Casinos: The Times-Picayune covers 175 years of New Orleans history

January 30, 2012

Two decades after riverboat and land-based casinos became legal in Louisiana, the gaming industry has become a major part of the state’s economy. But the industry also has been the subject of controversy and decried as a host for corruption.

Today, Louisiana’s gaming industry includes 13 riverboat casinos, four racetrack casinos, one land-based casino and more than 2,000 video poker outlets.

The industry was launched in 1991, when Louisiana voters agreed that as many as 15 riverboat casinos could operate on the state’s waterways. Gambling was pitched to voters as a way to stand up the state economy following the oil bust of the preceding decade.

The following year, voters cleared the way for video poker outlets and land-based casino gambling. The revenue generated from gaming operations funds a number of state programs and is a primary source of funding for the Support Education in Louisiana Fund.

For the 2011 fiscal year, the industry was projected to contribute about $400 million, or 5 percent, of Louisiana’s $8 billion revenue.

In the two decades since gaming became legal, Louisiana has had to weigh its significant economic benefits with its drawbacks.

Harrah’s, which has exclusive rights to operate on land in Louisiana, has twice filed for bankruptcy. Following its second bankruptcy, the New Orleans casino was able to get the state to lower its minimum guaranteed state tax payment to $60 million, down from the $100 million it had originally agreed to pay.

Meanwhile, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards was indicted and convicted on charges of extortion from riverboat casino companies. Federal investigations into public corruption of the industry also resulted in the conviction of former state Sen. Larry Bankston, D-Port Hudson.

Casinos: The Times-Picayune covers 175 years of New Orleans history

Tulane Green Wave men’s basketball team eager to get a conference victory against Tulsa

January 30, 2012

Tulane has taken more hits recently than a blackjack table, but the Green Wave is hoping for some luck at Tulsa in a 7 p.m. Conference USA game tonight.

There hasn’t been much of that of late.

The Green Wave (12-5, 0-3 in C-USA) lost to Southern Mississippi a week and half ago in overtime. It then lost junior guard Kendall Timmons, its leading scorer, to an Achilles tendon injury. That was announced the Monday after losing to Rice on a Hail Mary 3-pointer by Connor Frizzelle as time expired.

It has been a particularly trying week for guard Trent Rogers, Tulane’s only returning senior. Rogers’ best friend is Timmons, and the Frizzelle shot spoiled Rogers’ first start of the season (and second of his career). But Rogers said some talk therapy has helped him, and the team, move on from the 50-49 defeat against Rice.

“We just talked to each other and talked to the coaching staff, and we all just reassured ourselves that we’ve just got to move on and get ready for Tulsa,” Rogers said. “I think as a team we came together and said we’ve got to put this thing behind us. We know how well we played, and we probably deserved to win that game, but that’s jut how basketball is. You don’t win all the games that you are supposed to win. You just have to move on to the next one.”

The Green Wave can’t upgrade without better offense. In the past four games’ regulation, Tulane is averaging 53.75 points. In the conference standings, Tulane is last with a 56.0 average (including an overtime period versus Southern Mississippi).

“I think it was one of the things we needed to improve on as a team with Kendall and with Tomas (Bruha, who is out with a knee injury), and now it brings it even more into focus is that we have to become a better executing team,” Coach Ed Conroy said. “Young guys sometimes don’t know spacing and how important screening is, how important delivering the ball on time is. That was a problem with Kendall and Tomas, was trying to find that mesh and chemistry. Now without those two, there is even more of necessity to become a great execution team. It’s tough because the team is generating execution and maybe not one-on-one play from one specific player.”

Freshman point guard Ricky Tarrant is now the Wave’s leading scorer at 12.1 points per game. Tarrant was meant to be a complement to the team’s offense, not a main source of it.

Complicating matters tonight is Tulsa’s size. The Golden Hurricane’s starting guards all are 6 feet 4. Tulane’s perimeter players top out with Rogers at 6-3.

Timmons is 6-5, but without him in the lineup, the Green Wave will have to rely on quickness and precision on the perimeter.

“We’ve been working on (capitalizing on speed),” Conroy said. “I think there were flashes of it against Southern Miss and Rice, though the final score might not indicate it. I thought there were times in both of those games where I thought our transition was pretty good and our half-court movement was pretty good. It wasn’t as crisp as it needed to be, and that’s what we need to put together. But I think you look at the Rice game, I think our guards do pose problems, and that’s why we are able to get to the free-throw line 28 times is because we did move well and spread them out.”

Tulane made just 14 of those 28 free throws.

“You can’t let the outside noise or your own emotions get in the way of analyzing where you are in the process. … You certainly don’t want to throw everything away just because you missed your free throws and you feel badly.”

Tulsa (9-9, 2-2) is led by sophomore guard Jordan Clarkson, who averages 15.4 points and has been instrumental in turning the Hurricane around after a 0-2 C-USA start. D.J. Magley, a 6-9 transfer from Western Kentucky, has also helped, with 5.8 rebounds per game.

“They are really, really talented team,” Conroy said. “I just think they played a very difficult schedule early. But I think they are one of the most talented teams in the league.” 

Tulane Green Wave men’s basketball team eager to get a conference victory against Tulsa

Catsablanca – A ‘Purrfectly’ splendid evening

January 29, 2012

STUART —On Jan. 14 Miles Grant Country Club was transformed into a Las Vegas style venue for charity gaming to support the cats and kittens of Domino’s House. The gaming tables (provided for entertainment purposes only by Casino Party Nights Florida Inc., (954-296-4219) included craps, roulette, blackjack, poker, and slots. The evening included a silent auction, a live auction and a grand finale raffle drawing.

The 150 attendees enjoyed cocktails, a light supper, a silent auction, a live auction and a grand finale raffle drawing. DJ services, donated by T Rex Entertainment, added to the evening’s lively festivities. Smiling faces abounded while the real winners of the evening were the feline residents of Domino’s House.

The sponsors of the event were: Deb and Russ Dennis, James and Diane Perella Foundation, Polly and Tom Campenni, Nancy Petrucelli, Nautical But Nice, Coastal Cyber Knife, Thomas and Nephele Wing Domencich Foundation, Martin Downs Animal Hospital, All Creatures Animal Hospital, M.E. Good Realty, Inc. Dr. Elise Hillman, Sonia Roberts, Dave Roberts, Judy and Bill Sekscenski, Arthur and Betty Wilson, Mary Christie, Judy Paz and Caroline Klaus,

The $26,000 that was generated from the evening’s activities will be used to support the sheltering, spay/neuter, community education and adoption activities of Domino’s House. The shelter’s vision is to be the premier no-kill feline rescue and adoption center to our local area as well as a resource to facilitate spay/neuter services so that feline overpopulation and homelessness are eliminated.

This story is contributed by a member of the Treasure Coast community and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with TCPalm.com

Catsablanca – A ‘Purrfectly’ splendid evening

2 Casino Stocks Worth Considering – Seeking Alpha

January 28, 2012

In doing my research this weekend, I came across two enticing gaming companies. They both are selling at significantly under their growth rates, are priced at very reasonable valuations and look like good gambles at current price levels.

Ameristar Casinos (ASCA) -

Ameristar Casinos, Inc. operates as a gaming and entertainment company in the United States. The company develops, owns, and operates casino, and related hotel, food and beverage, entertainment, and other facilities. It primarily offers slot plays, as well as a range of table games, including blackjack, craps, roulette, and poker.

(Business Description from Yahoo Finance)

4 reasons Ameristar Casinos is a bargain at under $20 a share:

· The company is showing significantly increasing earnings growth. It earned $.83 in FY2010, is expected to make $1.81 in FY2011 and analysts have it tagged for 2.31 in EPS in FY2012.

· The stock goes for less than 3 times operating cash flow and yields 2.1%.

· It has a five year projected PEG of just .33 and goes for 55% of trailing annual revenues.

· The median analysts’ price target on ASCA is $24 and ISI Group just initiated it as "Buy".

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) -

Las Vegas Sands Corp., together with its subsidiaries, owns, develops, and operates various integrated resort properties primarily in the United States, Macau, and Singapore. It owns and operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, The Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino, and The Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada; and the Sands Macao, The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, the Plaza Casino, and the Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Striptm in Macau, the People’s Republic of China.

(Business Description from Yahoo Finance)

4 reasons Las Vegas Sands is worth considering at $46 a share:

· The company is rapidly increasing EPS. It made $.98 in FY2010, is expected to earn $1.99 in FY2011 and analysts have it notching 2.55 in EPS in FY2012.

· The median analysts’ price target on Las Vegas Sands is $58.50. Credit Suisse has an "Outperform" rating and a $60 price target on LVS.

· The company has the best positioned casino assets of any U.S. based firm and has a five year projected PEG of just .6.

· Argus, Stifel Nicolaus and UBS all upgraded the stock in the last nine months and consensus earnings estimates for FY2011 and FY2012 have risen over the past three months.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in ASCA over the next 72 hours.

2 Casino Stocks Worth Considering – Seeking Alpha

Primary season turns out to be roller coaster ride

January 28, 2012

I am enjoying the Republican presidential primaries a great deal. It’s like watching Republican Russian roulette.

During the past six months we have seen inconsistent, helter-skelter, hit-and-miss poll results for candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. During this period, according to Real Clear Politics, candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Romney again, Newt Gingrich, Romney again, and Gingrich again, have been leading.

Romney is the Republican establishment’s choice. According to some national polls, he seems to have the best chance of beating President Barack Obama, and he probably carries the least baggage of the remaining candidates. However, Romney is not liked by many Republicans. Most Republicans, especially those who vote in primaries and caucuses, seem to think he is too liberal. He also might be too rich for many rank-and-file voters who resent the way he seems to flaunt his extreme wealth. The fact that he is a Mormon does not help him with Christian fundamentalists, who tend to like Rick Santorum.

Gingrich won in South Carolina, but has more baggage than Southwest Airlines. In addition to his domestic problems, 88 percent of his fellow Republicans voted to reprimand him in January 1997, and he resigned from the House in January 1999. Since then, Gingrich has gotten rich selling influence around Washington.

The only sobering fact for me is that while Obama leads any of the Republicans in the field, according to Real Clear Politics, he still trails a “generic” Republican candidate.

Primary season turns out to be roller coaster ride

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January 28, 2012

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Police: Foster kids left outside casino

January 27, 2012

KENNER, La., Dec. 29 (UPI) — A Louisiana woman is accused of leaving her foster children outside on Christmas Eve day while she played blackjack at a casino, police said.

Katrular Buchanon, 36, of Tickfaw, La., was charged with child desertion, police in Kenner, La., said.

A passerby Saturday morning observed Buchanon dropping two boys, ages 4 and 7, off at a playground next to Lake Pontchartrain and then leaving a 9-year-old boy in the backseat of her car while she went inside the nearby Treasure Chest casino, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Thursday.

The bystander reported the observation to patrol officer Michael Lacrouts, who found Buchanon at a blackjack table inside the casino. She had been gone from the children for more than 40 minutes. Police said the children had no coats, despite the 53 degree temperature outside.

Buchanon was arrested and the three children were placed with the state Office of Child Services, the newspaper said.

Police: Foster kids left outside casino

Analyst questions IGT’s purchase of Double Down Interactive

January 27, 2012

A gaming analyst said Tuesday he has “grave concerns” about International Game Technology’s $500 million acquisition of an online social gaming company, taking a contrarian position from other Wall Street research firms.

In a report to his clients, Union Gaming Group principal Bill Lerner said IGT could hurt its core slot machine business and may be spending too much to acquire Double Down Interactive, which is the developer of Facebook’s Double Down Casino.

Many analysts believe the deal could help IGT launch an online gaming website for U.S. consumers. However, Lerner also said three major casino operators are “irritated” that IGT has chosen to compete with companies that buy IGT slot machines and are also exploring entering the Internet gaming market if the activity is legalized.

He didn’t name the casino companies, but said “they represent about 13 percent of North American gaming devices.”

Lerner added that the opinions might provide some insight into how other casino operators view the deal.

“They suggest that they will react negatively especially if IGT pushes around content that they cannot have access to,” Lerner wrote in the research note. “They also are concerned about how IGT will treat poker once they launch it and when it is legalized.”

Lerner advised investors to sell their shares of IGT, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, in favor of other gaming equipment manufacturers, including Bally Technologies and Shuffle Master.

“We believe upwards of $500 million for a singular-platform dependent start-up could easy turn into a problematic, dilutive transaction in relatively short-order,” Lerner said.

IGT officials, however, said the deal to acquire Double Down, which has 4.7 million active users, was done to put the Nevada-based slot machine maker’s products in front of the booming social media market.

“IGT has no plans to operate an online casino in Nevada and compete with our customers,” said Staci Alonso, IGT’s vice president of marketing.

IGT announced last week it was buying Double Down for $250 million in cash, $85 million in retention payments over the next two years and as much as $165 million in cash payable over the next three years, subject to certain financial targets.

The company believes its game titles can help increase traffic on the Facebook website. At the same time Facebook players will become familiar with IGT’s slot machines and will look for the games when they visit a casino.

An IGT official said the company won’t compete with casinos as a result of the Double Down acquisition.

Lerner, however, suggested IGT is paying 28 times cash flow for Double Down, which he believes is too high even without incentive payments.

“This collectively strikes us as extremely generous for a start-up that is approximately two years old, with virtually no barriers to entry,” Lerner said. “To be fair, Double Down is growing rapidly.”

Janney Montgomery Scott gaming analyst Brian McGill had a different opinion. He told investors Tuesday the deal was a surprise, but could be a catalyst for the company’s game titles.

“The one major positive would be if online poker is legalized, it now has a partner in Facebook and it could benefit from this relationship,” McGill said. “In the meantime, it is expected that virtual gambling will continue to grow and IGT will benefit from now putting its titles on the site that can be available for virtual gaming.”

IGT is already operating online casinos in Europe. Last year, the company spent $115 million on Entraction Holding, a Swedish technology company that operates online poker networks and supplies online gaming products.

Even if IGT wants to operate its own online poker website, it would face a major barrier to entry. Nevada’s recently adopted Internet poker regulations only allow companies with land-based casinos to open an online gaming website.

Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli said discussions surrounding potential federal online gaming regulations also contain language calling for operators to have a bricks and mortar casino presence.

Contact reporter Howard Stutz at or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.

Analyst questions IGT’s purchase of Double Down Interactive

Plans Call For Casino In Downtown Lansing

January 27, 2012

LANSING (WWJ/AP) - A $245 million American Indian casino in downtown Lansing could create about 2,200 jobs and help fund scholarships for area students, according to backers of a plan to open the gambling facility.

The Kewadin casino would be built near the Lansing Center and owned by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick reported the project has the support of the city’s mayor.

“The angriest mayor in America is not angry any more,” said Skubick. “In fact, Virg Bernero is just downright geeked at the prospects, underscore, the prospects of a casino in downtown Lansing — $245 million, with 700 construction jobs, 1,500 permanent jobs.”

Bernero said it would improve the viability of the convention center and fund four-year college scholarships for Lansing School District students under what’s being called the “Lansing Promise.”

“It’s huge for my city,” Bernero said of the casino project.

The scholarship idea is modeled in part after The Kalamazoo Promise, an anonymously funded free college tuition program for high school graduates of the Kalamazoo Public Schools that started with the class of 2006.

Under the casino plan, Lansing would get $5 million to $6 million a year in revenue, about 2 percent of the $250 million a year the casino could bring in.

The 125,000-square-foot casino would offer up to 3,000 slot machines and 48 gambling tables. Bernero said he hopes construction could start in 12-24 months, and he estimates it would take 14-18 months.

“We have a true partnership in Lansing,” tribal Chairman Joe Eitrem said in a statement. “They sincerely want jobs and opportunities for their citizens and students just as we seek to provide jobs, services and a better future to our tribal members through gaming.”

The casino would mark a return to off-reservation gambling for the tribe, which formerly was the majority owner of Detroit’s Greektown Casino. The tribe operates several Michigan casinos under the Kewadin name.

Details were to be presented Monday to City Council. The plan would need approval from the Interior Department.

The casino would be built on land that is currently owned by the city. That land would need to be sold to the tribe for the casino to operate. Under the plans, a smaller, temporary casino would open first.

The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, which operates the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort about 60 miles north in Mount Pleasant, plans to attempt to block the Lansing casino, The Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant reported.

“The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe stands firm in its vehement opposition to any off-reservation gaming,” said spokesman Frank Cloutier.

The Lansing casino also would compete with FireKeepers Casino near Battle Creek, 45 miles southwest of Lansing, which is owned by the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians.

According to Skubick, a legal challenge is expected.

“The tribe said it’s willing to put up the money to battle this out in the courts, and that is probably where it’s gonna go first,” Skubick said.

Michigan has more than two dozen casinos, including three in Detroit.

(TM and © Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Plans Call For Casino In Downtown Lansing

22nd Blues Harmonica Blowout honors Little Walter

January 26, 2012

Somewhat like such other musical innovators as Bix Beiderbecke, Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, blues harmonica virtuoso Little Walter Jacobs checked out early – dead at age 38, in 1968, from a head injury sustained during a drunken back-alley craps-shooting dispute – but left behind an indelible imprint on the way his instrument has been played by countless musicians ever since.

“He’s been my biggest influence for years and on all harmonica players who play the blues – not all, but 90 percent,” Mark Hummel says over a Mexican lunch in Healdsburg with fellow harmonica blower Charlie Musselwhite. Musselwhite and Billy Boy Arnold, both of whom knew and played with Little Walter, are participating in Hummel’s 22nd annual Blues Harmonica Blowout, this year billed as a tribute to Little Walter. The two-week West Coast tour, also featuring harmonica men Curtis Salgado and Sugar Ray Norcia, stops at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Friday through next Sunday and at Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz on Jan. 30.

“What Little Walter did on the harmonica is very similar to what B.B. (King) did on the guitar,” Hummel, 57, adds. “He made it into something totally new and different.”

Arnold was 16 in 1951 when he first heard Walter playing on Muddy Waters’ recording of “Gonna Need My Help” and on Jimmy Rogers’ simultaneously released “That’s All Right.” After hearing them on the radio, he immediately went out and purchased both.

The Chicago-born musician had earlier taken two lessons from John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, the most popular harmonica player in the blues world prior to Walter’s ascendance. Williamson, much as Walter would two decades later, died in 1948 from being hit over the head while being robbed of his gambling proceeds.

“Walter’s style derived from John Lee’s style,” Arnold, now 76, says by phone from his home in Chicago. “Little Walter was younger and he was faster and his music had a beat. That’s what made him successful. He became my hero because he was the greatest and the most creative of them all.”

Marion Walter Jacobs was born in 1930 in rural Marksville, La. Between the ages of 12 and 16, before settling in Chicago, he played for tips on street corners and in bars throughout the South and as far north as St. Louis, often with guitarist Honeyboy Edwards. They traveled from town to town by hopping freight trains.

He was a member of Waters’ band from 1948 until 1952, when “Juke,” a rocking harmonica instrumental recorded that year during a Waters session, was issued under his own name and became a national smash, spending eight weeks at the top of Billboard magazine’s “Most Played Juke Box Rhythm & Blues Records” chart. Walter was suddenly a major blues star, toured widely with his own band and scored 13 more Top 10 R&B hits through 1958, including “Blues With a Feeling,” “Last Night” and “My Babe.”

Walter’s career and life went into rapid decline during the ’60s. His playing and behavior had become erratic because of chronic alcoholism. His once-handsome face was noticeably scarred from frequent fistfights. While some of his imitators where appearing at festivals in Europe, he was working in Chicago juke joints with hastily thrown-together bands.

“It seemed like he had somebody different with him every night,” recalls Musselwhite, 67, who often hung out with Walter during the mid-’60s. “Some nights it was like, ‘Man, that’s the s-.’ The next night it might be, ‘What the f- happened to Walter?’

“Sometimes he’d just hand me the mike and his harp and say, ‘Here. Play, boy,’ and go and talk to some lady at the bar.”

“People talk about him like he was such a troublemaker,” Musselwhite adds. “That wasn’t my opinion of him. To me, he was a guy who just wanted to have a good time. He loved to laugh, but he wouldn’t back up from you. They didn’t call him Little Walter for nothing, but pound for pound he was one tough little guy.”

Mississippi native Musselwhite was 13 the first time he heard Walter on a record he’d bought for a nickel at a Memphis junk shop. It struck him as being much different from the Williamson blues records in his collection.

“To me, Little Walter sounded real modern, like rock ‘n’ roll,” he explains. “He didn’t sound as bluesy and down-home as Sonny Boy did. Now it doesn’t sound that way, but it was almost jarring to hear Little Walter at that time.”

Musselwhite moved to Chicago at age 18, not to play music, but in hopes of landing one of those good-paying factory jobs with benefits that his friends in Memphis had been telling him about. He soon discovered, however, that many of his blues heroes lived and regularly performed in the Windy City. He got to know and sit in with Waters and a year later met Walter.

Before relocating to the Bay Area in 1967, Musselwhite saw Walter for the last time, sitting in a chair in front of a stage, staring at the floor, not playing or singing, while the band was playing.

“I pulled up a chair next to him,” Musselwhite remembers. “I said, ‘Walter, what’s wrong?’ He just went, ‘Baah.’ That’s all he said. I couldn’t get him to talk. He just seemed real disgusted.”

Musselwhite has fonder memories of the time he and his musician friends Paul Butterfield and Michael Bloomfield were walking down a Chicago street scatting all eight choruses of “Juke.”

“The three of us were snapping our fingers and going, ‘Bah-ba-da-dah-dop.’ Me and Paul were really drunk, and back then Mike didn’t drink. We were happy, we were young, and the world was full of possibilities. Life was great, and we all knew ‘Juke.’ ” {sbox}

Tribute to Little Walter: 8 and 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 and 8 p.m. next Sun. $20-$30. Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero W., Oakland. (510) 929-7849. yoshis.com. Also 8 p.m. Jan. 30. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $27-$30. (831) 479-1854. moesalley.com.

This article appeared on page Q – 32 of the San Francisco Chronicle

22nd Blues Harmonica Blowout honors Little Walter

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