Casinos

Las Vegas casinos are facing quite bad days, it seems many robbers are into chip stealing nowadays, which is quite understandable, since nobody stops them in doing so. Piece of cake. Last time it was the Bellagio in December, and now Rio Casino took the hit by a 40-year old white man wearing a moustache, who took $35,000 worth of chips waving a gun off the tables.

The Rio Casino

As I posted it last year, an armed robber wearing biker gear took $1,5 in chips from the Bellagio's Craps tables in Las Vegas. Police arrested him in February and identified him as Anthony Assad, son of George Assad, Municipal Court Judge of Las Vegas. Casino robberies are becoming more and more popular these days...

8 News Now Las Vegas wrote about the incident yesterday:

 “Police say the suspect walked into the Rio and began taking chips off of a gaming table. When the dealer at the table tried to stop him, he pulled out a gun. The man did not fire the weapon and no one was injured.”

Have you seen HBO's hit show, the "Boardwalk Empire"? I personally love the era it is set in, the 1920s. If you also do, you will love this news. Atlantic City Resorts will adopt a Boardwalk Empire-like theme for their casino by December this year.

The Atlantic City Resorts  in front

The venue is located in the exact same spot, which was once the boardwalk. Previous owners couldn't catch up with the competition, they were failing to pay the mortgage and had to sell the venue, which was quickly bought by Morris Bailey and Dennis Gomes, who had great plans in mind for the casino, which is currently under construction.

Has it ever come to you that at smoking casinos dealers are second-hand smoking all day long? Well, Wynn employees have had enough of it, and filed a lawsuit against their employer. A federal judge ruled that the Plaintiffs can proceed with the filing of their lawsuit against Wynn casinos, who seemingly failed to protect them from the dangers caused by second-hand smoking for prolonged times.

Is the time of smoking casinos over?

The case is interesting because Wynn Resorts LTD. wanted the dismissal of the suit, claiming it is not their duty in Nevada state to protect their employees from second-hand smoking, and they also questioned the court's jurisdiction in such a case. Unfortunately for Wynn, the judge disagreed with the the casino's legal department, and allowed the Plaintiffs to proceed with the case.

Until the beginning of this year, gambling was illegal in Singapore. Because of the opening of two major casino complexes, however, Singapore permitted gambling within its borders, and has already made around $4 billion out of it.

The country was aiming to broaden its legal sources of income, this is why around $10 billion has been spent on building the two gigantic casinos, The Genting Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands, one of the most spectacular resorts in the world, with a magnificent swimming pool on the top of the complex.
These two casinos have already provided around $4 billion income for Singapore, whith reports predicting a more than $5 billion revenue for 2011.

The Marina Bay Sands Experience

“Singapore is already the second-largest casino market in Asia after Macau and could potentially overtake the Las Vegas strip as the second largest casino market in the world after Macau in the next two to three years”, say DMG & Partners analysts.

The Greenbrier Resort (Greenbrier County, West Virginia), originally founded in 1858 as White Sulphur Springs, received important political figures throughout its history, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi as well as US presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Greenbrier Resort

The multiple Guinness Record holder Bryan Berg has built the card version of the Venetian Macau Hotel & Casino out of 218,000 cards, with which he broke his own previous record. The playing card version of the Chinese luxury hotel and casino has been exhibited in the lobby of the hotel itself. The monstrum took 44 days to put together and weighs 272 kilograms in total.

The Gutshot Poker Club, which opened its doors to the public on March 2004, was one of the most well-known poker clubs located in London. The Club which also housed a bar, restaurant and internet café grew to become the hot spot to be at for any poker player. The club played venue for poker ring games and tournaments and hosted four poker festivals per year. On top of this, in 2006 it even held the Showdown Poker Tour which was a £3,448 buy-in event.

Over time the venue not only saw many English professionals walk through its doors, but it also started to become a place where you could spot WSOP champions. Some of the big names included  Phil Hellmuth Jr , Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem where just some of the regulars to visit Gutshot Poker Club when they were in London.

The club seemed to be unstoppable and it wasn’t until 2007 when it first struck trouble. Derek Kelly, Gutshot Poker Club owner was been prosecuted of contravening the Gaming Act. After almost 3 years of trading and having over 23 thousand members, its hosting of poker games without a gaming license meant big problems for the club.

As Derek Kelly prepared for his court hearing his lawyers started building his defence against the allegations. Their main line of attack was that poker games shouldn’t be treated in the same way as roulette or blackjack because it is more a game of skill rather than luck. Obviously, the owner fought the conviction as best as he could but ultimately after two failed court appeals this spelt the end for Gutshot Poker Club and it was forced to close its doors for good.

Here, I am going to introduce the top ten poker temples to make or break you. These are the places where dreams can come true and the luxury of the kings is standard. With millions of dollars turning over every day it’s every poker player’s dream to experience the atmosphere offered by these venues at least once in their life.

Casino de Monte Carlo (Monaco)

The casino was built in 1863 and still is one of the main attractions for tourists in Monaco. The casino had a dramatic impact on Monte Carlo’s reputation to be one of the best places to gamble at in Europe. The Casino Monte Carlo was designed by Charles Garnier, who also designed the Opera House in Paris. The casino’s looks are pleasant to the eyes, with a historic yet modern appeal. It also houses a theatre, which is the venue for opera and ballet performances.
The casino appears in many world famous movies, such as several James Bond films (like GoldenEye and Never Say Never Again) and Eugene Levy’s blockbuster, Once Upon a Crime.
Besides poker, players can enjoy roulette, blackjack, bacarat, craps, trente et quarente and 316 slot machines.

For several years now, the home for Las Vegas high stakes poker action has always been Bobby’s Room, located in the Bellagio. The Ivey Room, part of the Aria (the new casino giant also located in Las Vegas), is now set to take over this title, securing its grasp on high stakes poker.

The Aria Hotel & Casino (said to be the jewel of the 8.5 billion dollar city-in-a-city complex dubbed the MGM Mirage) is a 60-storey glass palace, lying over 370,000 square meters that took five years to construct. The casino consists of 14,000 square meters and besides its showcase central room, it has numerous private rooms to provide discrete high stakes action.

The steering committee’s main goal with the extravagant enterprise is probably to bring Las Vegas to its knees and to make it the central hub for all the action happening in the city. So, the plans to take over the high stakes games from the Bellagio do not come as a surprise.