ï»¿Genting Cruise Line Causes Maiden Voyage to Japan’s Okinawa

Genting Dream Cruises has made its voyage that is maiden to. The ship owned by the Malaysian gaming conglomerate very first set sail last November, but this week it harbored in Japan for the time that is first.

Genting Dream Cruises President Thatcher Brown, left, and Naha tourism official Takao Kadekaru, celebrated the cruise liner’s inaugural trip to Japan this week.

One of the largest gaming organizations in the world, the Malaysia-based Genting Group has and operates casino resorts in its home country, along with in the us, great britain, Singapore, China, Philippines, Caribbean, and South Korea. It owns dozens of land-based gaming properties, but Genting’s newest investment is on the high seas.

Dream Cruises has ports in the Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and travels to a variety of Pacific Ocean destinations Malaysia that is including, and Indonesia. This week, it added Japan by means of Naha, the capital city of Okinawa.

Genting states the ship features all the comforts of authentic Asian hospitality. The Genting Dream is a non-gaming vessel though the company is known for gambling.

In addition to Dream Cruises, Genting also owns Star Cruises, the third largest cruise line in the entire world behind only Carnival and Royal Caribbean.

Japan Casino Odds

A monumental development for the country that has long opposed commercial gambling in December, Japan’s National Diet passed legislation to authorize two land-based integrated resorts. The legislature agreed to allow gambling to come onto its shores at the bequest of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to make the Asian nation more tourism friendly.

Casino companies around the world instantly started working on their proposals. Seen as the holy grail of untapped gambling markets, MGM, Las vegas, nevada Sands, Galaxy Entertainment, Melco Crown Entertainment (formerly Melco Crown), and others are anticipated to make multibillion-dollar pitches to get one of the casino that is coveted.

The conglomerates are searching for local partners and hyping their mammoth investments in hopes of luring Japan regulators with their part. But Genting Group might have the best scheme running.

With gaming properties established on three continents, and completely operational cruise companies that can transport visitors from different Asian countries to Japan, Genting’s pitch might be too sweet to resist.

The Diet happens to be in the act of making a choice on the legal regulatory framework for gambling and deciding where the venues might be allowed. Along with Osaka and Tokyo, Okinawa is thought to be a likely integrated resort destination.

Cruise Control

Genting isn’t the only entity getting in the water and cruising the Pacific Ocean. Final month, the North Korean federal government announced it had been looking for foreign investors to come aboard in having a cruise line that will bring passengers to Mount Kumgang, one area of the heavily restricted country where tourists can sometimes enter.

The Kumgang Special Overseas Tourism Zone is seeking a $20 million partner to build a ship that could ‘be prepared with various facilities to enable 1,000 travelers to do social and travel that is safe the ocean,’ the Korean government explained in poor English. Therefore far, no takers.

UK Bookie Pays Out on Red Rum Bet 43 Years Late

A 1974 bet on the legendary British racehorse Red Rum to win that year’s Grand National was paid out 43 years after the race had been won this week.

Red Rum, who won the 1973 Grand National after coming back from 30 lengths behind. No wonder Bob Holmes’ late father-in-law backed him the following year. (Image: Liverpool Echo)

Bob Holmes, a retiree that is 74-year-old found the winning betting slip among the possessions of his late daddy in law and contacted bookmaker William Hill, which confirmed the bet had never ever been cashed. William Hill not merely honored the wager but also adjusted it for inflation for a pay-out of £130 (£160).

Sensing a PR op, the company also offered Holmes another £130 to bet with this year’s Grand National, coming up this plus another £130 to donate to the charity of his choice sunday.

Latest Cash-out Ever

‘My sister-in-law was moving household and my family and I were helping her to see what could possibly be thrown out, therefore I became searching through an entire pile of old papers, tax returns, bank statements an such like,’ explained Holmes to your Daily Telegraph. ‘I found a scruffy bit of paper that ended up to be a slip that is betting had been placed but never cashed. When I looked more closely it had been for Red Rum into the 1974 Grand National.

‘It is a mystery [why he never cashed out]. My father-in-law probably lost the betting slip and wasn’t in a position to cash it. It was very rare for him to bet. He was perhaps not a man that is betting possibly a few of times a year on the National or the Derby.’

One of the Greatest

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Not only is this considered accurate documentation for the cash-out that is latest ever, but it additionally provides a little nugget of betting memorabilia. Red Rum is considered to function as the British’s greatest ever steeplechaser

The Grand National, meanwhile, is described as ‘the ultimate test of the horse’s courage,’ a handicap steeplechase over four kilometers, with 30 fences to leap. Red Rum won the competition an unparalleled three times, including the year, of course, that Holmes’ father-in-law placed their bet.

In the previous year’s race, in 1973, the thoroughbred came from 30 lengths behind to win the race, and ended up being transformed into an equine celebrity that is national. Their victory that is third 1977, ended up being voted by Britons in 2002 as ‘the 24^th best sporting moment of them all.’

‘It is certainly a record,’ stated Graham Sharpe, spokesman for William Hill associated with the 42 year-old slip that is betting. ‘I’ve worked at William Hill for 45 years and the record before was seven years, for the lady whose husband had passed away and she had not felt able to endure their clothes until then, and had found a slip that is betting.

Maryland Casinos Win Record Monthly Total, MGM National Harbor Back on Top

Maryland gambling enterprises generated $141.2 million in revenue during March, their state’s best monthly performance since gambling was legalized back in 2008.

Company is great at MGM National Harbor, but maybe not all the Maryland casinos are celebrating March’s record haul. (Image: Getty Pictures)

MGM National Harbor, the newest casino in Maryland, had been the top earner with $51.2 million. The $1.4 billion resort across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, opened in December to much fanfare. The megaresort has retaken the stronghold position after losing its place as the top dog in February to Maryland Live.

Maryland Live in Arundel Mills near the Baltimore Washington Overseas (BWI) Airport dropped to second with $46.6 million in winnings. Horseshoe Baltimore, the downtown Caesars property, placed a remote third with nearly $27 million.

Their state’s three remaining casinos are smaller, regional gambling venues. Combined, Hollywood Casino Perryville, Rocky Gap Casino Resort, additionally the Casino at Ocean Downs netted about $16.4 million.

Maryland Goes to MGM

In 2012, voters approved a referendum to include a sixth commercial land-based casino resort to join the previous legislation’s authorization of five gambling establishments. Critics to the approval five years ago voiced issues that the massive resort would poach from existing casinos.

March’s $141.2 million total represents a year-over-year increase of significantly more than 44 percent compared to the same month in 2015.

‘There were a great deal of naysayers that stated all MGM nationwide Harbor would do is cannibalize existing profits,’ gaming consultant and Harford Community university professor James Karmel told The Baltimore Sun. ‘This is actually good.’

However when MGM’s March income is subtracted, Maryland’s five gambling enterprises actually saw gaming income decrease eight percent. Maryland Live saw its revenue fall by 14.6 percent, and Horseshoe Baltimore lost 2.4 percent. Combined, the 2 properties lost over $8.6 million.

While MGM as well as its supporters will discover the bright side in that Maryland’s total gaming revenue grew by $43.3 million, those who’re spending the price, specifically Maryland Live, won’t be sharing in the excitement.

Staying In Front Of the Game

Featuring its brand new competition from MGM approximately 35 kilometers south, Maryland Live is investing heavily in its property to raised position its marketability. Locally owned by the Cordish Company, a private estate that is real located in Baltimore, the casino announced in 2016 that it would be spending $200 million to make a 17-story real time Hotel tower with 310 guestrooms.

For comparison, and to highlight the turf that is bitter, MGM National Harbor has 308 rooms.

Construction on the tower has begun, and to focus on overnight visitors in the meantime, Maryland Live purchased a nearby Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood rooms last fall. The hotel has since been rebranded as the Live Lofts, and offers free shuttle service to and from the casino.

Maryland Live is catering to the more blue collar crowd. A room is booking for $130 at Live Lofts, while National Harbor is sold out at rates that ranged everywhere from $399 to $529 tonight.

Connecticut Tribes up Ante for Third Casino by providing State More Tax income

The 2 Connecticut tribes that are attempting to jointly build a satellite casino in East Windsor are sweetening their proposition to their state by providing up extra tax money generated through the wished-for slot machines.

Mohegan Tribe Chairman Kevin Brown (left) and Mashantucket Pequot Chairman Rodney Butler are ready to guarantee payments to the state should the Connecticut tribes be permitted to create a casino in East Windsor. (Image: MMCT)

The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations, operating under the partnership that is commercial MMCT, are petitioning lawmakers so they can place a third gambling venue within the north-central area of the state just south associated with the Massachusetts edge. With the $950 million MGM Springfield set to open next 12 months, the Native US groups are justly concerned with losing gambling money to the megaresort.

Connecticut’s General Assembly must decide whether to soon authorize the East Windsor site.

To entice votes, MMCT announced this week they are prepared to guarantee that revenue checks from their two casinos that are current Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, will stay being provided for the state. As yet another incentive, the tribes said they will be willing to share 25 percent of the East Windsor slot money also.

‘we do not know if it changes the overall probability of the bill becoming law, but it doesn’t hurt,’ Connecticut House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz (D-Berlin) told reporters. ‘I think it’s still a 50-50 idea.’

Millions at Stake

Connecticut’s gaming compact with the tribes mandates that 25 percent of their gross slots revenue is paid to the state. That equates to higher than a quarter of a billion dollars each year, a crucial budget funding source that is in partial jeopardy of being lost, the tribes contend.

Connecticut’s General Assembly and its State Senate Public Safety and safety Committee are tasked with signing off in the East Windsor casino because the venue would not be built on sovereign land that is tribal. While enabling the tribes to include another casino to take on Massachusetts’ gambling expansion in order to keep money in the Constitution State appears like a no-brainer, there are serious potential consequences that are legal.

The priority is that by authorizing a third casino, despite being presented by the tribes by themselves, the state would really be terminating a decades-old agreement with the Native American groups.

Under the longstanding compact, the two tribes have exclusivity to operate casinos on their sovereign lands. The contract states that should Connecticut free the market or authorize off-sovereign land gaming, the tribes would no longer be legitimately needed to share with you 25 percent of these slot revenue with Hartford.

AG Concerned

Asked by Governor Dannell Malloy (D) to prepare a formal viewpoint on the matter, state Attorney General George Jepsen said last thirty days that the satellite casino raises a variety of concerns, providing more unease for lawmakers.

‘The risks . . . while impossible to quantify with precision, aren’t insubstantial and may not be mitigated with full confidence,’ Jepsen opined.

MGM, which hopes the Connecticut General Assembly votes no in the satellite casino in East Windsor, argues in the event that state wants to expand gambling to off-sovereign lands, it should enable bidding that is public.

East Windsor is just 13 miles south of Springfield. The Nevada-based gaming bigwig says Connecticut would basically be discriminating against outside businesses in only permitting MMCT to win a gaming casino license that is non-tribal.