on why MGM has made the change, most speculation has suggested that it relates to some type of compliance issue, a normal reason for casinos to change their money-handing policies.
In particular, MGM could be focused on the federal government’s recent interest in cash laundering policies at casinos: cash is much more burdensome for casinos to track than chips, especially at higher denominations, where chips have RFID tags embedded they can be traced in them to ensure.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) happens to be more actively speaing frankly 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 speech in which she discussed exactly how casinos should be having a more ‘risk-based approach’ to anti-money laundering efforts, and that casinos should become more proactive in the Bank Secrecy Act to their compliance.
Choices such since the could be a response to requests that are such. FinCEN has also recently exposed a working office in Las Vegas, suggesting they might be planning on going for a better look at just just how the gaming industry protects against money laundering in casinos.
Compliance with IRS criteria on reporting may be an issue that is secondary as chips must be cashed out and therefore are tracked, while cash can go right into a person’s pocket without ever being reported.
Players Have Mixed Views on Cash in Poker Games
Although the rules that are new be limiting with a players who enjoy having cash at the tables, not totally all poker fans are reacting adversely to the modification. In a thread on the topic in Two Plus Two’s ‘News, Views and Gossip’ forum, player reaction was mixed, 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 regarding the dining table. It much more difficult to see a person’s stack size, and it facilitates passing counterfeit bills.’
Not everybody agreed that cash was a real issue at poker tables, nevertheless.
‘[It is] 100x more easier to angleshoot hiding big chips than $100 bills, and the $100 bills freeslotsnodownload-ca.com are much easier [to] see from one other end of the table,’ had written posted sevencard2003. ‘This is wonderful news for angleshooters and cheaters.’
According to Grove, similar changes will likely arrived at other Las Vegas gambling enterprises within the near future, though it’s not likely that all poker spaces would take up such a ‘no cash’ policy any time soon.
Las Vegas, Nevada Mob Writer Susan Berman Murder Suspect Robert Durst Arrested
The long-unsolved murder of Susan Berman, Mob daughter and author, may finally be thawing out from 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 one thing of a home name in current months, thanks to an HBO documentary series called The Jinx that step-by-step several ‘mysterious’ disappearances and fatalities surrounding the 71-year-old man.
Now, perhaps many thanks, at the least in part, to evidence uncovered during that documentary, Durst may have to face finally charges 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 author and long-time friend associated with arrestee. While he had been always a suspect in the case because of his propensity for being surrounded with unsolved homicides, there was uncertainty in the Berman case due to just what she had often written about: the history of nevada and her family’s ties towards the Mafia, by herself being the daughter Mobster Davie Berman.
Additional Evidence Prompts Arrest
Which was enough for some people to suspect she had researched or written about that she was killed for something. But now, police say they have significantly more fodder pointing to the chance that it absolutely was Durst behind the killing all along.
‘ As a result of investigative leads and additional proof that has visited light in days gone by year, investigators have identified Robert Durst as anyone accountable for Ms. Berman’s death,’ the l . a . Police said in a statement released over the week-end.
Durst was selected up on Saturday, remaining under a fake name at the JW Marriott hotel in New Orleans. Authorities say they believe Durst ended up being planning to leave the country and check out Cuba.
‘Jinx’ May Have Uncovered New Proof
Offered the publicity surrounding Durst because of The Jinx, many have actually speculated that the makers of the documentary uncovered proof that resulted in their arrest. While there may be some merit to that particular, police have tried to downplay the connection between the system and the choice to arrest him.
‘We based our actions considering the research and the evidence,’ stated LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. ‘We didn’t base anything we did regarding the HBO series. The arrest was made because of the investigative efforts and at the same time that we believe it was needed.’
For his component, Jinx director Andrew Jarecki has denied that there was any deal to have law enforcement make the arrest just before the series finale, which aired night sunday. Nevertheless, he did admit it was tough to figure out when and just how to share information that was uncovered using the police.
‘We talked a great deal if we go to the authorities now, we’re missing the opportunity for us to actually get the real story from him, and it may take years for them to do that because the truth is, as filmmakers, we have the freedom to do things that maybe the law enforcement authorities wouldn’t have,’ Jarecki said in an interview on Good Morning America about it with our legal advisors and we said, look.
Durst Also Suspected in Disappearance of Wife
Durst is suspected, but not implicated, in other cases because well.
In 1982, his former wife Kathie Durst went missing; her family has believed he was included, but this has never been proven. Berman had been set to be interviewed by a Westchester County District Attorney about that disappearance when she was killed, which offered a link between Durst and Berman’s death.
And in 2003, Durst admitted to dismembering neighbor Morris Black, but was acquitted after arguing the killing was done in self-defense.
The Jinx could have brought Durst’s questionable involvement in these full cases back in to the limelight. In the penultimate episode, the filmmakers revealed Durst a letter he penned which was strikingly much like an anonymous note to police that led them to Susan Berman’s human anatomy in 2000.
In the final episode, Durst ended up being heard (perhaps unaware that his microphone was nevertheless live) muttering exactly what some have interpreted as a confession to his crimes.