Noisia Records

The gaming industry spent the week before New Years Eve planning one of the biggest nights of any casinos year. But in between the stage building, countdown practicing, and cage stocking, casino executives found time to set in motion some big changes for 2012. New year, new start, new record, new name, new deals, new rooms. Of course, most of it is the same old, same old.

New Revenue Record for Macau

OK, so there isnt really anything new about Macau raking in the patacas, but another year end means another annual revenue record for gamings golden goose. Macau casinos brought in 268 billion patacas ($33.5 billion) in gross gaming revenue in 2011, a 42 percent increase over 2010. Year-over-year December revenue grew 25 percent according to the Chinese Special Administrative Regions Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. Macau pulled in about 5.5 times the gaming revenue of Las Vegas.

Although it sounds like enough dough to make it rain like a hurricane, gaming stocks have felt the effects of fear that growth is slowing down to parallel a slowdown in the Chinese economy. Next years success depends on Chinese whales being able to get credit lines to invest in the baccarat tables.

Bloomberg and the Las Vegas Review-Journal have more on the story.

New Owner for Social Gaming Company Playtika

Caesars Entertainment Corp. bought 51 percent of social gaming program developer Playtika in May, and after months of testing the waters, last week, Caesars acquired the other 49 percent. The Israeli gaming technology company created Slotomania, the most popular slots game on Facebook, with about 10 million monthly users. Caesars paid between $80 and $90 million for the first half of the company and the right to purchase the other half at a later date.

2012 is going to be a very big year for Playtika…we will concentrate on Playtikas competitive advantage and on widening its activity on social networks other than Facebook, said Mitch Gerber, CEO of Caesars Interactive. Caesars Interactive and Playtika will be focusing on Asia in the upcoming year.

Playtikas investors include 888 Holdings Plc CEO Gigi Levy. Caesars partnered with 888 to operate its online gaming sites in March.

Games Blog has details on the latest sale, and Israeli site Globes offers interesting insight into the May deal.

New Name and Management Structure for Las Vegas Hilton

On Jan. 3, the Las Vegas Hilton officially became the LVH-Las Vegas Hotel amp; Casino. The hotels licensing deal with Hilton Worldwide ran out at the end of the year, and the international hotel chain declined to renew it. Check out previous Inside Gaming stories on the need for the name change here and here.

LVH, owned by Colony Capital LLC, was foreclosed on by primary lenders Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company and Gramercy Capital Corp. Goldman Sachs has owned The Stratosphere, a neighboring casino on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip, since 2008 and will take control of LVH by the end of January. Ronald Johnson was appointed to oversee the hotel operations last month but now is set to take control of the entire property, including the casino.

LVRJ breaks down the name change and the new management.

New Applicant for NV Gaming License

Aristocrat Technologies Inc. added its name to the list of companies to apply for a license to offer real money online poker in Nevada. Aristocrat is the sixth company to apply to be a licensed platform provider. One casino, South Point, has applied to be an online gaming site operator. The Nevada Gaming Commission approved new regulations that allow for licensing on Dec. 22.

Aristocrat, a subsidiary of Australian company Aristocrat Leisure Ltd., joins International Game Technology, Cantor Gaming, Shuffle Master, Ballys Technology, and Caesars Entertainment in applying for a provider license. Approvals are expected in the next three months.

Aristocrat CEO Nick Khin said the companys platform allows our clients to market a virtual casino to its customers to play for free. When the law changes it will allow them to move into a play for real-money site.

Learn more at Casino City Times.

New Rooms for Caesars Palace

Caesars Palace opened its much anticipated Octavius Tower on Monday, adding 668 luxury rooms to the casinos existing 3,300 rooms and suites. After pressing pause on the boutique hotel tower for three years during the economic downturn, Caesars Entertainment resumed construction and started taking reservations for the 19-story tower in September. Rooms in January range from $325 to $789 a night.

For a quick tour, watch this video from KTNV.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

_{*Photo courtesy of blog.vegas.com}

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2. The giving back spirit of the Coeur dAlene Tribe, as well
as the Nez Perce and the Kalispells, is commendable. That there
are unanswered questions is not meant to impugn motives or demean
their civic mindedness or their significant job-generation in North
Idahos economy.

3. The Gallatin Group, a regional public affairs firm I
co-founded in 1989 (two of its five offices are in Spokane and
Boise) performed limited work for the Coeur dAlene Tribe three
times in the last 10 years. I have neither financial interest in
nor any ties to Gallatin since retiring several years ago. While a
senior partner I participated in the firm hiring Heather Keen, who
just recently became the Coeur dAlene Tribal communications
director.

Late last month readers of the Coeur dAlene Press and the
Spokesman-Review may have seen full-page ads taken out by the Coeur
dAlene Tribe claiming they had kept the promise made to voters in
1992 to give back 5 percent of the annual gaming net revenues to
the support of education.

Yes and No. Yes, they have contributed $17 million by their
account but it is misleading to say it all falls under the rubric
of education. It stretches credulity to see where funds donated to
the Kroc Center or to Mark Fews Coaches vs. Cancer annual fund
drive complies with initiative language that pledged the 5 percent
would go to support education in surrounding school districts.
Money listed for Gonzaga, for example, includes the annual payment
for the Tribes private box at McCarthy Arena.

One has to know the background. Scrutiny of the tribal pledge by
both the Coeur dAlene Press and the St. Maries Gazette-Record
earlier in 2011 led to stories that raised legitimate doubts as to
whether the Tribe had kept to its pledge. Other issues came to the
forefront as these papers continued to investigate the matter.

Most of these questions remain unanswered and still merit
answering. Among them are:

1. Is the state of Idaho as represented by the Lottery
Commissions executive director really exercising a monitoring role
as envisioned by the initiative? Or, as appears to the case just
taking the Tribes word it is in compliance?

2. Why, after first claiming it had no obligation to open its
books, did the Coeur dAlene Tribe provide the Spokesman exclusive
access to their contribution records in an effort to convince the
public they had kept their pledge? And why did the Spokesman take
as gospel a list of all charitable contributions being a legitimate
fulfillment of the pledge to donate to educational programs and
districts in the surrounding area?

3. The Spokesman has long championed full disclosure of
governmental records and strongly supported the publics right to
know as trumping all other interests. Why in this instance do they
appear to be supporting a tribal claim to be able to withhold
information regarding gaming proceeds?

4. Why should the public or the media take the Tribes word on
the 5 percent return absent a verification by an outside
independent auditing firm of just what each years annual net
revenues are? Trust but verify President Reagan once said. Wheres
the outside, independent verification?

5. Does a tribes gaming compact with a governor trump state law
whether passed by a Legislature or by the voters through an
initiative process? This question is relevant because the Sho-Bans
in southern Idaho make no pretense of giving back 5 percent as
mandated by the voter initiative. They claim their compact with the
state, which makes no mention of a 5 percent return, takes
precedence. Does it? Should it?

Questions and issues like these will persist as long as the
media and others blindly buy into the partially false claim tribes
always make regarding their alleged sovereign nation status. The
correct term as recognized by the US Supreme Court is
quasi-sovereign. Historical fact and judicial precedence have
made clear that tribe treaties are still subject to Congressional
plenary authority, which means Congress could if it wanted
extinguish every single treaty.

Likewise, the Supreme Court made clear in a 6-2 ruling in 1978
in the case of Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe that tribes have
no criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians. The bottom line is we
are all, non-Native Americans as well as Native Americans, citizens
of the United States first, and citizens of a state second, and the
laws of the United States and the laws of a state should apply
equally to all across the board.

A native of Kellogg, a former teacher, journalist and press
secretary to Gov. Cecil Andrus, Chris Carlson writes from his
retirement home near Medimont in North Idaho.

CHESTER (AP) – The Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack amp; Resort has a new general manager.

MTR Gaming Group Inc. announced Wednesday that Chris Kern has been promoted to the position. Kern has been assistant general manager and vice president of marketing at the Chester, W.Va., casino since 2011.

Kern succeeds Joe Billhimer, who was recently promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer of MTR.

Kern joined Mountaineer after four years as vice president of marketing at hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Biloxi, Miss. Before that, he held marketing positions at two other Biloxi casinos.

Today and tomorrow mark what looks to be an exciting series of events in New York City that celebrate the impact and continued relevance of Dungeons amp; Dragons on the culture.

The Dungeons and Dragons On amp; Ever Onward art show at the Soho Gallery of Digital Art is a snapshot of the contemporary NYC scene forming at the intersection of role-playing games, the art world and the conservation of Dungeons amp; Dragons legacy, according to Tavis Allison, one of the events organizers. Allison says curator Timothy Hutchings has assembled a retrospective of digital works by contemporary artists, and a selection of images from the Play-Generated Maps and Documents Archive (PlaGMaDA) that demonstrate the roots of the connection between playing Damp;D and making art. Artists include Ryan Browning, Casey Jex Smith and a group called the Doomslangers, plus video by Hutchings, Erol Otus and Autarch. The show runs through Jan. 11.

Allisons Adventuring Parties (which organizes private role-playing sessions to celebrate birthdays, bachelor or bachelorette parties, reunions, etc.) will be throwing gaming events at the gallery from 7 pm to 11 pm Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesdays opening-night party combines a wine-and-cheese reception for the artists with a beer-and-Doritos fundraiser for the Tower of Gygax, one of Gen Cons most popular events. The Tower of Gygax is a Damp;D adventure that has, Allison says, introduced thousands of gamers to the joys of Advanced Dungeons amp; Dragons while slaughtering the characters of those whose wits and luck fall short of the standards set by the great Dungeon Master.

Allison has been one of the Towers DMs since the beginning. Hes bringing the Tower of Gygax to NYC for the first time, raising money to support this fan-based effort to join Gary Gygaxs family in promoting role-playing and marking Gygaxs role in creating the RPG industry.

In his first interview since the IPO, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus talked about the development of the game and how it could expand the companys reach, which already includes more than 220 million monthly users, according to AppData.com. (Zynga shares closed at $9.19 a share Wednesday, below the initial $10 IPO price.)

Pincus credits creative director Cara Ely with steering Zynga to the hidden-object-game genre. She joined the company in June after 12 years making computer games at Sierra Online and I-play.

• MORE: Zyngas new game Hidden Chronicles set to debut today

Q: How do you bring social elements into a game genre that historically has been a solo experience?

A: We have some social twists that let you interact with your friends game boards, so you can hide objects or gifts for your friends. (We added) light competition, leaderboards, time-based play and ways to work with your friends to get through the puzzles.

Q: Was there any strategy in making this the first new game to come out after the IPO?

A: Not really. We wanted to do (the IPO) at the time that was right in the company life cycle. We spent the last two years investing in studios and core technologies and processes to be able to have a more consistent cadence of new game launches. What you are seeing starting in the fourth quarter is the beginnings of that.

Q: How else does this game enhance the Zynga portfolio?

A: We think that this game appeals to a more casual audience and a more female audience. We are at the beginning of this massive shift to free gaming. And we think that free gaming can be a new medium on the level of TV. So we are interested in taking all of the major categories that people have loved for years on PC and console and making those games available in a way that is free, accessible and social.

Q: Any other developments we can expect in the coming weeks?

A: We are in the biggest new-game-launch cycle in the history of our company. These are the culminations of investments we have been making the last two years. I cant comment on specific launches, but I think you should expect to be hearing from us soon and often.

Q: That could be a signal to those who think the IPO didnt go as well as some would have wanted.

A: We are measuring our progress in years, not days. We want to see play become a really mainstream activity, and we think it is on its way. We feel confident that business story will unfold, and people will understand the story of virtual goods and social gaming a lot better in the coming years.

HP has introduced a 27-inch All-in-One PC along with a new gaming rig featuring AMDs 8-core FX-8100 CPU.

On Wednesday HP unveiled its very first 27-inch All-in-One (AIO) PC, the HP Omni 27. Slated for a January 8 release with a starting price of $1,199.99, it wont come packed with touch-based input support. Instead, it will feature a non-touch version of its Magic Canvas software, up to 2 TB of HDD space, Beats Audio, HDMI input and options like a TV tuner or a Blu-ray disc drive.

According to HP, the AIO will sport a 27-inch 1080p LED-backlit display constructed with edge-to-edge glass. The base $1200 model will reportedly provide a 2.5 GHz Sandy Bridge Core i5-2400S processor, integrated graphics, 6 GB of RAM and two USB 3.0 ports.

The HP Omni 27 All-in-One PC is crafted for consumers who demand meticulous design, enhanced performance and an expanded viewing experience, the company said on Wednesday. Its elegant flat-panel display features edge-to-edge glass and tilts up to 25 degrees, allowing users to adjust the 27-inch-diagonal high-definition screen to their comfort level.

In addition to the HP Omni 27, the company also announced the HP Pavilion HPE h9 Phoenix PC, what the company calls the most powerful HP Pavilion PC to date which will offer a cutting-edge design and expandability for users focused on content creation and immersive gaming. To put it simply, the rig is geared for gamers and HP is even throwing in a copy of the dynamic MMORPG Rift for free as proof.

Surprisingly, the HP Pavillion HPE h9 Phoenix will start at $1,149.99 when it goes retail on January 8. Currently the product page isnt up and running, but HP promises an armor-plated design, attention-grabbing lighting, four DIMMs accommodating up to 16 GB of DDR3 memory, three internal hard drive bays, high-end discrete graphics cards using up to 250W, an optional liquid cooling system, and a valet tray equipped with USB ports.

Additional reports indicate that the base model will feature an 8-core AMD FX-8100 processor, 8 GB of RAM, a 160 GB SSD, and a Radeon 7670 GPU with 1 GB of VRAM. For fans of Intel, theres also a version that uses an X79 motherboard packed with CPUs like the Core i7-3960X.

On Wednesday HP also announced the $319 23-inch Compaq L2311c notebook docking monitor, and the 18.5-inch HP LV1911 ($125) and 20-inch LV2011 ($135) LED-backlit LCD monitors. The L2311c is expected to ship in February along with the HP LV2011, followed by the cheaper HP LV1911 in March.

Parx saw an 11.5 percent increase in revenue from its slot
machines in December, which turned out to be a strong month for the
states 10 casinos.

The Bensalem casino brought in just over $32 million in revenue
from slot machines, up from $28.7 million a year ago.

Statewide, revenues were up nearly 14 percent to $199 million,
generating more than $108.3 million in taxes.

All of the states casinos saw higher revenue in December,
ranging from 3.55 percent at Harrahs Chester Casino and Racetrack
to 63.14 percent at SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia.

Most gaming jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania, enjoyed good
weather in December, which made travel easier for patrons, Kevin
OToole, executive director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control
Board, said in a statement. When you combine good weather with the
marketing of a wider assortment of table game options not in place
last December, along with other amenities being offered at the
casinos, factors were in place for a very good month.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) Gov. Steve Beshear used his fifth state of the commonwealth speech Wednesday to again call on lawmakers to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot so Kentucky voters can decide whether to legalize casino-style gambling.

The second-term Democrat, speaking to a joint session of the House and Senate, said Kentucky is losing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue to the neighboring states Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia that allow gambling.

He said that makes no sense at a time when state governments financial outlook is so dire and more budget cuts are projected.

We will not be relying on new revenue to balance this budget, Beshear said. The key to balancing this budget lies not on the revenue side, but on the spending side. We will be cutting a lot. We will, of course, continue to find efficiencies, but the numbers are so wretched that we will likely be forced to carve into some of our most critical, basic services. And it will hurt.

Beshear said legalizing casino-style gambling and imposing a tax on proceeds could generate needed money for education, public protection and transportation projects. The move could create needed revenue to bolster the states struggling thoroughbred horse racing industry, he said.
Too many people, he said, are traveling to states along Kentuckys northern border to gamble.

We might as well be backing trucks filled with cash up to the Ohio River and dumping that money into the water, Beshear said.

Expanding gambling isnt the ultimate answer to the states financial woes, he said.

Its a mechanism that will keep significant money in our state that were now sending elsewhere, money we can use to protect and invest in our priorities, like education, job creation, and, yes, our horse industry, he said. So tonight, I reiterate, its time to let Kentuckians decide the future of gaming in our state.

Beshear said Kentucky is at a competitive disadvantage to other states that are using gambling revenue to boost purses and breeders incentives to lure race horses, brood mares and stallions.
Past attempts to legalize more forms of gambling in Kentucky have failed.

But I believe that if we all sit down and negotiate in good faith, if we avoid making public comments that box people in or draw lines in the sand, and if we keep uppermost in our minds that the people of Kentucky have repeatedly made clear that they want to vote on this issue, then we can come up with language that can pass both chambers without amendments, Beshear said.

Beshear also called for reforming Kentuckys tax code in a strategic and non-partisan way that will allow Kentucky to better compete with other states economically. He promised that all options will be considered and all voices heard in creating a tax sysem that meets the states future needs.

Both of these steps, expanded gaming and tax reform, are within our power to do, he said. Both will take political courage and will.

The governor said creating jobs will continue to be top priority.

While too many Kentuckians remain out of work, unemployment rates are edging downward, and theyre now the lowest in almost three years, he said.

Beshear ended his speech with an appeal to put politics aside for the good of Kentucky.

The issues from attacking prescription drug abuse to keeping our kids in school, from improving our workforce and protecting our children to keeping Kentucky tax money here at home by passing expanded gaming require us to collaborate, he said. The lure of partisanship is strong. Having just finished a long political campaign, I personally know that to be the case. But election season is over. Now its time to govern.

A lot of games on Facebook are pretty bad. They arent like the kind of games youll find on an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3.

Enter Rumble Games, a social gaming company that wants to make real games on mobile and web platforms like Facebook or the iPhone. These arent your typical Facebook games where you click your way to success.

Rumble Games wants you to swing your sword or fire your gun, not decorate your castle and spam your friends with invitations. It was a big enough idea to prompt investors from Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures to drop $15 million into the company in its first round of funding after it was founded less than a year ago.

Rumble Games has assembled a dream team of developers and industry leaders with that funding. It includes the likes of Greg Richardson, former CEO of BioWare within Electronic Arts, and John Yoo, a Zynga alumnus now serving as lead developer at the company. Rumble Games has 19 employees and will launch its first of two games in the first half of the year.

We got in touch with John Yoo, lead designer and co-founder at Rumble Games, to figure out how their idea got funded. Heres what we learned:

• Social games are all the same right now.Even companies catering to core gamers like Kixeye and Kabam are making the same kinds of games that Zynga is producing you click around to complete tasks.

• Rumble Games titles fall somewhere between hardcore games like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty and casual games.The games are closer to core titles like those from Activision-Blizzard and Electronic Arts, though.

• Rumble Games wants to publish games as well as design them. That would give them an edge over other companies like Zynga, which only produce games internally. Rumble Games is still focusing more on developing their own internal titles, though.

BUSINESS INSIDER: What kind of games are you guys making?

Jay Yoon: We are not trying to pigeonhole ourselves into one specific kind of game. Zynga, Kixeye and Kabam try to make the same game over and over. We are not trying to make one game, were trying to find games that core gamers like to play. That could be a number of games strategy or role playing.

Were trying to make high-quality games that people would pay for in a boxed game, but deliver that as a free-to-play experience. Our games are catered more toward the mid-core audience I would say more like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, but we have limitations obviously.

We want to be more action-oriented, but we have limitations with the platform. Were trying to make the most advanced and interactive and visceral types of gaming experiences for the web spaces.

BI: What do you mean when you say more real?

JY: We want to deliver the highest-stability graphics with no download. We want to have a very visceral interactive experience rather than mindless clicks. We want there to be action, tension, some strategy. We want players to actually feel immersed in our games instead of clicking where theyre supposed to click on.

Were targeting a different audience from Zynga. We very firmly believe that theres an audience that is being under served in the market. All the people in our company, they are guys who want to play good games that are available to them but dont find anything on the browser or social networks or on mobile or tablets. We want to provide that experience to our players.

I wouldnt say were directly competing with Zynga, theyre going after the female and casual audience. Were going after people that are turned off by social games that arent really targeting them.

BI: Does that mean you guys are building your own proprietary engines?

MSI has just announced a new gaming notebook, the GT783, which will feature latest-generation Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 graphics and a Blu-ray burner. There will be two models available: the GT783 and the lower-end GT783R.

Both models pack an Intel Core i7 CPU and Nvidias most-current GPU for handling graphic-intensive games, and MSIs Turbo Drive Engine technology adds another graphics boost. You also get a 17.3-inch full HD (1920 x 1080p) display. There are four DDR3 memory slots on board, letting users upgrade the notebooks memory to 32GB. Other stand-out specs include USB 3.0, a full-color backlit keyboard (a la Alienware), MSI Cooler Boost Technology to keep the laptop from getting too toasty, and Dynaudio speakers with THX surround sound and a built-in subwoofer.