slot demo to happen this year

Harrah's has pledged that the World Series of slot demo will go ahead this year, but is alluding that they may not hold it at Binion's:

The popular World Series of Poker will take place this year but where the cards are dealt remains undecided, new owner Harrah's Entertainment said Tuesday.

I would not be surprised at all if Harrah's moves the WSOP to their Vegas strip casino. The strip is a lot more conducive to non-hardcore spectators, which is presumably a primary way for Harrah's to cash in on the growing popularity of poker.

Despite the long history of Binion's and the WSOP, I think it may be a good thing to have the WSOP move to the strip. More slot mainstream means more popularity means more entrants, more sponsors and more places to play poker.

harrah's to buy and reopen the horseshoe

That didn't take long.

Harrah's Entertainment (NYSE:HET - News) on Monday said it has reached an initial agreement to buy Binion's Horseshoe Hotel & Casino and has plans to reopen the legendary Las Vegas casino as soon as possible.

The bad news here is that Harrah's doesn't really have a good track record at running major tournaments. Their Las Vegas cardroom hosted the Carnivale of Poker III in 2000 but closed shortly afterwards. Their regional casinos generally have smaller cardrooms with daily tournaments but no events on the scale of Binion's or the Bellagio.

The good news is that not having a poker presence in Vegas may make Harrah's more willing to promote Binion's poker than if it was competing with their Vegas property.

casinos to put RFID tags in chips

A new generation of casino chips will roll out this year, carrying RFID radio transmitters to allow casinos to more closely track chips and protect against counterfeiters. Link (thanks, Stray Toaster!)

I think this is a good move. Casinos already meticulously track movement of chips and go to great lengths to weed out counterfeits. RFID tags give them a means to do both more effectively.

The main downside cited for RFID tags is that an individual with a scanner can supposedly read quantities of RFID tags, thereby identifying people with large numbers of chips (or currency, or whatever has the RFID tags). I think that's a potential big problem for currency but not really a problem for casino chips.

If it minimizes theft, counterfeiting and keeps casino costs down, it's ultimately a good thing for the honest gambler.

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