NEWS & NOTES

Bulgarian slot manufacturer Euro Games Technology has delivered 50 slot cabinets to the recently renovated Nicosia Casino in North Cyprus. The casino is the newest gaming establishment of Merit International Hotels & Resorts, an established business partner of EGT. Six months ago, the operator installed about 100 EGT machines mainly from the Premier, Vega Vision+ Series and the Egypt Quest jackpot system. According to Nuh Yondem, slot director of the Merit Group, the Premier products achieved the highest results and turned into the most preferred slot cabinets in their casinos.  •  Metric Gaming announced a commercial agreement with Amaya, Inc., for the provision of Metric’s pre-game, live and SuperLive golf pricing feeds for Amaya’s Betstars.com sports book brand. Metric’s pricing feed package will include classic pre-game markets (outrights, 72-hole match-ups, etc.), daily wagering opportunities on round leaders, player match-ups and select two- and three-ball groupings. BetStars plans to roll out the pricing feed package in connection with its ongoing strategy to grow the company’s B2C sportsbook operations.  • Swedish content supplier Play’s Go announced the launch of the new Rio de Janeiro-themed slot title Samba Carnival. The new five-reel game features “a cornucopia of color, sound, fireworks and excitement to form winning combinations across 15 pay lines,” according to the company. Featuring high-definition animation and smooth performance across phone, tablet, and desktop versions, Samba Carnival has been released simultaneously in both HTML5 and Flash.  •  Oracle introduced a cloud services version of its suite of hospitality solutions. The new Oracle Hospitality cloud services enable hotel and casino operators to better manage every aspect of their customer relationships and on-site operations, while simplifying their IT infrastructure and deriving value faster from new innovations. “To win in the highly competitive hotel industry, hotels need to deliver personalized guest experiences, increase operational efficiency, and effectively manage distribution,” said Ray Carlin, vice president of product strategy, Oracle Hospitality. “Oracle’s cloud-based solutions bring significant advantages in all these key areas, while at the same time streamlining on-premise IT management and offering enhanced application and data security built in.”  •  Golden Entertainment, Inc. announced it has completed the acquisition of approximately 1,000 gaming devices from a distributed gaming operator in the state of Montana, as well as certain non-gaming assets. Golden, through its subsidiary Big Sky Entertainment, purchased the assets from C. Lohman Games, Inc., Rocky Mountain Gaming, Inc. and Brandy’s Shoreliner Restaurant, Inc., collectively one of the largest distributed gaming operators in Montana, for total consideration of approximately $20 million, including the issuance of approximately 50,000 shares of Golden’s common stock. The company funded the cash portion of the acquisition through the use of excess cash and availability under its revolving credit facility. The transaction was previously announced on December 22.  •  A report quoting anonymous sources in the Dallas Morning News last week revealed that former Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle was released from the team last November  because it was found he had been betting on sports. It had been widely speculated that Randle’s trouble with the law—including an arrest outside a Kansas casino for refusing to leave for being too drunk—were behind his release. However, the newspaper reported that Randle had been “involved in placing wagers on sporting events during the 2015 season,” and had shown signs of “mental instability.”  •  Greenwood Racing’s Parx Racing has moved back the beginning of its 2016 meet from February 13 to February 20 because the installation of a new safety rail has taken longer than expected and delayed the reopening of the track for training. Parx concluded its 2015 meet on December 22 and then closed the track for training January to install a new inner rail around the dirt surface. But the installation hit a snag when post holes dug for the new rail filled up with groundwater.  •  More than 410,000 people crossed the Gongbei Port/Border Gate from Mainland China to Macau ahead of the Chinese New Year, according to news reports. Customs officials said that the majority of visitors were Mainland residents in town for New Year festivities, which began February 7.  ?   The number of people excluded from entering Singapore’s two casinos rose 15 percent in 2015. According to the Singapore’s National Council on Problem Gambling, about 233,500 people were on self-exclusion lists. The others were excluded at the government’s request because they receive financial aid, live in state-subsidized housing or have declared bankruptcy.  ?  Macau gaming concessionaire Galaxy Entertainment Group will pay our performance bonuses this month, the special bonuses later this year that are equal to one month’s salary and guaranteed tips.  SJM Holdings, Wynn Macau, MGM China and Melco Crown have also offered bonuses to their employees.  ?  Helicopters will soon fly gamblers from the Indian state of Goa to offshore casinos equipped with helipads. More than 400,000 tourists visit the state every year, many of them to visit four offshore casinos and nearly a dozen onshore casino operations.  •  Arizona’s Yavapai-Apache Nation of Arizona broke ground on a122-room, six-story hotel on January 21. The Cliff Castle Casino Hotel will be the tallest building in the Verde Valley. The hotel is being built and operated by DreamCatcher Hotels of Tennessee. It will have a variety of luxury suites, conference rooms, retail, a coffee shop and will, says the tribe, provide competitive room rates to existing Sedona hotels.  •  As promised the Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts based Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe has filed an appeal of the federal court’s ruling that it may not operate a Class II casino in the island town of Aquinnah. The appeal was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals of the First Circuit. The tribe in the 1980s signed an agreement to subject its reservation to state and local land use laws in return for a land settlement. The judge’s decision holds the tribe to that agreement.  •  Boyd Gaming announced will spend more than $100 million to add 20 restaurants and other amenities to some of its casinos in eight states this year, but did not name specific properties or details.  •  The Cosmopolitan Casino in Las Vegas turned reported its first profits since opening, with a $15.3 million profit reported for the third quarter and $4.7 million or the fourth quarter of 2015.  •   McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas handled 45.4 million airline passengers in 2015, the third-highest tota
l in the airport’s history and 5.8 percent more than the 42.9 million who passed through its doors in 2014, the Clark County Department of Aviation reported.  •   Affinity Gaming dissolved its ad hoc committee tasked with facilitating a deal selling remaining outstanding common shares to Z Capital Partners, after an exclusivity agreement expired January 29.  •   MGA announced its online games now are available for mobile devices, along with six new slot and bingo games that can be played on any mobile device.