Issue 205
August 16 - 22, 2004
Volume 4
page 1
 

This Issue

Gaming News

eCOGRA and Casino City Announce Collaboration Agreement

Popularity of poker prompts casinos to open new card rooms

New casino planned for Manchester city center

Iowa casino wants huge new sign

Gala employees in line for awards

 

Show Time Hilary Duff, teen film star and Walt Disney Records recording artist, performs at the MGM Grand.

Column Ask the Slot Expert: Play on the Main Floor or in the High Limit Room By John Robison

Check out our entertainment highlights & upcoming tournaments

See the lucky winners

 

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eCOGRA and Casino City Announce
Collaboration Agreement

LONDON, England and BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) and Casino City today announce a joint collaborative agreement and the introduction of new eCOGRAcertification features on the popular Casino City website.

eCOGRA and Casino City share a common goal of helping online casino patrons enjoy a safe and properly supported online gaming experience.

eCOGRA's focus is on establishing self-imposed regulation in a largely unregulated industry to ensure player protection. Casino City's focus is on providing players with the information they need to make intelligent choices about the online gaming sites they visit.

Casino City's directory of online and offline gaming locations is by far the largest and most popular in the world. Originally established in 1995, it sports over 5,000 gaming destinations, including 2,000 online casino, poker, sportsbook, and bingo sites. Online gaming sites are organized in a variety of ways including language, licensing jurisdiction, and software vendor at http://Online.CasinoCity.com. One unique feature is the use of continuously updated web-traffic data to objectively rank sites by their popularity.

Casino City's online gaming directory has been enhanced so all casinos that have earned the eCOGRA seal are prominently identified. A complete list of eCOGRA approved casinos is provided, and visitors can display a list of eCOGRA approved casinos supporting the language of their choice ranked in popularity order. News about eCOGRA will also be routinely integrated into the site.

Andrew Beveridge, Executive Director of eCOGRA, says "We are delighted to work with a responsible, professional, influential organization like Casino City in further expanding the eCOGRA player protection and casino regulating initiative. Although this is an innovative arrangement on the part of Casino City, we look forward to similar relationships that improve communication with both the industry and the players."

Michael Corfman, President and CEO of Casino City says "We are very pleased to put our full support behind eCOGRA because its goals in establishing standards for player protection are critical to both players and the online gaming industry. The commitment to self-regulation demonstrated by the 44 current eCOGRA approved casinos is to be applauded. We anticipate and hope that our action in recognizing approved casinos will further encourage other casinos and software vendors in their decision to undergo the rigorous approval process."


Popularity of poker prompts casinos to open
new card rooms

As reported by The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, MO - A few years ago, casinos across the United States were closing their poker rooms to make space for more popular and lucrative slot machines.

But the improbable triumph in 2003 of a 27-year-old accountant from Tennessee, who beat some of the world's greatest professional players on national television, has sent the country into a poker frenzy.

Anybody who watches ESPN probably already knows the story: A man named Chris Moneymaker wins a $40 Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament on the Internet, qualifies to play in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, then outlasts a colorful cast of characters to win $2.5 million.

"When the World Poker Tour got into television and used technology to show the hole cards, it sparked enormous interest in poker," said Gary Thompson, spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment in Las Vegas. "Americans are very competitive people. You can't compete with Tiger Woods on a golf course, or a heavyweight boxer in the ring, but you can compete at a poker table and knock out a world champion."

The skyrocketing popularity of the game prompted Harrah's to buy Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas earlier this year, and with it, the rights to the World Series of Poker. Thompson said Harrah's, which owns 28 casinos nationwide, recently opened poker rooms at three of its Midwestern casinos. It plans to adds four more at other casinos.

Harrah's has capitalized on Moneymaker's star status by giving poker players around the nation a chance to compete against the former world champion. Moneymaker is scheduled to be at the Kansas City casino on Aug. 22, and recently played at a similar event at the Harrah's in St. Louis.

Harrah's Kansas City casino opened a poker room on July 15, two weeks after the Isle of Capri opened one at its Kansas City property. Both casinos had poker rooms when they opened a decade ago, but Harrah's shut its live poker tables down in June 1998, and Isle of Capri closed its room in 2000.

"The popularity of what we have now has mushroomed based on what people see on television," said Tracy Owens, spokesman for Ameristar Casinos, which operates a casino in Kansas City.

"In Kansas City, the poker room is packed on weekends, with 100 to 150 people playing, and on a typical weeknight, we have upwards of 80 to 100 people."

There are signs that poker may have staying power.

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