To properly pimp their mobile app in the UK, Stars has tapped Transport Media to launch a four-week outdoor advertising campaign along the Southern Railway network. The campaign is built along a “pray for a delay” theme, although, as most UK train travelers will attest, prayer is rarely required to achieve that result. Transport Media suggested train passengers synched up nicely with Stars’ target audience, in that frequent rail users are twice as likely to own a smartphone and that 64% of tablet owners use the devices while commuting.

Stars is also conducting a ‘where have you done it’ online contest in which mobile app users are invited to take a photo of themselves playing PokerStars Mobile in unusual or exotic settings, then upload said photo to Twitter with the hashtag #playpokerhere. The best pic wins a free iPad 2, but you best hurry up getting to the top of Mt. Everest because the contest closes May 30. Oh, and you can forget that shot of you playing the app while restrained in a leather harness as a double-d dominatrix flogs you with a riding crop – PokerStars won’t accept images involving sex or violence. CalvinAyre.com, however, will accept whatever your twisted little brains can concoct.

Poker News

Sydney’s Star Casino has won a $190k out-of-court settlement with ABC after the broadcaster admitted using confidential Star information in an on-air report. The April 16 report cited names and gambling habits of seven of the Star’s biggest whales derived from the casino’s internal database. In taking ABC to court, the Star had argued that the “highly prized” database contained “highly confidential and commercially sensitive” info. ABC countered that the public had a right to know what was going on at the Star, which was at the time of the broadcast still the subject of an inquiry by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority. The Sydney Morning Herald quoted ABC news director Alan Sunderland as saying the settlement was made in order to protect the broadcaster’s sources. As part of the deal, ABC has promised not to re-air the offending material and to destroy the confidential casino info within a week.

Star Casino parent company Echo Entertainment has reportedly become the target of short sellers who aren’t convinced that rival operator Crown is serious about a takeover. Crown boss James Packer is said to covet Echo’s monopoly casino license in Sydney, but The Australian quoted RBS analysts saying short positions in Echo have been building ever since February, when Crown doubled its stake in Echo to 10%. Apparently, Packer’s recent public bro-mance with fellow billionaire Kerry Stokes – renowned for never paying more than absolutely necessary to acquire a company – tipped the prognosticators’ view from bullish to bearish on a Crown/Echo tie-up.

Business News

In retrospect, this shouldn’t have inspired much confidence. Over the past year, Media Corp’s business strategy could charitably be described as haphazard. It started with the £1.1m loss the company took on its gambling.com domain auction, the proceeds of which the company planned to use on “a number of exciting acquisition opportunities.” Instead, Media Corp continued to sell off “underperforming” businesses, including online TV listings guide onthebox.com and foreign exchange advertising site Forexspace.com, which launched with great fanfare in January 2012 only to be sold a couple months later.

In mid-April, trading in Media Corp shares on London’s Alternative Investment Market was halted as the company declared it was in “advanced discussions” to acquire Gaming Media Group, only to abandon the whole plan a month later and announce it had acquired Intabet instead. (The company also acquired a ‘swingers’ reputation following the arrest in February of PL group director Chris Gorman and his wife because his wife was going down on another man in an Orlando nightclub washroom while Chris watched.) This time last year, Media Corp was trading around 180p. When trading was halted April 16, shares were worth 90p. Trading resumed on May 16 and shares have since sunk to 50p.

Another major hiccup occurred in January, when PL’s poker room abruptly left the Microgaming network to join IGT/Entraction. Two months prior to the switch, pkrleaks.com claimed PL was being booted off Microgaming due to PL’s repeated violations of the network’s rakeback policies, i.e. Microgaming had tired of PL poaching high-raking players from other network skins via overly generous rakeback deals. It’s not yet official that PL’s unworkable rakeback model was the straw that broke this purple camel’s back, but it certainly didn’t help matters.

THE AUTHORITY SONG (AND DANCE)
While PL’s business acumen may have been inept, the response to its demise by Malta’s Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) has been nothing short of embarrassing. The LGA took no great efforts to publicize the shutdown of its licensee, choosing only to shift PL’s name into the ‘terminated’ section of its website sometime in late April. It was only this week that the LGA posted an official notice of PL’s license termination, which it said occurred “on the 23rd April 2012 upon the request made by the licensee.”

The LGA claimed it “made sure that there were no pending complaints” against PL before accepting Media Corp’s termination request, although some TwoPlusTwo poker forum members reported having taken their payout complaints/concerns to the LGA in early April, and that the LGA responded with claims to have contacted PL regarding these concerns. But that was then; the LGA has since pivoted into a full-on Pontius Pilate stance. “Since the operator is no longer licensed by the Authority, the Authority cannot assist players having issues with the aforementioned operator following the date of termination of the licenses.” Having washed their hands of the whole sordid affair, the LGA can now get back to the busy business of not regulating their other licensees.

THIS IS WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE WHEN PLAYERS CRY
So where will Purple Lounge’s former rakeback-hungry VIP players go now? Which sucker site is offering the biggest rebates? Is it mere coincidence that PL’s demise coincided with Lock Poker’s decision to break away from the Merge Gaming Network to acquire selected assets of the rakeback-friendly Cake Poker Network? Is it further coincidence that Cake has already announced a 3% increase in its own rakeback program? Can it be pure happenstance that Lock Poker proudly displays an LGA logo at the bottom of its home page? Is it true that the favorite color of Lock/Revolution Gaming CEO Jennifer Larson is purple – you know, like Prince and the Revolution in the movie Purple Rain? All together now, Purple rake, purple rake…

Business News

Those who watched Montreal-based band Arcade Fire back up Mick Jagger on last week’s Saturday Night Live broadcast may have noticed small red squares adorning the band’s outfits. The squares were a mark of solidarity with Quebec’s university students, who have been conducting a highly visible and occasionally raucous protest of high tuition fees. Kahnawake-based sports betting site Sports Interaction is now offering props on which celebrities might be next to don le carré rouge, with left-wing documentarian/rabble rouser Michael Moore out front at 7:1 and buzz-killing Prime Minister Stephen Harper tipped as least likely at 201:1. The site is also taking various other strike-related bets, including whether martial law will be imposed before the end of the year (currently running at 5.5:1). Just be glad the Canadiens aren’t still in the NHL playoff hunt…

Across the border in Ontario, a Strategic Communications poll of Toronto residents shows a low level of support for a proposed waterfront casino. The May 15 survey of 954 Torontonians found 45% opposed, 32% in favor, 19% “neutral” and 3.5% fence-sitters. When the question was rephrased to ask whether respondents would support a casino in their particular neighborhood, opposition rose to 58% while support fell to 19%.

Moving further west, British Columbia-based Gateway Casinos and Entertainment has filed a preliminary prospectus ahead of a return to trading on public markets. The company, which operates 12 properties in BC and neighboring Alberta, was taken off the market five years ago in a $1.4b private equity buyout. Numbers are still being finalized, but the Globe And Mail estimated the initial public offering would be “north of the $100m mark.”

Business News

By comparison, this year’s PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) was the most successful in its history. In terms of participants, Stars attracted 526,154 entries from 156 countries, smashing the previous high of 461,936 set in 2010, and the $65.3m prize pool beat 2010’s $64.2m. Nick Grippo won the $10k ‘high’ buy-in main event, earning $798k for overcoming 516 competitors. Due to a three-way deal, Canadian player “sp00led” and Polish player “sosickPL” each earned $718k for placing second and third respectively. Oh yeah, and some young punk named Shaun Deeb won an unprecedented fourth SCOOP 2012 event (and his fifth overall) by taking the $2k HORSE title. Dude, quit bogarting my tourney…

Turning back to the live poker tourney scene, Justin Truesdell won the final main event of the World Series of Poker Circuit’s current season at Harrah’s New Orleans. Truesdell outlasted 693 competitors (the largest-ever field for this WSOP-C stop) to earn $204k and his second gold ring (the first being at Harrah’s Tunica in 2009). Andrew Nguyen was the last to fall at Truesdell’s hands, taking $126k for second place. Truesdell will now compete for the WSOP National Championship in Vegas beginning July 6.

Also staging its last event pre-WSOP was the Heartland Poker Tour, which saw 377 players take the field for the main event at the Majestic Star Casinos in Gary, Indiana. Daniel Acevedo emerged triumphant, earning $133k for relegating James Chestnut to second place and $75k. Next up for the HPT is its first ever visit to Albuquerque, New Mexico on July 20 at the Route 66 Casino.

In Europe, Pablo Rojas won the Estrellas Poker Tour Ibiza main event, outlasting 268 competitors to earn just under €41k. Because of an ill-advised deal made when the final table got down to three players, Rojas earned less than second-place finisher Amaury Legait (€50k) and barely more than third place finisher Daniel Ericson (€40k). The Estrellas shifts to San Sebastian on July 26.

Ben Dobson took the France Poker Series Amneville main event, earning €70k for outperforming a 317-strong field. It took three hours for Dobson to dispatch runner-up Guillaume Roiron, who earned €44k for second. Germany’s impressively named Johannes Meyer Zu Wendischoff earned €30k for finishing third.

Richard Evans took the United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour main event in Dublin, earning €75k after striking a three-way deal with his remaining two opponents. Regardless how you add it up, Evans got a handsome return on the €45 he reportedly invested in an online qualifier. Stephen McGrath and Seamus Birt took second and third, but their deal ensured that each took home €60k.

Finally, the World Series of Poker has designated Guy Laliberté’s clean-water-for-developing-nations NGO One Drop as an official WSOP charity. It probably didn’t hurt that the $1m buy-in mega-high-roller Big One For One Drop has garnered no shortage of publicity for the WSOP.

Poker News

However, the report found that Star execs might have breached contractual and statutory obligations by not informing regulators that former managing director Sid Vaikunta was facing sexual harassment allegations (for which he was subsequently sacked) while the casino’s license was under statutory review. The report also called out Star’s parent company, Echo Entertainment, for initially denying that it was the source of leaked emails that purported to show outside interference in the investigation by Peter Grimshaw (the former communications director to Premier Barry O’Farrell) and Grimshaw’s partner, who worked at the Star and was one of the individuals allegedly harassed by Vaikunta.

Despite having caught Echo in a lie about being responsible for the leaked emails, the report said this discovery “does not call into questions Echo’s suitability” to continue its relationship with the Star. That’s not good enough for James Packer, head of rival gaming operator Crown Entertainment. Packer’s peeps issued a statement saying Echo’s board needed to come clean on when it authorized the leak and why it delayed correcting public statements saying Echo wasn’t the source of the leak. The Crown spokesman twisted the knife by reminding the public that Echo had previously used the leaking of confidential info as sufficient grounds for firing casino employees. “The Echo board must enforce the company’s code of conduct. We are waiting.”

Of course, there’s more at play here than mere righteous indignation. Crown recently doubled its stake in Echo to 10%, reportedly as a step towards an eventual takeover of the company. Packer covets Echo’s monopoly hold on casino operations in Sydney, where Crown would like to build a $1b casino specifically catered toward lucrative Chinese baccarat whales. (Mind you, Crown is not alone in considering a bid for Echo.) Echo’s response claimed Crown’s comments “lack foundation and should be seen in the context of Crown campaigning for director representation at Echo which has been rejected by the Echo board.”

Elsewhere, Echo announced it was cutting jobs at two of its three Queensland casinos – Brisbane’s Treasury Casino and Jupiter’s Casino on the Gold Coast. Echo originally claimed it was cutting 65 positions, but United Voice Union, which represents workers at both casinos, told GoldCoast.com the number is closer to 115. The discrepancy appears to be based on how many of the affected employees can be reassigned to other Echo properties. A total of around 3600 people work at the two gaming establishments.

While Echo is cutting jobs at its Gold Coast casino, Chinese developers are reportedly hoping to add a second gaming joint to the popular holiday region’s list of attractions. Savills Gold Coast agent Roland Evans told the Daily Telegraph that these deep-pocketed developers were “actively looking to break Queensland’s casino monopoly.” Colliers International’s Gold Coast special project director Darrel Irwin seconded this claim. “Absolutely, it has been discussed. But, obviously, at the end of the day that will be a political decision.” Evans suggested the Queensland government would do well to think about adding a second casino if it wanted to attract more Chinese tourists. “You can invest heavily in attracting these people, but if you don’t have the correct facilities, they’re going to think it’s just a one-horse town.”

Casino News

Total turnover fell 5% to €1.065b, with sports betting turnover down 2.2% to €429.7m and numbers games down 6.8% to €635m. Fixed-odds betting game Stihima saw a 7.7% decline to €397.1m, despite a boost in payout to 70% from 65.3% last year. On the numbers side, Kino slipped 6.7% to €542.5m and Joker fell 7.5% to €59.3m. EBITDA dropped 14% to €184.4m. Making matters worse, this week brought news that agents chosen to operate OPAP’s new 18,500 video lottery terminals (VLT) are demanding a 30% chunk of gross profits. The potential delays this is expected to cause the rollout of the new VLTs sent OPAP stock skidding to a 10-year low.

To virtually no one’s surprise, the Greek government’s sale of its 1/3 stake in OPAP has been delayed yet again. In March, the country’s chief privatization officer said the sale would commence before Greeks went to the polls earlier this month, but with the election having come and gone without establishing a clear winner, the OPAP sale will have to wait until (at least) after the June 17 election re-do. Meanwhile, panicky Greek citizens withdrew €700m from their bank accounts on Monday and reports are that the run on the banks has yet to abate. Never know… if people have stacks of cash stuffed in their pockets and a sense of economic futility/inevitability sets in, perhaps OPAP will see a spike in ‘go down swinging’ wagers.

Business News

Paddy is also renowned for its ability to generate media buzz via its promotional stunts, such as that jockey it added to the 374’ Uffington White Horse for this year’s Cheltenham or the giant ‘Hollywood’ style sign it erected for the 2010 event. That said, it’s never easy topping one’s previous efforts, so Paddy has reportedly sent tailored briefs to a number of public relations agencies for help on a stunt-by-stunt basis. One of these agencies told PR Week that Paddy’s desire was for “bigger, better and bolder.” Paddy’s own spokesman said there was no formal pitch being made, just fishing for ideas, because it’s “always searching for the next big stunt.”

Ireland’s Central Bank may have lifted the trading suspension on spread betting firm MarketSpreads following the collapse of its former UK parent outfit WorldSpreads, but the Irish company has had to lower its 2010 financial figures by €1m, resulting in a pre-tax loss of €709k for the year. Newly filed accounts for 2010 had to take into account the €1.4m diverted from the company by former CEO Brian O’Neill and director Fergus Rice to another company in which the two execs were involved. The revised 2010 figures include a €1m provision against MarketSpreads getting that money back.

Business News

In case you’ve been living under a rock, former Wynn director and single largest shareholder Okada was ousted and his shares were forcibly redeemed at a discount in February following allegations that he’d lavished inappropriate gifts on Philippine gaming regulators to smooth his bid for a Manila resort casino license. Arguing against Okada’s request on Thursday, Wynn lawyer James Pisanelli claimed Okada was “struggling and grasping at straws and hoping and praying that he can find something in the ledger, something that someone did in Macau that is like what he did in the Philippines.”

While all this was going on, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joanne O’Donnell rejected a request by soft-porn producer Joe ‘Girls Gone Wild’ Francis to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against him by Steve Wynn. The high-profile pair have been waging a multi-year, multi-jurisdictional legal war that began when Francis couldn’t/wouldn’t make good on a $2m casino marker. Wynn’s defamation suit resulted in part from Francis’ claim that Steve had threatened to bonk him over the head (Francis’ least vulnerable spot) and bury his body in the Nevada desert. LAist.com reported that O’Donnell also authorized Wynn’s legal eagles to peruse Francis’ financial statements to determine whether the pervy producer has attempted to hide assets to avoid paying the $7.5m judgment Wynn was granted in February.

Legal News

Casino critics are viewing the grouping together of Toronto and Mississauga into the same zone as a way of playing one municipality off the other; seeing which one is willing to bend over further in order to land the zone’s single casino. Public opinion in Toronto has been running against the idea of adding a casino and city council is divided on the issue. Critics say the potential threat of the tourist trade shifting west to Mississauga could tip the balance in council in favor of keeping the casino local.

While city council may be swayed by the economic argument, residents will be a tougher sell. But the average Torontonian’s opinion may not matter much anymore. Provincial finance minister Tim Duncan says no community will be forced to accept a casino, yet the province quietly killed a regulation requiring a public referendum on the issue, replacing it only with a requirement that “public input” be sought before a decision is made. Duncan feels the province has “huge underserviced markets” like Ottawa and Toronto and that no desiring gambler should be “forced to travel 20, 30 kilometers to access gaming.”

The OLG release stated that a second RFI for “the expansion of lotteries” would be released in coming weeks. In March 2012, OLG released a Strategic Business Review that called for a shift of day-to-day lottery operation to a regulated private sector operator and an expansion of retail operations including via the internet and mobile devices. OLG also suggested it would “allow for regulated private sector game development to foster innovation and responsiveness.”

Casino News

Moving to the live poker scene, the World Poker Tour has released the first half of its Season XI schedule. Gone from the fall schedule are stops in Barcelona, Amneville and the Foxwoods WPT Finals. New for 2012 are stops at the Parx Casino in Philadelphia and Copenhagen. Morocco remains on the WPT itinerary, but will shift from Marrakech to Mazagan. The full sked looks as follows: Merit Grand Casino, Cyprus (Aug. 4-9); Parx Casino, Bensalem, PA (Aug. 10-15); Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in California (Aug. 24-29); Grand Prix de Paris at the Aviation Club de France (Sept. 10-15); Casino de Portomaso, Malta (Sept. 16-20); the Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City (Sept. 16-21); the Bestbet Fall Series in Jacksonville, Florida (Nov. 9-13); Casino Copenhagen (Nov. 12-17); Mazagan Casino, Morocco (Nov. 26-Dec. 1); Corinthia Hotel, Prague (Dec. 3-9) and the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas (Dec. 17-22).

Poker pro Michael Mizrachi has re-upped as promotional partner of the Breeders’ Cup. Organizers hope Mizrachi will continue to raise awareness of the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and Celebrity Poker Invitational among his deep-pocketed poker brethren. Mizrachi said the partnership with the horseracing outfit “has been amazing” and to watch his social media feeds for updates.

Online poker site Americas Cardroom has announced it will reduce by half the required contribution by mid-stakes players to the site’s bad beat jackpot. Site spokesman Michael Harris claims the move was the result of mid-stakes players complaining that the contribution “had too big an effect on their win rates.”

Poker News

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s figures for table games revenue at the state’s 11 casino operations in April show a 6.83% rise over the same month a year earlier. Total revenues were $56.5m from 1031 tables, compared to $52.9m from 869 tables in 2011 – a 10% drop in per-table revenue. The total is also a step back from the record $61.8m haul recorded in March and fears are that increased competition from surrounding states – including the recent casino launch in Cleveland – may slow the remarkable ascent that saw Pennsylvania become the country’s third largest casino market last year. Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem led all operators with $10.8m from 152 tables, with Parx Casino in second, earning $8.9m from 183 tables. On a per-table basis, the SugarHouse Casino was the star performer, reaping $7.3m from just 54 tables.

The humiliations endured by Atlantic City’s casino sector seemingly know no bounds. Wednesday saw the start of the two-day East Coast Gaming Congress (ECGC), but organizers were rushing around like mad Tuesday night after the host venue – the newly opened Revel casino – abruptly booted them out of its Ovation Hall to accommodate rehearsals by pop singer Beyoncé, who is making her post-partum return to the stage for a four-show stint over the Memorial Day weekend. Both conference organizers and Revel reps were downplaying the extent of the pandemonium brought about by the last minute venue switcheroo, but seriously… First the ECGC gets dissed by Gov. Chris Christie, now Beyoncé? Wonder if Beyoncé’s hubby Jay-Z could list AC’s other 97 problems…

North of the border, billionaire construction titan Larry Tannenbaum has announced he’ll be among the bidders for the city’s proposed destination casino. Tannenbaum, also the chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (the company that controls the city’s lucrative National Hockey League franchise), said he prefers the city’s waterfront as the site on which the casino should be built. Tannenbaum said his bid would need to be partnered with a firm that has casino experience.

Casino News

Meanwhile, MGM Resorts public affairs VP Alan Feldman told the committee that “the further away you get from either the central business district or the water, the less likely it becomes an opportunity for us.” MGM’s first choice would be Exhibition Place, followed by the undeveloped port land. Feldman dismissed the idea of building at Ontario Place, which he referred to as “frankly a bit of a distraction.” Caesars Entertainment has also expressed interest in a T.O. casino, as has Tropicana owner Gerry Schwartz, and the Toronto Star reported that reps from Las Vegas Sands were just in town scoping out potential build sites.

Station Casinos LLC, whose 17 properties cater to locals in Las Vegas, earned a $6.8m profit in Q1 2012, a dramatic turnaround from the $11.8m loss in the same period a year earlier. The privately held firm underwent a $2.8b restructuring in 2011 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. Revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% to $318.2m, based on a 6.6% rise in gaming revenue to $230.2m and a 9.4% bump in food and beverage revenue to $60.9m. Occupancy at Station’s hotels rose from 85.4% to 89%, which, combined with an average room rate rise from $72 to $80, pushed room revenue up 17.7% to $27.9m. Chief financial officer Marc Falcone claimed the results marked the company’s best quarter in three years.

Another privately held Las Vegas-based casino operator, Affinity Gaming, reported net income of $4.1m in Q1, an improvement over the previous year’s $3.4m. Net revenues were up 4.8% to $112.8m at the company’s 12 casinos (nine in Nevada, two in Missouri and one in Iowa). Jacobs Entertainment Inc. (JEI), which operates gaming properties in Nevada and Colorado, plus horseracing operations in Virginia and video poker truck stops across Louisiana, reported net income of $4.3m in Q1 2012, compared to a $1.8m loss in Q1 2011. Net revenues rose to $98.3m from $91.8m in 2011.

Revenue at Connecticut’s Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos were off by double digits in April. Foxwoods saw revenue fall 13.4% to $49.5m, while handle fell 14.2% to $600m. Revenue at Mohegan Sun was off 10.9% to $59.4m based on handle of $749.97m (-12.3%). Foxwoods CEO Scott Butera claimed the comparison wasn’t entirely apt due to the presence of two extra weekend days in April 2011.

Casino News

Another iPoker resident, Titan Poker, announced last week that it would stop accepting new deposits from Spanish players ahead of that country’s market liberalization (scheduled to take place on June 1). A company rep has since told Poker Affiliate Solutions (PAS) that the decision was a forerunner to the company’s intention to seek an online gaming license from Spanish regulators. Titan also addressed its recent decision to shed its two-man poker pro roster via a note on its homepage, which stated Titan was “pursuing a new branding strategy which moves away from focusing on a pro team and emphasizes our appeal to mainstream and recreational poker players.”

Recreational players appear to be the last thing on the minds of the braintrust at the Cake Poker Network. PAS reported that Cake would increase its rakeback rate from 33% to 36% effective June 1. The rise will apply to all Cake players, new or old. The rate change is presumably the “exciting announcement” Cake promised when Lock Poker revealed it was acquiring “selected assets” of Cake with the intention of rebranding it as Revolution Gaming.

Now that PokerStars’ Zoom Poker has officially removed its beta training wheels, StanJames is the latest company to announce a Rush Poker clone. Blaze Poker doesn’t appear to offer any revolutionary improvements to the fast-paced cash game concept pioneered by Full Tilt Poker in 2010, other than to remove one more synonym for ‘quick’ from the trademark thesaurus. In related news, Betsafe has become the latest outfit to sign up for Relax Gaming’s Fast Poker product. A tweet sent out by Relax on Tuesday suggested Fast Poker had added a Heads Up option to its high speed offering, but PokerFuse claims the feature (which actually would be something new in this field) isn’t actually available yet. You know, a common piece of advice doctors offer premature ejaculators is to try to Relax.

Poker News

US casino operator Tropicana Entertainment Inc. has named Tony Rodio as its new CEO, subject to stockholder approval at the company’s AGM on May 17. Rodio, who has been president/COO since Nov. 2011, will take over from interim CEO Daniel Ninivaggi.

Cantor Gaming has appointed Brad Thorne as manager of its poker room at the newly opened Cantor Race & Sports Book at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Thorne previously worked as shift supervisor at the poker room in Binion’s Gambling Hall & Hotel.

International Game Technology CEO Patti Hart has announced she won’t seek re-election to her seat on the board of technology outfit Yahoo Inc. following revelations that she fudged details of her resume. Hart apparently inflated a business administration degree with an emphasis on marketing and economics into a fully fledged degree in marketing and economics. (On Sunday, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson was canned after only four months in the position when similar academic credential-padding came to light.) Hart said she was stepping down from her Yahoo gig to avoid creating “a distraction” from her responsibilities to IGT, where she has been CEO since 2009. IGT chairman Philip Satre issued a statement saying the board found “no material inconsistencies” in Hart’s CV.

Swedish operator Redbet Holding has named acting president Claes Hallén as its new CEO, subject to shareholder approval at its AGM on May 23. Hallén replaces Jörgen Andersson, who has agreed to accept a position on Redbet’s board. Fellow Scandinavian operator Mr Green has hired Ella Hall its first Chief Marketing Officer. Hall previously held the same position at JackpotJoy as well as stints with CNN, Time Warner and Eurosport.

Finally, Carl Stanley McGee has resigned as interim exec director of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission after allegations of past sexual abuse involving a minor were brought to light. The allegations stem from an incident in 2007 in which McGee allegedly made advances to a 15-year-old boy in a Florida steam room. McGee was investigated but never charged by Florida authorities, yet the embattled exec said this week that the “growing distractions” from the media were making it impossible for him to fulfill his duties on the state’s newly formed Commission.

Business News

On a conference call to discuss his company’s most recent quarterly report card, Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn stated his belief that China’s middle class was experiencing a spurt of growth similar to what transpired in America following World War II. Wynn described it as “an explosion of pent up demand for the good life.” However, Wynn dismissed the popular notion that Chinese people were predisposed to gambling. “I want to say that is not my opinion.”

Wynn may choose to believe what he likes, but stats from his gaming tables at Macau suggest otherwise. Numbers crunched by the muckrakers at CasinoLeaks-Macau.com suggest Wynn has the most ‘efficient’ tables in the Chinese gambling Mecca. Cross-referencing financial statements filed with the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) and “various stock exchanges,” the CasinoLeakers figure each one of Wynn’s Macau gaming tables generated HK$75m (US $9.6m) in 2011. Coming second in the efficiency stakes was the MGM Grand Paradise at HK$65m per table, followed by Melco Crown (HK$61m), Galaxy Casino (HK$50m), SJM (HK$43m) and Venetian Macau (HK$36m).

Not a bad return on a couple hundred bucks worth of wood and green felt, huh? More than the pool table at your local pub takes in, we imagine. For comparison’s sake, just one of Wynn Macau’s gaming tables earned more last year than the entire gaming offerings of Atlantic City’s Atlantic Club earned in Q1 2012. Ouch.

Business News

London-headquartered tote and pool betting supplier Sportech released an interim management statement at the company’s annual general meeting this week, declaring the company was performing “in line with the board’s expectations” over the past four months. Betting handle at US subsidiary Sportech Racing rose 4.5% over 2011 and turnover from the recent Kentucky Derby proved the most lucrative ever for the company, up 11% to $4m. Sportech’s online gambling business saw gross win rise over 30% following the migration of its Littlewoods Casino and Poker operation to a Playtech platform and the Q4 2011 launch of the Vernons casino/poker business. Non-exec chairman Roger Withers said Sportech’s “remaining e-gaming activities, primarily bingo” will make the Playtech transition later this year in order to consolidate product offerings in “a single platform single-wallet approach.”

Sportech announced a £4.2m reduction in net debt to £55m, following up on 2011’s £13m reduction. Sportech also announced a lone personnel reduction, as exec director Brooks Pierce made his immediate departure “to pursue other business interests.” Pierce’s business development brief – at least, the North American aspects – will be assumed by Interactive Products and Services managing director Andrew Gaughan.

Business News

Stars has now convinced two more data diggers to get with the program. Pokerfuse reports that Sharkscope and Official Poker Rankings have agreed to institute a fully opt-in policy regarding the inclusion of Stars player data in their online tournament results. The two sites had been tinkering with opt-in/out functionality on a trial basis, but apparently the verdict finally came in as ‘guilty’. A notice posted to the SharkScopers forum said the company had made “great efforts to collaborate with PokerStars on their 3rd party data collection policy. Unfortunately now the time has come where they are requiring us to completely implement their opt in procedure on their .com network, even for subscribers.”

The Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) launched its eighth season this week on 250 TV stations across America. While Fred Bevill and Chris Hanson will continue to man the broadcast booth, this season marks the addition of Phil Hellmuth to the show as host of the “pro tips” segment. Meanwhile, HPT’s former parent company All In Productions (AIP) has submitted a bid to reclaim its assets from the ashes of the Federated Sports + Gaming (FS+G) bankruptcy. FS+G purchased HPT from AIP in June 2011 for $2.95m, but FS+G has only paid AIP $1m to date (and that was loaned to FS+G in January by Pinnacle Entertainment), leaving $1.9m still owing.

WickedChopsPoker got hold of US Bankruptcy Court in Maryland filings in which AIP submitted a bid of $1.5m to regain control of HPT. The bid would essentially erase FS+G’s outstanding debts to AIP, but AIP’s bid also contains a $100k offer for FS+G’s “good” assets, including the Global Poker Index, the TV production components of FS+G’s mothballed Epic Poker League and FS+G’s contractual relationships with partners like the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. The bid was submitted on May 8, at which point began a 30-day countdown for the court to consider the offer. However, a bankruptcy attorney told WickedChops the process will likely drag on as other entities submit their own bids, culminating in an auction and an overdue end to this Epic madness.

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Swedish online gaming outfit Cherryföretagen also had a bumper Q1. The folks behind PlayCherry.com saw EBITDA rise 80% to SEK11.9m (€1.32m) on a 22% rise in turnover to SEK119.1m (€13.24). The company’s online operations accounted for SEK8.6m, adding 1,385 active customers (total: 34,345). Restaurant casino operations brought in SEK2.9m, up 61% over 2011. CEO Emil Sunvisson says the primarily Scandiavian-facing operator has high hopes for expansion into new European markets via EuroSlots.com.

Czech betting/lottery operator Fortuna Entertainment Group’s earnings were essentially flat in Q1, slipping 0.3% to €8.4m. Turnover fell by a similar margin to €113.8m, but gross win rose 15.9%. Fortuna’s performance was better than most analysts had expected, considering the company took a €1.2m earnings hit on its lottery operations, which aren’t expected to start paying off until H1 2013. The 9k users at Fortuna’s new online sports betting operation in Poland contributed 13.1% of total turnover, up from 11.9% in 2011.

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Dublin-based software outfit CryptoLogic reported a net loss of $2.2m in Q1 2012, based on an 11.5% drop in revenues to $5.3m. The company attributes the downturn to increased amortization of royalties paid to a major third party brand licensor and higher amortization charges for new games. The results are a step back for the firm, which last year recorded its first annual revenue increase in five years. Expenses rose to $7.5m from $6.5m in Q1 2011. The $35.8m takeover of CryptoLogic by Amaya Gaming Group continues apace, with 88.15% of CryptoLogic’s issued share capital having signed off on the deal.

The Jockey Club, the premier commercial British horseracing outfit, recorded an operating profit of £19.2m in 2011, up from £18.3m in 2010. The club says 61.4% of all group operating profits found their way back into purses last year. Turnover was £139.4m in 2011, a rise of £1.4m over 2010. Media rights, hospitality and sponsorship contributed to the Club’s growth. The windfall will allow the Club to boost prize money to £16.7m in 2012. Founded in 1750, the Jockey Club owns 14 racetracks, including Cheltenham, Aintree, Newmarket and Epsom. CEO Simon Bazalgette cheered the Club’s 2011 performance, which he said was accomplished “despite the challenging economic environment.” Bazalgette echoed the standard racing line that the UK government needed “to press on with a legislative framework that allows racing to receive a fair commercial return from the betting industry.”

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