New laws and regulations are being passed in the land-based casino industry that are going to tighten the rules in the gambling sector. One of the new laws that is being passed will prohibit third party vendors from entering into the casino industry without being properly licensed. This will also effect contractors who develop and produce the casino slot games for use in the United States casinos.

This bill came from the regulator of the casino industry, the Gaming Control Board of Nevada. The concern by the board is that many of the casino games being assembled and developed are down so by foreign labor without regulations for the proper licensing.

Casino giants Bally Technologies and International Gaming Technology used laborers from India in order to develop their casino slot games, stating that they couldn’t find local talent within the country. Bally has utilized enough workers in India to set up an office their and use them as full time employees, and now the United States is trying to crack down on their outsourced cheap labor.

The new regulations for the gambling industry in terms of their workforce would include all engineers to be licensed. This process is more formal and involves a background check and a line of paperwork when changing jobs or companies. Therefore through this process everyone from top level executives down to the engineers would have to be licensed and approved by the board. Currently the engineers only have to have a work card which is a less intrusive process in getting hired on to the company from a foreign land.

FremantleMedia recently signed a deal with Casino giant MGM Interactive Incorporated to begin working on online casino gambling games. With this new contract, Fremantle will begin to put some of the MGM popular movie titles into the online casino arena.

The goal of this new online gambling partnership is to spread the films and television shows from MGM throughout the online community around the world. Although they have a desire to spread into many languages and many countries, they have already disclosed that they will not be including the United States in their offerings.

“This deal demonstrates our ambition to become a leading publisher of branded games in this exciting market,” said Paul Kanareck, Head Of Ventures for online company, FremantleMedia.

Delaware has been fighting a war to regain status with gambling within their own state, but now the Appeals Court has stopped them dead in their tracks by stating that they are in violation of the Professional And Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. This will effectively stop Delaware from single-game sportsbetting.

Governor Jack Markell passed the law in July that allowed the state of Delaware to engage in spots gambling, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sprung into action by gathering as many professional sports teams to fight the battle against the state. The professional sports teams do not want any gambling on their game as they feel it will lead to fixed matches where players will be persuaded to change the outcomes of the games.

Initially in the United States, four states were granted the right to gambling on sports. Among those states were Delaware, Oregon, Montana, and Nevada. Since this site had already been allowed under the 1976 regulations on gambling they felt that they were permitted to continue the gambling tradition. In fact, Chief District Judge, Gregory Sleet was in the same belief when he sided with the state of Delaware against the professional sports leagues and the NCAA.

A further appeal on the sports gambling went to a three panel judging system in the state of Philadelphia at the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals. According to one of the judges, judge Theodore McKee the plan of sports gambling stated by Delaware would violate the ruling on sportsbetting in 1992.

“Obviously, I am disappointed with the Court’s decision and will be meeting with the state’s attorneys to evaluate our legal options,” said Markell.

Delaware’s position on the sports gambling is to help turn around the local income by generating enough revenue to pull out of their $800 million deficit.

A Federal judge has recently ruled the California State casinos are going to be able to incorporate more slot machines into their land based casinos. The state has decided that the casinos are permitted to add an additional 10,549 slot machines within their district. In addition to these slot machines, the jurisdiction also allows nearly 83,000 more games. With the addition of these casino games, the Sacramento market will have expanded to be the largest in the gambling world.

“We continue to believe the equipment manufacturers are the way to play the gaming group,” Janney Montgomery Scott gaming analyst Brian McGill advised investors. “In addition to the potential new gaming machines in California, we see 55,000 games as likely over the next two years.”

Casino slot machines are taking over, and adding revenue to many communities. Due to this money making trend, many states have begun to adopt the slot machine as a solution to help during the depression. Within the next two years, slot machines will be popping up in Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

According to two Indian tribes, the state had improper calculations when it came to splitting up the slot machines. Now, District Judge Frank Damrell Jr. has decided in favor of the Indian tribes and is allowing 45 days for the tribes to split up the slot machines. This division will see a split between 55 Indian tribes.

Bally Technologies Chief Operating Officer Gavin Issacs said: “California is a great market for us and its one of those markets where (all the slot machine makers) do equally well. This is an opportunity we are very happy about.”

One of the most recent gambling lotteries to hit the market is the Arkansas Lottery Commission. Now that they have found their footing they have chosen one of the top gambling and online developers, Intralot to assist with their launch and marketing promotions.

“We have the opportunity to create a world-class lottery for the residents of Arkansas and we’re going to build an organisation that has substance and provides entertainment but, most importantly, benefits education in this state,” said Ernie Passailaigue, Director for the ALC.

The contract with online devekloper Intralot will span seven years giving them an opportunity to build a solid platform for gambling. “We feel Intralot will be a great partner to help us achieve these goals. It presented a solid plan in response to our request for proposal that will enable us to benefit from its cutting-edge technology, state-of-the-art equipment and professional services and build a world-class lottery that will maximise the benefits to the scholarship programme in Arkansas in a very short period of time.”

Intralot has been one of the top online lottery dealers for some time now. “Our company has been winning new lottery contracts because of our ability to get the job done right and on time,” said Tom Little, President and Chief Executive Officer for Intralot USA.

“We have been exceeding our partner’s expectations. We are excited about this new partnership with the ALC because we have the personnel, advanced technology and the expertise that will enable us to launch this lottery successfully and on time.

“All of the work that will be put into this up-and-coming lottery will be well worth it as the Commission’s biggest objective is to contribute its net proceeds to provide scholarships and grants to Arkansas citizens for in-state colleges and universities.’

William Hill one of the top online casino providers has recently decided to pair up with PaysafeCard. William Hill has established its name as one of the most trusted online bookmakers for sports best in the United Kingdom, and now it has discovered the benefits of adding in the newest type of secured online transactions.

The PaySafeCard has recently entered into circulation in the United Kingdom as a safe way for online gamblers to make online transactions without divulging too much personal information. Many online casinos used bank accounts to complete transactions and discovered that the online players were skeptical about releasing that private information. This method has become so popular now that they can even access mobile devices through such united kingdom come as Vodafone in order to complete their banking transactions.

With this new agreement between William Hill and the PaySafeCard, online players can now use vouchers in order to gamble and make online transactions. This is yet another step for William Hill to be on the cutting edge of technology I comes to online casino gambling.

The PaySafeCard was originally launched in Argentina and now has spread through over 20 countries around the world. It not only pertains to online casinos but any online purchases where customers can acquire these vouchers and make payments as though they were paying with cash. These vouchers don’t disclose any banking details therefore keeping the online customer site.

“We are delighted to have WilliamHill.com as a partner,” said David Hunter, Chief Executive Officer for PaySafeCard UK.

“The cooperation is an important step for expansion in the UK and throughout Europe.”

Secondhand smoke inhalation in Las Vegas Nevada has become a huge problem within the casinos. Many lawsuits have taken place by employees of the casinos in order to rectify this issue.

Now at the soon to be opening Aria Hotel and Casino at the CityCenter on the Las Vegas strip, officials are revealing that smoke will no longer be a problem.

Blackjack tables will have an air curtain that will blow clean air up dividing the blackjack dealer from the casino gamblers. According to Cindy Ortega, senior vice president of energy and environmental services for MGM Mirage,”I can take three matches, light up the matches, blow them out, and I put the match right there and the smoke goes right straight up. The air curtain is there to protect the dealer from the smoke. Now, it’s not 100 percent (as good) as a nonsmoker, but I think we’ve taken such giant leaps. I think it’s really great.”

Casinos had even impressed head of the gaming division for Transport Workers Union Local 721, Joe carbon. “If you have four or five players blowing smoke in your face, it’s not a good deal,” he said. He hadn’t heard of the air curtain table, but from the sound of it, it “would be a good idea.”

According to Ortega the CityCenter’s Aria hotel and casino was designed to U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. “It’s not whether smoking is allowed, it has to do with how the air is treated in a LEED building,” she said.

“So we came out with what I call the clean-air strategy. The clean-air strategy is (to) make the best air possible for everybody.”

1976 was a big year for Fertitta as he opened his first casino in July of that year. The Casino, that it was simply named for the 5000 ft.² gambling slot west of Sahara Ave. This is where Frank began to use his personality as a chance to bring in local customers and maintain superb customer service. The friendly atmosphere that provided allowed Frank to expand his casino by adding bingo as well.

From there the name changed from The Casino to the Bingo Palace. Frank Fertitta was able to keep his business open on the simple principles of good friendly service, inexpensive food, cheap drinks, good entertainment and many Casino giveaways.

In 1983 the bingo Palace grew and took on the new name Palace Station. Frank Fertitta’s sons soon became executives of the company so that Frank could retire. His sons brought Palace Casino public but then went private again in 2007. With economic decline the casino company had to file for bankruptcy protection.

Station Casinos was born from this property as it had grown to 10 major properties in various cities. Chairman of Boyd Gaming Corporation, Bill Boyd, thought a lot of Fertitta and the work accomplished throughout his life. As well as stating that Fertitta was a trailblazer in the casino industry, he also said, “We really appreciate everything he did. He was liked by everybody in the industry. He was just a wonderful human being.”

Many people spoke at the funeral in high regard to the passing of this innovator of the casino industry. Such notables included Senate majority leader Harry Reid, former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller, representative Shelley Berkley, and many more.

The Las Vegas hotel and casino industry felt a huge loss when Station Casinos founder Frank Fertitta Jr. recently passed away. According to his friend of more than 50 years, Tito Tiberti stated that Fertitta was always looking to make improvements on thing. That is probably why he had such a successful career in the Las Vages hotel and Casino industry.

Frank was born on October 30, 1938 in Beaumont, Texas. He made his way into the casino hotspot of Las Vegas Nevada in 1960. Here he moved from Galveston, Texas with his wife Vicki and began working as an element of Tropicana Hotel and Casino. 16 years later he had proven himself a diligent worker and found himself constantly upgraded through jobs. From bellman, he became a dealer, a pit boss, a baccarat manager and eventually climb the ladder to become the general manager at several casinos. Among these casinos where the Stardust, the Tropicana, Circus Circus, the Sahara and the Fremont.

“Frank was one of the most successful businesspersons in the history of Las Vegas — and one of the great philanthropists of our community,” Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said. “He was a very special guy, a class act. He was sophisticated, quiet and unassuming, a master businessman.”

According to Michael Green, a history professor at College of Southern Nevada, “He knew that the people who worked in the Strip resorts would want a neighborhood place to play,” Green said. “He’s an original of our time, one of the last old-time, down to earth operators who helped lead the transition to the new Las Vegas.”

Frank Schreck helped Fertitta acquire his first gaming license in Las Vegas. “He was a real innovator,” Schreck said. “He was always polite to everybody, and that’s why his casinos were always successful. They reflected his personality.”

The national occupancy rate for hotels currently sits at 64% where it is now with the discounted rates of the Las Vegas hotel and casinos have been able to maintain an occupancy rate of 82% even during difficult times. The downside of these numbers is that Las Vegas hotel and casinos were down seven percentage points for the month of June which is over 26% of the decline from 2008.

Unfortunately other issues come along with the declining economy and the declining room rates. “This is a huge issue,” said Jan Freitag, a vice president at Smith Travel Research. “Rates are a signal of quality in the hotel industry.” Also hotel and casinos that have built their brand on being a luxury resort are now cheap and their brand that they spent years to acquire.

A study by Prof. Sheryl Kimes from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration determined that even though hotels cut prices there could’ve been a more effective way to strategically cut costs. “There’s nothing wrong with offering selected discounts but hotels shouldn’t give them away to everybody because their occupancy will still be down,” Kimes said. “With fewer people traveling, everyone is fighting for a smaller pie.”

Another concern that this study raise was in issue with what the long-term effects will be from cutting hotel and casino prices to such a low amount. Once the business begins back on the track of having an upswing, consumers will then be unhappy with the raise in price, therefore possibly swaying them to other vacation destinations witnessed a more gradual progression.

This did not happen as expected after the 9/11 attacks however hotels and casinos did see this trend occur in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The Hurricane Katrina tragedy nearly 4 years to recover from in the hotel and casino industry in Las Vegas.

“There’s been a fundamental shift in the way people spend money that’s different from the go-go days of the past two decades,” Lefkowitz said. “People who have lots of money have become much more value-oriented.”