County Warns of Email Scam Development Services Department Says Fraudulent Invoice Notices Involved MOHAVE COUNTY, AZ (February 13, 2025) – The Mohave County Development Services has been made aware of an email scam involving ‘fraudulent invoice notices.’ The scam emails appear to be sent by the Development Services Department, attempting to deceive recipients into making […]
Wynn Praised for Strategy of Crown London Buy
Last week, Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) announced the acquisition of the Crown London, a small, private casino in the Mayfair District, and while it’s not the typical property-level purchase executed by a US gaming value, the deal has merit.
In a recent report to clients, CBRE Equity Research analyst John DeCree acknowledged that while the casino formerly known as Aspinalls doesn’t generate material cash flow and that London’s VIP casino market has been faltering since the start of the coronavirus pandemic five years ago, there’s logic behind the Wynn deal.
That said, we view this as a very strategic purchase for Wynn. Aspinalls caters to very high-end VIP gaming customers from London but also internationally, including from Asia, India and the Middle East, making it a very unique customer acquisition tool for Wynn Al Marjan Island,” wrote DeCree.
Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of this year, weren’t revealed. Located in London’s Mayfair District, Crown is a members-only casino founded by John Aspinall. Australia-based Crown Resorts acquired the venue in 2011.
Crown London Buy Could Bolster Wynn UAE Debut
While the Crown London deal isn’t the norm for a US casino operator, the purchase could pay dividends for Wynn as it looks toward the opening of its United Arab Emirates (UAE) integrated resort in early 2027. CEO Craig Billings acknowledged as much.
“This acquisition of an iconic asset offers us a presence in a global gateway city and will create a conduit for Wynn guests to visit our resorts, particularly Wynn Al Marjan Island which is slated to open in the first quarter of 2027 in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates,” he said in a statement.
DeCree concurs that Crown London could be an important asset for Wynn in terms of bolstering brand awareness among clientele that would be apt to travel to UAE, including Indian bettors – a demographic that could prove more likely to travel to UAE than to Macau.
“Aspinalls hosts a regular Bollywood Night, and India is one of the top feeder markets for tourism to the UAE. This acquisition gives Wynn a flag in a gateway city that should help build the global database and boost Wynn’s brand power in the region ahead of a blockbuster opening in the UAE,” added DeCree.
Support for Wynn UAE Casino Matters
With Wynn Al Marjan Island slated to open in about two years and the hotel tower on the project scheduled to be topped off by the end of 2025, the first casino resort project in the history of the Arab world could galvanize shares of Wynn as this year moves along.
However, some analysts argue that to date, the investment community hasn’t priced the UAE opportunity set into shares of Wynn. That underscores the importance of leveraging the Crown London acquisition to drive traffic to the UAE casino hotel resort when it opens. Another implication could be that investors are missing something because by some estimates, the UAE could be the world’s fourth-largest gaming market when it fully ramps up. For his part, CBRE’s DeCree sees value in the Crown London buy as a marketing tool for Wynn.
“Importantly, this is a high-end gaming asset with high-intent customers, making it a more deliberate customer acquisition channel relative to a branded hotel strategy or partnership,” concluded the analyst.
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Jackpot News Roundup: Two Major Holiday Wins at California’s Sky River Casino
Two lucky visitors each won hundreds of thousands of dollars at California’s Sky River Casino in the days leading up to Christmas.
While at the Elk Grove tribal gaming property, an unnamed Stockton, Calif. resident hit about $748K on a slot machine. That guest was playing the Monopoly Cash Wheel slot on Monday.
In addition, last Thursday, at the same casino, an unspecified Sacramento resident won $239,818. That visitor was playing Texas Hold’em, and hit with a royal flush.
No word on how either lucky winner will spend their newly-found fortune.
The casino, operated by the Wilton Rancheria tribe, features more than 2K slot machines, 80 table games, as well as 18 restaurants and bars.
Tachi Palace Casino Guests Both Hit Jackpots
Another two jackpots were won recently at Tachi Palace Casino Resort, also in California, the property announced on December 18.
One mystery winner hit $498,662. That guest won with a Blackjack Match STAX progressive jackpot. The second unidentified guest won $80,038 on a Bonus Spin Extreme Double Diamond jackpot while playing Spanish 21. The wager was for $5.
One of the winners said they will use the jackpot to “improve my life for the better.”
Visitor Wins at Rio in Vegas
At Las Vegas’ Rio Hotel & Casino, an unnamed player won $411,589 on December 16.
The guest was playing Kong: Skull Island, a slot machine that was recently acquired at the gaming property. The bet was for $18.75.
The payout was the largest jackpot at the casino since 2023, the Rio revealed.
$1M in Cash Awarded
California’s Yaamava’ Resort & Casino at San Manuel gave out $1M to a lucky player on December 16.
The event was part of the property’s “Million Dollar Moment” yearly promotion.
Mario Lopez, the celebrity and actor, presented the payout to the unnamed Southern Californian resident.
The theme this year recognized the 85th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz movie.
Partnering with the Wizard of Oz to lead us down the yellow brick road to a million dollars has been electrifying at both Yaamava’ and the Palms [in Las Vegas],” Kenji Hall, general manager at the Yaamava’ Resort & Casino at San Manuel, said in a statement.
The winner is an Emerald-level Club Serrano member.
MGM Grand Detroit Jackpot for Brian Christopher
Last week, casino influencer Brian Christopher revealed he won his largest jackpot ever while at the MGM Grand Detroit.
He was at the Michigan gaming property as part of a promotion involving his Rudies fan club last Wednesday. He was filming while he was trying his luck at slot machines.
He sat down at a Crazy Chickens slot machine. He bet $37 and won $79,589. But his luck continued. He continued to win jackpots, and walked away with over $100K in total payouts.
“It was unbelievable, as I’m waiting to get paid out, I hit another five or six jackpots on the same game. It just kept going,” he was quoted by MLive, a regional news site.
Christopher has some 708,000 YouTube subscribers. He’s also a BetMGM ambassador.
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Rephrased by The Mystic Gambler
Interview: How to Build an Online Slot Machine
Online slots have come a long way in the last 10 years. With ever more imaginative mechanics, reels that might cluster or cascade, and themes that have more in common with explosive video games than traditional one-armed bandits, there’s a lot going into the modern slot. Casino.org spoke to Alexandros Mavroudis, product owner at game studio Gaming Corps, to find out how it’s done.
Alexandros, tell us a bit about the process of building a game from start to finish. For example, which comes first, the artistic concept or the math model?
Every game is different, but for the most part, the mechanic will carry the artistic concept. Somebody from our team – usually the mathematician or the product owner – will have a mechanic in mind that is influenced by market trends. Discussions will be had at an early stage to determine what type of theme would blend well with that mechanic.
On the flip side, it is very much possible that we have been inspired by a recent movie or video game, or other pop culture events, and want to take an existing mechanic and blend it with a theme that suits that trend. This is less common but absolutely something that can be highly successful
Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?
Inspiration can really be drawn from all walks of life. Whether it be an upcoming holiday or a recent movie release, a growing trend or a classic “hit,” the inspiration can come from anywhere. This is what makes working within such a creative and fast-paced environment so exciting. You never know where the next idea is going to come from.
There seems to be a move away from slots clichés like leprechauns and their pots of gold to more experimental themes and ideas. Is that reflective of the market – that people want things that are new and different?
Yes, I think so. People are becoming tired of the simplicity of traditional slots. They want experiences that remind them of video games or the social games they play on their phones.
Our next release, Gates of Hellfire, is a great example. It’s a kind of demonic fantasy sci-fi epic – a battle of good versus evil played out across a slot-machine grid.
This is really where you see the influence of video games on modern slots. Gates of Hellfire has Boss demons and futuristic weapons. The grid is divided into two parts, with an enemy section and a weapons section. Each weapon functions differently and attacks different parts of the grid.
There’s so much going on, and yet, it’s still recognizably a slot machine, with the same functionality as a slot machine, but perhaps with different reward mechanisms. And not a leprechaun in sight, we promise.
How important is storytelling and animation in a modern slot?
To stand out in a saturated market, you definitely need to produce something that connects to the player. Whether that is via a character or a bit of narrative design in the bonus feature. We believe that it is one of the ingredients in a big recipe that can create a successful new iGaming product.
Similarly, animations are extremely important. They are a core part of the gameplay experience. In helping build suspense, animations are crucial. They help the player know how to win, and when they do win the animations are there to make the experience 10 times better.
How do music and sound effects influence player actions within the game?
Within our games, music and sound effects are factored in at an early stage to ensure they get the correct vibe within the game. We use these elements to ensure that the slower bits are more exciting and the exciting bits are taken to the next level.
Music and SFXs can influence your overall game pace and ensure that players are kept engaged and entertained at all times
Critics say slot machines conjure up “near misses” to keep players playing. Is this something slots developers actually focus on or is it more about people seeing patterns in a random game of chance?
Near misses are a natural part of a player’s experience within a slot machine. Quite normally, players will see patterns as they are playing and feel as if they are getting close to a win or a feature, but of course every new spin is completely independent from the last and should be treated as such.
How has regulation impacted the way slots are built? Do you have to build different types of slots for different jurisdictions?
It absolutely has had an impact on the way slots are built. For example, each of our games is built in a modularized way to allow us to switch between different jurisdictional settings with ease.
We don’t currently create different types of slots for different jurisdictions because we want to release our products in as many places as possible. But certainly, if we are targeting a specific market, we will take into consideration the different regulatory requirements and shape the game in a way that suits that market more than others.
For example, if we are targeting a market that does not allow Bonus Buy features, then we will ensure that the math model is built with this in mind and will instead opt for a Hot Bet (also known as an Ante Bet or Feature Bet) to ensure that players have access to the bonus feature in more ways than one.
Is there pressure as a slots developer to come up with the ‘next’ Megaways? How much time do you spend tinkering to build the next “killer” mechanic and do you think you’ve found it with A-MAZE-CADES?
Yes! We’re all about new and innovative mechanics. We want to surprise people and make them feel like they’re experiencing something completely new. The A-MAZE-CADES mechanic debuted in our recent game, Wet n’ Wild Beavers.
The mechanic makes it almost impossible to predict where the next win is going to come, all because of the mazey route taken by the symbols as the game plays out.
With A-MAZE-CADES, with each winning combination where the paylines pay left-to-right, winning symbols are removed and the grid fills inwards towards the bottom-left corner – a unique twist on the cascading mechanic.
Megaways was a game-changer when it came out, and we think A-MAZE-CADES is just as complex and ambitious.
The post Interview: How to Build an Online Slot Machine appeared first on Casino.org.
Rephrased by The Mystic Gambler
WSOP Winner Cory Zeidman Pleads Guilty to Sports Betting Fraud Scheme
Pro poker player and sports betting tout Cory Zeidman pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York Wednesday to defrauding customers in his sports handicapping business.
Federal prosecutors alleged that the World Series of Poker bracelet winner and his co-defendants duped customers to pay for betting advice by claiming to have insider knowledge, “only to feed them lies and pocket millions of dollars from their savings and retirement accounts.”
Boca Raton, Fla. resident Zeidman, 61, has earned almost $700,000 in gross tournament winnings in a 25-year poker career. He won his WSOP title in 2012 in 7-card stud. Prior to that, he was best known for arguably slow-rolling Jennifer Harman while holding a straight flush against her full house at the 2005 WSOP main event.
Scheme Generated $25M
From 2004 to 2020, Zeidman’s racket offered bettors access to “privileged information” about player injuries, “dirty referees,” and sporting events that were “fixed” – all false, according to prosecutors. The organization advertised its services on national radio using bogus names like “Gordon Howard Global” and “Ray Palmer Group.”
When bettors contacted the organization potentially to invest in the scheme, they were told it received information on injuries from doctors and that television executives were giving it the lowdown on the purportedly predetermined results of games. This rendered sports betting a “low or no-risk proposition,” prosecutors said.
Zeidman and his co-defendants collected around $25 million in “exorbitant” fees from customers in exchange for information that “was either fictitious or obtained from an internet search,” according to court details.
Shortly after his arrest in 2022, Zeidman told PokerNews that he intended to plead not guilty, quoting Nietzsche (the last refuge of a scoundrel?) to insist his innocence.
“In the words of Nietzsche, ‘Everything the state says is a lie and everything it has it has stolen,’” he proclaimed.
Victims Disagree
But it was Zeidman who was doing the fibbing and pilfering, according to his victims, who contacted Homeland Security about his scheme. That’s in contrast to his description of himself as “an individual with the highest level of morals and integrity,” in his PokerNews spiel.
Sports bettors sought Cory Zeidman’s advice before gambling their money — but it was Zeidman himself who was scoring big through his deceptive practices, outright lies, and high-pressure tactics that exploited unsuspecting clients,” special agent Charles Walker of Homeland Security in New York said in a statement.
Zeidman pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, which comes with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The post WSOP Winner Cory Zeidman Pleads Guilty to Sports Betting Fraud Scheme appeared first on Casino.org.
Rephrased by The Mystic Gambler
Jackpot News Roundup: Thanksgiving Provides Many Generous Payouts at US Casinos
Thanksgiving has proven to be a lucky time for visitors to gaming properties nationwide.
A woman named Carlina had reason to be especially thankful after winning about $617K at California’s Eagle Mountain Casino.
The $617,150.11 payout for the Central Valley resident is the largest so far this year at the Porterville tribal gaming property, the casino announced on Tuesday.
The win was on a Dollar Storm slot machine manufactured by Aristocrat Gaming.
Thanksgiving Payout in Texas
A visitor to Texas’ Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel in Eagle Pass also had extra reason to be thankful on Thanksgiving.
The Corpus Christi man won $691,289.48 while playing a Frankenstein slot machine.
The unnamed player had wagered $6.
Luck for New Orleans Casino Visitor
A woman at Caesars New Orleans won a jackpot of about $150K on November 26.
Identified as Ms. DeShawn, she originally resided in New Orleans and now lives in Alaska. Ms. DeShawn stopped at the casino while returning to her native city around the holiday. She was playing Mississippi Stud poker when she was dealt a royal flush in spades.
The total jackpot was $156,301.
Another guest at the Caesars New Orleans on Friday won $118,868 while playing a Dragon Link slot machine.
Ocean Casino Resort Jackpot
Atlantic City’s Ocean Casino Resort announced last week that Luz Bagley of Cream Ridge, NJ, won a jackpot on November 22.
While visiting the gaming property with her husband, she won $227,852 on a Dragon Link Panda Magic slot machine. She had bet $25.
Florida Player Wins Almost $1M
A lucky visitor to Florida’s Seminole Casino Hotel Immokalee won close to $1M on November 22.
The man was playing a Tree of Wealth Jade Eternity slot machine when his $66 bet won a payout worth $996,852.25.
The unnamed player is from Naples.
Another visitor to the casino on November 20 won $151,934.05 on a Lock It Link slot machine.
Record Payout at MGM Grand Detroit
A lucky player at the MGM Grand Detroit won more than $1.2M on November 21. The total is believed to be the largest jackpot ever in the gaming property’s 25-year history.
The unnamed visitor won $1,271,645 on a Dragon Link slot machine, which is made by Aristocrat Gaming.
Matt Buckey, president of MGM Grand Detroit, commented in a statement, “Seeing our players win big is always a source of excitement for our team.”
Palazzo Guest Wins $1M
On November 21, an unnamed visitor won more than $1M at The Palazzo in Las Vegas.
The total payout was $1,027,979.30. The person bet $50 on a Dragon Link slot machine in the high-limit gaming lounge.
The post Jackpot News Roundup: Thanksgiving Provides Many Generous Payouts at US Casinos appeared first on Casino.org.
Rephrased by The Mystic Gambler
Casino Jackpot News Roundup: Player Wins Over $1M in New Mexico
A woman won more than $1M while playing a slot machine on Saturday at New Mexico’s Ohkay Hotel Casino.
The unnamed Taos County resident collected $1,032,690 after wagering $3.75. [Read more…] about Casino Jackpot News Roundup: Player Wins Over $1M in New Mexico
