p4-12 news:News 19/01/2010 08:50 Page 7
IGE NEWS
News in brief
Pennsylvania table game law is
Deliver me timbers
Abbiati is supplying custom-
bad news for Atlantic City
designed gaming tables to Carnival
Cruise Lines’ new ship AIDAblu,
built of unusual woods such as
panga-panga and bilinga. The order T
he arrival of table games in Pennsylvania’s
casinos is likely to bring smiles to cash-strapped
state authorities and woes to already beleaguered
is Abbiati’s fifth in a year from Atlantic City.
Carnival Cruise Lines. The firm is
now preparing to fulfil commissions A law recently ratified by Governor Ed Rendell allowing
for P&O’s Azura, Cunard’s Queen casinos, currently slots-only, to offer table games too will
Elizabeth, and Carnival’s AIDAsol, help to balance Pennsylvania’s budget by adding to its
due in 2011. annual casino tax revenue, currently just over $1bn.
Elektroncek add-on Larger sites will have to pay a one-off $16.5m
Elektroncek has redesigned the licensing fee for up to 250 tables each, while resort
PID component of its Megastar casinos will pay $7.5m for up to 50 tables. Revenue will
Roulette and Dicestar multi- then be taxed at 16 percent, reducing to 14 percent
terminal gaming machines. The after two years.
new PID Star, an optional add-on,
is mounted above the centre unit Observers expect that collectively the state’s nine
and provides players with casinos will offer about 800 table games from the The only Atlantic City casino to report a revenue
information including live video and middle of this year. increase in December, for example, was Caesars –
statistical data about the last 200 where table games grew nearly 20 percent, far ahead of
games. The Pennsylvanian market is growing fast. Two new the overall 4.4 percent increase.
casinos opened in 2009, and a further five could be on
Isle of Capri in Detroit the way under rules which – so far – cap the total at 14. The change to Pennsylvania’s rules could wipe out
Isle of Capri is taking over Atlantic City’s precious advantage, as could an
management of the bankrupt Including the new casinos, revenue was up 28 anticipated similar change in Delaware to the south.
Greektown Casino in Detroit. The percent in December on the same month a year ago, or Delaware law-makers are believed to be considering
casino, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy 1.4 percent excluding the two new sites. allowing the state’s three racinos to add a total of 150-
protection, was managed until 31 225 table games. Competing with Pennsylvania is the
December by Fine Point Group. Isle But the arrival of table games now means that much objective – but further eroding Atlantic City’s edge would
of Capri will now run it for a of its future growth is likely to be at the expense of be a potent side effect.
reported fee of $200,000 monthly Atlantic City, in adjacent New Jersey. Revenue for the 11
for six months, and then $250,000 casinos there has been falling precipitously – last year it Among the biggest winners from the new Pennsylvania
monthly. Separately, in the second dipped 13.2 percent to $3.9bn, its lowers level since regulations, meanwhile, could be the Sands Casino
quarter ended 25 October Isle of 1997 – and one analyst has characterised table games, Resort Bethlehem – only an hour’s drive from New York
Capri recorded $1.6m profit which account for 25-30 percent of Atlantic City’s total City. Shuffle Master is also expected to do well in the
against a loss of $13.5m in the gaming revenue, as its “last line of defence”. state through sales of its automatic card shufflers.
same period a year earlier.
Chairman and CEO James B. Perry
said: “We began an aggressive
Pacific President says
effort to realign our cost structure
two years ago, and have since
‘no’ to gaming
Aristocrat, Sega
become more efficient while
improving the customer T
he president of Palau has vetoed legislation which
join forces on slots
would have allowed gaming in the tiny Pacific nation.
experience.”
The Palau Gaming Control Act of 2009 would have A
ristocrat has collaborated with video-game legend
Sega to create two new slots.
JCM for United coin authorised the first gaming venues in Palau – also
Route operator United Coin is to known as Belau – and established a supervisory Based on characters from the Sega classics Bonanza
standardise on JCM Global’s bill- commission. and Golden Axe, they will be available from Aristocrat in
validation systems in the gaming the first quarter of 2010.
machines it supplies. It currently But President Johnson Toribiong refused to approve it,
has more than 600 customers saying that it appeared to benefit casino operators rather Aristocrat’s Chief Marketing Officer Paul Kitchin said:
across Nevada, including than his country’s 20,000 citizens. “Sega has designed the graphics as an extension of
convenience stores, groceries and their classic titles and our games studios have
pharmacists as well as bars and Palau, which gained independence in 1994, provided artistic direction and the core mathematical
casinos. comprises a string of islands some 500 miles east of game design.”
the Philippines.
10 FEBRUARY 2010
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