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Tuesday, May 09, 2023
Media Man International Blog: SEO for Businesses
Media Man International Blog
SEO for Businesses
In today's digital landscape, businesses must harness the power of search engine optimization (SEO) to stay competitive and thrive. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the numerous benefits of SEO for small businesses and provide actionable tips to help you maximize your online presence.
Introduction to SEO for Small Businesses
SEO is the process of optimizing your website and online content to improve your visibility on search engines like Google. By implementing effective SEO strategies, small businesses can enjoy a myriad of benefits, such as increased organic traffic, better user experience, and higher conversion rates.
Increased Visibility and Brand Awareness
SEO helps small businesses rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. This increased visibility leads to greater brand awareness, as users are more likely to discover and engage with your business online.
Actionable Tip: Perform keyword research using tools like Google Keyword Planner to identify high-traffic keywords relevant to your business.
Enhanced User Experience
Optimizing your website for SEO often involves improving user experience (UX), such as faster loading times, mobile responsiveness, and intuitive site navigation. A better UX leads to higher user engagement, lower bounce rates, and improved search rankings.
Actionable Tip: Conduct a site audit to identify areas for improvement and implement changes to enhance UX.
Cost-Effective Marketing
Compared to traditional marketing channels, SEO is a cost-effective way to reach your target audience. By investing in SEO, small businesses can generate a higher return on investment (ROI) and allocate their marketing budget more efficiently.
Actionable Tip: Focus on creating high-quality, shareable content to attract organic traffic and backlinks, reducing your reliance on paid advertising.
Targeted and Sustainable Traffic
SEO enables small businesses to attract targeted traffic by ranking for industry-specific keywords. This ensures that the visitors to your site are interested in your products or services, increasing the likelihood of conversion. Additionally, effective SEO strategies result in sustainable, long-term traffic growth.
Actionable Tip: Create and optimize content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience.
Improved Conversion Rates
By attracting targeted traffic and providing an exceptional user experience, SEO can lead to higher conversion rates. Users who find your website through organic search are more likely to convert into customers, as they are actively seeking solutions that your business offers.
Actionable Tip: Optimize your website for conversions by using clear calls-to-action (CTAs) and simple, user-friendly forms.
Establishing Authority and Trust
A well-optimized website with valuable content and a strong backlink profile establishes your business as an authority in your industry. By ranking high on SERPs, users perceive your brand as trustworthy, which can significantly impact their purchasing decisions.
Actionable Tip: Produce high-quality, informative content and collaborate with industry influencers to build your online reputation and earn valuable backlinks.
Competitive Advantage
Investing in SEO helps small businesses stay ahead of the competition by ranking higher on search results for relevant keywords. By dominating the search results, you can capture a larger market share and increase your brand's visibility.
Actionable Tip: Perform a competitive analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors' SEO strategies and capitalize on any gaps in the market.
Long-term Success
SEO is a long-term investment that can yield significant benefits over time. As search engines continue to evolve, businesses that prioritize SEO will be better equipped to adapt to changing algorithms and maintain their online presence.
Actionable Tip: Stay updated with the latest SEO trends, SEO Tools and best practices to ensure your strategies remain effective and future-proof.
Conclusion
By leveraging the power of SEO, small businesses can enjoy numerous benefits, including increased visibility, enhanced user experience, cost-effective marketing, targeted and sustainable traffic, improved conversion rates, authority and trust establishment, competitive advantage, and long-term success. To maximize these benefits, consistently monitor and refine your SEO strategies to stay ahead in the ever-changing digital landscape.
Thank you for visiting the Media Man Group, including Media Man Australia and Media Man Int.
Friday, May 05, 2023
Media Man International Blog: Vegas casinos gamble. Flashback to May 2012
Vegas casinos gamble. Flashback to May 2012
To prime itself for the U.S. debut of legal online poker, MGM Resorts International, owner of such Las Vegas Strip monuments as the MGM Grand, the Bellagio and the Mirage, wanted a partner that knew the ropes.
So last October it hooked up with XX a London-listed, Gibraltar-based specialist that rakes in more from Web betting than any other publicly traded company. MGM Resorts took 25 percent of a new venture 65 percent owned by XX, with smaller Las Vegas casino operator Boyd Gaming getting the remaining 10 percent.
"We'll be out of the gate as soon as anybody," MGM Resorts Chief Executive Officer Jim Murren boasted to investors in February.
Online expertise isn't the only thing that distinguishes XX. In 2009, an earlier incarnation of the company paid $105 million while admitting to U.S. prosecutors it had run an illegal gambling operation and engaged in bank and wire fraud.
Among its principal backers: a California-born woman who made a fortune in phone sex and Web pornography businesses that, like the pioneering online-gambling company that became XX, faced multiple allegations of wrongdoing.
MGM Resorts' choice of XX as a partner while applying for online poker licenses in Nevada might seem unusual. It isn't. The alliance reflects the calculated risks that major casino operators, Native American tribes and social-gaming giants Zynga and Facebook are weighing as they angle for a slice of a market valued at billions of dollars a year.
Caesars Entertainment Corp is prepping for online poker by tying up with an Israeli company that in 2007 acknowledged settlement talks with the U.S. Justice Department over alleged breaches of anti-gambling laws.
A group of Native American tribes in California has signed up to use software from another Israeli company, run by a man who served prison time for stock manipulation and bribery. Another tribe last week announced a deal with XX.
Zynga, eager to convert some of its tens of millions of virtual poker enthusiasts into cash gamblers, also has been in talks with XX and others that have had brushes with the law, according to people familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, offshore gambling outfit XX is considering buying its chief offshore rival, Full Tilt, and making a run at the U.S. market even though founders of both were indicted by the Justice Department last year on charges of illegal gambling, bank fraud and money laundering, according to people familiar with the situation.
All this comes as Nevada prepares to license the first online poker operators and software suppliers late next month -- and as California, New Jersey, Iowa, Massachusetts, Delaware and other states debate similar moves.
Many of the cash-starved states, encouraged by intensive industry lobbying, have felt freer to act since December, when the Justice Department declared that one federal anti-gambling law, the Wire Act, would no longer be enforced beyond sports betting.
But casino operators, Indian tribes and Internet powers bent on offering online poker lack experience delivering it. Online poker is a business that involves processing billions of dollars worth of bets and battling the fraudsters, cheats and robot-player software that can ruin the games. Hence the casinos are cozying up to some tech-savvy offshore partners whose pedigrees might give regulators pause.
Most states have "suitability" rules designed to keep crooks out of the gambling industry. Nevada requires that successful license applicants and their large shareholders possess "good character, honesty and integrity." Nevertheless, the big casino operators and their offshore partners are betting that regulators will look favorably on their license applications for two good reasons: tax money and high-tech jobs.
Early indications are that they are right.
At a hearing on a Caesars deal with the Israeli company last year, Mark Lipparelli, chairman of Nevada's Gaming Control Board, said: "I don't think as we look at companies that we can have perfection as the standard, because I think that would be a disservice to the state in attracting business here." The board unanimously recommended approval of the venture.
Gambling foes warn that states are putting fiscal worries ahead of public safety, exposing a huge and vulnerable population to the potential for compulsive betting. "The governments are so desperate for revenues that they will partner with these lawbreaking outfits," said Les Bernal, executive director of the nonprofit Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation in Washington, D.C. "They will create addiction in order to feed off of it."
XX grew out of XX, a brainchild of San Francisco-area native Ruth Parasol, who has a history as colorful as Las Vegas. After earning a law degree, Parasol first prospered in the 1990s through 1-900 phone-sex and other services that were sued by multiple states for aggressive billing and collection practices. In North Carolina's suit, the judge ordered a company she co-founded to pay $270,000 in damages.
Then Parasol put her money behind Internet Entertainment Group, which gained notoriety for releasing an early Pamela Anderson sex video and promising an initial public offering that never happened. Employees accused the company of routinely overbilling customers, and Chief Executive Seth Warshavsky fled to Thailand as authorities investigated. Warshavsky didn't respond to an interview request.
Parasol managed to emerge unscathed, and in 1997 founded Starluck Casino in the Caribbean, providing online gambling to customers in the U.S. and elsewhere. The company had a big hit with its XX website, which became the dominant force in U.S. online cards, and then renamed itself XX.
Parasol, who has been living in Gibraltar for most of the past decade, declined requests for an interview.
In 2005, XXs IPO became the largest London had seen in four years, valuing the company at more than $8 billion. Just then, debate over the U.S. legal status of online gambling flared.
The Justice Department had long argued that Internet poker violated the Wire Act and other federal and state laws. Despite the success of XX and other offshore companies, no U.S.-based companies offered alternatives for fear of prosecution.
In 2006, Congress clarified the matter by passing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, explicitly barring processing interstate or international poker transactions where state laws forbade such gambling. X Gaming responded by pulling out of the U.S., leaving two-thirds of its players behind to be claimed by privately held offshore companies.
The law didn't snuff out online poker in the U.S. as players migrated to other offshore providers. Research firm H2 Gambling Capital estimates the U.S. accounts for about $400 million of global annual online poker revenue of nearly $5 billion, or 8 percent. Depending on how many states ultimately legalize online cards, that share could rise to as high as 28 percent in five years, the company says.
X Gaming's problems didn't end when it left the United States. In 2008, co-founder XX pleaded guilty to gambling via the wires in federal district court in New York. He forfeited $300 million and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, leading X Gaming itself to settle in 2009. The company paid $105 million to avoid prosecution for pre-UIGEA violations. Dikshit couldn't be reached. His lawyer didn't return calls seeking comment.
In 2010, prosecutor Arlo Devlin-Brown told the court that the probe was continuing and referred to documents under seal. He recently told X he could not comment further, leaving open the possibility that Parasol could be charged if she returns home to the United States.
X Gaming's fortunes recovered as it began to focus on non-U.S. customers. Last year it bought rival X Interactive of Austria and changed the merged company's name to XX, with annual revenue of 691 million euros, or $902 million.
During the merger talks, the regulatory suitability of XX and Parasol became an issue. Parasol and her husband, Russell DeLeon, agreed that the board could force them to restructure their more than 13 percent stake in the merged company or sell it if "required by any gaming regulatory authority in connection with business opportunities," according to merger documents filed with regulators.
That clause wouldn't apply, however, if the licensing process is "more burdensome to the principal XX shareholders than the licensing requirements currently imposed by the state of Nevada." That means the couple's stake could, in effect, block deals in states with tougher standards. XX X said he couldn't imagine the couple standing in the way. DeLeon couldn't be reached for comment.
Now partnered with MGM Resorts, XX has applied for a Nevada license to offer Internet poker software and services. Co-CEO Ryan said the joint venture will handle all U.S. games where players pay to play and can cash out their winnings.
In the meantime, he said, XX will promote its brands through a social game, to be announced soon, without the ability to cash out. Ryan said negotiations with Facebook, a likely game platform, are continuing.
Facebook declined to comment. MGM did not respond to repeated interview requests about its choice of Bwin.Party.
"PRETTIEST GIRL IN TOWN"
One of XX's top rivals is also listed in London but based in Israel. That company is XXX Holdings, founded by a dentist inspired to put poker on the Net after a 1996 trip to Monte Carlo. The late Aharon Shaked and his brother Avi mortgaged their homes to fund the company, and their families and a co-founding family still have majority control.
In 2006, XXX joined X Gaming in pulling out of the U.S. market. But for a time before that, XXXs Casino-on-Net gambling website was among the top 10 buyers of banner ads aimed at U.S. home Internet users, reaching more than 10 percent of them in a single week, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
In 2007 the company acknowledged it was in settlement talks with the Justice Department over suspected breaches of pre-2006 anti gambling laws. No charges were filed.
The 888 deal with Caesars that Nevada regulators approved last year was a trial run of Caesars-branded online poker in the British market, where such games have been legal for years. Caesars, operator of the Strip's Caesars Palace, Harrah's and Rio, has since expanded its relationship with 888, agreeing to use its software in the United States once states approve.
Ambitions are running high at 888. "The most exciting market opportunity for the industry must be that of the States, and we are definitely the prettiest girl in town, with everybody keen to have discussions with us," 888 Chief Executive Officer Brian Mattingley told investors last month. Officials at 888 declined interview requests, as did those at Caesars.
Lipparelli, the Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman, said scrutiny of the initial Caesars venture was lower than what it would have been for a U.S. venture. He said current investigations of XX, 888 and more than 20 other license applicants would be far more rigorous than anything the overseas outfits had experienced in their home countries. "Some will probably not make it through," Lipparelli said.
He said confessions of pre-2006 wrongdoing wouldn't automatically prevent licensing, though. Gambling executives say they expect smooth sailing in Nevada because regulators want to add local technology jobs. Concern about past lawbreaking "has all gone away," one casino executive said.
One big test could come in the case of X Stars, based in the Isle of Man, and XX Poker, based in the Channel Islands, which together snapped up most of the U.S. market after the 2006 law was passed and XX ran for the exits.
Last year, on an April day known in online poker circles as Black Friday, federal prosecutors unsealed indictments alleging illegal gambling, bank fraud and money laundering against the founders of X Stars and Full Tilt. Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Full Tilt had operated as a Ponzi scheme, relying on new players' deposits to cover payouts to older customers while executives and advisers took hundreds of millions of dollars from player accounts.
The indictments prompted Wynn Resorts Ltd to drop a weeks-old "strategic relationship" with X Stars. The main owner of Station Casinos, which serves Las Vegas locals at 11 casinos off the Strip, abandoned a similar tie-up with Full Tilt. Neither Nevada company returned calls seeking comment.
Full Tilt has shut down while it negotiates with the Justice Department. But X Stars remains the biggest site worldwide, with what others in the industry believe tops $1 billion in annual revenue. It harbors hopes that a deal with prosecutors could pave the way for a return to the U.S.
People familiar with the situation say that as part of the settlement talks with the Justice Department, X X is considering buying Full Tilt and refunding U.S. players hundreds of millions of dollars missing from their accounts. PokerStars confirmed the settlement talks but declined to comment on Full Tilt or its American aspirations. Full Tilt officials couldn't be reached for comment.
"CONCERNED ABOUT PROBITY"
In California, casinos and gambling-software companies already are scurrying for deals with the tribes and others that would be eligible for direct licenses under a bill pending in the state senate. Caesars manages the Rincon tribe's Harrah's casino and is hoping to build on that with software from 888.
A coalition of tribes and card rooms known as the California Online Poker Association has signed up to use software from Playtech Ltd, a London-listed British company. About 40 per cent of Playtech is owned by Teddy Sagi, an Israeli billionaire who pleaded guilty to stock manipulation and bribery in 1996 in a scandal known as the Discount Affair. He was sentenced to nine months in prison. Playtech didn't respond to a request for comment.
The tribes are aware of the risks of choosing partners that won't satisfy the state Justice Department, which the current bill would empower to approve license applications.
"We are very, very concerned about probity," said Joaquin Fletcher, president of the Pechanga Development Corp, owner of the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California. "We don't want whoever we pick to just create more nightmares down the road."
Similar concerns are on the minds of social media companies.
Zynga, the dominant provider of recreational games on Facebook, has 36 million monthly average users of its Texas HoldEm Poker, the second most popular game on Facebook after its CityVille, according to market research firm AppData.
The card game doesn't require regulation because players don't receive cash payouts, though they often pay for extra chips to play with. Those virtual chip purchases have made the game one of Zynga's top earners and opened the company's eyes to the potential of the real thing.
Lazard Capital Markets said in March that it expected Zynga to move "aggressively" and capture an extra $100 million in annual profit by offering online poker with cash payouts and prizes.
Zynga has held talks with Bwin.Party, 888, multiple California tribes and card rooms, and the big brick-and-mortar casinos, people familiar with the discussions said. The company might experiment first with poker in well-regulated overseas markets such as the United Kingdom, they said. Zynga declined to comment.
The gambling majors have seen the promise of social networking as well. MGM Resorts, like XX is planning its own game without cash payouts but with social networking built in. Caesars recently bought game application developer Playtika, which has a popular free slot machine app on Facebook called Slotomania, and it launched a Caesars-branded casino game suite there, too.
Despite the enthusiasm, the risks of a regulatory, legal or public-relations setback for Zynga and Facebook are substantial, even if they partner well.
With millions of free players, "it's very likely these people can be converted" to playing for real money, said one longtime offshore poker executive. "But do they want a headline saying some kid lost $10,000 playing poker on Facebook?"
So last October it hooked up with XX a London-listed, Gibraltar-based specialist that rakes in more from Web betting than any other publicly traded company. MGM Resorts took 25 percent of a new venture 65 percent owned by XX, with smaller Las Vegas casino operator Boyd Gaming getting the remaining 10 percent.
"We'll be out of the gate as soon as anybody," MGM Resorts Chief Executive Officer Jim Murren boasted to investors in February.
Online expertise isn't the only thing that distinguishes XX. In 2009, an earlier incarnation of the company paid $105 million while admitting to U.S. prosecutors it had run an illegal gambling operation and engaged in bank and wire fraud.
Among its principal backers: a California-born woman who made a fortune in phone sex and Web pornography businesses that, like the pioneering online-gambling company that became XX, faced multiple allegations of wrongdoing.
MGM Resorts' choice of XX as a partner while applying for online poker licenses in Nevada might seem unusual. It isn't. The alliance reflects the calculated risks that major casino operators, Native American tribes and social-gaming giants Zynga and Facebook are weighing as they angle for a slice of a market valued at billions of dollars a year.
Caesars Entertainment Corp is prepping for online poker by tying up with an Israeli company that in 2007 acknowledged settlement talks with the U.S. Justice Department over alleged breaches of anti-gambling laws.
A group of Native American tribes in California has signed up to use software from another Israeli company, run by a man who served prison time for stock manipulation and bribery. Another tribe last week announced a deal with XX.
Zynga, eager to convert some of its tens of millions of virtual poker enthusiasts into cash gamblers, also has been in talks with XX and others that have had brushes with the law, according to people familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, offshore gambling outfit XX is considering buying its chief offshore rival, Full Tilt, and making a run at the U.S. market even though founders of both were indicted by the Justice Department last year on charges of illegal gambling, bank fraud and money laundering, according to people familiar with the situation.
All this comes as Nevada prepares to license the first online poker operators and software suppliers late next month -- and as California, New Jersey, Iowa, Massachusetts, Delaware and other states debate similar moves.
Many of the cash-starved states, encouraged by intensive industry lobbying, have felt freer to act since December, when the Justice Department declared that one federal anti-gambling law, the Wire Act, would no longer be enforced beyond sports betting.
But casino operators, Indian tribes and Internet powers bent on offering online poker lack experience delivering it. Online poker is a business that involves processing billions of dollars worth of bets and battling the fraudsters, cheats and robot-player software that can ruin the games. Hence the casinos are cozying up to some tech-savvy offshore partners whose pedigrees might give regulators pause.
Most states have "suitability" rules designed to keep crooks out of the gambling industry. Nevada requires that successful license applicants and their large shareholders possess "good character, honesty and integrity." Nevertheless, the big casino operators and their offshore partners are betting that regulators will look favorably on their license applications for two good reasons: tax money and high-tech jobs.
Early indications are that they are right.
At a hearing on a Caesars deal with the Israeli company last year, Mark Lipparelli, chairman of Nevada's Gaming Control Board, said: "I don't think as we look at companies that we can have perfection as the standard, because I think that would be a disservice to the state in attracting business here." The board unanimously recommended approval of the venture.
Gambling foes warn that states are putting fiscal worries ahead of public safety, exposing a huge and vulnerable population to the potential for compulsive betting. "The governments are so desperate for revenues that they will partner with these lawbreaking outfits," said Les Bernal, executive director of the nonprofit Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation in Washington, D.C. "They will create addiction in order to feed off of it."
XX grew out of XX, a brainchild of San Francisco-area native Ruth Parasol, who has a history as colorful as Las Vegas. After earning a law degree, Parasol first prospered in the 1990s through 1-900 phone-sex and other services that were sued by multiple states for aggressive billing and collection practices. In North Carolina's suit, the judge ordered a company she co-founded to pay $270,000 in damages.
Then Parasol put her money behind Internet Entertainment Group, which gained notoriety for releasing an early Pamela Anderson sex video and promising an initial public offering that never happened. Employees accused the company of routinely overbilling customers, and Chief Executive Seth Warshavsky fled to Thailand as authorities investigated. Warshavsky didn't respond to an interview request.
Parasol managed to emerge unscathed, and in 1997 founded Starluck Casino in the Caribbean, providing online gambling to customers in the U.S. and elsewhere. The company had a big hit with its XX website, which became the dominant force in U.S. online cards, and then renamed itself XX.
Parasol, who has been living in Gibraltar for most of the past decade, declined requests for an interview.
In 2005, XXs IPO became the largest London had seen in four years, valuing the company at more than $8 billion. Just then, debate over the U.S. legal status of online gambling flared.
The Justice Department had long argued that Internet poker violated the Wire Act and other federal and state laws. Despite the success of XX and other offshore companies, no U.S.-based companies offered alternatives for fear of prosecution.
In 2006, Congress clarified the matter by passing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, explicitly barring processing interstate or international poker transactions where state laws forbade such gambling. X Gaming responded by pulling out of the U.S., leaving two-thirds of its players behind to be claimed by privately held offshore companies.
The law didn't snuff out online poker in the U.S. as players migrated to other offshore providers. Research firm H2 Gambling Capital estimates the U.S. accounts for about $400 million of global annual online poker revenue of nearly $5 billion, or 8 percent. Depending on how many states ultimately legalize online cards, that share could rise to as high as 28 percent in five years, the company says.
X Gaming's problems didn't end when it left the United States. In 2008, co-founder XX pleaded guilty to gambling via the wires in federal district court in New York. He forfeited $300 million and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, leading X Gaming itself to settle in 2009. The company paid $105 million to avoid prosecution for pre-UIGEA violations. Dikshit couldn't be reached. His lawyer didn't return calls seeking comment.
In 2010, prosecutor Arlo Devlin-Brown told the court that the probe was continuing and referred to documents under seal. He recently told X he could not comment further, leaving open the possibility that Parasol could be charged if she returns home to the United States.
X Gaming's fortunes recovered as it began to focus on non-U.S. customers. Last year it bought rival X Interactive of Austria and changed the merged company's name to XX, with annual revenue of 691 million euros, or $902 million.
During the merger talks, the regulatory suitability of XX and Parasol became an issue. Parasol and her husband, Russell DeLeon, agreed that the board could force them to restructure their more than 13 percent stake in the merged company or sell it if "required by any gaming regulatory authority in connection with business opportunities," according to merger documents filed with regulators.
That clause wouldn't apply, however, if the licensing process is "more burdensome to the principal XX shareholders than the licensing requirements currently imposed by the state of Nevada." That means the couple's stake could, in effect, block deals in states with tougher standards. XX X said he couldn't imagine the couple standing in the way. DeLeon couldn't be reached for comment.
Now partnered with MGM Resorts, XX has applied for a Nevada license to offer Internet poker software and services. Co-CEO Ryan said the joint venture will handle all U.S. games where players pay to play and can cash out their winnings.
In the meantime, he said, XX will promote its brands through a social game, to be announced soon, without the ability to cash out. Ryan said negotiations with Facebook, a likely game platform, are continuing.
Facebook declined to comment. MGM did not respond to repeated interview requests about its choice of Bwin.Party.
"PRETTIEST GIRL IN TOWN"
One of XX's top rivals is also listed in London but based in Israel. That company is XXX Holdings, founded by a dentist inspired to put poker on the Net after a 1996 trip to Monte Carlo. The late Aharon Shaked and his brother Avi mortgaged their homes to fund the company, and their families and a co-founding family still have majority control.
In 2006, XXX joined X Gaming in pulling out of the U.S. market. But for a time before that, XXXs Casino-on-Net gambling website was among the top 10 buyers of banner ads aimed at U.S. home Internet users, reaching more than 10 percent of them in a single week, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
In 2007 the company acknowledged it was in settlement talks with the Justice Department over suspected breaches of pre-2006 anti gambling laws. No charges were filed.
The 888 deal with Caesars that Nevada regulators approved last year was a trial run of Caesars-branded online poker in the British market, where such games have been legal for years. Caesars, operator of the Strip's Caesars Palace, Harrah's and Rio, has since expanded its relationship with 888, agreeing to use its software in the United States once states approve.
Ambitions are running high at 888. "The most exciting market opportunity for the industry must be that of the States, and we are definitely the prettiest girl in town, with everybody keen to have discussions with us," 888 Chief Executive Officer Brian Mattingley told investors last month. Officials at 888 declined interview requests, as did those at Caesars.
Lipparelli, the Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman, said scrutiny of the initial Caesars venture was lower than what it would have been for a U.S. venture. He said current investigations of XX, 888 and more than 20 other license applicants would be far more rigorous than anything the overseas outfits had experienced in their home countries. "Some will probably not make it through," Lipparelli said.
He said confessions of pre-2006 wrongdoing wouldn't automatically prevent licensing, though. Gambling executives say they expect smooth sailing in Nevada because regulators want to add local technology jobs. Concern about past lawbreaking "has all gone away," one casino executive said.
One big test could come in the case of X Stars, based in the Isle of Man, and XX Poker, based in the Channel Islands, which together snapped up most of the U.S. market after the 2006 law was passed and XX ran for the exits.
Last year, on an April day known in online poker circles as Black Friday, federal prosecutors unsealed indictments alleging illegal gambling, bank fraud and money laundering against the founders of X Stars and Full Tilt. Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Full Tilt had operated as a Ponzi scheme, relying on new players' deposits to cover payouts to older customers while executives and advisers took hundreds of millions of dollars from player accounts.
The indictments prompted Wynn Resorts Ltd to drop a weeks-old "strategic relationship" with X Stars. The main owner of Station Casinos, which serves Las Vegas locals at 11 casinos off the Strip, abandoned a similar tie-up with Full Tilt. Neither Nevada company returned calls seeking comment.
Full Tilt has shut down while it negotiates with the Justice Department. But X Stars remains the biggest site worldwide, with what others in the industry believe tops $1 billion in annual revenue. It harbors hopes that a deal with prosecutors could pave the way for a return to the U.S.
People familiar with the situation say that as part of the settlement talks with the Justice Department, X X is considering buying Full Tilt and refunding U.S. players hundreds of millions of dollars missing from their accounts. PokerStars confirmed the settlement talks but declined to comment on Full Tilt or its American aspirations. Full Tilt officials couldn't be reached for comment.
"CONCERNED ABOUT PROBITY"
In California, casinos and gambling-software companies already are scurrying for deals with the tribes and others that would be eligible for direct licenses under a bill pending in the state senate. Caesars manages the Rincon tribe's Harrah's casino and is hoping to build on that with software from 888.
A coalition of tribes and card rooms known as the California Online Poker Association has signed up to use software from Playtech Ltd, a London-listed British company. About 40 per cent of Playtech is owned by Teddy Sagi, an Israeli billionaire who pleaded guilty to stock manipulation and bribery in 1996 in a scandal known as the Discount Affair. He was sentenced to nine months in prison. Playtech didn't respond to a request for comment.
The tribes are aware of the risks of choosing partners that won't satisfy the state Justice Department, which the current bill would empower to approve license applications.
"We are very, very concerned about probity," said Joaquin Fletcher, president of the Pechanga Development Corp, owner of the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California. "We don't want whoever we pick to just create more nightmares down the road."
Similar concerns are on the minds of social media companies.
Zynga, the dominant provider of recreational games on Facebook, has 36 million monthly average users of its Texas HoldEm Poker, the second most popular game on Facebook after its CityVille, according to market research firm AppData.
The card game doesn't require regulation because players don't receive cash payouts, though they often pay for extra chips to play with. Those virtual chip purchases have made the game one of Zynga's top earners and opened the company's eyes to the potential of the real thing.
Lazard Capital Markets said in March that it expected Zynga to move "aggressively" and capture an extra $100 million in annual profit by offering online poker with cash payouts and prizes.
Zynga has held talks with Bwin.Party, 888, multiple California tribes and card rooms, and the big brick-and-mortar casinos, people familiar with the discussions said. The company might experiment first with poker in well-regulated overseas markets such as the United Kingdom, they said. Zynga declined to comment.
The gambling majors have seen the promise of social networking as well. MGM Resorts, like XX is planning its own game without cash payouts but with social networking built in. Caesars recently bought game application developer Playtika, which has a popular free slot machine app on Facebook called Slotomania, and it launched a Caesars-branded casino game suite there, too.
Despite the enthusiasm, the risks of a regulatory, legal or public-relations setback for Zynga and Facebook are substantial, even if they partner well.
With millions of free players, "it's very likely these people can be converted" to playing for real money, said one longtime offshore poker executive. "But do they want a headline saying some kid lost $10,000 playing poker on Facebook?"
Media Man International Blog: Pop Culture News
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Media Man International Blog: IGV, Nevada 2012
Media Man International Blog
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Regulated online poker in Nevada is closer to becoming a reality. This past Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission granted licenses to two gaming companies to provide systems for online poker partners.
The rival firms, Bally Technologies and International Game Technology (IGT), were both unanimously approved for online gaming licenses. They will not be the companies that will actually run the online poker rooms (in other words, they won’t be the new U.S. versions of Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars), but rather be the ones to supply the systems to whomever will actually run the websites. Thus, it is now a waiting game for Bally and IGT, as they cannot actually do anything until casino operators are licensed to offer online poker to Nevada residents.
Both Bally CEO Richard Haddrill and IGT Executive Vice President of Emerging Businesses Robert Melendres told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that they will be ready to go the moment a casino is approved. Melendres made sure to reiterate that his company will simply be providing the gaming systems, not actually operating the poker rooms, saying, “I want to make it abundantly clear, IGT has absolutely no intention to compete with our casino partners.”
The two companies have been known entities in Nevada for years, as they are the two leading slot machine manufacturers in the gaming industry. They have plenty of experience meeting Nevada gaming regulations.
The rivals also have online poker software that has been in use for years in Europe. In February, Bally purchased Chiligaming’s (Chili Poker) business-to-business platform, while IGT bought the Entraction network last year. Thus, IGT already has experience in the real money online poker world, while Bally has been operating a play money site for Golden Nugget. Both companies will use the technology already in place in European markets to prevent underage and problem gambling once sites are up and running in Nevada.
Bally Technologies was technically the first company to have its license approved, receiving the thumbs-up 45 minutes before IGT. In a press release, Richard Haddrill said, “We are grateful to the State of Nevada for this opportunity. We look forward to Bally expanding its leadership role in this exciting new arena of online gaming.”
Similarly, Patti Hart, IGT CEO said in a press release, “This is an exciting day for interactive wager-based gaming. We are honored to be granted the opportunity to support our customers as they further expand their operations to include online play in the State of Nevada.”
Also on Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board registered Gaming Laboratories International and BMM International to test interactive gaming equipment for the state. This is significant because both have labs around the world and both have tested millions of gaming systems, including those owned by Bally and IGT. Thus, any required system testing by the state should go much faster than if everything was being done from scratch with new companies. “These systems that have been written about recently have already been tested by GLI,” Gaming Laboratories International CEO James Maida told the Review-Journal. “We don’t have to retest and do the same process all over again. Our next step is to certify the equipment based on the standards set by Nevada.” (Credit: Poker News Daily)
2012 WSOP, Preliminary Action: Final Ten Determined In PLO Hi/Lo, Unique Ante Only Event Draws Nice Field - 28th June 2012...
Amid the clamor around the Rio on Wednesday, the 2012 World Series of Poker had three tournaments that were in various stages of their play. The final table has been determined in one with a second getting close to that point, while a third event made its debut on the WSOP stage.
Event #47 – Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo – Day Two
Of the 978 players who began this tournament on Tuesday, only 141 were back yesterday with a shot at getting to the final table. After playing the WSOP mandated ten levels through Wednesday, the unofficial final table of ten was determined.
The first objective for the field would be to determine the 117 players who would take down their piece of the $1.32 million prize pool. That would take almost two hours of play and result in Steve Jelinek taking out Neil McFayden in 118th place, but the true story was in the survival of one player in his pursuit of a WSOP record.
Terrence Chan came into the event extremely low on chips and, after McFayden was knocked off, picked up his ninth cash of the 2012 WSOP when he was eliminated on the very next hand. The record for cashes in a WSOP is ten, which the late Nikolay Evdakov achieved in 2008 and, with a couple of weeks left in the 2012 WSOP, Chan has a chance to eclipse that.
After the money bubble popped, the halls of the Rio were awash with those eliminated from this event. Some of the notable names to take some green from Event #47 included Andy Frankenberger, David Bach, Joe Tehan, James Dempsey and Allen Kessler, all gone before the dinner break. Chip Jett, Adam Kornuth, Barry Greenstein, Dan Heimiller and Lee Watkinson would depart following some sustenance as the tournament worked late in the evening.
The lead for Event #47 wasn’t determined until the last hand of the night. All the chips got to the center between Charalampos Lappas and Viatcheslav Ortynskiy on a [6h]-[Qd]-[Td] flop, with Lappas holding an A-J-3-10 (gut shot straight and Jack high flush draw) against Ortynskiy’s A-K-8-A (pair of Aces, gut shot straight draw). A Jack on the turn would seemingly give Ortynskiy the hand, but another Jack on the river switched the fortunes to give Lappas the hand and the chip lead for today’s action.
1. Charalampos Lappas, 994K
2. Steven Loube, 947K
3. Roch Cousineau, 505K
4. Cameron McKinley, 477K
5. Timothy Finne, 455K
6. Sonu Sharma, 300K
7. Kyle Carlston, 277K
8. Paul Ewen, 234K
9. Paul Taylor, 180K
10. Viatcheslav Ortynskiy, 27K
Event #48 – $3000 Limit Hold’em – Day Two
Twenty players will come back to determine a champion in the $3000 Limit event on Thursday, looking at a long day of play to find out who will win.
126 players came back yesterday with dreams of a WSOP bracelet in their minds but, for many, it would be a day that gave them nothing. Only 27 players would even earn cash from this event, meaning 99 people left with a bitter taste in their mouths. Some of those players included Daniel Negreanu, Humberto Brenes and Jimmy Fricke, while Maria Ho, Jeff Shulman and David Steicke made the money after the bubble burst post-midnight.
Leading the way for today’s penultimate action will be Paul Berende, who holds an 89K chip lead over Kenny Hsiung. Chad Brown is in the Top Ten with 112K in chips (good for seventh), while former World Champion Jonathan Duhamel, John Myung, Dwyte Pilgrim and Justin Bonomo are arranged down the leaderboard. The eventual champion tonight will take the WSOP bracelet and $165,205 in cash.
Event #49 – $1500 Ante Only No Limit Hold’em – Day One
A new event took to the Brasilia Room, the Ante Only version of NLHE. As the name suggests, each player at the table would ante a specified amount, rather than the normal blind style of play. As it was new for most players, the 939 runner field was respectable for a new tournament.
The nuances of the tournament – a player could bet the lowest denomination chip in play to open the pot but, following that, no limit applied – led to some adventurous play around the Brasilia Room. Although there were some who picked up on the game quick, there were several who failed to make it out of Day One, including the Phil’s (Hellmuth and Ivey), David Williams, Vanessa Rousso and the creator of this particular poker variant, Bryan Slick.
Because of the fast paced action, the bubble did pop before the end of play on Wednesday (117 players) with the elimination of Morgan Machina. Six players would leave with a minimum payday of $2409, while the remaining 110 will be back on Thursday for more ante-only fun.
Sameer Al-Janedi will lead the field when play commences this afternoon, with Jon Turner, Chris DeMaci, Erick Lindgren and Mike McDonald in the Top Twenty. Other notables in the field – but with some work to do – include David Chicotsky, Dominik Nitsche, Max Pescatori and John Racener, who are in the money but in the bottom quarter of the field.
Whoever wins this inaugural ante-only event will take down $256,691 and the WSOP bracelet when the champion is determined tomorrow.
On today’s calendar is Day One of the $5000 No Limit Hold’em, Event #50 on the 2012 WSOP slate. It should be a tournament that draws a great crowd, mixing the skilled pros with the unknown players who have the skill and the bankroll to get into the tournament and will provide entertainment for all in attendance at the 2012 WSOP.
Regulated online poker in Nevada is closer to becoming a reality. This past Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission granted licenses to two gaming companies to provide systems for online poker partners.
The rival firms, Bally Technologies and International Game Technology (IGT), were both unanimously approved for online gaming licenses. They will not be the companies that will actually run the online poker rooms (in other words, they won’t be the new U.S. versions of Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars), but rather be the ones to supply the systems to whomever will actually run the websites. Thus, it is now a waiting game for Bally and IGT, as they cannot actually do anything until casino operators are licensed to offer online poker to Nevada residents.
Both Bally CEO Richard Haddrill and IGT Executive Vice President of Emerging Businesses Robert Melendres told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that they will be ready to go the moment a casino is approved. Melendres made sure to reiterate that his company will simply be providing the gaming systems, not actually operating the poker rooms, saying, “I want to make it abundantly clear, IGT has absolutely no intention to compete with our casino partners.”
The two companies have been known entities in Nevada for years, as they are the two leading slot machine manufacturers in the gaming industry. They have plenty of experience meeting Nevada gaming regulations.
The rivals also have online poker software that has been in use for years in Europe. In February, Bally purchased Chiligaming’s (Chili Poker) business-to-business platform, while IGT bought the Entraction network last year. Thus, IGT already has experience in the real money online poker world, while Bally has been operating a play money site for Golden Nugget. Both companies will use the technology already in place in European markets to prevent underage and problem gambling once sites are up and running in Nevada.
Bally Technologies was technically the first company to have its license approved, receiving the thumbs-up 45 minutes before IGT. In a press release, Richard Haddrill said, “We are grateful to the State of Nevada for this opportunity. We look forward to Bally expanding its leadership role in this exciting new arena of online gaming.”
Similarly, Patti Hart, IGT CEO said in a press release, “This is an exciting day for interactive wager-based gaming. We are honored to be granted the opportunity to support our customers as they further expand their operations to include online play in the State of Nevada.”
Also on Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board registered Gaming Laboratories International and BMM International to test interactive gaming equipment for the state. This is significant because both have labs around the world and both have tested millions of gaming systems, including those owned by Bally and IGT. Thus, any required system testing by the state should go much faster than if everything was being done from scratch with new companies. “These systems that have been written about recently have already been tested by GLI,” Gaming Laboratories International CEO James Maida told the Review-Journal. “We don’t have to retest and do the same process all over again. Our next step is to certify the equipment based on the standards set by Nevada.” (Credit: Poker News Daily)
2012 WSOP, Preliminary Action: Final Ten Determined In PLO Hi/Lo, Unique Ante Only Event Draws Nice Field - 28th June 2012...
Amid the clamor around the Rio on Wednesday, the 2012 World Series of Poker had three tournaments that were in various stages of their play. The final table has been determined in one with a second getting close to that point, while a third event made its debut on the WSOP stage.
Event #47 – Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo – Day Two
Of the 978 players who began this tournament on Tuesday, only 141 were back yesterday with a shot at getting to the final table. After playing the WSOP mandated ten levels through Wednesday, the unofficial final table of ten was determined.
The first objective for the field would be to determine the 117 players who would take down their piece of the $1.32 million prize pool. That would take almost two hours of play and result in Steve Jelinek taking out Neil McFayden in 118th place, but the true story was in the survival of one player in his pursuit of a WSOP record.
Terrence Chan came into the event extremely low on chips and, after McFayden was knocked off, picked up his ninth cash of the 2012 WSOP when he was eliminated on the very next hand. The record for cashes in a WSOP is ten, which the late Nikolay Evdakov achieved in 2008 and, with a couple of weeks left in the 2012 WSOP, Chan has a chance to eclipse that.
After the money bubble popped, the halls of the Rio were awash with those eliminated from this event. Some of the notable names to take some green from Event #47 included Andy Frankenberger, David Bach, Joe Tehan, James Dempsey and Allen Kessler, all gone before the dinner break. Chip Jett, Adam Kornuth, Barry Greenstein, Dan Heimiller and Lee Watkinson would depart following some sustenance as the tournament worked late in the evening.
The lead for Event #47 wasn’t determined until the last hand of the night. All the chips got to the center between Charalampos Lappas and Viatcheslav Ortynskiy on a [6h]-[Qd]-[Td] flop, with Lappas holding an A-J-3-10 (gut shot straight and Jack high flush draw) against Ortynskiy’s A-K-8-A (pair of Aces, gut shot straight draw). A Jack on the turn would seemingly give Ortynskiy the hand, but another Jack on the river switched the fortunes to give Lappas the hand and the chip lead for today’s action.
1. Charalampos Lappas, 994K
2. Steven Loube, 947K
3. Roch Cousineau, 505K
4. Cameron McKinley, 477K
5. Timothy Finne, 455K
6. Sonu Sharma, 300K
7. Kyle Carlston, 277K
8. Paul Ewen, 234K
9. Paul Taylor, 180K
10. Viatcheslav Ortynskiy, 27K
Event #48 – $3000 Limit Hold’em – Day Two
Twenty players will come back to determine a champion in the $3000 Limit event on Thursday, looking at a long day of play to find out who will win.
126 players came back yesterday with dreams of a WSOP bracelet in their minds but, for many, it would be a day that gave them nothing. Only 27 players would even earn cash from this event, meaning 99 people left with a bitter taste in their mouths. Some of those players included Daniel Negreanu, Humberto Brenes and Jimmy Fricke, while Maria Ho, Jeff Shulman and David Steicke made the money after the bubble burst post-midnight.
Leading the way for today’s penultimate action will be Paul Berende, who holds an 89K chip lead over Kenny Hsiung. Chad Brown is in the Top Ten with 112K in chips (good for seventh), while former World Champion Jonathan Duhamel, John Myung, Dwyte Pilgrim and Justin Bonomo are arranged down the leaderboard. The eventual champion tonight will take the WSOP bracelet and $165,205 in cash.
Event #49 – $1500 Ante Only No Limit Hold’em – Day One
A new event took to the Brasilia Room, the Ante Only version of NLHE. As the name suggests, each player at the table would ante a specified amount, rather than the normal blind style of play. As it was new for most players, the 939 runner field was respectable for a new tournament.
The nuances of the tournament – a player could bet the lowest denomination chip in play to open the pot but, following that, no limit applied – led to some adventurous play around the Brasilia Room. Although there were some who picked up on the game quick, there were several who failed to make it out of Day One, including the Phil’s (Hellmuth and Ivey), David Williams, Vanessa Rousso and the creator of this particular poker variant, Bryan Slick.
Because of the fast paced action, the bubble did pop before the end of play on Wednesday (117 players) with the elimination of Morgan Machina. Six players would leave with a minimum payday of $2409, while the remaining 110 will be back on Thursday for more ante-only fun.
Sameer Al-Janedi will lead the field when play commences this afternoon, with Jon Turner, Chris DeMaci, Erick Lindgren and Mike McDonald in the Top Twenty. Other notables in the field – but with some work to do – include David Chicotsky, Dominik Nitsche, Max Pescatori and John Racener, who are in the money but in the bottom quarter of the field.
Whoever wins this inaugural ante-only event will take down $256,691 and the WSOP bracelet when the champion is determined tomorrow.
On today’s calendar is Day One of the $5000 No Limit Hold’em, Event #50 on the 2012 WSOP slate. It should be a tournament that draws a great crowd, mixing the skilled pros with the unknown players who have the skill and the bankroll to get into the tournament and will provide entertainment for all in attendance at the 2012 WSOP.
Thursday, May 04, 2023
Media Man International Blog: "This Nurse of Arts, and Freedom's Fence, To chain, is Treason against Sense" - Benjamin Franklin
"This Nurse of Arts, and Freedom's Fence, To chain, is Treason against Sense" - Benjamin Franklin #BenjaminFranklin #FreedomofthePress #WorldPressFreedomDay #WorldPressFreedomDay2023 #WorldPressFreedom
Wednesday, May 03, 2023
Media Man International Blog: News Update
News Update
Future of Sydney casino market unknown
Turn of the card eats into Crown's profit
Crown bets on lure of more casinos
Australian flag bodypainted model: Make love and peace, not war
Zeta Bar's Secret Garden At Hilton Sydney: Secret Garden human statue models every Friday Night
SI Swimsuit Issue Body Paint Model: Sports Illustrated bodypainted models
Superhero movie line-up for Australia in 2013
UFC returns to Australia this December
WWE planning to push hard on Glenn Beck, What's saving WWE Superstar Jack Swagger
Sydney ad:tech 2013 will offer insights into digital marketing for online sector; Sydney, Australia
Australian box office - Feb 2013
Sir James Dyson puts on Dyson product launch with a difference: Sydney, Australia
Samoa's first casino worries churches
Jason Statham flattered to be offered Sylvester Stallone role
James Packer's $10m investment to boost Penrith's potential, Mayor Mark Davies says
James Packer interview hightlights from Channel Seven 'Sunday Night' - Feb 2013
bwin.party and 888 investors bet on New Jersey
No Wrestling in Olympics Provides Huge PR Opportunity for WWE
Global box office report: 'Django' Bests 'Basterds' Worldwide - Feb 2013
Unlock Zeta Bar's Secret Garden At Hilton Sydney: Blossoming With Cocktails And Afternoon Tea Every Friday Night
IOC plays down wrestling axe after global uproar: Fans, sports world, public in shock - Feb 2013
Wrestling with face paint, bodyart and human statues; Ultimate Warrior, Sting, Jeff Hardy, Lord Tensai and more
Crown Limited plea to avoid 'litigation vortex': Casino back in spotlight
Movie Box Office numbers: Avengers #1
WWE Hall of Fame 2013: Jim Ross on celebrity wing
Bruno Sammartino and Triple H comment on WWE 2013 Hall of Fame induction
Wrestling History Timeline
Sylvester Stallone: Hulk Hogan - He killed me: Rocky III Hollywood movie
Crown Casino Caught Out By Fake VIP Gambling Whale - October 2011
It took a "high-value" casino whale type gambler snatched by Crown Casino about five minutes to create the paperwork that duped the venue into advancing him $125,000 that he hoped would recoup what he had lost at its tables.
Jung Hwan Choi dropped $200,000 there last year and yesterday a Melbourne court heard how his "inherently simplistic" scam beat the house.
The County Court was told that Choi was flown to Melbourne from Sydney in November last year in a visit organised by a casino marketing executive.
Prosecutor Amanda Ring advised Choi accessed his bank account at an internet cafe to transfer from his mother's account $1 and then copied the screen shot of the receipt's transaction and his balance.
With the images stored on a USB device, Ms Ring said he then imported them onto a PowerPoint program from which he changed his bank balance from $12.87 to $284,000.
Choi also altered the $1 transfer receipt to reflect a transfer of $100,000 from his account to Crown.
Arriving cashless at the casino on November 14, he was greeted by an executive host who sighted Choi's account balance and the transfer receipt and was advanced $100,000.
After gambling "heavily and unsuccessfully" that night, Ms Ring said Choi the next day was advanced $25,000 in gaming chips.
Arrested in February, Choi told police he had been "desperate" and had lost $200,000 at Crown over several months and "I wanted it back".
Defence barrister Geoffrey Steward said Crown's reaction to that "windfall" had been to ring him and invite him to dinner.
Mr Steward said Choi, 38, dined with a casino marketing executive and was gifted a $600 Louis Vuitton wallet.
"The cynical may say, 'Thank you for losing $200,000, you are welcome any time'," Mr Steward said of Choi's VIP status, which included plane trips, accommodation, limousines, food and beverages.
"You feel like a king, but he was more of a pauper than a king," he said.
Mr Steward told Judge Wendy Wilmoth that Crown did not deserve to lose its money, but to his client it was ''like a monolithic piranha dangling carrots'' of seduction, love and luxuries that were "incapable of resisting".
Choi, a married father of two, described himself as a now-reformed "gamblerholic" who had lost more than $2 million at casinos.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of obtaining a financial advantage by deception and one of making a false document.
Judge Wilmoth sentenced Choi to two years and three months jail, the term suspended for three years, with an order he pay compensation of $125,000.
It took a "high-value" casino whale type gambler snatched by Crown Casino about five minutes to create the paperwork that duped the venue into advancing him $125,000 that he hoped would recoup what he had lost at its tables.
Jung Hwan Choi dropped $200,000 there last year and yesterday a Melbourne court heard how his "inherently simplistic" scam beat the house.
The County Court was told that Choi was flown to Melbourne from Sydney in November last year in a visit organised by a casino marketing executive.
Prosecutor Amanda Ring advised Choi accessed his bank account at an internet cafe to transfer from his mother's account $1 and then copied the screen shot of the receipt's transaction and his balance.
With the images stored on a USB device, Ms Ring said he then imported them onto a PowerPoint program from which he changed his bank balance from $12.87 to $284,000.
Choi also altered the $1 transfer receipt to reflect a transfer of $100,000 from his account to Crown.
Arriving cashless at the casino on November 14, he was greeted by an executive host who sighted Choi's account balance and the transfer receipt and was advanced $100,000.
After gambling "heavily and unsuccessfully" that night, Ms Ring said Choi the next day was advanced $25,000 in gaming chips.
Arrested in February, Choi told police he had been "desperate" and had lost $200,000 at Crown over several months and "I wanted it back".
Defence barrister Geoffrey Steward said Crown's reaction to that "windfall" had been to ring him and invite him to dinner.
Mr Steward said Choi, 38, dined with a casino marketing executive and was gifted a $600 Louis Vuitton wallet.
"The cynical may say, 'Thank you for losing $200,000, you are welcome any time'," Mr Steward said of Choi's VIP status, which included plane trips, accommodation, limousines, food and beverages.
"You feel like a king, but he was more of a pauper than a king," he said.
Mr Steward told Judge Wendy Wilmoth that Crown did not deserve to lose its money, but to his client it was ''like a monolithic piranha dangling carrots'' of seduction, love and luxuries that were "incapable of resisting".
Choi, a married father of two, described himself as a now-reformed "gamblerholic" who had lost more than $2 million at casinos.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of obtaining a financial advantage by deception and one of making a false document.
Judge Wilmoth sentenced Choi to two years and three months jail, the term suspended for three years, with an order he pay compensation of $125,000.
Media Man International Blog: News Update, Pop Culture, Entertainment News, Business News
News Update, Pop Culture, Entertainment News, Business News
Future of Sydney casino market unknown
Turn of the card eats into Crown's profit
Crown bets on lure of more casinos
Australian flag bodypainted model: Make love and peace, not war
Zeta Bar's Secret Garden At Hilton Sydney: Secret Garden human statue models every Friday Night
SI Swimsuit Issue Body Paint Model: Sports Illustrated bodypainted models
Superhero movie line-up for Australia in 2013
UFC returns to Australia this December
WWE planning to push hard on Glenn Beck, What's saving WWE Superstar Jack Swagger
Sydney ad:tech 2013 will offer insights into digital marketing for online sector; Sydney, Australia
Australian box office - Feb 2013
Sir James Dyson puts on Dyson product launch with a difference: Sydney, Australia
Samoa's first casino worries churches
Jason Statham flattered to be offered Sylvester Stallone role
James Packer's $10m investment to boost Penrith's potential, Mayor Mark Davies says
James Packer interview hightlights from Channel Seven 'Sunday Night' - Feb 2013
No Wrestling in Olympics Provides Huge PR Opportunity for WWE
Global box office report: 'Django' Bests 'Basterds' Worldwide - Feb 2013
Unlock Zeta Bar's Secret Garden At Hilton Sydney: Blossoming With Cocktails And Afternoon Tea Every Friday Night
IOC plays down wrestling axe after global uproar: Fans, sports world, public in shock - Feb 2013
Wrestling with face paint, bodyart and human statues; Ultimate Warrior, Sting, Jeff Hardy, Lord Tensai and more
Crown Limited plea to avoid 'litigation vortex': Casino back in spotlight
Movie Box Office numbers: Avengers #1
WWE Hall of Fame 2013: Jim Ross on celebrity wing
Bruno Sammartino and Triple H comment on WWE 2013 Hall of Fame induction
Wrestling History Timeline
Sylvester Stallone: Hulk Hogan - He killed me: Rocky III Hollywood movie
Tuesday, May 02, 2023
Marvel's IRON MAN 3 to Be Co-Produced in China
Blog
Pop Culture Flashback
Marvel's IRON MAN 3 to Be Co-Produced in China; The Walt Disney Company China, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment to Bring Super Hero to China...
SHANGHAI & BEIJING & LOS ANGELES, Apr 16, 2012 - The Walt Disney Company China, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment today announced the intention to co-produce IRON MAN 3 in China. Under the arrangement, DMG Entertainment will make an investment in the production of IRON MAN 3, manage the Chinese co-production process, and jointly produce the film in China. The Chinese portion of IRON MAN 3's production will run through DMG Entertainment in coordination with Marvel Studios' production and creative teams. DMG will also distribute IRON MAN 3 in China in collaboration with The Walt Disney Company China.
IRON MAN 3 will be the third movie in the billion-dollar plus franchise from Marvel and stars a returning cast including Robert Downey Jr. (as billionaire inventor Tony Stark) Gwyneth Paltrow (as Pepper Potts) and Don Cheadle (as James "Rhodey" Rhodes). IRON MAN 3 is produced by Kevin Feige and executive produced by Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Louis D'Esposito, Charles Newirth, Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard and Dan Mintz. The film is being directed by Shane Black who is working on the script with Drew Pearce. The film releases in the United States on May 3, 2013, and is being distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in all territories worldwide other than in China (which is being distributed by DMG Entertainment) and Germany/Austria (which is being distributed by the Tele Munchen Group).
"The popularity of the Marvel franchise globally creates a huge opportunity to deliver fans yet another action packed film," said Stanley Cheung, Managing Director, The Walt Disney Company, Greater China. "The co-production of IRON MAN 3 in China is testimony to the importance of this audience to Disney and the local industry capability to deliver a blockbuster title," he added.
"We look forward to working alongside DMG to bring IRON MAN to the Chinese marketplace in a significant way. We are confident that Marvel's stories will continue to be enjoyed by Chinese audiences, and adding a local flavor, and working with our new local partner, will enhance the appeal and relevance of our characters in China's fast-growing film marketplace," said Rob Steffens, General Manager of Operations and Finance for Marvel Studios.
"Our collaboration with Disney and Marvel marks a milestone in the global entertainment landscape, as this signifies the first multi-billion dollar franchise to be produced between Hollywood and China," said Dan Mintz, CEO of DMG Entertainment. "The IRON MAN franchise has been a major success worldwide, and we look forward to pushing the series to new heights with IRON MAN 3. The movie will further build upon its compelling storyline, and feature the hottest A-list stars, and spectacular action, which will resonate well both globally and in China, the second largest box office market in the world."
The first installment of IRON MAN lifted off with high-speed, high-flying action when jet-setting industrialist Tony Stark survives an unexpected attack and escapes by building a high-tech robotic suit of armor. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global implications, he dons his powerful armor and vows to protect the world as Iron Man. Straight from the pages of the legendary comic book, Iron Man is a hero who is built--not born--to be unlike any other and made US$581 million at the global box office when released in 2008. Based on Marvel's iconic Super Hero, IRON MAN 2 continued the story of the 2008 summer box office blockbuster IRON MAN, and made US$624 million at the global box office when released in 2010. Now, IRON MAN 3 continues the story with a new chapter that will deliver more heart-pounding action than ever before. Marvel Studios' IRON MAN 3 will find Tony Stark with his back against the wall, facing his most fearsome foes yet.
Shooting is expected to commence in May in the United States and begin location filming in China in late summer 2012.
About The Walt Disney Company in China
The Walt Disney Company DIS -0.45%, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a diversified international family entertainment enterprise with five business segments and is a Dow 30 company with revenues of $41 billion in its most recently reported fiscal year. Disney's first animation screened in China in the 1930s and today our long association continues with offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with over 1000 employees. The Company has a broad range of businesses including publishing, broadcast, mobile, web, retail and its English language program, Disney English, which launched in 2008. Nearly 24 hours of Disney television programming is now available in China every week, reaching 300-360 million people each month. In September 2005, Disney opened its doors to its first theme park in China, Hong Kong Disneyland and in 2011 announced ground breaking for the Shanghai Disneyland Resort, a joint venture with Shanghai Shendi Group.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit www.marvel.com . Super Hero(es) is a co-owned registered trademark.
About DMG Entertainment
Founded in China in 1993, DMG owns and operates a premier entertainment company (DMG Entertainment), and an award-winning communications agency (DMG Media), possessing nearly 20 years of experience. DMG Entertainment is a leader in China's film market through the production of a diverse portfolio of commercially driven films, including 2009's The Founding of a Republic, 2010's Go Lala Go!, and 2011's Beginning of the Great Revival, as well as through the distribution of Hollywood titles such as Twilight, Knowing, Killers, Resident Evil: Afterlife, RED, The Eagle, and Priest. DMG Entertainment has also produced Hollywood/China films including Looper set for release in 2012. DMG Media has provided strategic and creative campaigns for international brands looking to connect with Chinese consumers through DMG's all-encompassing platform. SOURCE: The Walt Disney Company China
Madame Tussauds New York Unveil Their Marvel Superheroes Exhibit...
Madame Tussauds New York, USA, has revealed a first look at their new interactive Marvel Super Heroes exhibit, set to open on Thursday, April 26th, just before many of the heroes appear on the big screen in the May 4th release of Marvel's 'The Avengers'.
The new, multi-level experience will feature wax likenesses of The Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and two new wax figures of Captain America and Thor, as well as the Marvel Super Heroes 4D Experience – a new, short film with amazing special effects.
Captain America, as portrayed by Chris Evans in the 2011 blockbuster film, Captain America: The First Avenger, will stand in his patriotic red, white and blue costume, holding his circular shield. Thor, as portrayed by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth in the hit 2011 film, Thor, will wield his mighty hammer, Mjolnir.
“We’re bringing the Marvel Super Heroes that so many of us grew up with to life,” said Bret Pidgeon, General Manager of Madame Tussauds New York. “Marvel fans young and old alike will now have the opportunity to see, interact with and stand alongside their favorite characters.”
The exhibit will lead visitors through a long hallway and downstairs into the secret command center to unlock their powers alongside their favorite heroes. Captain America and Iron Man stand at the ready while Spider-Man crouches, about to spring into action and a 15-foot-tall likeness of The Hulk emerges through a wall into the Gamma Radiation Lab.
Expo visitors will stand at the “Contamination Station” to see if they’ve been exposed to the gamma rays that turned Dr. Bruce Banner into his green alter ego. They will also have the opportunity to wield the hammer Mjoilnir alongside of Thor as he emerges through a portal from Asgard prepared for battle.
“From the pages of our comic books to the big screen and now live in wax – it’s a great thing to see some of our best-loved Marvel characters come to life in this fun and interactive way,” said Joe Quesada, Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment. "For more than 70 years, Marvel has captured the imagination of fans around the world and we’re excited to be working with Madame Tussauds New York to open this amazing experience for everyone to enjoy.”
The never-before-seen Marvel Super Heroes 4D Experience places visitors in the middle of a Stark Industries press conference. Viewers can not only watch as Peter Parker asks Tony Stark questions, but feel the commotion once the press conference is interrupted by the evil Loki and Dr. Doom. Viewers will feel as though they are joining Marvel’s greatest Super Heroes Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, and Spider-Man to battle their nemeses. Excelsior!
News...
Madame Tussauds recently opened their Sydney, Australia branch, and we understand there's a Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) wax double. Excelsior!
Marvel's IRON MAN 3 to Be Co-Produced in China; The Walt Disney Company China, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment to Bring Super Hero to China...
SHANGHAI & BEIJING & LOS ANGELES, Apr 16, 2012 - The Walt Disney Company China, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment today announced the intention to co-produce IRON MAN 3 in China. Under the arrangement, DMG Entertainment will make an investment in the production of IRON MAN 3, manage the Chinese co-production process, and jointly produce the film in China. The Chinese portion of IRON MAN 3's production will run through DMG Entertainment in coordination with Marvel Studios' production and creative teams. DMG will also distribute IRON MAN 3 in China in collaboration with The Walt Disney Company China.
IRON MAN 3 will be the third movie in the billion-dollar plus franchise from Marvel and stars a returning cast including Robert Downey Jr. (as billionaire inventor Tony Stark) Gwyneth Paltrow (as Pepper Potts) and Don Cheadle (as James "Rhodey" Rhodes). IRON MAN 3 is produced by Kevin Feige and executive produced by Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Louis D'Esposito, Charles Newirth, Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard and Dan Mintz. The film is being directed by Shane Black who is working on the script with Drew Pearce. The film releases in the United States on May 3, 2013, and is being distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in all territories worldwide other than in China (which is being distributed by DMG Entertainment) and Germany/Austria (which is being distributed by the Tele Munchen Group).
"The popularity of the Marvel franchise globally creates a huge opportunity to deliver fans yet another action packed film," said Stanley Cheung, Managing Director, The Walt Disney Company, Greater China. "The co-production of IRON MAN 3 in China is testimony to the importance of this audience to Disney and the local industry capability to deliver a blockbuster title," he added.
"We look forward to working alongside DMG to bring IRON MAN to the Chinese marketplace in a significant way. We are confident that Marvel's stories will continue to be enjoyed by Chinese audiences, and adding a local flavor, and working with our new local partner, will enhance the appeal and relevance of our characters in China's fast-growing film marketplace," said Rob Steffens, General Manager of Operations and Finance for Marvel Studios.
"Our collaboration with Disney and Marvel marks a milestone in the global entertainment landscape, as this signifies the first multi-billion dollar franchise to be produced between Hollywood and China," said Dan Mintz, CEO of DMG Entertainment. "The IRON MAN franchise has been a major success worldwide, and we look forward to pushing the series to new heights with IRON MAN 3. The movie will further build upon its compelling storyline, and feature the hottest A-list stars, and spectacular action, which will resonate well both globally and in China, the second largest box office market in the world."
The first installment of IRON MAN lifted off with high-speed, high-flying action when jet-setting industrialist Tony Stark survives an unexpected attack and escapes by building a high-tech robotic suit of armor. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global implications, he dons his powerful armor and vows to protect the world as Iron Man. Straight from the pages of the legendary comic book, Iron Man is a hero who is built--not born--to be unlike any other and made US$581 million at the global box office when released in 2008. Based on Marvel's iconic Super Hero, IRON MAN 2 continued the story of the 2008 summer box office blockbuster IRON MAN, and made US$624 million at the global box office when released in 2010. Now, IRON MAN 3 continues the story with a new chapter that will deliver more heart-pounding action than ever before. Marvel Studios' IRON MAN 3 will find Tony Stark with his back against the wall, facing his most fearsome foes yet.
Shooting is expected to commence in May in the United States and begin location filming in China in late summer 2012.
About The Walt Disney Company in China
The Walt Disney Company DIS -0.45%, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a diversified international family entertainment enterprise with five business segments and is a Dow 30 company with revenues of $41 billion in its most recently reported fiscal year. Disney's first animation screened in China in the 1930s and today our long association continues with offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with over 1000 employees. The Company has a broad range of businesses including publishing, broadcast, mobile, web, retail and its English language program, Disney English, which launched in 2008. Nearly 24 hours of Disney television programming is now available in China every week, reaching 300-360 million people each month. In September 2005, Disney opened its doors to its first theme park in China, Hong Kong Disneyland and in 2011 announced ground breaking for the Shanghai Disneyland Resort, a joint venture with Shanghai Shendi Group.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit www.marvel.com . Super Hero(es) is a co-owned registered trademark.
About DMG Entertainment
Founded in China in 1993, DMG owns and operates a premier entertainment company (DMG Entertainment), and an award-winning communications agency (DMG Media), possessing nearly 20 years of experience. DMG Entertainment is a leader in China's film market through the production of a diverse portfolio of commercially driven films, including 2009's The Founding of a Republic, 2010's Go Lala Go!, and 2011's Beginning of the Great Revival, as well as through the distribution of Hollywood titles such as Twilight, Knowing, Killers, Resident Evil: Afterlife, RED, The Eagle, and Priest. DMG Entertainment has also produced Hollywood/China films including Looper set for release in 2012. DMG Media has provided strategic and creative campaigns for international brands looking to connect with Chinese consumers through DMG's all-encompassing platform. SOURCE: The Walt Disney Company China
Madame Tussauds New York Unveil Their Marvel Superheroes Exhibit...
Madame Tussauds New York, USA, has revealed a first look at their new interactive Marvel Super Heroes exhibit, set to open on Thursday, April 26th, just before many of the heroes appear on the big screen in the May 4th release of Marvel's 'The Avengers'.
The new, multi-level experience will feature wax likenesses of The Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and two new wax figures of Captain America and Thor, as well as the Marvel Super Heroes 4D Experience – a new, short film with amazing special effects.
Captain America, as portrayed by Chris Evans in the 2011 blockbuster film, Captain America: The First Avenger, will stand in his patriotic red, white and blue costume, holding his circular shield. Thor, as portrayed by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth in the hit 2011 film, Thor, will wield his mighty hammer, Mjolnir.
“We’re bringing the Marvel Super Heroes that so many of us grew up with to life,” said Bret Pidgeon, General Manager of Madame Tussauds New York. “Marvel fans young and old alike will now have the opportunity to see, interact with and stand alongside their favorite characters.”
The exhibit will lead visitors through a long hallway and downstairs into the secret command center to unlock their powers alongside their favorite heroes. Captain America and Iron Man stand at the ready while Spider-Man crouches, about to spring into action and a 15-foot-tall likeness of The Hulk emerges through a wall into the Gamma Radiation Lab.
Expo visitors will stand at the “Contamination Station” to see if they’ve been exposed to the gamma rays that turned Dr. Bruce Banner into his green alter ego. They will also have the opportunity to wield the hammer Mjoilnir alongside of Thor as he emerges through a portal from Asgard prepared for battle.
“From the pages of our comic books to the big screen and now live in wax – it’s a great thing to see some of our best-loved Marvel characters come to life in this fun and interactive way,” said Joe Quesada, Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment. "For more than 70 years, Marvel has captured the imagination of fans around the world and we’re excited to be working with Madame Tussauds New York to open this amazing experience for everyone to enjoy.”
The never-before-seen Marvel Super Heroes 4D Experience places visitors in the middle of a Stark Industries press conference. Viewers can not only watch as Peter Parker asks Tony Stark questions, but feel the commotion once the press conference is interrupted by the evil Loki and Dr. Doom. Viewers will feel as though they are joining Marvel’s greatest Super Heroes Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, and Spider-Man to battle their nemeses. Excelsior!
News...
Madame Tussauds recently opened their Sydney, Australia branch, and we understand there's a Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) wax double. Excelsior!
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