Get real on web gambling
Kansas City Star, MO
Rick’s Gambling & Tourism column in today’s Star Business Weekly looks at the US’s untenable position in the worldwide on-line gambling industry. …

State cracks down on Net gambling
Kentucky.com, KY
By Jack Brammer FRANKFORT — Kentucky is commandeering 141 domain names of Internet gambling sites in a novel legal move to crack down on the unregulated …

Ky. governor seeking to block online gambling
Forbes, NY
By JOE BIESK 09.23.08, 7:39 AM ET Kentucky’s pro-gambling governor is looking to make sure all bets are off for more than 140 online gambling Web sites that … Online gambling takes its toll
Aftenposten, Norway
Top community officials are among those who unwittingly lent large sums of money to finance a Norwegian bishop’s son’s gambling debts. …

Casino gambling, poker table revenue up in FL
CBS 4, FL
But the stakes weren’t as high for other kinds of gambling. Racing at horse and dog tracks and other sports wagering declined 43 percent, to $159 million. Gambling case fallout remains as Donaghy reports to prison
USA Today
The league has determined that for the first time in major professional US sports, a referee will walk into prison a convicted felon on a gambling charge …

Former gambling site worker cops to ID theft
Register, UK
The former employee of an internet-based gambling website has admitted he used his position in the company’s credit department to steal the identities of … Arizona gambling feels economic pinch, report shows
East Valley Tribune, AZ
“Gambling is a form of recreation,” she said. Morago compared it to people making decisions whether to go to a movie, go out to dinner or even “go shopping …

Gambling grows to unexpected levels in Poland
Puls Biznesu, Poland
Last year, the Poles spent more on gambling than on beer, vodka and medical services. If the upward trend continues the gambling market will be worth as … Unexpectedly, Las Vegas hit by US downturn
Reuters
And while free rooms and room discounts have kept hotels relatively full — occupancy is down just 1 percent in the year to July — gambling revenue is down …

Blogosphere:

Online Sports Gambling
Ken
The best sites to find Online Sports Gambling, a leading online casino gambling guide. Includes online casino reviews and recommendations, online casino directory, best payouts and bonuses, blackjack strategy and tips, … BetOnSports.com Gambling Site Worker Pleads Guilty After Stealing …
CyberInsecure
An employee of the offshore Internet gambling website BetOnSports.com has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his role in a large Internet-based identity theft ring. BetOnSports PLC does not exist since July 2006 and the Antigua …

Kentucky Seizes Gambling Domains
MHB
The seizure was taken after the Commonwealth found that the “domains were being used in connection with illegal gambling activity”. The domains seized include:. fulltiltpoker.com. indiancasino.com. bet21.com. allslots.com. bodoglife.com … Kentucks Seizes 141 Gambling Domain Names
Chad Kettner
There were a number of popular gambling sites listed for seizure including PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, BodogLife.com, GoldenPalace.com, Bet21.com, DoylesRoom.com and also Rick Schwartz’ IndianCasino.com. …

KY governor after online gambling domains
maconlinepoker
To be very frank and honest, this is not a good news at all for online gambling industry. US Kentucky state governor, Steve Beshear is trying all his efforts to crack down online gambling industry and in oder to boost offline local … NBA Ref Starts Prison Term for Gambling
The NBA referee who admitted gambling on basketball begins his 15-month federal prison sentence today, reports USA Today . The conviction of referee Tim Donaghy, 41, has rocked the NBA, even though officials determined he didn’t bet on …

Bingo Betting
gamblingguide
online gambling has typically been a mans world (sorry for the huge generalisation but this is a blog after all). Perhaps the influx of Bingo sites will even that up slightly. Certainly Bingo seems to be a more social than playing a … Judge Tosses Gambling Attorney’s $20 Million Lawsuit Against Casinos
Law.com – Newswire
A federal judge has dismissed a $20 million racketeering lawsuit against seven casinos by a former New York City attorney who said they had a duty to stop her from gambling. The judge wrote that Arelia Margarita Taveras failed to …

Responsible Gaming – Psychology of a Gambler
To be honest, gambling gets a bad rap, especially when you consider that it’s one of the prime driving forces of humanity. Nobody has ever gotten rich by playing it safe, and if you have a stock portfolio, you’ve bet your money that … Seniors Doubt Study’s Finding of Gambling Problems
Wholesale Bingo Supplies Blog – Bingo Bob
But a new gambling study published in the journal Psychology and Aging suggests not all senior citizens have Fava’s self-control. It concludes the elderly are more likely to develop gambling problems than younger people. …

Video: NFL Football Best Bet of the Week with Odds from Gamblers Television

A Casino Night (also called Vegas Nights, Las Vegas Nights, Monte Carlo Nights, Casino Parties) is an entertainment event with a casino theme.

Casino Night Parties are usually tied to a fundraiser, and are often held on riverboats, in churches, hotels etc. The main objective of most casino night parties is to raise money for a specific cause (such as cancer research, community services, etc) by having each participant purchase a ticket for the event. Each participant receives a specific amount of play money that can be used to purchase gaming chips at the gambling tables. The participants engage in various casino games (such as blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, poker, wheel of fortune, etc.) in the attempt to accumulate the largest amount of gaming chips. At the end of the evening the participant who managed to win the most chips receives some kind of prize.

Casino Nights function strictly as entertainment events with no real monetary gambling involved.

The Howard Hughes Corporation is a major real estate development and management company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, which was founded by Howard Hughes. Later sold to the Rouse Company, it is now a subsidiary of General Growth Properties.

History

Formation as Summa Corporation

Originally known as Summa Corporation, Howard Hughes Corp. was formed in 1972 when the oil tools business of Hughes Tool Company was floated on the New York Stock Exchange under the Hughes Tool name. This forced the remaining busineses of the “original” Hughes Tool to adopt a new corporate name – Summa. The name “Summa”, Latin for “higher”, was adopted without the approval of Hughes himself, who preferred to keep his own name on the business and suggested HRH Properties (for Hughes Resorts and Hotels, and also his own initials), but his executives paid no attention.

Company refocused on real estate

Following the death of Howard Robard Hughes Jr. in 1976 at age 71, most of Summa’s remaining business were sold off. Howard Hughes had ammassed vast holdings of undeveloped land both in Las Vegas and in the desert surrounding the city that had gone unutilized during his lifetime. His successors at Summa refocused the company on real estate development, selling all noncore business holdings.

Holdings sold off were:

• Hughes Nevada Mining (sold off in 1977)
• KLAS Inc. (holding company for the Las Vegas CBS affiliate, sold to the founders of the Weather Channel in 1979)
• Hughes Air Corporation (holding company for Hughes Air West; sold to Republic Airlines in 1979)
• Hughes Helicopters Inc. (sold to McDonnell-Douglas in 1984 and renamed McDonnell-Douglas Helicopters)
• Hughes Sports Network (a production company specializing in the broadcast of sporting events, sold in the mid 1980s).

Summa also owned a wide array of hotels and casinos, primarily in Las Vegas, that constituted the bulk of Summa’s business in the 1970′s.

Company Renamed and sold off

Hughes’ heirs eventually renamed the company in his honor, Summa became Howard Hughes Corporation in 1994. Hughes’ heirs sold Howard Hughes Corp. to the Rouse Company in 1996, and the company survives as a Rouse subsidiary. Rouse was acquried by General Growth Properties in 2004. Hughes’ heirs, primarily the Lummis family, continue to hold an equity interest in Summerlin, a giant planned residential community being built in stages by Howard Hughes Corp. on the Las Vegas outskirts.

Hotels and casinos formerly owned by Summa

• Desert Inn Hotel and Casino (demolished in 2001, replaced by Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Casino)
• Sands Hotel and Casino (demolished in 1996, replaced by The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino)
• The Landmark Hotel and Casino (demolished in 1993 to expand parking lot of Las Vegas Convention Center)
• Castaways hotel and casino (demolished in 1986, replaced by the Mirage and Treasure Island)
• Silver Slipper Casino (demolished in 1986 to expand parking lot of Frontier Hotel and Casino)
• Frontier Hotel and Casino (demolished in November, 2007, to make way for construction of a new resort that will resemble the Plaza Hotel in New York City)
• Xanadu Princess Hotel (Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas)
• Britannia Beach Hotel (Paradise Island, Bahamas) – now the Coral Towers Hotel at Atlantis Resort

Development projects

Howard Hughes Corp.’s current projects are Summerlin, a massive master planned community that will eventually house 160,000 residents; Summerlin Centre, a mixed-use town center for Summerlin, and Fashion Show, a giant retail center in downtown Las Vegas currently undergoing a major redevelopment.

Most of Howard Hughes Corp.’s past projects have been business parks in the Las Vegas area, including The Crossings, The Canyons, The Plazas, Corporate Pointe, and Hughes Center.

Links

• Howard Hughes Corporation website
• (light-duty/civilian part of Hughes Helicopters, sold off by McDonnell-Douglas in 1995)

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

A casino is a facility that accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are often placed near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships and other vacation attractions. Some casinos are known for hosting live entertainment events, such as concerts and sporting events, especially boxing.

The Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Gambling in casinos

In most jurisdictions, gambling is limited to persons over the age of majority (21 years of age in most of the United States and 18 to 20 in most other countries where casinos are permitted). Customers may gamble by playing slot machines or other games of chance (e.g., craps, roulette, baccarat) and some skill (eg., blackjack, poker) [for more see casino games]. Game rules usually have mathematically-determined odds that ensure the house retains an advantage over the players. This advantage is called the edge. Payout is the percentage given to players. In games such as poker, the house takes a commission (a “rake”) on bets players make against each other. Our money refers to the situation where a winning player is placing bets with money that has been won from the casino.

History

Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas (jb).

The term originally meant a small villa, summerhouse or pavilion built for pleasure, usually on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo. There are examples of such casinos at Villa Giulia and Villa Farnese. During the 19th century, the term casino came to include other more public buildings where pleasurable activities, including gambling and sports, took place. An example of this type of building is the Newport Casino. In modern Italian, this term designates a bordello (also called “casa chiusa”, literally “closed house”), while the gambling house is spelled casinò with an accent.

Security

Traditionally, casinos have had a major concentration on security. Large amounts of currency move through a casino, tempting people to cheat the system. Security today consists of cameras located throughout the property operated by highly trained individuals who attempt to locate cheating and stealing by both players and employees.

Among the most secure and watched areas of a casino are the count rooms and the surveillance room.

Slot machines are commonplace in casinos

Links

The Atrium at the Crown Casino, Melbourne, Australia.

• Dmoz Directory worldwide casino listings
• Yahoo Directory: Casino and gaming job and employment resources

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The Las Vegas Strip (also known as The Strip) is 4 mi (6.7 km) of Las Vegas Boulevard South partly in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, that has been designated an All-American Road. Many of the largest hotel, casino and resort properties in the world are located on The Strip. Over the years, Las Vegas Boulevard South has been called Arrowhead Highway, Salt Lake Highway, U.S. Highway 91, and Los Angeles Highway. The Strip was reportedly named by police officer Guy McAfee, after his hometown’s Sunset Strip, in Los Angeles.

The Strip runs from the Stratosphere at the northern end, to the Mandalay Bay on the southern end. Of the 4 miles, nearly 3.5 miles of it is located in the township of Paradise, Clark County, only a small portion is within the city limits of Las Vegas. McCarran Airport is located at the southern end of The Strip, along with the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.

In addition to the large hotels, casinos and resorts, The Strip is home to a few smaller casinos, motels, and other attractions, such as M&M World, Adventure Dome and the Fashion Show Mall. Starting in the mid 1990s, The Strip became a popular New Year’s Eve celebration destination.

History

The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-o-Dice Club in 1931.

The first hotel to be built on what is today’s Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, opening on April 3, 1941 with 63 rooms and standing for almost 20 years before being destroyed by fire in 1960. Its success spawned a second hotel on what will become The Strip, the Hotel Last Frontier, in 1942. The Flamingo opened a few years later, on December 26, 1946.

In 1968, Kirk Kerkorian purchased the Flamingo and hired Sahara Hotels Vice President Alex Shoofey as President. Alex Shoofey brought along 33 of Sahara’s top executives. The Flamingo was used to train future employees of the International Hotel, which was under construction. Opening in 1969, the International Hotel with 1,512 rooms, would become the largest hotel in the world, and begin the era of mega-resorts. The International is known as the Las Vegas Hilton today.

1973 added a new resort to The Strip. The (original) MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, also a Kerkorian property, opened with 2,084 rooms, ranking as the number one hotel in the world by number of rooms at that time. On November 21, 1980, the MGM Grand suffered the worst resort fire in the history of Las Vegas, killing 87 people (84 in the fire and three more due to injuries) as a result of electrical problems. It reopened eight months later.

In 1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand to Bally Manufacturing and it was renamed Bally’s.

The opening of The Mirage in 1989 set a new level to the Las Vegas experience, as smaller hotels and casinos made way for the larger mega-resorts. These huge facilities offer entertainment and dining options, as well as gambling and lodging. This change impacted the smaller, well-known and now historic hotels and casinos, like The Dunes and The Sands.

In an effort to attract families, resorts offered more attractions geared toward youth, but had limited success. The (current) MGM Grand opened in 1993 with Grand Adventures amusement park, but it closed in 2000 due to lack of interest. Similarly, in 2003 Treasure Island closed its own video arcade and abandoned the previous pirate theme, adopting the new ti name.

Downtown Las Vegas hotels and casinos suffered heavily from the Strip’s boom. They have funneled money into remodeling the facades of casinos, adding additional security and new attractions, like the Fremont Street Experience and Neonopolis (complete with movie theaters).

Wet and Wild water park, located next to the Sahara hotel, closed permanently at the end of the 2004 season.

Announced in 2004 was Project City Center on the Las Vegas Strip. This 66 acre (600,000 m²), $6 billion, project on the site of the Boardwalk hotel and adjoining land is planned as a multi use project. It is the largest such project announced in the United States. It will consist of hotel, casino, condo, retail and other uses on the site. The first elements of this project are expected to be available in 2009.

On July 8, 2005, news reports (, 2) said that film actors George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt will be working with actress/model Cindy Crawford’s husband Rande Gerber to design and build a new casino hotel in Las Vegas just off the Strip. Gerber is the man behind Green Valley Ranch resort and spa’s Whiskey Sky, so he is already involved in the Las Vegas entertainment market. Groundbreaking is expected to begin in January 2006. Clooney filmed Ocean’s Eleven at the Bellagio, and spends vacation time at the Green Valley Ranch resort and spa. The official announcement came on August 29, 2005. The hotel, condo, and casino property will be called Las Ramblas, and will be built on Harmon Avenue next to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

Getting around

Las Vegas Strip at night with the Aladdin and Paris hotels

While not on The Strip itself, the Las Vegas Monorail runs on the east side of The Strip from Tropicana Avenue to Sahara Road.

Cat Bus provides both a standard route (stops at each resort, 24 hours a day) and an express route (only stops 8-9 times total in 7 miles, 12 hours a day, 5 days a week) bus service on the Strip.

A tourist trolley service travels up and down The Strip and stops at various, but not all, Strip hotels, along with a stop at the Fashion Show Mall. The fare is $1.75 per ride, exact change required. Trolleys are scheduled to arrive every 15 minutes.

Two small light-rail services, referred to as trams, operate on the Strip. One runs between Treasure Island and The Mirage. The other provides service to Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur.

Compared to major roadways in other cities, the Las Vegas Strip is becoming pedestrian-friendly. New casinos design their facades to attract walk-up customers and many of these entrances have become attractions themselves – the Fountains at Bellagio, the volcano at The Mirage, and the Treasure Island (TI) Pirate Show are the most well-known. People gather on the sidewalks in front of the casinos to watch these shows.

To alleviate traffic issues at popular intersections, footbridges have been installed to help pedestrians more safely cross the roads. The Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard footbridges were the first to be installed, and based on the success of this project additional footbridges have been built on Las Vegas Boulevard at the Flamingo Road intersection; between The Mirage/Treasure Island and The Venetian; and the latest ones at the Las Vegas Boulevard-Spring Mountain and Sands Avenue intersection connecting the Wynn with the Fashion Show Mall.

Free Shuttles

Between Harrah’s Las Vegas and the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. Approximately every 30 minutes.
Between Caesars Palace and the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. Approximately every 30 minutes.
Between Paris/Bally’s and the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. Approximately every 30 minutes.
Between Barbary Coast and The Orleans. Approximately every 15 minutes.
Between Barbary Coast and Gold Coast. Approximately every 15 minutes.
Between Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and the MGM Grand and the Harley-Davidson Cafe (next to the Aladdin). Leaves the Hard Rock on the hour.
Between Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Fashion Show Mall and the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Leaves the Hard Rock on the hour.

Major hotels, casinos and resorts on The Strip

Listed from north to south:

Major shopping attractions on The Strip

Golf courses

In recent years, all the on-Strip golf courses, except the Desert Inn Golf Course, fell prey to the mega-resorts need for land and were closed. Developer Steve Wynn, founder of previously owned Mirage Resorts, purchased the Desert Inn and golf course for his new company Wynn Resorts. In 2005, he opened Wynn Las Vegas, complete with remodeled golf course providing tee times to hotel guests only.

In 2000, a new public golf course opened just south of Mandalay Bay on the Strip. Catering to a high-end golf enthusiast, the Bali Hai Golf Club is easly seen by drivers on I-15.

Demolished Strip hotels

Desert Inn (and golf course): Demolished, now the Wynn Las Vegas.
The Dunes (and golf course): Demolished, rebuilt as Bellagio
El Rancho Vegas: Burned down in 1960. The Hilton Grand Vacation Club timeshare now exists on the south edge of the site where the resort once stood.
El Rancho (formerly Thunderbird/Silverbird): Demolished, now Turnberry Place condominium complex.
Glass Pool Inn was called Mirage Motel until 1988 when forced to change name due to The Mirage opening down The Strip in 1989.
Hacienda: Demolished, now Mandalay Bay
Marina (hotel and casino): Westward pointing tower (known as the West Wing) of the MGM Grand
The Sands: Demolished, now The Venetian
Vegas World: demolished and rebuilt as the Stratosphere; parts of the old Vegas World still remains.

Links

• Virtual Tours of the Las Vegas Strip and Hotels
• Las Vegas Strip Photo Gallery
• History of the Las Vegas Strip
• Michael Pead :: Photos of Las Vegas

Sources

• Yahoo! Maps listing distance from Stratosphere to Mandalay Bay.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) is a public agency that runs the Las Vegas Convention Center, Cashman Center, and Cashman Field and is responsible for the advertising campaigns for the Clark County, Nevada area.

The fourteen member board is appointed by various elected governing bodies in the County. Funding is provided by a room tax on all hotels in the county.

Activities

The authority works to bring events to the Las Vegas area, sometimes by providing funds to subsidize events. These events include:

• The NBA 2007 All-star game
• The 2006 Tennis Channel Open Tennis Tournament

The authority is also responsible for the advertising campaigns for Las Vegas. Working with the same advertising company R & R Partners since 1982 they have developed ad campaigns like:

• Only in Vegas
• What happens here, stays here

Members

• Oscar Goodman, Mayor of Las Vegas
• Jim Gibson, Mayor of Henderson
• Tony Santo, Caesars Entertainment executive
• Vince Matthews, Mandalay Resort Group executive
• Bruce L. Woodbury, Clark County Commissioner

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Golden Nugget Companies Inc. was formed by Steve Wynn in 1973. The company was created after Wynn acquired majority control of the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company ceased to exist after it constructed The Mirage in 1989. At that time, the name was changed to Mirage Resorts, Inc.

The company held three hotel/casinos under the Golden Nugget brand:

• Golden Nugget Atlantic City
• Golden Nugget Las Vegas
• Golden Nugget Laughlin

History

Wynn’s, and the company’s interest, in Atlantic City did not last very long, due to frustration with gaming regulators in New Jersey. The Golden Nugget Atlantic City was sold to Bally’s Entertainment Corporation, which changed the name to Bally’s Grand Casino/Hotel.

The company and its casinos became part of Mirage Resorts in 1989.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

A tour of Las Vegas casinos and hotels
THE adult gambling, adult fun, and entertainment playground of the world

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the state of Nevada, United States. The city is the largest to be founded in the 20th century, and is a major vacation, shopping, and gambling destination. Las Vegas was established in 1905, and officially became a city in 1911. Las Vegas has been the county seat of Clark County since the formation of the county in 1909. The 2000 census reported that the city had a population of 478,434 [1]. The Census Bureau’s official population estimate as of 2004 was 534,847. The city’s Planning and Development Department reported an increase of 41,126 in 2005, for a total population of 575,973. [2]. Recent figures place the population for the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which includes all of Clark County, at over 1.6 Million people (2004 [3]), and the region is the fastest growing in the United States.

The name Las Vegas is often applied to the unincorporated areas of Clark County that surround the city, especially the resort areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip. This 4½ mi (7¼ km) stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard is mostly outside the Las Vegas city limits, in the unincorporated town of Paradise.

The center of gambling in the US, Las Vegas is sometimes called Sin City due to the popularity of legalized gambling, availability of alcoholic beverages any time (like all of Nevada), various forms and degrees of adult entertainment, and legalized prostitution in nearby counties (it is illegal, though, in Las Vegas and Clark County; Nevada law prohibits prostitution in counties which have populations greater than 400,000). The nickname favored by local government and promoters of tourism is The Entertainment Capital of the World. The city’s glamorous image has made it a popular setting for films and television programs.

by MultiMedia and Nicolae Sfetcu

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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$4.5 billion Canadian investment in casino-resort project (“Ho Tram“) in the South of the Vietnam, the theme highlighting the lush natural beauty of the area while showcasing Vietnamese and Asian culture.

The most important investors in this project are Asian Coast Development Ltd. from Toronto and Harbinger Capital LLC from New York

The Ho Tram Strip is being designed by Steelman Partners and spread across 19 hectares of prime real estate on a beach in Xuyen Moc Commune, in Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu Province, near Ho Chi Minh City.

The first stage of the project (2008-2011) will include two luxurious five star hotels with 2300 rooms and a Las Vegas-style casinos – featuring live entertainment stages and an exclusive VIP area to compliment gaming floors with more than 180 live table games and 2000 electronic games. As recreational facilities, an expansive and luxurious spa, state-of-the-art performance facilities, an engaging upscale retail experience and a wide selection of elegant dining facilities offering local and international cuisine.

It is the most important investment in Vietnam, including, in the first stage, a 2,300 rooms hotel and a casino with 900 gambling tables, 500 slot machines, and a VIP area.

Finally, in 2015, the resort will comprise five hotels with 9,000 rooms and a second casino.

The site plan includes several theatres and museums, a cultural center, and an ongoing parade of events, a championship 200-acre golf course designed by Greg Norman, a country club, and and a site for guests to swim with dolphins.

Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cộng hòa Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east. With a population of over 85 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.

Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu is a province of Vietnam. It is located on the coast of the country’s southeastern region. It also includes the Côn Đảo islands, located some distance off Vietnam’s southeastern coast. From 1954 to 1975, this province belonged to the Republic of Vietnam.

A gambling affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.

We well define the gambling corporative, a facility that houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. It can be a casino, poker room, bingo halls, lotteries, sports betting agency, as well as hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships and other tourist attractions. It includes also the entities licensed to provide online gambling services.

A gambling corporative may be referred to as an gambling affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid the appearance of control.

Gambling affiliate marketing typically refers to an electronic version of the traditional gambling advertising channel concept. A gambling affiliate is a website which links back to a corporative gambling site like CasinoTropez.com.

However, as the Internet marketring continues to evolve, gambling affiliates are no longer restricted to website owners. Bloggers and members of different online community forums can be affiliates as well. Many emerging affiliate programs are now accepting bloggers and individuals, not necessarily webmasters, to be affiliates.

A good source for a gambling affiliate to buy an already promoted specific or generic domain name, web site or blog, is Gambling Sites For Sale.

Gambling affiliates can also be referred as publishers. Many publishers are very well known gamblers ( Tony G, Daniel Negreanu, etc.).

Illustration of the concept of gambling affiliate marketing

Gambling affiliate marketing is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more gambling affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.

Affiliate marketing is also the name of the industry where a number of different types of companies and individuals are performing this form of internet marketing, including affiliate networks, affiliate management companies and in-house affiliate managers, specialized 3rd party vendors, and various types of affiliates/publishers who promote the products and services of their partners.

Gambling affiliate marketing overlaps with other internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, email marketing and in some sense display advertising (in their own web sites, or on specialized web, sites such as Casino Online Advertising). On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques like publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.

A specific form of email advertising is to publish article, discuss or advertise on specific mailing lists and egroups, such as http://groups.google.com/group/casinoonline, http://groups.google.com/group/onlinegambling, http://groups.google.com/group/pokergame (hosted by Google), or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bet-gambling, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/casino-gambling, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/casino-players, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/online-poker (hosted by Yahoo!).

One of the most important action in search engine optimization, is to get links back to your site from other similar web sites. Because Google and the other search engines penalize the reciprocal links, it is widely used the cross-linking methods. The best and most efficient ways to do this and this way to promote your web site and get more traffic, are the banner exchange (See MultiMedia BX) and webring methods. A webring in general is a collection of websites from around the Internet joined together in a circular structure. The best gambling webrings you can find at webring.com (http://u.webring.com/hub?ring=bestonlinecasin3, http://u.webring.com/hub?ring=betgambling, http://r.webring.com/hub?ring=poker).

The rise of blogging, interactive online communities and other new technologies, web sites and services based on the concepts that are now called Web 2.0 have impacted the affiliate marketing world as well. Most of the turnkey web sites from Gambling Sites For Sale include these characteristics.

90% of gambling affiliate programs today use revenue sharing or cost per action (CPA) and the remaining 10% are other methods, such as cost per click (CPC) or cost per mille (CPM). CPM and CPC are today still heavily used in display advertising and paid search.

Cost per mille (thousand) (CPM/CPT) requires the publisher only to load the advertising on his website and show it to his visitors in order to get paid a commission, while PPC requires one additional step in the conversion process to generate revenue for the publisher. Visitors must not only be made aware of the ad, but also pursue them to click on it and visit the advertiser’s website.

Cost per click (CPC/PPC) used to be more common in the early days of affiliate marketing, but diminished over time due to click fraud issues that are very similar to the click fraud issues modern search engines are facing today.

In the case of CPM or CPC, the publisher does not care if the visitor is the type of audience that the advertiser tries to attract and is able to convert, because the publisher already earned his commission at this point. This leaves the greater, and, in case of CPM, the full risk and loss (if the visitor can not be converted) to the advertiser.

CPA require that referred visitors do more than visiting the advertiser’s website in order for the affiliate to get paid commission. The advertiser must convert that visitor first. It is in the best interest for the affiliate to send the best targeted traffic to the advertiser as possible to increase the chance of a conversion. The risk and loss is shared between the affiliate and the advertiser.

For this reason affiliate marketing is also called “performance marketing”. Gambling affiliates are not employed by the advertiser whose gambling entity they promote, but the compensation models applied to affiliate marketing are very similar to the ones used for people in the advertisers’ internal sales department.

Some advertisers offer multi-tier programs that distribute commission into a hierarchical referral network of sign-ups and sub-partners. In practical terms: publisher “A” signs up to the program with an advertiser and gets rewarded for the agreed activity conducted by a referred visitor. If publisher “A” attracts other publishers (“B”, “C”, etc.) to sign up for the same program using her sign-up code all future activities by the joining publishers “B” and “C” will result in additional commission (at a lower rate) for publisher “A”.

This system rewards a chain of hierarchical publishers who may or may not know of each others’ existence, yet generate income for the higher level signup.

Two-tier programs exist in the minority of affiliate programs; most are simply one-tier. Referral programs beyond 2-tier are multi-level marketing (MLM) or network marketing.

Gambling affiliate sites are often categorized by advertisers and affiliate networks. There are no industry-wide accepted standards for the categorization. The following list is very generic but commonly understood and used by gambling affiliate marketers:

• Search affiliates that utilize pay per click search engines to promote the advertisers offers
• Comparison gambling sites and directories
• Loyalty sites, typically characterized by providing a reward system for gambling via points back, cash back or charitable donations
• Bonus sites that focus on gambling promotions
• Content and niche sites, including gambling review sites
• Personal websites (these type of sites were the reason for the birth of affiliate marketing, but are today almost reduced to complete irrelevance compared to the other types of affiliate sites)
• Blogs and RSS feeds (See for ex. http://betbloggers.com, where anyone can have a free gambling blog)
• Email list affiliates (owners of large opt-in email list(s))
• Registration path or Co-Registration affiliates who include offers from other companies during a registration process on their own website.
• Gambling directories that list gambling sites by categories without providing bonus, gambling comparison and other features based on information that frequently change and require ongoing updates.
• CPA networks are top tier affiliates that expose offers from gambling advertiser they are affiliated with to their own network of affiliates (not to confuse with 2nd tier)

Gambling affiliate networks that already have a number of advertisers usually also have a large number of publishers. This large pool of publishers could be potentially recruited. There is also an increased chance that publishers in the network apply to the program by themselves, without the need for any recruitment efforts by the advertiser.

Relevant sites that attract the same audiences as the advertiser is trying to attract, but are not competing with the advertiser, are potential affiliate partners as well. Even vendors or existing customers could be recruited as affiliates, if it makes sense and does not violate any laws or regulations.

Almost any website could be recruited as an affiliate publisher, although high traffic websites are more likely interested in (for them) low risk CPM or medium risk CPC deals rather than higher risk CPA or revenue share deals.

Affiliate programs directories are one way to find affiliate programs, another method is large affiliate networks that provide the platform for dozens or even hundreds of advertisers. The third option is to check the target website itself for a reference to their affiliate program. Websites, which offer an affiliate program often, have a link titled “affiliate program”, “affiliates”, “referral program” or “webmasters” somewhere on their website, usually in the footer or “About” section of the site.

Even if all those methods seem to indicate that a site does not have an affiliate program, it could still be the case that there exists a non-public affiliate program. The only way to find out for sure, is to contact the site owner directly and ask.

(Article derived from Wikipedia)

Interesting change, isn’t it? It seems that starting with this year, Las Vegas will be no more the capital of the gambling world. The Sin City is growing old.

In accordance with Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, casinos in Macau took in gross gambling revenue of $10.4 billion in 2007, up 47 percent from about $7.05 billion the year before. Four new casinos opened on Macau last year. At the end of December, Macau had 4,375 gaming tables and 13,267 slot machines in 28 casinos, up from 2,762 tables and 6,546 slots in 24 casinos a year before.

Minimum bets in the Chinese territory usually set at US$12.85, compared with a less than US$1 in some Vegas locations, allow Macau to take in far more per customer and per table than Las Vegas, says Asian Times.

“Macau has built properties based on Las Vegas’s 30 years of experience, but the Chinese market doesn’t have any experience with the Vegas product,” Andy Nazarechuk, dean of the University of Nevada Las Vegas-Singapore’s William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, said. “Once they learn, there will be money to be made.”

Las Vegas is growing much more slowly, and it is not entirely its fault. It is the US general policy about gambling that makes the US gambling to slow down every year. Including the policy for online gambling. At a first glance, UIGEA helped Las Vegas and the other US land casinos.

The true is, the US gambling industry lost its way during the last years, and now it tries to find it again. I am not talking about the companies, that expanded their activity in all the world, but about the US internal gambling market. The development of the Indian casinos is part of this process.

Las Vegas, billed as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for massive and lavish casino resorts, the unrestricted availability of alcoholic beverages (as is true throughout Nevada), and adult entertainment. Once officially referred to as Sin City, this image made Las Vegas a popular setting for films and television programs. The major attractions in Las Vegas are the hotels. The most famous hotels line Las Vegas Boulevard South, also known as the Las Vegas Strip. Many of these hotels carry thousands of rooms and are featured on various themes. There are, of course, large casino areas in these hotels as well. There are many hotel casinos in the city’s downtown area as well, which was the original focal point of the city’s gaming industry in its early days. Several large hotels and casinos are also located somewhat off the Strip but adjacent to it, as well as in the county around the city. (Wikipedia)

Merchant bank Clairvest Group Inc. and Clairvest Equity Partners III Limited Partnership are investing $41.6 million in a new gambling and entertainment centre in southern Chile, adjacent to the city of Concepción.

The centre will include a casino, hotel, entertainment theatre, restaurants and family entertainment facility. The completion of the casino is scheduled for August 2008.

Clairvest Group is contributing 25% and CEP III is contributing 75% of the $41.6 million investment, which results in a combined interest of 50% in Casino Marina del Sol. The other 50% is held by Empresas Valmar, a well established local real estate company.

In accordance with Wikipedia, Chile, officially the Republic of Chile (Spanish: República de Chile), is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific forms the country’s entire western border, with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage at the country’s southernmost tip. The government has encouraged the use of Chile as an “investment platform” for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region.

Concepción is a city in Chile, capital of Concepción Province and of the Bío-Bío Region. Greater Concepción (Gran Concepción, including Talcahuano, San Pedro de la Paz, Hualpén, Chiguayante, Penco, Tomé, Lota, Coronel, Hualqui and Concepción) is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889.725 inhabitants (2002 census). Individually, it is the 11th largest comune in the country, with a population of 212,003.

It seems that it is very hard to make predictions on gambling, this year even more difficult than the other years, and online gambling much more difficult than the classical gambling.

008 will be a very good year for the land casinos. Las Vegas has some big problems that will allow to other entertainment centers to compete successfully with the Sin City.

After several years of standby, Atlantic City will know in 2008 a new development period by building new casinos and improving the old ones.

But Macau will be the star of this year, with the most new projects for casinos, hotels and entertainment resorts. Cotai Strip will be the new center of the gambling world.

The Europeans will have their own Las Vegas too, soon. Gran Scala in Spain is a very ambitious project. This year we will see if it is a certitude for the next years, or just a chimera.

And, to not forget Russia! Russia made no major step till now, but it is very close to invest a lot of money. And, what about the Arabian gambling? Do you bet on the development of a very powerful casino entertainment center in Dubai? The partnership with MGM Mirage is just the beginning. I know about the Islamic rules, but I bet on it.

For me, a big surprise for this year is Harrah’s Entertainment. No big new projects and, at the end of the last year, the bomb (in fact, expected since a year ago): new owners for the casino and hotel resort chain of the world’s largest provider of branded casino entertainment. The surprise is even bigger taking into consideration the successful act of online gambling ban (see UIGEA). So, my prediction is that MGM Mirage will become soon #1 in the casino entertainment industry.

As for online gambling, very bad news, unfortunately. After UIGEA in US, Canada intends to ban the online gambling too, Germany already announced the interdiction for online gambling as well as for advertising the web/based gambling. There are signs that Italy will be soon with Germany on the same part of the barricade and, from the East European countries, Romania has a draft law to ban online gambling and any other related activity since two years ago, so it is possible to discuss it very soon. In this situation, and after the agreement with US, the European Commission it is possible to change its rules about online gambling even this year. I see UK the only country of the European Union that will allow the online gambling in the near future.

It is very interesting how United States, after deciding to ban the online gambling, and by means of the media, it is very close to change the mentality and principles of the whole world about online gambling. Most of the people considered online gambling a way of entertainment as any other, two years ago. Now, the same people are very convicted that they always was against online gambling and online casinos.

A special situation for online poker. If the online poker associations from US will earn the battle to allow this game on Internet (and it is a very powerful lobby for this), all the other countries, including Germany and Canada, will say that they never banned the online poker and will make an exception from the rules. But this will not happen, anyway, this year.

But we will see a spectacular increase of the skill games.

In fact, in the United States the future of the online gambling will be decided during and after the elections stated for this year, 2008. So, when you will vote, take into consideration your own option for online gambling, too.

(These predictions are based on my own experience, do not include any other considerations, I do not claim to be in accordance with the future events, I am not implied in the gambling industry except as a publisher, and I do not advice you to use it)

Harrah’s Casino & Hotel Resort chain, which also run the World Series of Poker, will have new owners, two private equity firms named Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group, shelling out a whopping $17.7 billion for the acquisition, being complete in early 2008.

“The WSOP will remain a key brand in the Harrah’s portfolio, and one earmarked for expansion on a number of fronts,” said WSOP Communications Director Gary Thompson.

The senior management team, lead by Harrah’s Chairman and CEO Gary Loveman, as well as WSOP Commission Jeffery Pollack and his team, will be kept.

About Harrah’s Entertainment:

Type: Public (NYSE: HET)
Founded: Reno, Nevada (1937)
Headquarters: Las Vegas, Nevada
Revenue: $7.11 billion USD (2005)
Slogan: Oh Yeah!
Website: www.harrahs.com

Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.is a gaming corporation that owns and operates casinos, hotels, and six golf courses under several brands.

Harrah’s Entertainment is the world’s largest provider of branded casino entertainment through operating subsidiaries.

The company known as Harrah’s Entertainment was founded on October 30, 1937 as a small bingo parlor in Reno, Nevada operated by William F. Harrah.

Since its beginning Harrah’s has grown through development of new properties, expansions and acquisitions.

The company went public in 1971 with 450,000 shares. Following that, it was listed on the American Stock Exchange in 1972 and in 1973 Harrah’s becomes the first casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Company founder William F. Harrah died in 1978.

Casinos:

• Bally’s brand:
  • Bally’s Atlantic City (Includes Wild Wild West Casino & Claridge Towers)
  • Bally’s Las Vegas
• Caesars brand:
  • Caesars Atlantic City
  • Caesars Indiana (being re branded to Horseshoe)
    Caesars Palace Las Vegas
• Grand Casino brand:
  • Grand Casino Biloxi (it will be renamed Margaritaville Casino and Resort)
  • Grand Casino Tunica (to be renamed Harrah’s Casino Tunica)
• Harrah’s brand:
  • Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino
  • Harrah’s Atlantic City
  • Harrah’s Cherokee
  • Harrah’s ChesterHarrah’s Council Bluffs
  • Harrah’s Joliet
  • Harrah’s Lake Tahoe
  • Harrah’s Las Vegas
  • Harrah’s Laughlin
  • Harrah’s Louisiana Downs
  • Harrah’s Metropolis
  • Harrah’s New Orleans
  • Harrah’s North Kansas City
  • Harrah’s Prairie Band
  • Harrah’s Reno
  • Harrah’s Rincon
  • Harrah’s St. Louis
• Horseshoe brand:
  • Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corporation
    • Horseshoe Bossier City
    • Horseshoe Council Bluffs
    • Horseshoe Hammond
    • Horseshoe Casino Tunica
• Other casinos:
  • Bill’s Casino Lake Tahoe
  • Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon, Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Sheraton Hotel and Casino, Tunica, Mississippi
  • Casino Windsor (name to be changed to Caesars Windsor in 2008
  • Conrad Resort and Casino, Punta Del Este, Uruguay
  • Flamingo Las Vegas
  • Imperial Palace
  • O’Sheas Casino (Operated as part of Flamingo Las Vegas)
  • Harveys Lake Tahoe
  • Paris Las Vegas
  • Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino Las Vegas
  • Showboat Casino, Atlantic City
  • London Clubs International, UK
  • Margaritaville Casino and Resort, Biloxi, Mississippi
• Golf club and courses:
  • Atlantic City Country Club – Atlantic City, NJ – Acquired from the Caesars Entertainment merger
  • Cascata Golf Course – Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Chariot Run Golf Course – Laconia, Indiana
  • Cottonwoods Golf Course – Tunica, Mississippi
  • Grand Bear Golf Course – Gulfport, Mississippi
  • Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada
• Other assets:
  • Roman Empire Development (RED) to manage room renovation projects internally.
  • Total Rewards
  • World Series of Poker

(Some texts adapted from Wikipedia)

Type of the company: Public (NYSE: MGM)
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: Las Vegas, Nevada
Key people: Terrence Lanni (CEO)
Industry: Casinos and hotels
Products: Hotels
Revenue: $7.4 billion USD
Employees: over 70,000
Website: www.mgmmirage.com

MGM Mirage is a Las Vegas – based business engaged in the development, ownership and operation of hotels and casinos. The company began operations on May 31, 2000 by the merger of MGM Grand Inc. and Mirage Resorts, Inc. It is currently the second largest gaming company in the world.

MGM Mirage has significant holdings in gaming, hospitality and entertainment, owns and operates 17 properties located in Nevada, Mississippi and Michigan, and has 50% investments in four other properties in Nevada, New Jersey, Illinois and Macau. MGM Mirage is developing major casino and non-casino resorts, separately and with partners in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, the People’s Republic of China and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

MGM Mirage properties:

• Bellagio Hotel/Casino
• Circus Circus
  • Slots-A-Fun Casino
• CityCenter
• Excalibur
• Luxor
• Mandalay Bay
  • THEhotel at Mandalay Bay
• MGM Grand Las Vegas
  • The Signature at MGM Grand
• The Mirage
• Monte Carlo Hotel/Casino
• New York-New York Hotel/Casino
• Treasure Island