British Bookmaker William Hill Plc. will be opening startup accelerators in London’s Shoreditch neighborhood, popular with startups, as well as the tech hub of Tel-Aviv, Israel. The company will offer eight companies an investment of USD $39,000 and office space for the duration of its 12 weeks program. The program is intended for very early-stage startups, according to Crispin Nieboer, director of corporate development and innovation at William Hill. “This is about rapidly converting early-stage companies into something valuable,” he said. Like other companies that offer online gambling, William Hill is active in Israel, employing a marketing team of about 200 people. • Austrian gaming giant Novomatic announced the release of its “Gate of Ra” game on the company’s “Virtual Trade Show,” at 24hrtradeshow.com. Developed for regular slot players and with a top prize of 5,000 times bet per line, the new 10-line, five-reel video slot title “has the makings of a slot classic,” the company announced. “Ancient Egyptian symbols and sounds lead players on a slot adventure full of engagement with free games that assist on their path to the gate that hides riches and opens to reveal a special expanding symbol that covers the reels and pays on any position.” • Book & Stage, the sports book/entertainment venue at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, will close on July 12. The space also offered lounge entertainment during the evening, and will be replaced with a new lounge. • Caesars Entertainment Corp. said its bankrupt operating division had a net income of $53 million in April, according to a securities filing. The division, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., said its total revenue during the month was $327.8 million, including $239.1 million in casino revenue. Caesars filed the results with the Securities and Exchange Commission. CEOC controls Caesars Palace, Caesars Atlantic City, Harrah’s Reno and more than a dozen regional properties. Because of CEOC’s bankruptcy reorganization, the division has to file monthly operating results. • JCM Global has named two new distributors in the U.K. arcade/AGC market. Eurocoin and Town & County Leisure will work directly with arcade and AGC operators across the U.K. to supply the Ticket2Go solution, improving cashbox take for operators and significantly reducing operational efficiency in their locations. JCM’s Ticket2Go is a standalone TITO system specifically designed for the arcade/AGC/bingo markets. • Foreign workers in Macau reached almost 180,000 at the end of May, up 17.8 percent year-on-year, according to the city’s Human Resources Office. Macau’s total workforce stood at 405,800 in April, reported the Statistics and Census Bureau. Chinese Mainlanders accounted for 65.3 percent of all non-local workers, and most work in construction. ? Melco Crown’s US$3.2 billion Studio City resort on Macau’s Cotai Strip will feature a Golden Reel Ferris Wheel as its “iconic centerpiece attraction,” the company has announced. The 130-meter-high wheel will be located between the resort’s twin hotel towers, which have a theme of “Art Deco meets Gotham City.” Studio City is scheduled to open later this year. ? The second tower of the Grand Ho Tram casino resort in Vietnam is likely to open in the fall of 2016. The Grand is a beachside resort 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam’s largest gaming hall. Its first phase opened in 2013. The second tower will add 559 rooms plus additional entertainment facilities. • McCarran International Airport released May numbers, which showed May was the busiest month in over seven years for the Las Vegas hub. The 3.99 million passengers in May is a 5.7 percent increase from the year before. The 18.1 million passengers through May is an increase of 3.3 percent from last year as well. • The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has given a $355,000 grant to the Eastern Shoshone tribe to upgrade surveillance cameras at the Shoshone Rose Casino near Lander, Wyoming. According to tribal Chairman Darwin St. Clair Jr., this will enable the tribe to installed “state of the art surveillance.” The upgrade will be part of a $30 million casino/hotel expansion that is expected to break ground this month and open next year. • The Mohegan Sun has installed interactive touch screen games at transit centers throughout Boston. The games offer a chance to win prizes, including overnight stays, at the Connecticut casino. The idea is to infect passersby with the fun that can be had at the casino. According to a spokesman “The digital activation is a great way to bring that feeling to life for passers-by as they go about their daily lives.” • The San Diego County, California Jamul Indian Village has hoisted the last steel beam on the Hollywood Casino Jamul-San Diego. The $360 million casino resort, being built by Penn National Gaming, is planned for an opening next year. It will have 1,700 slots, 43 gaming tables and several eateries. • Texas Station will celebrate 20 years of operations on July 12. The casino will operate the more than 60 employees who have been around since day one. The property marked the third property for Station Casinos, and its first in North Las Vegas. • Century Gaming Technologies has partnered with Aristocrat Technologies, and will roll out the first ever Buffalo bartop game to Nevada. The machines will offer Miss Kitty, Five Dragons, and the original Buffalo. • Artown in Reno is taking place between July 1 and August 1, marking the 20th anniversary of the event. Artown is credited with helping to makeover and develop the Reno arts community. • The Nevada Taxicab Authority will begin paying a 3 percent excise starting in August, among a few other changes. In addition, the authority board will enable drivers to lease their cabs, to better compete with transportation network companies.
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