Casino backers try again

Backers of a proposal to build a resort casino in western Maine delivered more than 90,000 petition signatures to state officials on Tuesday in hopes of triggering the sixth statewide referendum on gambling since 2000.

A representative of the organization hoping to build the four-season resort and casino in the Oxford area said the latest proposal is dramatically different from an Oxford County casino ballot measure that failed at the polls in November 2008. He also forecast that passage of the ballot initiative would likely help, not hurt, Bangor’s Hollywood Slots, which is the only sanctioned gaming facility in the state.

Peter Martin, spokesman for Black Bear Entertainment LLC, said petition organizers removed most of the “flaws” that he believes helped doom the last proposal. Those flaws included lowering Maine’s gambling age to 19, creating a 10-year moratorium on other gaming facilities in the state and giving the casino president a seat on influential state boards. Martin described the latest proposal as a privately funded stimulus package for Maine schools, with 70 percent, or about $32 million, of the annual tax revenues from the casino going to education statewide. The proposed four-season resort would create 800 to 1,000 jobs.

“It’s something that will affect every municipality in the state,” Martin said Tuesday moments after dropping off boxes of petition signatures at the Secretary of State’s Office.

Black Bear Entertainment, which was formed by a group of Maine business owners, needs 55,087 certified signatures from registered voters in Maine to place the issue on the November 2010 ballot.

The state’s voters already have rejected four gambling initiatives, including two proposed by Maine’s Indian tribes. Roughly 54 percent of voters rejected the last Oxford County resort casino proposal in November 2008. Dennis Bailey, spokesman for the anti-gambling group CasinosNO!, dismissed Martin’s suggestions that the latest Oxford County plan is an improvement over the 2008 proposal or that it will fare better at the polls this time around.

“These things are a scam and the voters know they are a scam,” Bailey said. “I see nothing here to convince people to change their minds and vote differently than they did in the past.”

In addition to opposition from CasinosNO!, Black Bear Entertainment will likely have to confront concerns among some Bangor-area voters that an Oxford County casino would draw business away from Hollywood Slots. Martin said the company anticipates most gamers at the Oxford casino would be from areas south of Augusta, with 50 percent likely from Massachusetts or New Hampshire.

Hollywood Slots officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Sen. Joe Perry, D-Bangor, said he does not believe a resort casino in Oxford would compete with Hollywood Slots.

“But I think it raises the issue that if we are going to have a full casino in the state, can we limit Hollywood Slots to just slots? Or should we consider opening up Hollywood Slots to table games?” Perry said. Hollywood Slots officials have made clear their interest in offering blackjack and other table games as a way to draw additional business to the facility, which is restricted to 1,500 slot machines.

But before they could offer table games, Hollywood Slots would need legislative approval. And Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat in his final year in office, has been adamant that he would veto any legislation expanding gambling in Maine.

Bailey also pointed out that under the current language proposed by Black Bear Entertainment, Hollywood Slots would still be prohibited from offering table games even if voters approve the Oxford casino.

Martin agreed, explaining that Black Bear’s proposal would not change the existing law governing Hollywood Slots that was approved by voters in 2003. “The reality is if this casino passes, the Legislature will award Hollywood Slots table games,” Martin said. “There is no reason they shouldn’t, and we wouldn’t oppose it.”

Perry said he would probably support expanding to table games at Hollywood Slots. But the Bangor-area senator said it is still unclear to him whether Mainers will support a resort casino ballot question authored by groups looking to build the gaming facility.

Sands China May Have Sales of $5 Billion in 2010

Sands China Ltd., the casino operator with the second-biggest market share in Macau, may have sales of $4.5 billion to $5 billion next year, according to the head of the company that controls it.

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp., made the forecast in an interview at the construction site for a $5.5 billion casino resort in Singapore yesterday. Sands China had sales of $3.05 billion in 2008, according to Bloomberg data. Adelson, 76, didn’t comment on the 2009 results.

“Macau is going through record growth so I would expect Sands to do well in 2010,” Sean Monaghan, a Singapore-based investment consultant who previously worked for Merrill Lynch & Co. as a gaming analyst, said by e-mail today. Still, gross revenue is “much higher” than the net figure Sands reports, he said.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. is expanding in Asia, betting that rising incomes may fuel gambling and retail spending, Adelson said. Sands China, its Macau unit, raised $2.5 billion last month in a Hong Kong initial public offering to repay loans and resume construction the city, the world’s biggest gambling hub.

Sands China’s shares rose 1.3 percent, the first gain in five days, to HK$9.35 in Hong Kong today. The stock has fallen 9.9 percent from its IPO price of HK$10.38.

Gaming Revenue

Casino stocks have been dropping as investors “rotate out of high beta stocks before the end of the year,” Aaron Fischer, a Hong Kong-based analyst at CLSA Ltd., said in a phone interview today. Beta is a measure of volatility or systemic risk of a security.

The Bloomberg/Standard Newspaper Macau Gambling Index that tracks 22 companies has declined 8 percent this month, set for its third monthly drop.

Investors also anticipate slower growth in casino revenue, Fischer said. “Recent monthly revenue growth of 40 to 60 percent is clearly not sustainable for the entire 2010 and we expect some slowdown. Nonetheless, we expect revenue growth of 17 to 20 percent in 2010,” he said.

Net revenue at Sands China rose 6.2 percent to $846 million in the three months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier. The company benefited from the first full quarter of operations at the Plaza Macao, according to its prospectus.

Record new loans in China that have boosted spending and a recovery in visitor arrivals to Macau drove gaming revenue to climb more than 6 percent in the first 11 months, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported Dec. 1, citing data from the operators.

Singapore Casino

Casino gambling revenue in Macau may increase 8 percent this year as global economies recover, Lawrence Ho, chief executive officer of Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd., said in a Dec. 4 interview. Melco Crown is a casino venture controlled by Ho, son of Macau casino billionaire Stanley Ho.

Official figures showed third-quarter casino gambling revenue increased 22 percent to 32 billion patacas ($4 billion), the first growth in a year.

Sands’ Singapore casino may open in the middle of April, Adelson said. He said in a Nov. 30 interview that the project would open on schedule at the end of the first quarter of 2010.

“Singapore is a very important development for us,” said Adelson. “We don’t want to over-promise. We want to over- deliver.”

Postponement to April means the opening of the Singapore project, called Marina Bay Sands, has been delayed by more than a quarter after it was originally scheduled to open this year.

“The project is massive and so a few months’ delay can always be expected,” Monaghan said, adding that Marina Bay Sands is the “most expensive single property” that Las Vegas Sands has undertaken.

The land on which the project is built also had structural problems, including a previously unknown sea wall that cost the development a four-month delay to remove, he said.

The return on investment capital at Sands’ Singapore property may reach 20 percent, while occupancy at its 2,500 hotel rooms may amount to 90 percent, Adelson said.

UIGEA Delayed

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is expected to make a statement Friday that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner granted the Poker Players Alliance's petition to delay the compliance date for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

The Poker Players Alliance declined to comment on the possible delay until official word comes from Frank or the Treasury Department. Joe Brennan, chairman of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association, confirmed that he did hear directly from one of the parties to the agreement that Geithner granted a six-month delay. The six months would be a compromise to the year requested by the PPA and Frank.

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Word of the delay comes just days before the Dec. 1 date when banks and financial institutions were to be held responsible for making sure no outgoing transactions were made to web sites related to what was termed as "illegal Internet gambling."

"It's really surprising we got this concession," Brennan said. "It's very unusual for any department of the government to essentially forestall an act of Congress. This is a testament to the power of Congressmen Frank. This has been his pet issue, because it is part of his core values, for some time now. If Barney Frank was not an advocate, this does not get done regardless of the efforts of the PPA and the banking industry."

Frank made a telling indication that a delay will happen by scheduling for Dec. 3 a hearing in the House Financial Services Committee to discuss his two poker-related bills — including the Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act that asks to delay full implementation of the UIGEA until Dec. 1, 2010. It wouldn't make sense to hear discussion of delaying a law that went into full effect two days earlier.

The six-month delay, while not a victory in itself, sets the stage for future victories by giving Frank time to address his other bill, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. Because of his important role in shaping the economic stimulus and health care legislation that has dominated this session of Congress, Frank had not found the time to hold a committee hearing on the bills that relate to the poker industry.

"We thought it would probably have to wait until January, so we're pleasantly surprised to see this happen in December," PPA executive director John Pappas said of the hearing. "I think Barney is sending a strong message to regulators and others that he's serious about changing this law. He's going to move forward with his plans to license and regulate this industry."

The PPA filed a joint petition along with the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and American Greyhound Track Operators Assocation early in October to delay the compliance date of the UIGEA. Frank followed by hand delivering to Geithner a letter signed by 19 members of Congress supporting the petition. The request received a boost earlier this week when six Kentucky congressmen wrote a letter supporting the delay, citing specific incidents of a credit card company blocking horse racing transactions despite the sport having an exemption in the legislation.

It remains to be seen how the banks and credit card companies will respond to a delay. The situation likely will remain similar to recent months, where some are blocking transactions and some are not. But the six-month stay should prevent blocking from getting worse.

"Do I think things will automatically loosen between the banks and credit card companies?" asked Brennan. "No. They've already moved up to this point in the regulations. They're not going to tear it up and say now we have this six-month window. They're going to take a wait-and-see attitude."

2009 BC Poker champion arrested

Canadian Sophon Sek won the 2009 BC Poker Championship Sunday, but was arrested today in connection with one of the worst gang murders in the history of British Columbia.

The 30-year old Surrey man has been charged with manslaughter and break and enter in relation to the gangland murders of six people, including two innocent bystanders, in 2007.

The incident is referred to locally as the Surrey Six Slaughter.

Sek made an appearance in Surrey Provincial Court today, but was sent back into custody to await continuation of his trial Nov. 30.

He could still face additional charges in connection to the murders, according to Cpl. Dale Carr of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

Sek outlasted 679 players to win this year's $2,700 (CDN) buy-in BC Poker Championships late Sunday night at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver.

Sek's $364,364 (CDN) in prize money is being held by the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation at the request of the RCMP, according to Howard Blank, vice president of media, entertainment and responsible gaming at the GCGC.

This is the fifth year the BC Poker Championships have been held in the current format and the tournament continues to draw world-renowned poker players.

This year Amazing Race stars Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho played as well as Gavin Smith, Liz Lieu, Lacey Jones, "Yukon" Brad Booth, Greg "FBT" Mueller and Scott Clements. Clements made the final table but eventually busted seventh.

Last year Daniel Negreanu, who is perhaps the biggest name in Canadian poker, outlasted all 688 players to win the event for $371,910 (CDN).

Doyle Brunson’s Poker Autobiography Now Available

“I’ve still got mixed feelings about writing this book,” Doyle Brunson commented in his blog.

After reading “The Godfather of Poker”, poker fans won’t have similar problems with mixed feelings.

Instead, they’ll be glad that the game’s living legend chose not to hold back and, with sharp detail, went ahead and dealt out a book rich in narrative and stories that encapsulate his pioneering poker life and contributions.

While some poker biographies are short on meat, Brunson’s is packed with vivid recollections and memories of the people, events, and places that have shaped his high-stakes life.

Mike Cochran, whom Brunson has known since 1954 during their college days at Hardin-Simmons University, helped assemble the book. Cochran previously spent four decades chasing colorful feature stories for the Associated Press. In “The Godfather of Poker,” Cochran has helped Brunson organize and articulate a brilliant poker story. It covers not only Brunson’s own life, but also traces the birth of the high-stakes poker world that people obsess over daily.

“The Brunson story is one for the ages,” Cochran says in the introduction, “a classic paradox, beginning on a hardscrabble, dry-land cotton farm in West Texas and playing out seventy years later in the glitzy casinos of Las Vegas and the flashy cardrooms across the country and around the world.”

That story takes the reader from Brunson’s boyhood home of Longworth, Texas, to Fort Worth’s Exchange Avenue, where “shootings, knife fights and fistfights happened every day.” It then goes further, to the back roads of the Texas poker circuit, where Brunson, Johnny Moss, Sailor Roberts, and Amarillo Slim Preston earned their fame before pulling into early Las Vegas.

As Brunson leads you along his life journey, he introduces you to a cast of colorful characters, the world-class conmen and gangsters who dominated the high-stakes world he frequented. Minnesota Fats, Bill Boyd, Archie Karas, Jimmy Chagra, Titanic Thompson, Tony Spilotro, Lefty Rosenthal, Benny Binion, Puggy Pearson, Stu Unger, and Chip Reese, just to name a few, are all legends whom Brunson rubbed shoulders with. And the stories that Brunson shares from these assorted personalities make “The Godfather of Poker” a hard book to put down.

Readers also get a peek into Brunson’s personal life and the tragedies he’s faced, including the death of his first-born child and a freak injury that ruined his opportunity at a career in professional sports. Throughout the book, he chronicles how he’s survived the years, going from being broke to betting $1.6 million on a round of golf. It was all just another day at the office. Brunson is candid and brave throughout.

In one of the book’s more humorous chapters, Brunson goes into detail about his ventures in business. “A lot of my business exploits headed south faster than a gaggle of geese,” he says. If you name it, Brunson threw money at it — including attempting to raise the Titanic, uncover Noah’s Ark, buying gold and emerald mines, and funding Christian television networks — and it probably didn’t go too well.

In the latter part of the book, Brunson talks about how the game has morphed into a “cultural phenomenon” thanks to online poker, television, and celebrity endorsement.

Brunson, a two-time World Series of Poker main-event champion, admits to throwing the 1972 title in “The Godfather of Poker.” He dumped his chips to Amarillo Slim because, as he says, “I was afraid of the publicity that winning this event would bring, and the terrible shame it would bring to my family.” My, how perceptions have changed three decades later.

Near the end of “The Godfather of Poker,” Brunson says, “I’ve come to realize that life’s experiences are ours to keep and cherish permanent gifts, like diamonds that sparkle in your head.”

Thankfully, because Brunson chose to share his experiences, the previously oral-only history of poker’s wild-west days now exists in written form for everyone to cherish.

“The Godfather of Poker: Doyle Brunson”

An Autobiography with Mike Cochra

College Dropout Earns $8.5 M in Poker Win

(CBS) Who says you have to have a college degree to make money?

Joe Cada doesn’t.

A college dropout, Cada's now a multimillionaire after winning $8.5 million Tuesday in Las Vegas. Cada, 21, is the youngest person ever to win the World Series of Poker.

Cada, surrounded by his millions, said on "The Early Show" from Las Vegas that the money is "pretty sweet."

How did he do it?

Cada won the tournament in a preflop.

"I raised it up to $3 million, he made it $8 million, and I moved in for like $60 some million, and he called," Cada said. "I was kind of too scared to look so I just had my back turned, hoping it would work out for the best."

Cada had two nines, trouncing his opponent who held just a jack and a queen of diamonds.

A first-time player in the World Series of Poker, Cada said he'd looked forward to turning 21 for years so he could participate. Cada said he got his start playing cards with his friends at a "young age."

"I was really excited to play," he said. "It's a really long shot because there's 6,500 people in the tournament. But I was still looking forward to playing in it."

However, Cada said playing for up to 12 hours straight some days was "pretty surreal."

"You kind of get in the zone after a while," he said. "The tournament lasted for about 10 days total. Once you start playing for a long time, it was just like you had to wake up and go and play another day."

During the tournament, Cada said he was up and down with his success. At the beginning of the tournament he had the most chips of any player, but on the eighth day he was getting low on chips.

"Fortunately everything worked out well," he said.

As for support, Cada's said his mother, Ann, was skeptical of his involvement in gaming and the tournament because she works as a blackjack dealer at a casino in Detroit.

"She'd always see people gambling and you know, lose money, so she was always kind of nervous about me playing poker for a living," he said. "It brought her to tears when I won the thing. She said she was really proud of me."

So does Cada plan to go back to college now that he can afford it?

He told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez that isn't his plan, saying he isn't going back "any time soon."

Joe Cada, Poker's New Champion

This time last year, Joseph Cada couldn't legally order a cocktail. But today, the Shelby Township, Mich., native sits on top of the poker world as the champion of the World Series of Poker's "Main Event." Cada, who turns 22 next week, took home $8.5 million early Nov. 10 when he outlasted Maryland logger Darvin Moon (and 6,492 other competitors) at No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em to win the sport's biggest prize. TIME contributor Matt Villano caught up with Cada in Las Vegas to talk about preparing for the final table, what he's learned by playing poker online and what's next for history's youngest champ.

First off, how did you celebrate your monumental win last night?

Right after the match [at the Penn & Teller Theater inside the Rio Las Vegas] ended, there were like 2½ or 3 hours of interviews, photos, autographs and stuff like that. Then a bunch of us went back to our suite at the Palazzo. My family had come out to be with me, and I had about 100 friends who came out from Michigan to cheer me on too. We were up pretty late.

Starting today, how do you plan to represent poker as the new champion?

At this point, all I can say is that I'll do my best. Poker has been my life for a while now, so obviously I want to see it grow. Whatever the community needs me to do, I'll do. I'm psyched about the responsibility.

You've been playing professionally for six years. At what point in your career did you start thinking you could win the Main Event?

I had dreamed about it — I think every poker player does. But I always knew winning the Main Event was a big long shot. I mean, coming out on top of a field of 6,500 players is pretty rare. This summer [when the first eight days of the Main Event were played], once it got down to about 180 people, I started thinking that I might actually be able to do it. Then, when I made the final nine, I knew it was within reach.

With three months off before the final nine resumed play this weekend, how did you prepare?

I didn't really do anything special. I just continued the same lifestyle that had gotten me into the final nine. I played a lot of live events, both in person and online. I went out with friends — stuff a typical 21-year-old would do. I also traveled a lot and visited London and Barcelona.

Any regrets from the final table?

I'm pretty critical of how I play, and I'm not afraid to admit when I think I've played badly. When it got down to two of us, I had $135 million in chips, but I think Darvin definitely outplayed me at first. There was a point where he had me down to $40 million in chips. Thankfully, I came back. I knew if I just made good decisions, I could turn things around.

You shared final-table felt with poker legend Phil Ivey. Which longtime pros do you consider to be your mentors? And after whom would you say you've modeled your game?

Definitely Ivey. Tom Dwan. Both of these guys are so unpredictable that it's hard to put them on certain hands. What I've learned from them is that you have to play solid poker and keep people guessing at the same time. It's a powerful combination.

Peter Eastgate, then age 22, won this tournament last year, and you've taken the bracelet this year. To what extent do you think the "old guard" has been displaced by young guns?

I wouldn't say we've displaced them, but the Internet has certainly leveled the playing field. Playing cards is all about experience. Online, you can see 40 times as many hands in one hour as you would in a live game. Because of that, a 21-year-old could gain more experience in one year than someone who has been playing live for 25 years. You also don't need to go to a physical place to play — you can wake up and open up your laptop.

Legislators have made online poker illegal in the U.S. As someone who's played online for years, how do you see this issue being resolved?

I support the right to play poker online. Poker isn't gambling. It's a hobby, an activity, a game. It's not about luck — it's about logic, decision-making, math. We all should be able to play poker on the Web if we want to, and I believe that making it illegal strips us of our rights. This is an important issue, and hopefully we'll see it resolved soon.

$8.5 million is a lot of money. Short of going to Disneyland, what do you plan to do with it?

I haven't really thought about it yet. Since Saturday [when the field was winnowed down to two], I didn't want to look past the heads-up match with Darvin. I'm sure at least some of those winnings will go back into my bankroll, though. There's always another tournament to play.