Is it this man’s fault, or perhaps is it the Chinese slowdown that is economic? VIP Baccarat revenues plummeted on the Las Vegas Strip in July.
Is the Chinese slowdown that is economic the action at the entire world’s baccarat tables?
While there may certainly be more pressing items to worry about following Beijing’s recent decision to devalue the Yeun, such as destabilization of the global economic markets and possible economic meltdown, it does seem that Asia’s economic troubles are having a detrimental effect on that one game, devised by European aristocracy and so peculiarly beloved of the Chinese.
The slowing economy that is chinese already hurting Macau’s bottom line; the province has recorded its 14th right month of decrease in revenue, and baccarat, which can be probably the most popular game played in the gambling hub, particularly by high rollers, which is feeling the pinch.
In 2014 VIP baccarat introduced 60 % of Macau’s entire gaming revenue, based on the UNLV Center for Gaming Research, and the Chinese government’s anti-corruption drive, which seeks to stem the flow of high rollers to Macau, means that the province’s baccarat tables are increasingly underpopulated.
And now it seems the effect might be spreading to Las Vegas.
Dip on Strip
Baccarat revenues on the nevada Strip dipped dramatically in July; while site visitors to Strip casinos were up for the month by 5.3 percent, 12 months over year, gaming revenue fell by 2 percent, thanks mainly up to a 21 % drop in baccarat income.
For as soon as, this wasn’t Phil Ivey’s fault.
Volume was down too, by way of a whopping 35 percent. In fact, for the first 1 / 2 of the year, baccarat revenue plunged by 20 percent on the previous year, with the amount wagered by visitors to Strip casinos declining by 43 %.
However, it’s hard to gauge whether we are truly seeing the effect for the China’s monetary troubles in Vegas’ depleted baccarat tables.
As Capital Markets gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski told the Las Vegas Review Journal, figures can be skewed by ‘the inherent volatility in baccarat volumes,’ and the comparison of the with 2014 is problematic, because 2014 was a record year for baccarat year.
‘June’s results, though still somewhat disappointing, were greater than the headline comparison would indicate,’ Wieczynski explained.
Mass Market Appeal
But Wells Fargo Securities gaming analyst Cameron McKnight believes there is indeed a correlation between bad results in Vegas plus the political and financial status in China.
‘ In our view, the weakness in Strip baccarat play is partly associated to the anti-corruption initiative in Asia and the monitoring of Chinese visitors in nevada,’ he told investors.
But Vegas casino operators are not panicking as of this time.
Bad results at the VIP baccarat tables only affect a handful of Strip gambling enterprises, and, excluding those results, the Strip had a month that is largely positive terms of mass market gaming income.
Colorado Gambling Addiction Program Audit Shows Only One Gambler Assisted in Past Two Years
Lawmakers say that lots of programs in the Colorado Department of Human solutions have suffered under executive director Reggie Bicha. (Image: Craig F. Walker/Denver Post)
A Colorado gambling addiction system has apparently been dust that is gathering based on a recent audit of the device’s actual use.
Most states that allow for legalized gambling, including Colorado, acknowledge that along more chilli slot ad with the revenue they raise through gaming, there is likewise some problems with addiction.
To that end, programs to minmise those problems and help individuals whom develop problem gambling issues are a part that is big of gambling expansion.
But what happens once the programs designed to help compulsive gamblers aren’t actually doing anything at all?
That’s the nagging problem currently being faced in Colorado, where an audit of this state’s gambling addiction system found that barely anyone has been aided at all by those efforts. The problems were just the found that is latest by lawmakers who possess grown increasingly concerned with troubling issues inside their state’s Department of Human Services.
Numbers Show Little Perform Being Complete in Program
The numbers involved with the scheduled program are striking. While more than 9,000 people called a gambling that is national hotline in search of help from Colorado last year, not one person in hawaii was actually assisted with a corresponding state program built to counsel problem gamblers.
Furthermore, only five counselors obtained accreditation that is national gambling addiction over the past two years in Colorado. That’s out of 23 counselors who received money through the state to obtain that official certification.
‘One thing is wrong with the system,’ former State Senator Jeanne Nicholson (D-Black Hawk), who requested the audit, told the Denver Post. ‘The purpose was to help people who had gaming addictions that were connected with us legalizing gaming in Colorado. And I don’t think we have been accomplishing that.’
It is not the story of a program that is wasting the state’s coffers: the program, funded by a combination of taxes, fees, and fines from gambling enterprises into the state, has a budget of just about $100,000 each year. However, the real way in which that money was being used has raised plenty of eyebrows.
Most Money Spent on Advertising, Administration
About 83 % of all funds allocated to the program in the 2015 fiscal 12 months have actually been for administrative and advertising expenses, also as re payments to the specialist who was employed to run the program. It’s yet another blight on the record of Department of Human Services Executive Director Reggie Bicha, whom has been under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers this year.
‘I am beyond disappointed within the results of this audit that is particular’ Bicha said to lawmakers. ‘ And extraordinarily discouraged by the ongoing work of our Office of Behavioral wellness in implementing this program.’
Colorado’s gaming profits have remained relatively flat in recent years, using the state’s casinos bringing in $745.9 million in 2014. That was virtually just like the year prior, though taxes collected by the state increased by 2.5 per cent to $106 million thanks to gains at larger casinos.
But that revenue comes at an expense, says State Representative Dianne Primavera (D-Broomfield), one that the continuing state needs to take really.
‘Gambling addiction is among the worst addictions you can have because it leads to crime and work loss and people’s homes going into foreclosure and domestic violence and ingesting and other kinds of addictions,’ she said. ‘ This is not the sort of addiction that we should brush aside.’
The audit into Colorado’s problem gambling services discovered problems that are numerous back years. In 2011, their state began paying the University of Denver about $65,000 an in order to let psychology students offer counseling services, which was not in compliance with state law year. And even though those students counseled 116 people during the period of three years, only one individual has received help through accredited counselors in 2014 and 2015 combined.
Texas Racetracks Bets are Off After Standoff with Legislature
Texas State Senator Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) has called the Texas Racing Commission a ‘rogue agency’ and accused it of defying hawaii’s constitution. (Image:Bob Daemmrich/texastribune.org)
Texas racetracks might not have lost the competition yet, but their odds are maybe not looking good. The Lone Star State’s horse and dog racing tracks remained closed to bettors on Wednesday as a result of an ongoing funding dispute between the Texas Racing Commission (TRC) and the state’s legislature.
Despite reports to the contrary from some news sources, parties failed to reach an agreement before the evening ultimatum set by the Commission, which means, for the time being at least, all bets are off, literally monday.
The dispute focuses on the Texas legislature’s decision to withhold $1.5 million of the TRC’s annual funding. That move is in protest of its plans to expand gambling at songs, chiefly in the type of ‘historical racing devices,’ which effortlessly allow bets on recordings of past events.
In November, the TRC lost a fight that is legal install the machines at racetracks in the Lone Star State, and, as an outcome of that ruling, started the process of erasing all mention of historical racing machines from their laws.
‘Rogue Agency’
Nevertheless, the other day TRC commissioners voted 4-3 against eliminating these references, a provocative move and one that exceeds its authority, according to lawmakers. The commission has been accused of ‘picking a battle’ with the legislature, while State Senator Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound), chair for the Senate Finance Committee, has called the TRC a ‘rogue agency’ and accused it of defying hawaii’s constitution.
Meanwhile, the TRC, which regulates all betting during the tracks, claims that the withheld funds prevent it from operating, rendering it not able to pay its rent and professional salaries, and without supervision through the regulator, it says, there can be no betting on races.
On TRC ordered track owners to shut their traps, literally, and cease all operations tuesday.
‘ As a result of the TRC not receiving the necessary authorization from the Legislative Budget Board to expend administrative funds past August 31, 2015, the Commission must cease all operations, including the oversight of both live racing and simulcast wagering,’ read a statement from Lone Star Park Racetrack President and General Manager Scott Wells.
Sympathy inside your home
It appears, nevertheless, that there is more sympathy in the homely house for the TRC therefore the songs than in the Senate.
‘I believe it’s imperative that this industry remain fully regulated,’ said State Representative John Otto (R-Dayton) while I understand there are legitimate concerns over the racing commission’s recent actions regarding the issue of historical racing,.
Jan Haynes, president of the Texas Thoroughbred Association, meanwhile, stated that the legislature had no right to shut an industry down that contributes a lot of fiscal revenue for the state and employs tens of thousands of people.
‘The Lt. Governor and something Senator [Nelson] should not have the power to turn off an industry that is entire simply take away 36,000 jobs,’ she said. ‘The entire Budget that is legislative should and vote on funding the Texas Racing Commission straight away.’
Just What Is Historical Racing, Anyhow?
Confused by the concept of betting on races that have been won? So were we. Some tips about what we found out:
Also called Instant Racing, the betting typically takes place on terminals that are like slot machines. They may be for both dog and horse racing events already last. Players deposit their wagers on races picked at random from internal video libraries that can hold over 60,000 different already completed events.
Bettors won’t have any access to information that is key such as when, where, or with what horses or jockeys the competition took place. The guidance that is only participants are unidentifiable ability graphs that give stats on jockeys’ past wins, without really naming them.
They then bet on whom they think will place in the utmost effective three. A ‘Handi Helper’ functions being a sort of random lottery quantity generator, automating the process for those who do not desire to think in excess.
