Word: casino
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Costner and his brother Dan, who already own a casino-restaurant in Deadwood, are building a more than $100 million resort there and are ogling the parcel for the compound's planned golf course. The spiritual Sioux find this hard to comprehend. "Costner just wants to make himself more powerful, greater and bigger," claims Sidney Keith, a Lakota Sioux elder. Lakota activist Madonna Thunder Hawk protests, "It's a betrayal. Costner is making millions on our backs...
...really gambling," someone asks, "aren't the odds fifty-fifty that you're going to lose as much as you make?" "At your casino maybe," Eugene, 34, answers with a grin. At the Caribbean Casino -- one of Eugene's Internet gambling dens now operating in beta (for fun) mode and set to begin in earnest (for real money) within two weeks-the odds are 70 to 30 in favor of the house. Whether you are playing blackjack, poker, roulette or the slots, he says, "you are absolutely guaranteed to lose your money most of the time...
...beauty of the Internet, of course, is that it flies right over those state and national borders. To get around nettlesome gambling laws, all you have to do is put your computer operations offshore, in a country where the laws are more tolerant or nonexistent. Most of the virtual casinos are setting up shop in the Caribbean, in tropical getaways like St. Martin, Antigua, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Belize is considering legislation that would make it the Monte Carlo of cybergambling. "Everyone says it's a banana republic over there, and no one will regulate," says Kerry Rogers...
...straight operation. "We're the only [Internet gambling] company that's publicly traded" and thus more accountable, says spokesman Michael Brown. Sports International has signed an agreement with IntraCorp, a well-known computer-gamemaker, to write software that would allow players to "take a virtual walk through the casino, even stop at the bar and have a drink." A virtual drink, of course...
Which sounds a lot like some of Warren Eugene's more grandiose plans. Eugene commissioned a team of programmers to design a full-service casino-software package that he wants to license to interested parties. His price: $250,000, plus a 15% cut of the take. He says half a dozen countries, including Cuba and Costa Rica, are interested. The plan is to link the offshore computers together to form a "virtual strip" in cyberspace. Don't like the odds offered in Casino Cuba? Click a button, and you're in virtual St. Martin. Eugene is also mocking up theme...