ï»¿Ultimate Poker Shuts Down Nevada On-line Poker Site once and for all

Danielle ‘dmoongirl’ Andersen was one of the few Ultimate that is remaining Poker still extant before the web site announced it shut down in Nevada.

Ultimate Poker has shut down its Nevada online poker site, closing a 19-month run after becoming the first regulated Internet poker site in america. The business has now also become the first to end operations in Nevada, leaving simply two other poker providers mixed up in state.

The Ultimate Poker closure will, at the very least for the time being, leave Ultimate Gaming with no Internet that is active gaming in the United States. 8 weeks ago, the company also pulled out of the New Jersey market, citing the contractual problems it was having because of the Trump Taj Mahal.

Revenues Didn’t Live Up to Expectations

‘on the web poker revenues in Nevada have actually fallen far short of original projections,’ stated Ultimate Gaming Chairman Tom Breitling. ‘Moreover, the state-by-state approach to online video gaming has developed an extremely cost-prohibitive and challenging operating environment. These factors have actually combined to make the path to profitability really difficult and uncertain. Consequently, we have determined to cease operations.’

Ultimate Poker suffered from exactly what many saw as inferior computer software and a lack of brand recognition. Nevertheless the site had hoped to replace this in Nevada by beating your competition to your market, something it accomplished by launching several months before anyone else could make it through their state’s regulatory needs.

Early Advantage Evaporates with Competition

That advantage place the company in a excellent position in the beginning of the state’s regulated Internet poker market. But it was merely a matter of time before bigger names came to the state to compete, and the room that is second enter the market was a bit of a juggernaut: the Caesars-backed WSOP.com, which showcased the well-known (and well-respected) World Series of Poker brand.

Before long, WSOP.com had surpassed Ultimate Poker while the biggest site in the state. While Ultimate held on up to a small player base, WSOP.com now controls about two-thirds of the market, a share that will end up nearly 100 % once the Ultimate Poker shutdown is complete.

Since Ultimate Gaming left New Jersey, there had been some signs that the business was trying 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 discovered in regards to the final end of Ultimate Poker in Nevada on Twitter.

‘Obviously saddened by the @UltimatePoker news,’ Andersen tweeted on afternoon friday. ‘Appreciative of most the opportunities they provided for myself & the poker community. All I can do is hope like hell the future is brighter because of this game I love so much.’

Soft Shutdown Expected for Players

Ultimate Gaming says they are working with state regulators to ensure a shutdown that is smooth and there appears to be no cause for players to be worried about the safety of their account balances at the moment.

‘We are grateful to your Nevada Gaming Commission and Gaming Control Board for allowing us to be the first company to operate internet poker in Nevada and greatly appreciate their leadership and support as the very first state to license and control internet poker,’ Breitling said. ‘Our company is working closely with the Gaming Control Board to make sure a transition that is smooth our customers even as we cease Nevada operations.’

The exit of Ultimate makes just two poker spaces remaining in the Nevada market. Along with WSOP.com, addititionally there is the true Gaming site operated by South Point Casino, though that site has traffic that is negligible.

Mohegan Sun Looks 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 happens to be steeling itself to take on Massachusetts, in place of beating a humiliating retreat after losing the bid for an eastern Massachusetts casino license in 2010.

Sunlight wants to build a casino that is new north Connecticut to compete with the $800 million MGM Resorts casino planned to open across the border in Springfield in 2017.

The Springfield casino is expected to derive a 3rd of its visitors from Connecticut, putting Mohegan Sun in an offensive position to keep its land gambling population from bleeding over the state border to Massachusetts.

Sixty percent of Massachusetts residents voted in favor of keeping casino video gaming carrying out a referendum that is public this year’s midterm elections, meaning that MGM and Wynn Resorts, the latter of which ended up being provided the east Massachusetts license at the trouble of Mohegan Sun, are actually free to push ahead with their projects.

And while Connecticut may have been praying that voters would elect to ‘repeal the deal,’ their state must now act to guard its casino industry from potentially devastating competition.

‘The competition is on. The competition has begun,’ chairman 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, its certainly a revived conversation,’ he added. ‘we need to do something in the real face regarding the development of Massachusetts gaming. To do otherwise would be short-sighted on our component.

‘[The Massachusetts casino developers] undoubtedly have not been shy about saying they are not ones to lose any longer revenue from Massachusetts gamers planning 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 video gaming analyst Keith Foley, its monetary situation ‘would have enhanced materially.’ The Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville is extremely leveraged, he added, and could face significant debt repayment just as the two proposed Massachusetts casinos open their doors for company in 2017.

Both Connecticut casino resorts, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, were hit hard by the worldwide downturn that is economic of and so are over $1 billion with debt.

Difficult Process

While expansion may be within the cards, it’ll be a long and difficult legislative process. Connecticut has sanctioned gambling enterprises in its southeast since the early nineties in return for a part of the profits. Only the Mohegans as well as the Mashantucket Pequots, who operate Foxwoods, are permitted to work casino gambling into the continuing state, using the provision that no other entity may do this.

This implies that expansion would be a complex legal procedure, requiring the approval for the legislature, the governor and both tribes.

Nevertheless, 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 agree that these platinum quick hits slot (discussions) are a required move.’

Meanwhile, Representative Peggy Sayers, whom recently oversaw a task that is legislative studying regional gaming competition, concluded that Connecticut ‘must 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 problems in Connecticut, said this week that he wants to hold a hearing later in the thirty days on how best to protect the industry.

Revel to Reopen Under New Owners, While New Jersey Showboat Goes Collegiate

Atlantic City’s Revel will reopen as a new casino, but exactly when is still unclear. (Image: Ben Fogletto/pressofatlanticcity.com)

The brand new owners of Atlantic City’s Revel Casino, Toronto-based asset management firm Brookfield Asset Management Inc., have established they will invest $200 million to redevelop the formerly swank property, because of the aim of reopening it yet again year that is next. Brookfield bid $110 million for the property at auction month that is last a fraction of its original $2.4 billion building cost.

James Kehoe, chairman of New Jersey’s Casino Reinvestment Redevelopment Authority, said that the investment group expects to complete the purchase month that is next. Other than that, he added, the team hasn’t set a detailed timetable for Revel’s next phase.

Revel was a grand plan designed to regenerate Atlantic City, but was conceived unfortunately going to the market simply as the global economic downturn from which Atlantic City has neglected to recover went into full swing.

Year along with the Showboat, it was one of four of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos to close in 2014, with another, the Trump Taj Mahal, unlikely to see in the New. Revel opened amid much fanfare in 2012, but with its huge operating costs, it failed to ever turn a profit, and by the time it closed previously 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 an undisclosed sum. The property, on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, will end up a satellite campus for the college that is undergraduate which can be based in Ponoma in Atlantic County.

The Showboat shut its doorways in August, having unsuccessful to find a buyer, and despite being truly a operation that is profitable owners Caesars Entertainment. The Mardi Gras-themed casino opened in 1987 and ended up being purchased 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. Nevertheless, by the start of 2014, it absolutely was clear that the casino market in Atlantic City had become saturated and the company’s other properties, Harrahs Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City, required some elbow room. An element of the purchase contract is that the property wouldn’t normally reopen being a casino.

‘There is too much capacity in Atlantic City currently, such that the comes back to existing capacity are under great pressure,’ Caesars CEO Gary Loveman stated recently. ‘So we are looking at our options to lessen the cost of doing business right here, choices to reduce ability.’

Diversifying the City

Stockton President Herman Saatkamp had been unable to mention the details of the purchase, which includes 28 acres, as well as 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 growth, offerings and cost-containment while at the exact same time brings new educational opportunities to Atlantic City,’ Saatkamp stated. ‘Because we are merely at the letter-of-intent stage and bound by a confidentiality agreement, it is premature for me to give out any additional information.’

‘The change and revitalization of Atlantic City requires the addition of a set that is diverse of for individuals to come see,’ said Loveman, commenting regarding the deal. ‘I believe the construction of a Stockton campus there will help diversify the economy associated with the city, which is critical to its well-being that is future.