Customers enjoy the view on board the tall Roller Ferris wheel, but there has to be a lot more of them, says Caesars.
Caesars Entertainment’s High Roller Ferris wheel at the Linq is not quite yet in a spiral that is deflationary but it is not proving to be the money maker that the organization 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 very nearly a 12 months ago included in a $550 million redevelopment of this area involving the Flamingo and the Linq, previously the Imperial Palace, and represents a current trend as Vegas seeks to diversify its entertainment offering away from traditional gambling.
It is hardly revolutionary: the generation that is new of prefers a Ferris up to a roulette wheel, the thinking goes; except they don’t, apparently.
Caesars said this week that while numbers were up 10 percent in the quarter that is previous simply under 5,000 daily cyclists, it was still way quick of expectations; the company had predicted that the ride could be attracting between 8,000 and 11,000 visitors per day, or 3 to 4 million a year.
Persuading around 10 percent of the Strip’s 41 million visitors that are annual yield up to $60 million in yearly income, the company had hoped.
Happy Half Hour
These numbers had been extrapolated partly by looking at the 2010 numbers for comparable tourist attractions. Very nearly four million checked out the London Eye that while the Empire State Building had 3.5 million visitors, and 700,000 people climbed the Stratosphere in Vegas year.
However, Caesars outgoing Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman admitted that the business had underestimated the amount of groups and visitors that are corporate trip would attract, adding that this really is now being addressed through a wider marketing outreach.
The vast majority of riders to date have been leisure tourists or locals, Loveman explained.
Along with Groupon deals, airline package discounts and half-price tickets for locals, Caesars has started providing an open bar throughout the 30-minute trip 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 extended trading after 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 was involved in months of settlement and litigation with its low-level creditors, who argue that its restructuring plan, exercised along with its major creditors, unjustly protects the business’s interests during the cost 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 outcomes were key drivers of our fourth quarter performance despite the continuation of exceptionally unfavorable hold at Caesars Palace.’
MGM Will No Longer Allow Cash To Relax And Play At Poker Tables
MGM casinos will no longer enable poker players to use cash during the tables before converting it into chips. (Image: highstakesdb.com)
MGM Resorts will stop enabling cash to be considered ‘in play’ at poker tables in the usa 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.
In accordance with a report by Online Poker Report’s Chris Grove, MGM has confirmed the change, though they will have not stated what’s behind the decision to not any longer allow cash to be played at the poker tables.
Ahead of the change, $100 bills which were up for grabs 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 an ingredient of any bet that is all-in.
But starting next month, this may no longer be the way it is at major Las Vegas poker rooms including at the Bellagio, the ARIA, MGM Grand Las Vegas, and the Excalibur.
The move will also impact the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi, as well as the MGM Grand Detroit.
Change Probably Built to Enhance Anti-Money Laundering Standards
While there has been no specific word on why MGM has made the modification, most speculation has suggested that it is related to some type of compliance issue, a normal reason for casinos to change their money-handing policies.
In particular, MGM might be concerned about the federal government’s recent interest in money laundering policies at casinos: cash is much more problematic for casinos to track than chips, especially at higher denominations, where chips have actually RFID tags embedded in them to ensure they can be traced.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has been more earnestly speaking about potential problems with anti-money laundering procedures at casinos over the past 12 months. In June, FinCEN Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery gave a message in which she discussed just how casinos should be taking a more ‘risk-based approach’ to anti-money laundering efforts, and that casinos should be more proactive in the Bank Secrecy Act to their compliance.
Choices such due to the fact could be a reaction to such requests. FinCEN has also recently exposed workplace in Las vegas, nevada, suggesting that they may be planning on going for a better look at just how the gaming industry protects against money laundering in casinos.
Compliance with IRS criteria on reporting may be a secondary issue, as chips must be cashed out and therefore can be tracked, while cash can get right into a new player’s pocket without ever being reported.
Players Have Mixed Opinions on Cash in Poker Games
Whilst the new rules may be restricting to some players who enjoy having money at the tables, not absolutely all poker fans are reacting adversely to the change. 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 beat a ways that are few players can make an effort to cheat during poker games.
‘Fantastic news,’ wrote NickMPK. ‘I hate playing with money in the table. It much harder to see an individual’s stack size, and it facilitates passing fake bills.’
Not everyone agreed that cash was a problem that is real poker tables, nevertheless.
‘[It is] 100x more easier to angleshoot hiding chips that are big $100 bills, and the $100 bills are much easier [to] see from the other end of the table,’ wrote posted sevencard2003. ‘This is wonderful news for angleshooters and cheaters.’
According to Grove, similar changes will likely arrive at many other Las Vegas gambling enterprises into the near future, though it’s not likely that all poker rooms would take up such a ‘no cash’ policy any time soon.
Vegas Mob Writer Susan Berman Murder Suspect Robert Durst Arrested
The long-unsolved murder of Susan Berman, Mob daughter and writer, may finally be thawing right out of 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 household name in present weeks, thanks to an HBO documentary series called The Jinx that step-by-step several ‘mysterious’ disappearances and fatalities surrounding the man that is 71-year-old.
Now, perhaps many thanks, at least in part, to evidence uncovered during that documentary, Durst may finally have to handle costs for one or more 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 the arrestee. While he had been always a suspect in case because of his propensity for being surrounded with unsolved homicides, there was uncertainty in the Berman case as a result of exactly what she had often written about: the history of Las Vegas and her family’s ties to the Mafia, by herself being the daughter Mobster Davie Berman.
Extra Evidence Prompts Arrest
That has been enough for many people to suspect that she was killed for something she had researched or discussing. But now, police are saying they do have more fodder pointing to the chance that it was Durst behind the killing all along.
‘ As a result of investigative leads and evidence that is additional has come to light in the past year, investigators have identified Robert Durst as the individual responsible for Ms. Berman’s death,’ the la Police said in a declaration released over the weekend.
Durst was picked up on Saturday, remaining under a name that is fake the JW Marriott resort in New Orleans. Authorities say they think that Durst ended up being about to leave the country and check out Cuba.
‘Jinx’ May Have Uncovered New Proof
Given the promotion surrounding Durst because of The Jinx, many have speculated that the makers of the documentary uncovered evidence that resulted in their arrest. While there might be some merit to that particular, police have tried to downplay the connection involving the scheduled program and the decision to arrest him.
‘We based our actions predicated on the research and the evidence,’ stated LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. ‘We didn’t base anything we did in the HBO series. The arrest was made as a consequence 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 the authorities make the arrest just before the series finale, which aired night sunday. However, he did acknowledge it was hard to determine when and how to share information that had been uncovered aided by the authorities.
‘We talked a whole lot 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 since well.
In 1982, his former wife Kathie Durst went missing; her household has believed he was included, but it has never been proven. Berman ended up being set to be interviewed by a Westchester County District Attorney about this disappearance when she was killed, which supplied a connection 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 cases back into the limelight. The filmmakers showed Durst a letter he wrote that was strikingly similar to an anonymous note to police that led them to Susan Berman’s body in 2000 in the penultimate episode.
In the final episode, Durst was heard (perhaps unaware that his microphone was nevertheless real time) muttering exactly what some have interpreted as a confession to his crimes.
