MGM Mirage owns the most spectacular casino hotels in Las Vegas, announced Monday the sale of Treasure Island Hotel & Casino in Ruffin Acquisition, LLC for $ 775 million USD. Ruffin Acquisition, LLC is wholly owned by Phil Ruffin.

“We are extremely proud of the achievements by employees and management team of the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, which made it one of the most visited establishments in Las Vegas, said in a news release James J. Murren, president and CEO of MGM MIRAGE. We are pleased to have worked with Phil Ruffin, a partner known and trusted. This transaction creates value for our stakeholders through increased liquidity and financial flexibility. ”

Treasure Island, which is located on the Las Vegas Strip, hosted Mystery, the first permanent production in Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil.

“We are very pleased to be able to acquire this property for his part said the new owner Phil Ruffin. The property is in perfect condition, ideally located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip and has a wonderful team of employees. We are financially able to conclude this transaction once all necessary approvals have been received. “

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The Union states that resisted for many years to edicts from Brussels Liberals now flag down one by one. In turn, France is preparing to break its monopoly and games to open the door to private operators who camp for over a decade on the Net. A bill is being finalized and the first permits should be issued at the end of 2009. A period much too long for Partouche . The number two casinos opened in France in November on the Web site dedicated to poker.

Before everyone

In 2007, Patrick Partouche , CEO of the family group, was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment suspended for having maintained trade links with a company online gaming domiciled in Belize, a Central American country confetti (1) . He again takes the risk of defying the law, presumably to force the hand of government. The state, via Michele Alliot-Marie, the Interior Minister, has also not responded. Against all odds, Socodem , the independent company that operates the casino Gujan-Mestras in Gironde, is the only one up to the plate.

Yesterday morning, she sued the group Partouche before the judge of the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. The magistrate will make a decision until this weekend. Frédérique Ruggieri, the operator of the Gironde, asks the court to order the closure of its competitor, or at least the removal of pages dedicated to poker. Heavily indebted group Partouche , whose action unscrewed the stock exchange, based high hopes on the development of online games, which have already attracted hundreds of thousands of Internet users in France.

Accessible by users of the Hexagon, the sites of Bwin , Unibet, and many others are circumventing the laws and tax systems of states. With impunity. They operate under licenses are easily obtained in Malta or Gibraltar. Overwhelmed by these newcomers, French casinotier urge governments not to hasten the pain of being bumped on the Net.

Distorting competition?

At Gujan-Mestras the Socodem head out of water after several difficult years. Frédérique Ruggieri has always suspected the group Partouche , a monopoly on the Arcachon basin, having used his influence to halt the taking of slots required for the profitability of its establishment. Gambling sites online announce the additional sales, but they also risk draining the poker rooms of traditional casinos, already undermined by the smoking ban. Allow an operator to place his checkers before the starting signal given by the law does not he returns to condone an illegality, namely a breach of the principles of competition?

Yesterday, before the judge, the group Partouche has not directly answered the question. He objected to the jurisdiction of the High Court, such a dispute is his view of the jurisdiction of Commerce. The Socodem argues that the web host is French. But Partouche said that the pages in question were posted by a company registered in Gibraltar, that justice would not hex the power to criticize anything. In the lucrative world of gaming, green carpets have more fiber lamp.

(1) He has appealed the decision.

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The contract of public service delegation Casino Beach signed December 23, 1998 expired in late 2008. The town, owner, has this year launched a consultation procedure for signing a new contract.

At the public meeting of City Council on Monday, Xavier Pintat presented the conclusion of the operation. Only one nomination is received, the current manager of the company Casino Beach represented by its CEO Roland Leas. After failing to find a financial agreement acceptable to both parties, especially pending the outcome of ongoing negotiations between the mayors, professionals casinos and the Ministry of Interior in order to change a difficult situation Xavier Pintat and City Council opted for the one-year extension of the old contract. Roland Lease has accepted the proposal.

Victim of crisis

Major groups, we read everywhere, are affected by the crisis. Online games, control inputs, the smoking ban, have reduced turnover from 15 to 20%. Casino Soulac, although part of the ten smallest casinos in France, is also a victim of the crisis.

“His GGR (Gross gaming revenue) of EUR 2.4 million with games, is certainly a lesser regression, but regression, however, by 3.5% compared to 2007,” says Roland Leas, and n ‘not reached its equilibrium.

“The state and municipality levying 58% of our turnover rate increased steadily for 15 years. It requires that the State now considers casinos as businesses in their own right, with a payroll, sales, etc.. The casinos are 80,000 jobs in France and the profession is very bad, “argues the director of casino Soulac. Itself employs twenty people in the winter, a quarantine summer.

“We must avoid the closure,” Xavier Pintat think so. The contract amendment provides that the levy of the municipality will be 12% for 2009, against 15% previously. Other terms are unchanged. A new procedure for advertising will be launched.

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700 poker players are expected at the tables of Deauville from 20 to 24 janvier.Ce tournament is renowned.

European Poker Tour. This is one of the largest global events in the game EFA has a dozen stages in Barcelona, ??London, Budapest, Warsaw, Prague, Copenhagen and also Monte Carlo. Each stage receives between 500 to 600 players, amateurs and professionals from 70 different nationalities. To register, you must pay between 4000 and 5000 euros basic bet.

Last year, 6,000 players had shared a jackpot of 38 million. In January, 700 participants are expected at Deauville and will share 3.36 million euros. 70 journalists were accredited.

Organization. Casino Barrière de Deauville is the first organizer of the event in its establishment. “Until 2006, we paid the room for EFA, says Eric Cavillon, director of the division casinotier Trouville-Deauville. Following a new regulation, we must now fully organize the reception of the tournament. For these reasons, Deauville could not host the tournament in 2007.

How to participate? It is open to all. It is “sufficient” to pay the down payment and registration fee (€ 5300). The amount raised will be the overall pot. At the last stage of the tournament Deauville in 2006, the winner had won € 1,600,800.

Video. The tournament will take place around the 35 tables installed in the living ambassadors of the Deauville casino. Cameras allow the retransmission of the tournament delayed on the channel NRJ 12. “A CCTV system will be installed to protect the flow of money and preserve the event of any cheating. ”

Planning. The qualifiers for the European Poker Tour, the “Super Satellite”, last of January 16 to 19 casinos in Trouville and Deauville. Everyone can try their luck to qualify for the EPT … and be exempt from the initial bet.

The “High Roller”. Better to be on his game to approach the table. The original bet is 20 000 € (+ 300 € registration). Just to participate …

Celebs expected. Anthony Lelouch “ElkY” a former poker player online who won the tournament several times world and European, Jo Hachem, Willy Korchia Roger Hairston, Jacques Zaicik, Remi Biechel, Isabelle Mercier, introduced in 2006, etc..

European Poker Tour. From January 20 to 24 at the Casino Barriere de Deauville. The “Super Satellite” begins Friday, January 16 at the casino in Trouville. More information www.barrierepoker.com

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Ban tobacco, purchasing power at half mast hanging over the gambling establishments. Also in the Vendee. But the casinos still have cards.

Approximately 47.4 million euros. This is the gross gaming revenue (1) cumulative five casinos Vendée in 2008. A decrease of almost 2.5 million euros compared to last year. All establishments recorded a fall in activity, which varies from 0, 7% to 9%. Therefore a difficult year, but not catastrophic in comparison to other French casinos: “Some have experienced declines of 15, even 20% or more,” say the directors of casinos.

They point unanimously ban smoking in public places since 1 January as the main cause of this decline. After the introduction of mandatory verification of identity to the inputs on 1 November 2007, which had dampened activity, smoking ban weighed. The installation of booths for smokers, layout of rooms reserved or still heated terraces are clearly not convinced the players who would like a smoke-between updates.

“Time backlash”

“Stopping smoking in rooms has reduced playing time smokers,” says Noelle The Boulicaut, director of the Casino “Royal Concorde, Saint-Gilles-de-Vie. The problem “is that the decline observed in January continued in February, March … ‘Also highlights Laurence Chaillot, the communication manager of the casino des Pins Les Sables d’Olonne.

In addition smoking ban economic conditions, declining purchasing power: “People rely less playing time is reduced,” said Herve Le Cam, director of Atlantis, Sables d’Olonne. Fortunately, the institutions have still benefited from the influx of tourists during the summer: “We do negative numbers all year, but August was positive,” says Dylan Peyras, Pastourelle The casino manager, to Saint-Jean-de-Monts.

“Continuing to invest”

The current environment is difficult, and “the proliferation of Internet games captures customers’ state of school leaders. The horizon is not all black for the casino operator groups. Because the latter had, by accepting the changes in regulations (control inputs in 2007 and ban tobacco in 2008), negotiated significant counterparties.

Among them, free access to table games (blackjack, roulette …), which is advancing the gaming sector since the authorization of the Texas hold’em poker, the expected arrival of multi jackpots (among several casinos), which can display are six zeros …

To continue to attract customers, casinos Vendéen also continue their investments: application of twenty additional machines at the casino of the Atlanteans, restoration of the brewery casino The Pastourelle, beautification of the restaurant at the casino Dunes La Faute-sur-Mer, are Among other things, planned for 2009.

(1) The gross gaming revenue (GGR) is the difference between what all players have bet and what the more fortunate have won. This on the whole exercise stretching for gambling establishments from 1 November or October 31 next year.

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The Company Farmer City Casino in Cannes, a subsidiary of Barrier Group , achieved at the end of its financial year 2007/2008 a turnover of 104.9 million euros, down 20% year on year, for a surplus Gross operating income of 6.7 ME (-54%). Operating profit plunges into the red to the tune of -0.8 ME (ME against 7.4 a year earlier) and the net result is a deficit of -2.8 ME after a profit of 3.5 ME at the end of previous year.

The group said the drop in its activity by 5 factors: smoking ban in public places in France, the economy, the cons-performance table games and slot machines, particularly at the Casino Barrière Les Princes, closure for 4 months at the Majestic Hotel for renovation and erosion of the activity of the seminar group’s two hotels.

The company said in Cannes that the prospects are difficult to determine, aut o long as the work of the Majestic are still ongoing and that the renovation of the second hotel, the Gray d’Albion began. The leaders will focus particularly on the work seminars, in decline. “The efforts already made and continue on charges of structure and operation are necessary,” explains the company, which does not, if the trend of last year continues, “to put in place measures necessary to maintain the economic balance of the group and its component companies.

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His competitors see the price of their shares on the stock market collapse and the shadow of bankruptcy hovering, but the Las Vegas tycoon Steve Wynn does not care: he is about to open without blinking Monday the doors of a new hotel-casino giant.

Modestly called again, the complex has cost $ 2.3 billion, has 2,000 rooms and is adjacent to Wynn Las Vegas now for three years already on the Strip, the main artery of the city of the game should open its doors even as Las Vegas knows its darkest hours in decades.

But Steve Wynn, 66, is convinced it will pass through the drops.

“I do not owe a penny personally and the band is solid as a rock”, proudly proclaims the CEO of Wynn Resorts Ltd.. “That is why we recently joined the S & P 500 (stock index, which lists the 500 largest companies listed in the U.S.). We are not in danger. We’re very lucky,” he said.

Wynn Resorts, which also owns Wynn Macau, 600-room hotel in Macau, and plans to create an extension called Encore Macau by the end of 2009, still suffered from the economic crisis.

But while the company lost half its stock value this year, its rivals have been more severely affected, MGM Mirage losing more than 80% of its value and Las Vegas Sands more than 90%.

Both groups had to take drastic measures to increase liquidity. MGM Mirage has sold including the Treasure Island resort in Las Vegas earlier this month for $ 775 million, a hotel built and managed by the Wynn Group until its acquisition in 2000.

And Las Vegas Sands thanked 11,000 employees in Macao, where the group has frozen its construction. Its main shareholder, Sheldon Adelson has also injected one billion dollars in his pocket in the group.

“Wynn has the best record of all groups managing casinos today,” said Bill Lerner, an expert at Deutsche Bank, which has funded several projects Mr. Wynn in recent years.

He “is wiser and more prudent than his peers, and do not build more than it can afford,” says he, terms that might not been employed there ten years when Mr. Wynn built the Bellagio, the most expensive hotel in the world at the time, with 1.6 billion.

In his mad dash with Mirage, which launched the fashion-themed mega resorts in Las Vegas in the 1990s, Mr. Wynn had spent with such a frenzy in luxurious details, as Wall Street had sanctioned, dropping his actions and causing its takeover by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.

“When a guy on Wall Street who do not understand it disapproves, it just proves he does not understand this activity and the creation of places of entertainment,” said Mr. Wynn, who has since managed to rebuild his empire.

The casino magnate is one of the stars of the game city, but it is equally at ease with Hollywood stars – he answered a phone call from Clint Eastwood in his hotel with the press – that with ordinary customers.

And it has humor. By visiting his hotel, Mr. Wynn has thus suddenly stopped to check if the wheels attached to a youth basketball did not risk damaging a mosaic floor.

“Who are you?” Asked the young man’s father.

“I work here, that’s all,” Mr. Wynn replied mischievously with a smile.

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Joagroupe and its 20 Joacasinos third national operator with 10% market share, it covered 450,000 per year through its 23 restaurants, 32 bars and 4 clubs, 400 employees and an annual turnover of 17 million euros. Innovations in all directions.

With the introduction of the smoking ban in January 2008 and in 2007, that of compulsory identity check at casinos depriving 50% of its restaurants free trade access, the group decided to take action . Several projects were launched by Lawrence Trabalzini, the new director of the restoration group’s JOA.

Food trends: At St. Paul-les-Dax in the Landes, a concept steam cooker and griddle is being tested for 3 months with a substantive work on the buffets of starters and desserts. In this region very soil, the bet was not won yet, steam cooking has been a resounding success with 35% of sales.

Promoting the network: from December 12 to January 4, all the group’s restaurants offer a menu JOANOËL common to 26 euros. From a guideline with leaders of various institutions have had 15 days to propose a menu and make the sheets. The 4 Heads, whose recipes were selected, were given appointments at JOAcasino Uriage to test dishes.

The theme restaurants: In Saint-Aubin, he had an idea to inhabit space. For this challenge, Joagroupe appealed to Fabrice Raoult (Mecanos Taste) who worked on the concept of “Bodega”, chosen by the group, to revitalize the area. The opening is scheduled for late March 2009.

The issue: As the image also depends on the materials presented to customers, menus, wine lists, maps, bars, nightclubs card facelift to match the 4 brand values: friendliness, freshness, sensory, self-confidence.

A new concept, JoaKfé: The agenda includes a finger food catering for players that may be enjoyed at the bar or on their machine. The menu will include tapas, pasta and wraps with a sale price of between € 3 and 8. Everything will be served in disposable dishes designated and fully biodegradable. The first tests are planned for early 2009.

Training: Beginning in 2009, a training program in the form of coaching is implemented over a period of 2 years for all employees of the restoration.

JOA20: The group accepts a wine list with some common to all casinos and another section devoted to regional specificities. In addition, JOA20, a vintage-specific band in white, red and rosé.

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Tournament richly endowed, gaming tables and crowded rejuvenated: the popular Texas hold’em poker in casinos soar before settling on online sites in a year with the opening of the French market gambling, according to an AFP survey.

Arrived in spring 2007, poker has instilled a renewed activity and a youthful look to the French casinos, affected by historic loss of 10% of their turnover in 2008 due to the smoking ban and the crisis economy.

Currently more than half of the 197 French casinos were permitted to operate poker.

Thus 25 of the 35 casinos Barrier Group , first French casino operator, has installed a total of 70 tables that have hosted over 100,000 players, 10 million turnover (20% of net gaming tables). In 2008, says Christian Meunier, director general of operations of the group, 3,000 players have participated in 500 tournaments in the casinos pay.

Casino de Deauville (Normandy) organize from 20 to 24 January the French leg of the fifth season of the prestigious European Poker Tour (EPT), where 700 players expected to meet for a total of 3.360 million euros in prize money after each paid 5,300 euros fee.

“Poker has created jobs,” notes Lawrence Lassiaz, CEO of Joagroupe third French casino sector, including 10 of the 20 schools opened poker tables. Jaogroupe will soon offer the winner of his tournament poker the sum of 100,000 euros.

At La Siesta in Antibes (Cote d’Azur), Joagroupe head, says Mr Lassiaz, the first electronic poker table, where under the supervision of a croupier, poker players can learn poker, for a development of a euro. Experience followed with interest by the 197 French casinos but with great reluctance by the union of casino employees who fear job losses within the profession (18,000 jobs).

This popularity of poker in casinos is also manifested by the existence of a dozen television shows and magazines many scholarly writings.

But large groups – Barrier, Partouche , Joagroupe , Tranchant – also staring at the second half of 2009 which should mark the opening of gambling and chance (JAH) competition in the French market requested by the European Commission.

The three operators of the legal monopoly of JAH in France (French Games, PMU, casino operator, a 2007 turnover of nearly EUR 21 billion) will face the end of 2009 to private operators in the market for games (paris horse sports and poker).

And the online poker market promises to be particularly lucrative if you believe the experts. According to Graham Wood, an international consultant specializing in online games, the annual turnover of online poker sites could reach one billion euros. For Mr. Lassiaz, the annual French market of online games is 800 million euros, 60% for poker.

These sites are remunerated, as the French casinos, with a percentage of the parts of 4 to 5% on bets placed by players. In three months, the three operators in Italy, which just opened at online poker, have earned 200 million euros in turnover, said Mr Wood.

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The casinos of the two capitals of the game could see their incomes drop by 15% in 2009.

Mecca of the game in Asia, second international platform behind Las Vegas, Macau is in turn affected by the crisis. The Venetian casino, where every day march 60 000 visitors, yesterday announced 500 redundancies. A blow to this resort opened in the summer of 2007, as big as 56 football fields, where the interiors are decorated with 3 million in gold leaf and customers are walking in a gondola in its 350 stores. Already last month, the owner of the Venetian, the U.S. giant Las Vegas Sands, had suspended the work of another massive 12 billion dollars in Macao and laid off 11,000 people. Sheldon Adelson, CEO, 3rd American fortune before his action does not dive, had to inject his pocket a billion.

Depression also hit Las Vegas. “Giants of the game to employees who live simple tips, everyone knows the dark days,” wrote the columnist of the Los Angeles Times. “Behind most of the smiles lies a great concern,” he adds. For a year, MGM Mirage, No. 1 American with 10 casinos on the Strip, fired 3,200 people. Heavily in debt, he had to give at the beginning of one of its hotel casinos, Treasure Island, for 775 million dollars and he struggles to fund the final tranche of its CityCenter mega-project. One of its competitors, Harrah’s Entertainment, removed him, 1 800 jobs.

Projects frozen

Less glitter, Atlantic City (New Jersey) – 2nd gambling capital of the United States – is not spared. So much so that the smoking ban has been lifted to avoid erosion of the attendance of its eleven casinos. During the first eleven months of the year, their incomes have in fact declined by nearly 7% from last year. 1 500 employees were dismissed.

Everywhere, the conclusion is the same: hit hard by the economic crisis, the game world is preparing for a difficult 2009. The giants of Las Vegas could see their sales fall by 10 to 15% next year. “In July and August, we really started to feel the pressure and the bottom was reached in September,” said vice-president of MGM Mirage. In October, for the tenth consecutive month, the gaming revenue of the city fell (- 26%). In addition, visitors are 10% lower than last year. For their part, airlines have reduced by 15% the number of seats in the 4th quarter. Finally, unemployment reached 7.9% in November in Las Vegas, against a national average of 6.7%. A reversal of the more brutal as the world capital of gambling had recently undergone a real building boom. Expect to see many projects being delayed, according to Deutsche Bank, like Echelon (Boyd Gaming), an operation to $ 5 billion has been suspended since August. In Macao, MGM Mirage has also frozen a complex project. Analysts said the woes of Macau, where casino revenue expected to fall in 2009 of nearly 15%, could benefit a emerging destination, Singapore, the advantage of a tax.

So many warning signals that faze Steve Wynn, a Las Vegas mogul who on Monday opened another casino hotel 2000 rooms including a restaurant is decorated with 90,000 Swarovski crystals. He bets on 95% discount for filling.

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