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Golden Palace is betting on blackjack tournaments becoming the next big thing. Golden Palace has revealed that blackjack is by far their most popular casino game and as a result they have purchased multi-player blackjack software from RNG Gaming Ltd.
The infamous online casino is betting that the blackjack tournamets will be as big or bigger than poker.
“The Tournament Blackjack software is an exciting new addition to the Golden Palace group of games,” said GoldenPalace.com CEO Richard Rowe. “We expect Tournament Blackjack to skyrocket in popularity, and Golden Palace will be at the forefront of this new trend. RNG Gaming’s superior software coupled with Golden Palace’s ten-year tradition of online gaming excellence is a winning combination.” Play Golden Palace Now
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Why a gambling ban Ban will not succeed
While such policies might spring from a moral viewpoint, they are unlikely to succeed in limiting online betting.
Because Internet gaming operations are often located outside of the U.S., there is little Washington can do to restrict their actions.
Moreover, a prohibition policy has perverse effects and encourages the behavior it seeks to curtail. This is illustrated by a close examination of one of the most popular forms of gambling: sports betting. There is a large demand for sports betting (search), and a large illegal sector has arisen to provide this activity despite a long-standing policy of prohibition.
A similar ban on all Internet-based sports betting also is likely to fail. A legalized regime is a better way to mitigate the potential dangers of Internet betting.
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Local casinos wiped out the statewide competition, according to a readers’ choice poll in the July issue of Casino Player magazine, a 15-year-old magazine with a readership of about 750,000.
Ameristar and Harrah’s took first and second place in every category in the Best of Gaming 2006 poll, with the exceptions of best bar, where Vertigo at Harrah’s was the only bar listed; the best comedy club which went to Penguins Comedy Club at Isle of Capris in Bettendorf, which was the only comedy club listed; and Best Room Packages, which also went to the Isle of Capri in Bettendorf over Harrah’s and Ameristar.
The survey took place prior to the opening of Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, the nation’s 19th largest casino market.
Adam Fine, editor in chief of Casino Player, said he’s curious to see what impact the Horseshoe will have on the local market.
“It’s a fantastic property for the Midwest,” he said.
Fine also said he wants to see how Harrah’s goes about fitting into the expanded Council Bluffs market and what moves Ameristar may make in response to the Horseshoe.
Ameristar Casino Hotel won Best Overall Casino and Best Overall Hotel accolades and 28 overall awards including 15 first-place awards in the market. Slots, craps and video poker took the top awards, with Prairie Mill Café winning Best Coffee Shop and Ameristar taking the top spot in the Best Overall Entertainment category.
Ameristar General Manager Teresa Meyer said the company’s investment in the facility, training and recognition of team members is paying off.
“It’s just wonderful,” she said.
Meyer said she was most proud of winning in the category of Best Casino Hotel.
“And I like the one, Luckiest Casino, because luck is a perception,” she said. “It’s kind of a happiness, feel-good kind of thing. I think that’s really a compliment to us.”
Harrah’s won 13 first-place awards, including Best Overall Hotel Casino and Best Casino Promotions, and 29 awards overall. Reel slots, blackjack and players club were other areas where Harrah’s took the top prize.
Christie Scott, manager of public and community relations for Harrah’s and Horseshoe Casinos, said the company was pleased with the number of first-place honors Harrah’s Council Bluffs received.
“The variety of awards shows that our customers really have fun playing at Harrah’s and that they receive a real value in our Total Rewards program,” Scott said. “Our guests know that they can play with us and earn comps that can be redeemed at any of our Harrah’s Entertainment properties around the country, including our new Horseshoe Casino as well as all of our casinos on the las vegas strip.”
Casino Player’s Fine said Iowa took some risks in starting out as the first casino riverboat state, and that has limited the industry’s growth.
“It’s very frustrating to see that from an industry standpoint,” he said. “The market is there. The problem is the casino facilities themselves.”
The biggest problem, as he sees it, is an absence of hotels.
“If you have the rooms, you have the people downstairs,” Fine said. “And that Horseshoe can handle a great hotel.”
By PHIL ROONEY
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When the Professional Domino Association tour got started in February, Jerome Wooten of Kansas City had no idea what to expect.
But here he is, more than $40,000 richer. Wooten is the leading money winner on the inaugural tour of a league that most people don’t realize exists, and he has been declared the champion even before the tour is finished.
The association was founded by former music executive Jay King, whose group Club Nouveau topped the pop charts in 1987 with its remake of “Lean on Me.” The final tournament of the regular season is today in Atlanta.
The 12-city tour has stopped in such places as Los Angeles, Dallas, Cleveland and Phoenix and has averaged 55 participants at each stop. The association has doled out $30,000 in prize money in each city, and one of the ESPN networks plans to televise three or four of the tournaments, starting in October.
Association officials have high hopes for the sport, if that’s the right word. They want to take dominoes off the picnic table and put them on the big-screen TV, transforming the game from a geriatric pastime to a major spectator event.
In short, they want to see it explode in much the same way that poker has.
“We are going to be to dominoes what the NBA is to basketball, what MLB is to baseball, what the PGA is to golf,” King said by phone from his Los Angeles home. “People will eventually get paid a salary to play in the PDA just like everything else.”
Wooten and some other Kansas Citians hope to be among those who will reap the rewards.
“If this thing gets as big as poker, I’m going to give up the real estate,” said Wooten, 30, a home appraiser.
The game played at tour stops is called “Five Up” or “High Five.” The dominoes — 28 white tiles etched with zero to 12 black dots — are face down when each player draws seven of them. There are two players in each game, and each takes a turn laying tiles with numbers that match those at the end of the line of tiles.
Players earn points by placing a domino that, added with other dominoes at the end, equals a multiple of five. Players also earn points by being the first to run out of tiles. If they cannot play, they keep drawing from the pile.
The first player to earn 150 points wins the game, which can be over within five or 10 minutes — or less, if Wooten is playing. His strategy is to play fast and keep his opponents off guard. Other players are more deliberate and thoughtful. Still others run their mouths incessantly, talking trash.
Travis Newsome, owner of Newsome Realty Co., this year formed a domino team called the Kansas City Show-Me Domino Dominators. Members of the team have won seven of the 11 tournaments on the PDA tour and nearly half of the prize money.
Three team members are ranked among the tour’s top 10 players — Wooten at No. 1, Newsome at No. 9 and Eddie Rice at No. 10. They practice a lot between tournaments, playing dominoes nearly every day.
Besides the $40,500 he already has won, Wooten has earned $30,000 for being the tour’s regular-season champion. He said that total haul of $70,500 is significantly more than what he makes annually working for one of Newsome Realty’s appraisal firms.
It also is far more than the $5,000 or less he made in the previous seven years, bouncing from one domino tournament to another.
For now, the Professional Domino Association is very much a startup organization trying to find its niche.
King said that he and a cousin were “carrying the ball” financially and have spent about $1.8 million this year. As King said: “That ball is heavy.” A few corporate sponsors also have contributed financially.
When the tour swung through Kansas City in late June, participants and organizers locked up only 20 or so rooms at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center hotel. By comparison, the International Society of Glass Beadmakers has more than 230 rooms booked this weekend at the hotel.
PDA events aren’t yet populated by celebrities. While poker has Ben Affleck, dominoes counters with Omar Gooding, younger brother of actor Cuba Gooding Jr.
In fact, the “crowds” at tour stops generally are limited to participants, a few family members and an occasional wayward hotel guest who expects to see rows of upright dominoes tumble methodically.
Tour participants hope that will change soon.
The Professional Domino Association will distribute $555,000 in total prize money this year, including $150,000 next month at the Tournament of Champions in las vegas.
“We want our team and our players to be the center of attention,” said Newsome, who learned the game at age 12 and has played in tournaments since 1978. “We want to be right in front when this thing really gets popular.”
By STEVE ROCK
For more inforamtion on the game of dominoes visit Dominoes HQ
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