Issue 200
July 12 - 18, 2004
Volume 4
page 1
 

This Issue

Gaming News

Harrah's Entertainment Wins 585 Honors

Turning Stone is a draw for poker-faced competitors

D'Iberville casino makes headway

GBP 562m SECC project will roll out Clydeside casino

Temporary casino accord expected in Mexico

 

Show Time Faith Hill, returns to the stage in her first live performance in four years at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Column Is There a Way to Evaluate Luckiness in the Casino? By Alan Krigman

Check out our entertainment highlights & upcoming tournaments

See the lucky winners

 

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Harrah's Entertainment Wins 585 Honors

LAS VEGAS -- For the fifth consecutive year, Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. received more awards than any other casino operator in Casino Player's Best of Gaming Awards, the magazine's annual poll of gaming customers from across the country.

Harrah's 28 properties received a total of 585 awards, including 255 first-place finishes. No other company received more than 300 total awards in the competition.

"Gaming customers from coast-to-coast have voted, and, once again, Harrah's is the winner by a landslide," said Gary Loveman, president and chief executive officer of Harrah's. "Our consistent domination of this annual survey provides compelling proof that the Harrah's formula of high-quality gaming facilities and superior customer service is being rewarded with unmatched customer loyalty to Harrah's brands."

"Our company's success is the result of the customer service skills and dedication of our nearly 48,000 employees," Loveman said. "These awards show that their efforts are being appreciated by our customers, and demonstrate Harrah's employees are truly the 'Best of Gaming.'" Among the highlights of this year's polling:

    * Five Harrah's properties were named "Best Overall Hotel Casino" in their markets: Horseshoe
    Bossier City, Harrah's Council Bluffs, Harrah's East Chicago, Harrah's Lake Tahoe, and Harrah's Laughlin. In the Chicagoland and Lake Tahoe markets, Harrah's properties finished first and second overall (Harrah's Joliet and Harveys Lake Tahoe, respectively).

    * For the second consecutive year, Harrah's Las Vegas and the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino finished
    first and second as Best Casinos in the Las Vegas Strip market.

    * Total Rewards, Harrah's nationwide customer-loyalty program, was named "Best Slot Club" in nine markets: Chicagoland, Iowa, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas Strip, Laughlin, Missouri, Native Midwest, New Orleans and Shreveport-Bossier City.

    * Harrah's New Orleans was the only casino in the United States to record a complete sweep, winning
    all 28 first-place awards available in the New Orleans market. "A more beautiful, opulent casino would
    be tough to find, even among the palaces of Las Vegas," the magazine wrote.

    * Harrah's Louisiana Downs and Bluffs Run were named "Best Racinos" in the South and Midwest, respectively.

    * The Rio and Harveys Lake Tahoe tied for most awards by a Harrah's casino, with 48 each. Four additional Harrah's properties won more than 40 awards each: Harrah's Lake Tahoe (47), Harrah's Joliet (46), Harrah's Laughlin (44) and Harrah's Reno (41).

Although Harrah's sold its Harrah's Shreveport property more than a month after voting for this year's competition ended, awards from that facility are excluded from Harrah's total this year. Awards for the three Horseshoe properties, which were acquired July 1, are included in the company's total.


Turning Stone is a draw for poker-faced competitors
As reported by The Post-Standard

Televised high-stakes poker is coming to Central New York's Turning Stone Resort and Casino this week with a never-before-seen hook: It'll be the first time a tourney final will be shown live on a national broadcast.

Jason DiBenedetto, poker room manager at the casino, believes the live coverage will bolster the already surging popularity of TV poker.

"It makes poker a sport similar to any other sport, where you can play the event right as it happens," he said.

Up to 108 players will compete in the "No-limit Hold 'em" tournament, which begins today at noon. Players paid a $10,000 "buy-in" fee to secure a place in the tournament. The six-player final will be broadcast at 6 p.m. Wednesday on Fox Sports Net, and the winner could walk away with $500,000 in cash.

As part of the live broadcast, Fox will introduce a computer-based card reader system that will display players' cards immediately on television screens. This new technology will eliminate the need for "peeker" cameras, which are usually necessary to view the players' cards, said DiBenedetto.

The promise of a televised final has helped to draw a pool of high-profile players, including Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 World Series of Poker champion.

Al Krux, of Fayetteville, who placed sixth in the 2004 World Series of Poker, is looking forward to the tournament but admits that competition will be stiff.

"The cream of the crop will be there for this tournament at Turning Stone," said Krux, who has been playing professionally for about 35 years. "I'll bet there will be 30 to 40 of the best players in the world - maybe more."

Meanwhile, Peter Giordano, a professional poker player from Liverpool, believes poker appeals to mainstream audiences because it's a game that anyone could play. "People started watching it and saying, 'I can do that,' " he said.

Giordano, who has won several Internet tournaments, knows that competition is bound to be fierce at Turning Stone. Still, he's confident that he has as good a chance as anyone to make it to the televised final - and to win big.

"I can't play basketball with Michael Jordan and beat him. I can't play Tiger Woods and beat him," he said. "But I can play the best poker players in the world and beat them because I got the cards and I got lucky."

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