
Danielle ‘dmoongirl’ Andersen was mostly of the Ultimate that is remaining Poker still extant before the web site announced it shut down in Nevada.
Ultimate Poker has shut straight down its Nevada online poker web site, closing a run that is 19-month becoming the very first regulated Internet poker site in the usa. The organization has now become the first also to end operations in Nevada, leaving just two other poker providers active in the state.
The Ultimate Poker closure will, at the very least for the time being, leave Ultimate Gaming with no active Internet video gaming operations in the United States. Two months ago, the company also pulled out from the New Jersey market, citing the contractual problems it was having aided by the Trump Taj Mahal.
Revenues Didn’t Live Up to Expectations
‘on the web poker revenues in Nevada have fallen far short of original projections,’ stated Ultimate Gaming Chairman Tom Breitling. ‘Moreover slot freebies quick hits, the state-by-state approach to online video gaming has created an exceptionally cost-prohibitive and challenging operating environment. These factors have actually combined to help make the path to profitability extremely difficult and uncertain. Consequently, we have decided to cease operations.’
Ultimate Poker suffered from just what many saw as inferior software and deficiencies in brand recognition. However the site had hoped to replace with this in Nevada by beating your competitors to your market, something it achieved by launching months that are several anyone else could ensure it is through the state’s regulatory requirements.
Early Advantage Evaporates with Competition
That advantage put the company within an exemplary position in the beginning of the state’s regulated Internet poker market. However it was just a matter of time before bigger names came to the state to compete, and the room that is second enter the market had been a bit of a juggernaut: the Caesars-backed WSOP.com, which showcased the well-known (and well-respected) World number of Poker brand.
Before very long, WSOP.com had surpassed Ultimate Poker since the site that is biggest within the state. While Ultimate held on to a small player base, WSOP.com now controls about two-thirds of the market, a share that can be nearly 100 % once the Ultimate Poker shutdown is complete.
Since Ultimate Gaming left New Jersey, there had been some signs that the ongoing company was attempting to manage costs. That included cutting a lot of the site’s stable of professional poker players, including Jason Somerville. Mostly of the remaining Ultimate pros, Danielle ‘dmoongirl’ Andersen, stated she found out about the end of Ultimate Poker in Nevada on Twitter.
‘Obviously saddened by the @UltimatePoker news,’ Andersen tweeted on Friday afternoon. ‘Appreciative of all the possibilities they provided for myself & the poker community. All I can perform is hope like hell the future is brighter with this game I love so much.’
Soft Shutdown Expected for Players
Ultimate Gaming says they are working with state regulators to make certain a smooth shutdown, and there appears to be no reason for players to be worried concerning the safety of their account balances at this time.
‘we have been grateful towards the Nevada Gaming Commission and Gaming Control Board for allowing us to be the first company to operate internet poker in Nevada and significantly appreciate their leadership and support as the first state to license and control online poker,’ Breitling said. ‘We are working closely with the Gaming Control Board to make sure a smooth change for our customers even as we cease Nevada operations.’
The exit of Ultimate will leave just two poker spaces staying in the Nevada market. Along with WSOP.com, additionally there is the Real Gaming site operated by South Point Casino, though that site has traffic that is negligible.
Mohegan Sun appears to Expansion as Connecticut Takes on Massachusetts
The Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut will fight losing customers to neighboring Massachusetts. (Image: kickingdesigns.com)
Mohegan Sun has become steeling itself to battle Massachusetts, in the place of beating a retreat that is humiliating losing the bid for an eastern Massachusetts casino license this season.
Sunlight wants to build a new casino in north Connecticut to compete with the $800 million MGM Resorts casino scheduled to start across the border in Springfield in 2017.
The Springfield casino is expected to derive a third of its visitors from Connecticut, putting Mohegan Sun in a position that is offensive keep its land gambling population from bleeding over the state edge to Massachusetts.
Sixty % of Massachusetts residents voted in favor of keeping casino gaming adhering to a referendum that is public this year’s midterm elections, and therefore MGM and Wynn Resorts, the latter of which ended up being provided the east Massachusetts license at the cost of Mohegan Sun, are now free to push ahead with their projects.
And while Connecticut may have been praying that voters would choose to ‘repeal the offer,’ the state must now act to safeguard its casino industry from potentially competition that is devastating.
‘The competition is on. The competition has begun,’ president of the Mohegan tribe Kevin Brown declared in an interview with the Connecticut Mirror this week.
‘This is not a conversation that is new however, it is certainly a revived discussion,’ he added. ‘we need to do something in the real face associated with the development of Massachusetts gaming. To do otherwise would be short-sighted on our part.
‘[The Massachusetts casino developers] truly have not been shy about saying they are not ones to lose more revenue from Massachusetts gamers going to Connecticut,’ he added.
Game up on, apparently.
Financial Peril
Moody’s Investment Analysts warned last month that Mohegan Sun could face ‘financial peril’ after losing the East Massachusetts casino license. Had it won, said gaming analyst Keith Foley, its economic situation ‘would have enhanced materially.’ The Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville is highly leveraged, he added, and could face significant debt payment just as the two proposed Massachusetts casinos open their doors for business in 2017.
Both Connecticut casino resorts, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, were hit difficult by the worldwide downturn that is economic of and are also over $1 billion in debt.
Difficult Process
While expansion may be in the cards, it’s going to be an extended and difficult legislative procedure. Connecticut has sanctioned casinos in its southeast since the nineties that are early return for the portion of the profits. Just the Mohegans and the Mashantucket Pequots, who run Foxwoods, are permitted to operate casino gambling in the state, utilizing the provision that no other entity may achieve this.
This means that expansion will be a complex legal procedure, needing the approval associated with the legislature, the governor and both tribes.
However, Brown told the Connecticut Mirror that he had had some ‘point-to-point conversations’ with Mashantucket Pequots’ tribal chairman Rodney Butler on the issue and that ‘both concur that these (discussions) are a required move.’
Meanwhile, Representative Peggy Sayers, who recently oversaw a task that is legislative studying local video gaming competition, concluded that Connecticut ‘must just take bold and immediate action to protect and expand our state’s gaming industry.’
And Representative Stephen Dargan, frontrunner associated with panel that oversees gaming regulation issues in Connecticut, said this that he wants to hold a hearing later in the month on how to protect the industry week.
Revel to Reopen Under New Owners, While Nj-new Jersey Showboat Goes Collegiate
Atlantic City’s Revel will reopen being a new casino, but exactly when is still unclear. (Image: Ben Fogletto/pressofatlanticcity.com)
The new owners of Atlantic City’s Revel Casino, Toronto-based asset management firm Brookfield Asset Management Inc., have announced they will invest $200 million to redevelop the formerly swank property, using the aim of reopening it once again next 12 months. Brookfield bid $110 million for the property at auction month that is last a small fraction of its original $2.4 billion building cost.
James Kehoe, chairman of New Jersey’s Casino Reinvestment Redevelopment Authority, said that the investment team expects to complete the purchase next month. Other than that, he added, the group have not set a timetable that is detailed Revel’s next phase.
Revel had been a plan that is grand to regenerate Atlantic City, but was conceived unfortunately hitting the market just as the global downturn in the economy from which Atlantic City has neglected to recover went into full move.
Combined with the Showboat, it had been certainly one of four of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos to close in 2014, with another, the Trump Taj Mahal, not likely to see in the newest 12 months. Revel launched amid much fanfare in 2012, but with its huge operating expenses, it failed to ever turn a profit, and also by the time it closed earlier this was leaking over $1 million a week year.
From Showboat to Satellite Campus
Meanwhile, Richard Stockton College has snapped up the Showboat Casino from Caesars Entertainment for the sum that is undisclosed. The house, on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, becomes a satellite campus for the undergraduate university, that is based in Ponoma in Atlantic County.
The Showboat shut its doorways in August, having unsuccessful to discover a buyer, and despite being a profitable procedure for owners Caesars Entertainment. The Mardi Gras-themed casino opened in 1987 and had been bought by Caesars in 1998.
It also had relatively low operating costs, which enabled it to turn a profit of almost $2 million last year while it was the smallest of Caesars’ Atlantic City properties, in terms of net revenue. Nonetheless, by the start of 2014, it was clear that the casino market in Atlantic City had become saturated and the business’s other properties, Harrahs Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City, needed some elbow room. An element of the purchase agreement is that the property wouldn’t normally reopen as being a casino.
‘There is too much capacity in Atlantic City currently, such that the returns to existing ability are under great pressure,’ Caesars CEO Gary Loveman stated recently. ‘So we are looking at all of our options to decrease the cost of doing business right here, options to reduce capability.’
Diversifying the City
Stockton President Herman Saatkamp had been unable to talk about the details of the purchase, which includes 28 acres, along with the 1,425,000 building that is square-foot until it is finalized.
‘Our intent is to engage in a task that enhances Stockton’s educational development, offerings and cost-containment while during the same time brings new educational opportunities to Atlantic City,’ Saatkamp said. ‘Because we are just at the letter-of-intent phase and limited by a confidentiality agreement, it is premature for me to give fully out any extra information.’
‘The transformation and revitalization of Atlantic City requires the addition of a set that is diverse of for people to come see,’ said Loveman, commenting on the deal. ‘I believe the construction of a Stockton campus there will help diversify the economy associated with the city, which can be critical to its future well-being.’