Weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, damage is still being assessed on the casinos in that area. Originally, it appeared that the Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi sustained only minor damage, but now the chairman of MGM Mirage Inc. states that it could be the biggest loss of all the casinos affected by the storm.

It is now expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild the hotel-casino, as the interior was damaged beyond expectation. MGM Mirage had recently spent millions on renovations to the Beau Rivage, adding a nightclub and new restaurants which now lay in ruins. 

Over the weekend, Party Poker went down for a bit, and when it came back up, there were some new features, like prop bets on the color of the flop, and black jack games.  (These are very -EV bets, so play them at your own risk -- or better yet, remove the buttons entirely.)

I didn't pay attention, because I don't play on Party, but with these features also came a change which will almost certainly affect the economy of the online poker world, at least for the online grinders and pros who rely on fish-finders and rake backs to make a living: Party Poker disconnected their skin sites.

The big change here is that if you're playing on Party, you're no longer seeing players who are playing on Empire, or Multipoker, or any of Party's other skins. The effective player pool for someone on Party dropped from over 70,000 to around 10,000.

I didn't understand what the big deal was, or why Party disconnected the skins, until I read Bill Rini's always-awesome blog. Bill says, "Well, I’m not privy to Party’s business dealings but . . . from a business standpoint, it’s a mixed bag for Party. It was smart of them to get out from under the skin agreements they got themselves into when they were trying to fuel growth. The skins take a large cut of the rake and were killing Party’s bottom line and most of them were turning a blind eye to affiliates who were offering rakeback which was luring away Party’s best customers. On the other hand, they nearly halved their customer base and now must fight with other sites like PokerStars and FullTilt to win the skin players who will likely be up for grabs. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see shareholders filing class action suits against Party if the markets hammer the stock."

There is much discussion about this in the 2+2 Forums, which you can read by following the link below.

Late Update: Several readers pointed out that I erred when I wrote, "The effective player pool for someone on Party dropped from over 70,000 to around 10,000." I got my numbers backward, and should have written "The effective player pool for someone on a  Party skin dropped from over 70,000 to around 10,000." I regret the error.

(Thanks, Bill!)

The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas has created a new suite called the “Hardwood Suite.” This suite is designed for basketball fans. Since the Maloof Brothers own this casino and the Sacramento Kings, they thought this mega suite would be a great idea.

The Hardwood Suite will be the only suite in the world with an indoor basketball court. It‘s located on the third floor of the new "Fantasy Tower." This suite is a two level, 10,000 square foot party room with a basketball court, locker room, scoreboard, pool table, poker table and dance floor. Wow!

Wynn Resorts has promoted Andrew Pascal to President and Chief Operating Officer of Wynn Las Vegas. Andrew will now oversee daily operations of the Las Vegas resort.

Andrew used to be the Executive Vice President and COO of Wynn Las Vegas. He started working with Wynn Resorts in 2003 after many years in the gaming industry. He replaces Marc Schorr who has much bigger responsibilities on his plate.

Would Las Vegas be complete without a Hooters Casino Hotel? Apparently not, as the new structure is due to be completed in the first quarter of 2006. 

          

Located one block off the strip at the site of the former San Remo Hotel and Casino, Hooters will be the newest addition to the ever-changing Las Vegas Skyline. 

           

The hotel will feature approximately 700 newly renovated rooms, including 17 suites. The casino floor will cover 30,000 square feet of gambling goodness, and there will be 250 Hooters Girls spread throughout the property. 

                      

A new member’s only poker club is set to open for business in early 2006. It will be located in Mayfair, which is in central London. The Fox Poker Club will be the name of this new club.

They‘ve applied for a Casino License with the Gaming Board of Great Britain. If they are successful in their bid, this will be London’s first fully licensed card room. This club will be next door to its sister club, The Fox Club.

There was an interesting article in the NY Times Business section called Onshore Casinos Approved in Mississippi. In the past, gaming laws in Mississippi stated that there could be no legal gambling on land and that any casino would have to be a riverboat or barge casino that floated on water.

After Hurricane Katrina, gaming officials had to rethink their original stipulations. Lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Haley Barbour that would allow casinos to move a short distance onto dry land.

VendingData Corporation has agreed to purchase the intellectual property and global distribution rights for a high frequency RFID chip. These chips go inside casino chips. VendingData is purchasing these rights from an Australian based company called Dolphin Products.

Dolphin will continue to manufacture the “smart”casino chips. Dolphin Products is one of the few casino chip manufacturers that has designed a commercially viable high frequency RFID casino chip. The RFID chip is embedded within a traditional casino chip. This technology offers casinos several advantages including the ability to enhance chip security and accounting management.

Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. recently announced that they’ve entered into a five year deal to lease some land in Philadelphia. This site will hopefully be the location for a potential gaming facility.

Trump Entertainment is looking to apply for one of the two Class 2 Slot Licenses that might be made available. This new land deal will only help Trump’s license bid.

The World Poker Exchange has teamed up with US Airways in a business deal that will help further expand the game of poker. They recently announced that US Airways will begin broadcasting poker tutorial programs during flights.

US Airways has an in flight television network called Overture and it will run 90 second spots about poker on it. This programming will only be available on video equipped flights that last longer than two hours.

A new online casino was launched and it was paid for with money from a deceased millionaire. His name was Lionel “Lucky” Brown and the free online poker site is called LastCallPoker.com.

Before his death, Lucky the millionaire gave $5 million for the design and maintenance of LastCallPoker.com. Supposedly, Lucky’s fortune came from a poker hand he won at the end of World War II.

Sportsbook.com recently decided to stop taking bets and allowing wagers on “who will win” the upcoming season of the reality television series The Amazing Race. Yes, believe it or not, they were taking bets on this. Sportsbook.com has done this in the past too.

This is actually the second time in six months that they’ve halted betting on this show. Both times they did so because they believed the winners were leaked to the public.

Forbes Magazine recently released their Top 400 Richest Americans list. They ranked William Samuel Boyd as the 235th richest man in America. His net worth is estimated at $1.4 billion. He’s no Bill Gates (net worth of $51 billion) but Mr. Boyd has done well for himself.

This casino owner helped start the consolidation frenzy in the gaming industry. Boyd Gaming Corporation is his company and they own several casinos in Nevada, New Jersey, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, and Illinois.

The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas recently opened a new complex with a nightclub, lounge, and restaurant in it. The $20 million addition is called TAO Las Vegas. The Venetian is now looking to take over the nightlife scene on the Strip.

The TAO is actually a lounge and restaurant in New York City that attracts many celebrities and athletes. The Venetian opened this new TAO in Las Vegas on September 22nd for a private party. This is also where Mariah Carey played poker.

Ten years ago the betting on greyhounds in Florida was a flourishing gambling industry. However, in the last ten years attendance has dropped off at dog tracks substantially from 10.2 million visitors per year in 1995 to an all-time low of 2.8 million in 2004. A few tracks had to close and the future looked bleak. Then poker ended up saving the greyhound racing industry!