Nodeposit bonuses from casinos

Bankrupt Herbst Gaming has laid off workers throughout the online gambling company, the local casino gambling company confirmed Monday.

The layoffs are coming less than two weeks after a Reno bankruptcy court judge approved a plan that will hand the internet casino company to its secured lenders sometime next year.

“We had some layoffs all over the company based on the economy,” company general counsel Sean Higgins said, adding that the layoffs account for less than 5 percent of Herbst Gaming’s work force.

“At this time we find ourselves in a position where it is necessary to conduct staff reductions to further reduce expenses,” Higgins said. “While these reductions are unfortunate, Herbst Gaming believes they are necessary to compete effectively.”

An employee at one of the company’s properties in Primm said 200 workers were laid off over the weekend in the California border town.

When it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late March, Herbst Gaming reported employing about 5,400 workers. That number was down from the 6,450 employees it reported having in a Dec. 31 report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company’s current staffing level was unavailable.

On Oct. 31, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive approved a plan to hand the company’s 15 casinos and 600-location, 6,400-machine Nevada slot route to a group of lenders that hold $876.5 million in debt.

The company owns 12 casinos in Nevada, two in Missouri and one in Iowa. Locally, the company owns the 275-room Terrible’s hotel-casino.

The company also owns three Primm casinos — Whiskey Pete’s, Buffalo Bill’s and Primm Valley Resort — which it acquired from MGM Mirage in 2007.

The lenders will receive 100 percent of the company’s casinos and slot routes once the company reorganizes. The new company will issue $350 million in new senior secured bank loans as part of the reorganization.

Higgins said it is too early to figure out who the new owners will be — the lenders were represented by Wilmington Trust Co. during the bankruptcy — or what effect, if any, the change in ownership will have on the restructured Herbst Gaming.

“It’s good to get past the confirmation stage,” Higgins said. “The judge took into consideration the plan we put forth and he approved it. And now it’s really getting back to focusing on the business at hand while the parties weed out who’s going to be the owners and the directors.”

Timothy P. Herbst, Edward J. Herbst and Troy D. Herbst will have their equity wiped out by the reorganization. The brothers remain directors of the company with Troy Herbst as the company’s chief executive officer.

Higgins said the company will continue to operate its business, looking for opportunities to cut costs but also for areas where the company can grow its business.

“It’s really just business as usual for right now,” Higgins said. “Obviously, we’re in tough economic times and things continue to deteriorate, unfortunately, just like it does for everyone.”

Last week, the Gaming Control Board tentatively approved the company adding 75 more machines at five Clark County restaurants to its slot route.

Online Bingo is one of the fastest growing internet gambling sectors and as the markets increase, so does the competition. Not to be outdone, Bingo Day is going all out to brighten up the usually gloomy November by jam-packing the month with extra casino games and increased guaranteed prizes, the biggest to be found in online casinos and bingo rooms.

The most exciting part of the incredible bingo promotion filled month is the huge ?10,000 Guaranteed Payout game, to be hosted on the last Sunday of the month in the Royal Court room. The Royal Court room provides further high stakes games with a daily guaranteed ?1,000 payout game, called “The Crown Jewel”.

Every day at the Barmy Club, there will be guaranteed payout games of ?1,000, ?250 and ?100! Meanwhile over in the Velvet Lounge room, players can enjoy a daily selection of free games. E-games with ?15 cash prizes will also be hosted daily. In the Cloud Nine room, at 8pm every evening, players can participate in a ?100 Guaranteed Prize game called “The Dream Maker” which boasts a ?25,000 jackpot! On Wednesday evenings, first prize increases to ?1,000 in the exciting “Time Flies” game.

For those ladies who know what to wear and appreciate their designer clobber, be sure to check out Bingo Days “Dress to Kill” game inside the Barmy Club every evening at 8:30pm. Not only are they looking at an evening prize of ?1-2,000, but they can also win tickets to the Designer Accessory Draw. This stylish game series culminates in a prize draw at the end of the month where the lucky winner will take home a ?2,000 designer handbag, shoes and watch.

The Riviera’s parent online gambling company and the Hard Rock Hotel on Monday both posted losses for the third quarter as Las Vegas continues to struggle with decreased customer spending and online casinos visitor numbers.

The Hard Rock, however, posted its first increase in revenues in seven quarters thanks to late July opening of the new 450-room Paradise Tower.

The niche property posted a net loss of $22.3 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows.

The latest online poker earnings widened the property’s loss for the first nine months to $70.1 million from $57.4 million.

Riviera Holdings Corp., which also owns a casino in Colorado, posted a net loss of $4.7 million, or 38 cents per share, for the quarter. The loss is an increase from a loss of $3.5 million, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.

Riviera Holdings saw its loss increase to $19.2 million for the first nine months of the year, compared to the $826,000 profit posted through September 2008.

Both companies’ quarterly losses were driven by interest expenses on debt: $19.3 million in interest expenses on the Hard Rock’s $1.16 billion debt and $3.6 million in interest expenses on Riviera Holdings’ $227.5 million debt.

Riviera Holdings, which has multiple defaults on its debt, said it was continuing to talk with its creditors about restructuring its debt, possibly through bankruptcy.

On the revenue side, however, it is a tale of two properties seemingly headed in opposite directions.

The off-Strip Hard Rock Hotel posted a revenue increase of 6.8 percent to $48.9 million in the quarter. The increase was due to a 4 percent increase in hotel revenues and a 24.7 percent increase in food and beverage sales.

The food and beverage revenues were up largely because of expansion at The Joint concert hall and 60,000 square feet of new convention space that opened in the second quarter.

Hard Rock’s revenues for the first nine months of the year, however, decreased 7 percent to $126.1 million.

Riviera Holdings’ revenues dropped 13.9 percent in the quarter, driven by a 25.1 percent drop in revenues at the 2,075-room Riviera on the Strip.

The company’s revenues fell 22.3 percent to $103.9 million the first nine months.

The Hard Rock Hotel is 85.9 percent owned by private equity firm DLJ Merchant Bank Partners, an affiliate of Credit Suisse.

New York-based boutique hotel company Morgans Hotel Group Co. owns the remaining share and manages the property.

Riviera Holdings’ shares closed down 5 cents, or 8.33 percent, to 55 cents on the Pink Sheets.

Apparently in a pub quiz somewhere last week the host asked the question “what are the 5 most commonly used murder weapons according to police reports last year?” Obviously from the title of this review you’ll know where we’re going with this; yes, some bright spark shouted out the names of the Cluedo weapons and got a good laugh out of everyone in the bar. The joke might not be the worlds funniest but it’s a great illustration of the widespread notoriety of a casino game that sees with every new play poor old Dr Black being resurrected only to then be murdered by one of the six potential lunatics in the manor. We all like to fancy ourselves equal to Sherlock in the deduction stakes and with the right side wining at the heart of everyone’s decisions, so it’s no wonder this gambling game is so well loved. Now it’s time to see two great games combined in the Cluedo slot game.

Cluedo is a slot game from the WagerWorks stable which means that the graphics and audio are as you’d expect from a leading industry player. The set up is 15 win lines across the standard 5 reels on the machine with a maximum bet of 5 credits per line. For those of you who can’t be bothered to activate the calculator on your phone, that’s 75 credits per spin. Smooth animation brings the Cluedo faces to life in a well put together set of reel symbols which feature ‘news paper’ wild symbols. The five wild symbols on one line with the gotta bet the max to win the max 5 on a line bet will see you charging 25,000 credits for your services as a private eye.

Of course, we can’t overlook the fact there’s been a murder. You get the chance to put your powers of reason to the test in the bonus game. The game is activated by rolling in the three ‘who won it’ symbols anywhere in the first three reels. You’re then whisked to the games sub-screen where you can win anything up to 2,250 credits. It’s a game of what’s in the box as you’re given the choice of one of three combinations classic Cluedo clue types. You have to choose one of the combinations and you’re offered them one at a time. Each combination has a numerical value given to it or a multiplier so each combination has a different value which corresponds to the mystery amount of money you could win. The trick of the game is to decide whether to take a middling offer or not because as with all ‘what’s in the box’ type games you can never go back on a decision. But as far as bonus games go you’ll find this one elementary my dear Watson…

This is an ideal slot for the novice with the low win lines keeping the game easy and the bonus games whilst having their basis in Cluedo don’t really utilise the game in the same way other popular board game to online slot conversions have, but this equally keeps the game simple for the many players are looking to concentrate on the main reel game leaving the bonus, well, as a bonus. Cluedo’s ultimately a great little slot game that keeps it simple. It’s just a shame Professor Plum thought he could keep it simple when he walked into the conservatory this morning… Good luck.

Online bingo site 123BingoOnline has introduced a two-hour Christmas tree race gambling promotion in its 75-ball Red Bingo Room beginning every day from 8pm New York time.

This casino promotion sees players pick up teams for themselves including Little Elves, Good Shepherds, Snow Fairies and Santa’s Reindeers. Then every time a team member bingos, their respective band moves up the number of squares based on the number they have bingoed on with the key objective to reach the Christmas Tree Star at number 25.

“In their race to be the first one to reach the star, the online gambling players will reveal certain tricky surprises in every square the step on,” read a statement from 123BingoOnline.

“These surprises are gimmicks that can alter the fate of the teams by elevating the players up or by bringing them down the Christmas tree based on the square they have landed on.

“The game carries on until a team touches the star on the top of the Christmas tree. The team that manages to be the first one to reach the Christmas tree star gets to share a huge prize. Plus, there’s something for the first runner-up team as well.”

Online casino is premiering a trio of new slots this week along with announcing the implementation of technology to allow players to access its range of casino games without the need to download.

The three new games include the multiple bonus Santa Strikes Back slot, which adds a touch of humour and revolves around the idea of Father Christmas seeking revenge on Rudolph.

In addition, the site’s Naughty Or Nice slot helps players determine whether they’ve been good or bad this year with the help of sexy assistants. Each spin will take players closer to their holiday fate and a Christmas jackpot.

The final new title at the RealTime Gaming-powered online casino is Aztec’s Treasure Feature Guarantee, which is an upgraded version of the popular Aztec’s Treasure slot. In a twist on the original, Aztec’s Treasure Feature Guarantee offers players a bonus meter that counts down the number of spins until the feature guarantee has been triggered.

In addition to the new slots, TheVirtualCasino stated that its next upgrade early next year will see the implementation of its Web Play option, which will allow players to access a range of casino games without the necessity to download any software.

“We’re expecting our latest upgrades to go over well with our existing player base and hope to attract new players as well,” said Bryan Reynolds, Marketing Executive for TheVirtualCasino.

“We’re working hard to help bring our players the best features and services to help them make the most of their experience with TheVirtualCasino.”

The next step in Congressman Barney Frank’s latest attempt to legalise online gambling in the United States takes place mid-morning tomorrow - December 3rd 2009 - when he chairs a hearing by the House Financial Services Committee in Washington DC.
Experts on existing technologies and their application in the fields of online security and consumer safety are expected to testify, hopefully exploding some of the inaccurate myths that internet gambling politicians have used in the past to oppose legalisation.

With the recent postponement to June 2010 of the UIGEA regulations it is likely that the main focus will be on the legalisation issue, although two bills are due for discussion, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act (HR 2267), which seeks to legalise, regulate and tax online gambling, and the Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act (HR2266), which originally sought to delay the implementation of the UIGEA regulations by 12 months.

Online gambling advocacy groups such as the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative and the million-strong Poker Players Alliance will have representatives at the hearing, where most of the Committee’s 41 Democrats and 29 Republicans are expected to attend.

This week the PPA launched a new initiative to persuade voters to contact their political representatives and again urge them to support the bills at the hearings.

“I think we have 60 000 to 100 000 members who reside in the Financial Services Committee districts,” PPA executive director John Pappas commented earlier this week. “We need to make sure those voters continue telling their lawmakers to attend meetings and support their right to play.”

Pro-online gambling supporters will no doubt again see veteran anti-Internet gambling politicians opposing any changes in the status quo, probably led by Alabama Republican Spencer Bachus, the Republican leader in the committee, along with Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl.

“The PPA and our membership have done a good job elevating this issue with hundreds of thousands of phone calls and letters to Capitol Hill in 2009,” Pappas said. “We think this deserves attention and we hope we can manage the debate at the hearing so those who ultimate oppose us will be neutralised with the facts.”