Category: Gambling

Resorts World Catskills Still on Track for Launch in 2018

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The fourth, and the last, of the upstate casinos authorized under the gambling expansion in New York, Resort World Catskills, is still expected to launch within the first quarter of 2018. The Acting of Director of the state Gambling Commission, Don Ochrym, in a recent press release confirmed that the casino is expected to kick off its operations by March 1st next year. Resort World Catskills is to be opened in Monticello, Sullivan County with over 200 participants expected to join in – casino machines are already being delivered and dealer training schools have already begun training people expected to work for the new establishment.

Previously known Montreign, the Resorts World casino by the time of its completion is anticipated to have used up at least $1.2 billion – but considering the revenue that the casino is expected to rake in, the budget can be said to be worth every penny.

In September the Times Union in a report acknowledged that these new casinos (Resorts World Catskills and three others that have been opened in the last year) are the state’s economic engines though they lagged behind in the first-year revenue projections. However, these financial struggles are expected to change a bit with industry officials and local stakeholders saying that it takes time to see whether a business is going to be a success in the long term especially if it is a casino.

The 1.6-million-square-foot, five-star Resort World Catskills is further promising customers of certain key features that will set it apart from all the existing casinos. Charlie Degliomini, who is the executive vice president of Resorts World Catskills parent company, Empire Resorts says that once construction is complete and the casino is officially complete, they expect up to 4 million visitors every year. He further pointed out that the casino’s core offering will be luxury as portrayed by the personal pools, private balconies, garden suites as well as the elite-guest gyms for third-floor residents – and, of course, not forgetting the three bars and six eateries.

Guests looking to grab a quick bite will love the food court and when they are not gaming they can indulge in a bit golfing on the casino’s Rees Jones-redesigned 18-hole golf course! Alternatively, there is a salon where they can get their nails down as they unwind or prepare for the next games.

Regardless, gambling is still going to be the biggest moneymaker for Resorts World Catskills. Degliomini expects that about three-quarters of its 332 suites will be allocated to the casino section to accommodate all the 130 table games and the 2,150 slot machines.

So far, everyone seems to be happy about the resort-casino project – local union leaders are so enthused about the project’s utilization of an all-union workforce of over 680 construction workers which gets even better as the number is expected to rise to 800 as the launch date nears. The union’s representatives are also excited about the great post-launch prospects that the casino will have for the local economy – about 1,400 jobs will be created at the main hotel, the golf course, and the casino.

NBA Shifts Its Position on Legalized Sportsbetting

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The National Basketball Association (NBA) was recently reported to have changed its position regarding the state of legalized nationwide sportsbetting. This shift comes with the revelation that the organization intends to rally behind Congress members seeking reforms in the existing sportsbetting laws. A report from Legal Sports Report stated that NBA would not actively advocate for the repeal of the Professional Amateur Sports and Protection Act (PASPA), despite standing behind the regulation of legalized gambling.

NBA is also purported to have joined forces with National Football League (NFL) and the National Hockey League (NHL) in the US Supreme Court a month ago to defend the legislation that restricted sports betting or wagering to venues in Delaware, Oregon, Montana, and Nevada.

In last week’s Sports Betting USA conference in New York, NBA Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Dan Spillane had the following to say;

“Our view has been that if it’s illegal, that’s not the right way to start off legal sportsbetting in the United States; under a cloud doing it in violation of federal law. At the same time, we agree with New Jersey on the ultimate policy outcome that having legal and regulated sportsbetting in the United States is the best place to end up. The disagreement is just on how to get there.”

This also comes on the onset of a lawsuit seeking to overrule a 25-year-old federal legislation that restricts sportsbetting to only four states in the US. Dan Spillane is further reported to have assured the public of ‘a little bit more clarity’ once the issue is settled which would then create room for more open discussions regarding legalizing sportsbetting in all the remaining states. NBA’s rowback has been welcomed by the American Gaming Association lobby group whose CEO, Geoff Freeman, recently proclaimed that the group was in the same boat with NBA as far as ‘commitment to integrity and rigorous regulation’ are concerned.

In similar news, the value of illegal sportsbetting has risen to nearly $200 billion in the US – which accounts for about 97 percent of all of the country’s sportsbetting. These findings seem to be partially responsible for propelling the demands and subsequent lawsuits seeking for the legalization of the multibillion-dollar sportsbetting market. With the case for the legalization of sportsbetting to be heard next month by the Supreme Court, the significance of illegal sportsbetting in the US market is speculated to cause major ripples. Policy experts have had their fair share of criticism (and support) for the legislative restrictions that have been raised against sportsbetting in all but the four states mentioned earlier, terming the laws as ‘madness’ – but it is hard to tell how this will affect the Supreme Court’s landmark hearing that is only a few weeks away.

CoinPoker and Crypto: The Future of Online Poker?

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Cryptocurrencies have seen a tremendous growth in general use over the past couple of years – a reality that has faced equal amounts of criticism and acceptance.

Bitcoin, for instance, has reached record highs in terms of its price even though there have been concerns raised about the rogue nature of the cryptocurrency. Nonetheless, CoinPoker, a fairly new cryptocurrency-loving poker site seems to be exploiting this opportunity and it has gone as far as launching a new poker site that is set to revolutionize the casino industry.

The unexpected pre-ICO launch of CoinPoker’s new cryptocurrency-based poker site has already attracted a lot of attention from online poker enthusiasts as well as the cryptocurrency communities.

With a 100 million CHP token hard cap, CoinPoker further offers a 30% bonus with the price of a CHP token standing at 0.05 EUR as of this day (November, 19th 2017).

The online poker platform’s real money gaming features are, however, scheduled to be officially launched at the beginning of January 2018 with added enhancements to eliminate unfair games using the best block chain technology in the market.

As of now, players can enjoy CoinPoker’s free play software that brings back the fun, competitive and transparent poker games that every poker player craves for.

Isabelle Mercier, a renowned member of the poker industry and CoinPoker representative assures players that CoinPoker’s mission is to deliver poker games that can be termed as transparent, trustworthy and, most of all, safe.

But she is not the only big name in the poker industry that is backing CoinPoker’s bold approach towards turning the tides of the poker industry – Legendary poker player, politician, celebrity and entrepreneur Antanas “Tony G” Guoga has stepped up to support the initiative.

On November 12, 2017, Tony G openly declared his approval of the cryptocurrency-based poker platform in a tweet while bashing systems used by many online poker operators currently.

“Poker is my passion. I love this game. But online #poker is sick and some things need 2 be changed there. Blockchain & cryptocurrency could make poker trustworthy again. That’s why I am backing coinpoker.com idea #blockchain #cryptocurrency #ico”

CoinPoker aims to provide remedies to many of the problems that have plagued the online poker industry which included transparency and fairness in gaming logic, transaction speeds as well as other issues revolving around the payment services used by most online poker sites.

Equally as important is their global accessibility agenda which intends to utilize blockchains to guarantee the transparency of their Random Number Generators (RNG) and CHP (CHIPS) – which is based on Ethereum – as their in-house gaming currency.

Essentially, this implies a tight fairplay security system and an unbeatable anti-fraud system, both of which are to be implemented on a global scale.

CoinPoker’s pre-ICO should end by the 1st of December after which the remainder of the ICO will be picked up and implemented within the first quarter of next year. More detail on this is available on their website along with an introductory video and an equally detailed white paper.