A New Jersey man has been sentenced to prison for eight years for an attempted armed robbery of a slot player. The incident took place at Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino in 2020.

Shawn P. Applewhite, 25, of Marlton, was sentenced this week and will not be eligible for parole until he serves at least seven years of the sentence, Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Donna M. Taylor announced on Monday. Applewhite also must never enter another casino in the state. Nor can he have future contact with the victim, the judge ordered.

On the original robbery charge, Applewhite faced between 10 to 20 years in prison. He could have been fined up to $150,000.

The weapon possession charge could have led to three to five years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $15,000.

The incident took place on Dec. 23, 2020, when Applewhite approached the victim from behind. The victim was seated in front of a slot machine.

Used Box Cutter

Applewhite then allegedly placed a box cutter to the victim’s neck and demanded money and jewelry. But the victim stood up and soon got into a struggle with the robber, later identified as Applewhite.

A casino security guard and supervisor apprehended him as he headed toward the gaming floor exit. Another casino-goer also tried to intervene.

When announcing the sentence, New Jersey Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin called the prison time “significant.”

Dangerous, Brazen Crime

“The armed defendant ambushed his victim in a public venue, creating an alarming and dangerous situation for everyone present,” Platkin said in a statement.

Division of Criminal Justice Director Lyndsay V. Ruotolo further called the crime “brazen and unlawful conduct.”

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Billionaire Tilman Fertitta is reportedly inching close to acquiring property on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Golden Nugget casino owner is already invested in downtown Las Vegas. But Fertitta, who also owns the NBA Houston Rockets and Landry’s hospitality and entertainment empire, is rumored to focus on a Strip development.

Roeben reported in March that Fertitta was interested in purchasing the roughly six-acre property at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. The site is currently occupied by a Travelodge motel, strip mall, and paved parking lot.

Anonymous sources speaking with the RJ claim Fertitta and property owner Spectrum Group Management have agreed to a sale. The price is rumored to be more than $200 million — or $33.33 million per acre.

Golden Opportunity

Tilman Fertitta is a distant cousin of Station Casinos/Red Rock Resorts’ billionaires Frank III and Lorenzo Fertitta, though their businesses are not intertwined. Forbes estimates Tilman’s fortune at more than $5.7 billion.

Landry’s, which Fertitta fully controls, owns and operates Golden Nugget casinos in downtown Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nv. The casino brand additionally has properties in Atlantic City, Lake Charles, La., and Biloxi, Ms.

The Las Vegas Strip, of course, remains the epicenter of the US casino industry. And the prime drag has recovered quickly from COVID-19, perhaps prompting Fertitta to consider a major investment.

Nevada casinos reported record gross gaming revenue (GGR) last year. Of the $13.4 billion, the Strip was responsible for a little more than $7 billion. That easily eclipsed the Strip’s previous all-time best year of $6.8 billion, set in 2007.

Fertitta’s media contacts have not responded to inquiries regarding the Strip rumors. But Roeben, best known for being the man behind the popular Vital Vegas Twitter account, says his sources for the Fertitta rumblings are reliable.

“Details are few about Tilman Fertitta’s rumored new casino project on the Las Vegas Strip, but you know we’ll pass along anything else we can dig up. This project has not been announced yet, and the rumor hasn’t been officially confirmed, but our sources are bomb,” Roeben wrote.

Prime Property

Strip land is hard to come by. Billionaire Phil Ruffin, who owns Treasure Island and Circus Circus, famously said in 2019 that Strip casinos are “irreplaceable.” That same year, Tilman Fertitta said he, too, was interested in buying on the Strip.

100%, I’m interested,” Fertitta told the Houston Chronicle in 2019 regarding the Las Vegas Strip. “I’ll try to pick off one or two properties.”

Those acquisitions, however, never materialized. Three years and a pandemic later, Fertitta now seems poised to build an entirely new casino resort.

The land in question at Harmon Ave. is considered the center of the Strip. The property is directly across from CityCenter, where the luxurious Aria and Waldorf Astoria stand. The strip mall and Travelodge sit between MGM Grand to the south and Planet Hollywood to the north. The Cosmopolitan is also just a short walk north across the Strip.

The luxury-focused area, Roeben believes, will lead to Fertitta creating a new casino concept and brand.

“It will not be another Golden Nugget. Think fancier,” Roeben opined.

The post Tilman Fertitta Las Vegas Rumors Intensify, as Billionaire Reportedly Acquiring Strip Frontage appeared first on Casino.org.

Microgaming is sometimes referred to as the “Godfather of Slots” because the Isle of Man software developer has been pumping out games since the 1990s and has well over 1,000 titles to its name.

The company announced some changes in its composition late last year with the former CEO of IGT International (GTECH/Lottomatica) purchasing almost all of its assets in a private equity deal. The new company, Games Global Limited, has not announced when or if it would rebrand the iconic provider.

Gtech has been around “forever” too, with some historians tracing Lottomatica’s business past clear back to the days of Columbus’s mapmakers – but Microgaming by any other name should retain the title of Godfather for another reason – joining Walter Bugno as CEO was Tim Mickley formerly of Playtech as CFO. It just doesn’t get more “legacy” than that!

The deal announced in November 2021 included not only the game inventory, the Quickfire aggregation network, and the world’s biggest progressive jackpot network (with over 1.2 billion euros paid out so far), but it also included a bevy of known and unknown studios as well as Studio Partners.

Some of those studios are contributing to the overall slot portfolio. Switch Studios produces RNG animated digital table games and Real Dealer Studios signed an exclusive distribution deal for “not live but REAL” games a little while back.

The Games So Far This Month

The month has already seen the release of Alchemy Gaming’s 25,000 Talons – a highly volatile slot that offers up to half a million euros in the wheel bonus. SpinPlay Games’ Vegas Cash followed soon after with double reels and medium volatility.

On April 12, Studio Partner All41 Studios let loose with Gold Collector: Diamond Edition sporting the popular Link&Win feature mechanic. The high volatility game runs on a 5×4 reel set with 50 fixed pay lines.

Keeping up the dizzying pace, the next day, Microgaming rolled out Royal League Spin City Lux from Gong Gaming Technologies. One of the bonus games lets you roll dice to win up to 10,000x.

Going Forward!

Tuesday was the day scheduled for Wildfire Wins by Just For The Win. The game is set to feature sticky wilds in the base game and Wildfire respins with sticky wilds and the Wildfire Wheels bonus. The bonus game is triggered by 3 scatters and features three different reels and a potential win of 10,000x.

Crazy Tooth Studios is expected to enter the stream on the heels of that game with Rhino Rilla Rex with 3,125 ways to win. Unlike many “virtual payline” (all pays) slots, winning combinations can appear anywhere on the reels with this game. You’ll want to land creature combos to trigger Team-Up Reels and see symbols combine to create new reels. Mechanics include multipliers, stacks of bonuses for bonus spins, and huge winning potential.

The releases from Switch Studios began on the 11th with Premier Blackjack with Buster Blackjack and will see Auto Roulette hit casinos by the 20th.

Northern Lights Gaming takes the stage on April 25th with Magical Reels and Real Dealer Studios will release Dealers Club Roulette the same day. Pear Fiction will roll out Dungeons and Diamonds by the next day with a jackpot worth up to €250,000!

If you play at a casino carrying Microgaming you should also have seen partner network games like Hacksaw’s Gladiator Legends on the 7th and Khan’s Wild Quest from Booming Games on the 14th. Now, look for Eugenio from MGA on April 25th, Iron Dog Studios’ Wolf Strike on the 27th, and Follow the Honey from Inspired Gaming on April 28th for a rock-solid month of new gambling entertainment.

Source: Microgaming springs into April with magical new content, April 6, 2022

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The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) has signed off on William Hill running the sportsbook at the soon-to-be reopened Palms Las Vegas.

The NGC made the call in a unanimous Thursday vote, with the approval coming ahead of the Wednesday, April 27 reopening of the venue. By way of a $3.69 billion acquisition that closed in April 2021, Caesars Entertainment owns the William Hill brand in the US.

William Hill is the largest retail sportsbook operator in Nevada, where Caesars maintains use of that brand. The company uses the Caesars Sportsbook brand in most other states in which it does business.

William Hill runs 124 retail sportsbooks in Nevada.

New Era for Palms

It’s the dawn of a new era for the off-Strip Palms. The casino-resort  was one of four Red Rock-owned properties — the other three are Fiesta Henderson, Fiesta Rancho, and Texas Station — that were shuttered as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and were not reopened.

Last May, Red Rock Resorts sold Palms to California’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians for $650 million in cash. That transaction made the tribe the first to own and operate a Las Vegas gaming venue.

In addition to the casino, Palms includes more than 700 hotel rooms and suites, multiple casual and upscale dining options, meeting and convention space, a 2,500-seat theater, pool and spa, and Palms Place condominiums,” according to the tribe.

The tribe also owns and operates Yaamava Resort & Casino at San Manuel (formerly San Manuel Casino), in Highland, Calif.

In its previous iteration, Palms attempted to lure hip, young , out-of-town guests, leveraging a glitzy assortment of nightlife options. But that was a rough endeavor for Red Rock, because the property isn’t on the Strip. San Manuel is taking a different approach, tailoring the venue to Las Vegas locals – a vibrant segment of the gambling public.

Sportsbook Details

Per Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) regulations, all ticket writers at the new Palms sportsbook must be William Hill staffers.

Jeffrey Hendricks, senior vice president and assistant general counsel of regulatory and compliance for Caesars, told NGCB members that the new book will feature five wagering windows and six kiosks. San Manuel’s partnership with William Hill is sensible because California doesn’t permit regulated sports wagering, meaning the tribe’s experience in related operations is scant.

The reopening of the Palms and its sportsbook could be well-timed, because Las Vegas is hosting the 2022 NFL Draft and that event kicks off on the Strip on April 28.

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President and CEO of Washington D.C. based American Gaming Association (AGA), Bill Miller has penned a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him to direct the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to pay “significant federal attention” to illegal gambling in the country, calling out three prominent sportsbooks by name.

The letter is filled with interesting facts and statistics, as one would expect from a promoter cum watchdog focused on “promoting, educating and lobbying on behalf of the gaming entertainment industry through education and advocacy,” when that trade group represents a $261 billion industry with nearly 2 million employees across the nation generating $41 billion in direct tax revenue.

There is plenty of reason to believe the motivation is not solely based on consumer protections, but it’s good to throw it in at least half a dozen times because it helps the Monop[oly-through-prohibition argument.

The AGA urged Main Justice to protect American consumers, crack down on illegal operators, and enforce federal regulations by focusing on two main areas, the first being sportsbooks and casinos, and the second, unregulated “skill game” machines. The letter doesn’t make clear just what these machines are and that could be a device to illustrate that the states don’t always know either.

The AGA is asking that they become subject to the Johnson Act (15 USC §1171), which would require the machines to be registered and anyone engaged in “manufacturing, repairing, buying, selling, leasing or using these gambling devices that enter interstate or foreign commerce should be required to file a registration with the Department“.

The letter states that the machines “clearly” meet the federal definition of a gambling device “regardless of any perceived ambiguity under state laws“.

Sportsbooks and Casinos

The other area the AGA wants the DOJ to crack down on is what it refers to as “Illegal Online Sportsbooks and Casinos”. While federal law is clear on the illegality of interstate sports betting through the Wire Act of 1961, that is simply not the case for online casinos.

The last valid written opinion from the DOJ on that matter was issued by the Obama DOJ which stated that the Wire Act only related to sports. While at one point in the Trump administration AG Jeff Session opined that interstate/international online casino gambling was illegal, and later AG Rosen was sued in the matter, the Justice Department failed to issue a binding opinion that would hold up in a court of law. A federal judge negated the Trump admin‘s opinion in a case involving the New Hampshire Lottery, adding legal precedence to the earlier Obama Justice decision and opinion.

Gambling and lottery giant IGT (GTECH/Lottomatica) went so far as to sue the DOJ in November of last year demanding a final clarification of the issue.

According to our earlier reporting: “In an 18-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the company’s hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, the company asked the government to clarify its position via a declaratory judgment to state once and for all if the 1961 law applies to all interstate commerce in gambling or only to sports betting for which it was originally written and passed during the Kennedy Administration in an effort to crack down on organized crime.”

Illegal Sportsbooks Highly Visible and Accessible

According to Miller and the AGA, the Supreme Court’s invalidation of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018 has not had the effect of bringing unlicensed sportsbetting operators into the light or making them disappear altogether.

Miller writes: “With sports wagering currently authorized in 33 states and DC, more than 157 million American adults have – or will soon have – regulated, legal channels available to bet on sports in their home state. However, a vast illegal sports betting market continues to exist through offshore websites, which have established well-known brands—such as Bovada, MyBookie, and BetOnline— that operate with a high degree of visibility and are readily accessible to every American with a smartphone or Internet connection.

“These illegal sites also enjoy many competitive advantages that allow them to offer better odds and promotions and ignore any commitment to responsible gaming because they do not pay state and federal taxes or have comparable regulatory compliance costs and obligations.”

Bovada, MyBookie, and BetOnline are hybrid sites that operate both sportsbooks and casinos.

“Hit the Big Guys”

It would appear that the unlicensed sportsbooks are simply doing a better job of marketing themselves, perhaps because they can afford to offer better odds since they don’t pay taxes in the U.S. and they choose to pay experts to get their brands to the top of the search engine result pages.

According to Miller, internet searches for offshore brands went up nearly 40% last year which outstripped search growth for licensed operators in the U.S. “Bovada alone accounts for 50 percent of all searches,” according to the letter.

The AGA suggests that if the DOJ investigates and indicts the most well-recognized offshore brands, it would bring consumer attention to the issue. Based on numbers provided by the AGA, perhaps a little “awareness” is all consumers need. The letter fails to state the obvious; while it is 100% legal at the federal level for Americans to play online casino games for real money, it is a federal crime for them to visit and bet at an illegal sportsbook.

“74 percent of sports betters say it is important to only bet with legal providers, however, 52 percent continue to utilize illegal bookmakers. Most of these consumers (63%) later say they are surprised to learn that they are betting through unregulated and illegal sportsbooks.”

Source: American Gaming Association Urges Department of Justice to Crack Down on Illegal Gambling, AGA, April 14, 2022

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