Early PGA payouts cost Paddy Power millions

Posted by admin | Gambling news | Sunday 23 August 2009 9:51 pm

If you were upset to see golf pro Tiger Woods fall short again at this year’s U.S. PGA Championship, then you certainly weren’t alone, but your disappointment probably didn’t come with the $2.12 million price tag that online sportsbook Paddy Power’s did.

It’s safe to say this will be the end of Paddy Power’s early payouts. On August 15, the sportsbook posted a cheeky entry to their own blog, jokingly implying that they were crazy to offer early payouts on Woods-win bets, then insisting that Woods was just too good to be defeated. “Do you think we’re going to be caught with our trousers down,” their writer jokingly asked. Turns out they were.

Last Monday, Paddy Power released a less lighthearted statement in which they referred to themselves as “dimwitted.” Bettors that put their money on the actual winner—Y.E. Yang—before the beginning of the tournament made off with payments on odds of 150-to-1, while those that forecasted his win in the final round will get paid on odds of 16-to-1. They weren’t the only winners though; hundreds of Woods fans profited from Paddy Power’s foul prediction to the tune of 1.5 million Euros.

Station Casinos latest casualty of bad Vegas economy

Posted by admin | Gambling news | Sunday 2 August 2009 9:58 pm

The Station Casinos are local favorites among resident Las Vegas gamblers who frequent them for their cheap rooms, cheap food, and generous players club promotions. They’ve long been a regular feature in the most off-strip locations of Sin City, making it unlikely that the trendier tourists even know they exist, but there can be no doubt there would be a hole in the American gambling industry should the eighteen popular casinos suddenly close their doors. And closure is certainly a possibility with Station Casinos filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday.

The Station Casinos went under new ownership in 2007, but the profitability of the casino chain was greatly diminished by the recent recession. Fortunately all of Station Casinos’ partners and casino operating units were spared the same fate, and the company has already been approved to borrow an additional $150 million. While these factors will spare the casinos from immediate closure, if the economy doesn’t improve soon or if the company does not find a more effective way to restructure its debt then future closures or sellouts seem likely.

This latest bankruptcy comes on the heels of several other filings made by large Vegas gambling operations like the historical Tropicana and the once-powerful Trump Entertainment Resorts.