Salon.com > Casinos

Now you can lose money without ever leaving your bed

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:51:00 +0000

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Guests at one New Jersey casino won't even have to get out of bed in order to place a bet.

The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City said it will become the first casino in the United States to let guests gamble over hotel room TV sets, starting Feb. 18.

Its E-Casino program will let guests with player's cards set up electronic accounts and risk up to $2,500 a day. Slots and four kinds of video poker will be the first games offered.

The casino says the technology can be expanded to include gambling over hand-held devices anywhere on casino property, which New Jersey recently authorized, and full Internet gambling, if the state approves it.

"This puts us in a position to leverage the technology into true mobile gaming and Internet betting later on," said Tom Balance, the Borgata's president and chief operating officer. "We're moving forward with the future of gaming, and this is that first step."

John Forelli, the casino's vice president of information technology, said it is designed not only as an added amenity, but to get them familiar and comfortable with the concept of electronic gambling accounts for the day when Internet wagering comes to New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie last week vetoed an Internet gambling bill, but said he would sign one with some moderate changes.

Who will win the Adelson primary?

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:29:00 +0000

Mitt Romney may still be grieving his loss (mostly by eating pizza, it seems), but 2012 is sooo last month and 2016 is just around the corner. Politico’s Ken Vogel reports today that potential candidates of both parties have already started courting potential donors, including Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Adelson is the top prize for any GOP White House hopeful, with pockets deep enough and political instincts dull enough to single-handedly fund a presidential campaign. He spent, we learn today, an absolutely astonishing $150 million backing Republicans this year, including $20 million on Newt Gingrich's failed bid. So the stakes are high for the suitors, but to whom will Adelson give his rose?

Scottish farmer trumps Trump

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Perennial loser Donald Trump is still a loser. This time, though, it's not a media company or a non-announcement announcement that makes him look bad. Instead, it is a small-town, 60-year-old Scottish farmer, Michael Forbes, who has quietly shown up the Donald.

Forbes gained fame after appearing in “You’ve Been Trumped,” a documentary that chronicled Trump's attempt to steamroll a Scottish community in order to build a golf course. Forbes emerged as one of the movie's unlikely heroes when he refused to sell his farm or succumb to Trump's bullying. Of course, this incited the always-incited Trump, who resorted to calling Forbes' farm "disgusting."

EuroVegas, baby

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:13:00 +0000

BARCELONA, Spain — Laid-off businesspeople in designer clothes eating in soup kitchens. Young people flocking to study German in the hope of emigrating. Frantic regional governments battling to outdo each other to attract scant investment.

Spaniards are desperate.

Enter American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

The controversial owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and third-richest American wants to build a version of the Nevada gambling mecca in the outskirts of Madrid or Barcelona. A mega-resort dedicated to entertainment and business conferences, it would include 12 hotels, six casinos and three golf courses spread across 2,000 acres — the biggest urban development project in Spain since the 1992 Olympics.

The main hook: EuroVegas would create up to 250,000 jobs in a country where almost 6 million people, up to a quarter of the workforce, are unemployed.

At least that was the pitch until the projected number fell to 14,000 when the company’s directors visited Spain in June, when they also announced a drop in investment from $21 billion to $7.3 billion, two-thirds of which would have to come from Spanish banks.