18 October 2010

Media Man Int Blog: Gaming Flashback

Media Man Int Blog

Australia remains home to some of the hottest casino, online casino, gambling and gaming news on the planet. We've got Aussie casino wars, Tabcorp fun and games, Crown Casino domination, casino babe and poker babe awards and more. Media Man and Gambling911 travel the world securing the most exciting and relevant news for you, the loyal and vocal readership...

Crown Casino News: James Packer Leads By Example...

What a week for JP. First he works his magic to help prevent a casino worker strike at Crown Casino, potentially saving millions of dollars, and now he works a touch of his masterstroke on the Crown Limited share price...JP has basically singlehandedly, ensured that buyers outnumbered sellers by a very decent margin this week. That was a good change. He reversed a situation where for a wee bit situation came about where sellers were trumping buyers. The result being $203.5 million to $41.9 million in favour of buyers. Our friends at Fairfax Media are saying that if JP hadn't got the 22.6 million Crown shares at $8.89 apiece, the buying figure would have read just $2.5 million, going on to suggest that there is little enthusiasm by directors for their own shares. Media Man get Fairfax Media newsfeeds onto its website and owns a few Crown Limited shares, so we only thought it fair we give you this gossip maties.

Crown's (and Network Nine's) David Gyngell Snaps Up Some Crown Limited Shares Too...

Fellow Bondi Beach native David Gyngell who accepted the invitation to join the Crown Limited board of directors last month, opened his shareholding account with a stock purchase of $100,165. Yep, putting your money were your mouth is. We like that. Richard Branson, Donald Trump, David Aspinall and Terri Irwin, would you like to follow suit soon and snap up your own piece of the action? Comon', be a sport. You'll be in fine Aussie company.



Tabcorp Giant Will Demerge Casinos Operations...

Gambling hotshot Tabcorp Holdings Ltd will demerge its casinos operations from its wagering, gaming and keno businesses to create 2 entities listed on the Australian stock exchange. Don't worry, the wagering, gaming and keno businesses will retain the Tabcorp name. Tabcorp said on Monday that the demerger would enable the two companies to pursue individual investment programs and growth opportunities. Tabcorp also announced on Monday that it would raise $430 million in capital to provide "funding certainty" for casino growth initiatives and to ensure that both entities had appropriate capital structures. Tabcorp hopes to complete the demerger by July 1, 2011, subject to regulatory approval. Tabcorp chairman John 'Slots' Story said the priorities for the two businesses had started to diverge, and there was now an extremely compelling case to give investors shares in the separate businesses. "The demerger will create two large ASX-listed entities able to pursue their separate strategies, with casinos to benefit from material capital investments, and the wagering, gaming and keno businesses well positioned within a rapidly evolving retail and online environment, Story advised. Tabcorp chief executive Elmer Funke Kupper said each business was now showing strong positive growth. "Our wagering business has proven to be a strong performer over the past 12 months and continues to adapt well to an evolving regulatory environment and an increasingly competitive marketplace," Funke Kupper said. "Our casinos business is undertaking very significant capital investments in New South Wales and Queensland, and the competitive strategies for the wagering, gaming and keno businesses are showing significant promise." Tabcorp said Funke Kupper would continue to lead the company through the demerger period and then hand over the leadership of Tabcorp to David Attenborough and casinos to Larry 'Moneybags' Mullin. It is fully expected that Funke Kupper will join the board of Tabcorp as a non-executive director 6 months after ceasing his executive role. Tabcorp also issued a trading update, saying that trading in the July to September quarter was positive, with normalised group revenues up 4.1% on the previous financial year. Revenues from casinos were up 7.1%, wagering 4.1% and gaming 0.9%. Tabcorp shares were in a trading halt, having closed on Friday at $7.10. Tabcorp continues in what may call an impossible dream of stealing the "casino whale" business in Australia from James Packers' Crown Limited.




The Late News...

Media Man Casino Babes Of The Month...


Holly Graham (former Star City Casino gym worker). Holly may have been retired for over a year, but her legend and fan base lives on.

Runner up: Jenny Woo, beauty and brains, and a probing investigative journalism style. Hard facts and red hot action.

Third place: Annie Duke. Just for balls and speaking her mind, even though she's known the world over as the ultimate *itch and *cunt. Duke made an impact, and may be a fine example of "Any publicity is good publicity". Ok, is she *uckable? We guess so.

Poker Babe Of The Month:

Kara Scott:nailed it when they signed Kara to a contract. Hot player, hot look looks, super smart. Hot Hot Hot. 9.7 out of 10.