gaming posts

I'm sure Terrance Watanabe expected his luck to turn around soon with every step he took toward losing nearly $127 million at the tables in Las Vegas.

It never happened, and now the former millionaire is in a desperate legal battle with Harrah's over the $14.7 million the casino company claims it advanced Watanabe, money he failed to repay. His counterclaim states that the casino kept him liquored up and supplied with pain meds to keep him in the game.

He is by no means the only mega-loser in the gambling world, though. Other big-time marks include:

For years now, Blockbuster has boasted that it doesn't charge late fees for movie and video game rentals by telling its customers to "Celebrate the end of late fees." But starting this week, it appears the celebration will be over as Blockbuster begins to reinstate late fees for video games at select stores. The practice, which a reader of consumer blog Consumerist discovered through a notice on his receipt and confirmed with store employees, removes the 10-day grace period that Blockbuster formerly allowed for game rentals.

Now, instead of getting a 15-day game rental for the price of 5 days, renters will face a 99 cent per day fee for each additional day and, on the 15th day, the rental will be converted to a sale just like it did under the old policy. Renters can still return the game, minus a $1.25 restocking fee, to reverse the sale but the 99 cent a day late fee will still be charged. What's not immediately clear is if the $9.99 in late fees apply to the purchase price of the game or if they are above and beyond the price.

Recently, fellow WalletPop writer Zac Bissonnette recently wrote about IBM's David Laux, who told the BBC that gamers make better employees. Laux cited the case of his daughter who, at age 11, was already dealing with complex business decisions and the implications of each choice by managing her own zoo online. The skill transference from gaming doesn't stop there, IBM has also found that playing games like World of Warcraft led to increased leadership skills; which my colleague Zac disagrees with.

Zac questions how, "sitting alone in your underwear eating Hot Pockets and drinking Jolt has anything to do with business -- even it is combined with controlling a cluster of pixels." This is an excellent question and if anyone can answer it please clue me in, but this tired gaming stereotype needs to be taken out back and shot. This kind of thinking is exactly why some employers are explicitly telling their recruiters to avoid gamers.

To be clear, gaming doesn't lead to increased aptitude in business due to pushing pixels around a make believe world -- if it did then the business world would have been singing the praises of video games back in the 80's and 90's. The reason that games, specifically World of Warcraft, have lead to leadership abilities and other transferable skills is due to the fact that to get anywhere in the game you have to work with others and manage a team of far-flung individuals whose only similarity to you may be that they enjoy playing World of Warcraft.

That's because of the free Web access. Apple computers, being cutting-edge, are much less useful without internet access, so its dozen-odd floor models are eternally connected to the Web. That's where the kids come in.

A decade ago, when fewer people had their own computers, if you wanted to get online when you weren't home, you had to go to an internet cafe. But today, moneyed people tote Blackberries and wifi-enabled laptops, so the American internet cafe is all but dead. Except that many high school kids are too young to have jobs and usually don't have their own laptops. So they can't get online at Starbucks or Panera Bread, like the rest of us. They go to the Apple Store, where they can borrow the computer without charge or time limit.

That's attraction enough for those too young to have private Web access (and for those with prying parents back home). But then there's the fact that most Apple computers now come with built-in cameras. Lots of kids are hitting the Apple Store just to take shots of themselves with the webcam. Facebook will take and post a shot of you directly from your profile page. In fact, one Michigan teen just started a new Facebook group called "I Only Go 2 The Apple Store To Take Photos and Put Them On Facebook." There are already 68 members.

What happens in Vegas may stay there, but these days, the problem is how to get there in the first place.

McCarran Airport, Vegas' major entry point, reported its biggest year-on-year drop since after 9/11. And Southwest Airlines, the rare profitable airline which recently said it wouldn't need to tighten its flight schedule, reversed course and said 13 flights, or about 5% of its Las Vegas seats, would be eliminated starting in January. Considering Southwest is one of the most reliable feeder of tourist traffic to the Strip, that's quite a blow.

To further put it in perspective, as of Sept. 2, Vegas had 81 flights from U.S. Airways daily. A year ago, it had 141.

The pain, though, is mostly for hoteliers and airlines. Tourists are starting to see a real benefit to the growing malaise. On Tuesday, Arthur Frommer wrote about seeing an ad for a two-night Planet Hollywood package for $149 per person that came with either $100 back or two free show tickets. When he called to book, he told the receptionist it was still too expensive. And just like that, he was offered the same deal for two people at $249 total. That's desperation.

Earlier this summer, casinos were low-balling tourists with archaic rates like $33 to $55 a room. Even now, prices on the Strip are sliding southward (the Sahara for $24, the Tropicana, $46, both quoted through a Hotels.com promotion) and rooms off the Strip are so low (like $20 at the Plaza Hotel off Fremont Street), they're virtually tragic.

During my lifetime video games have transformed from simple games mastered with a single joystick to a graphically intense activity for men and women of all ages, bordering national past-time status. It should come as no surprise that during this rise popularity and growth an organization would emerge to catalog competitions and showcase battles of epic proportion waged solely with controllers and trash talk. Major League Gaming (MLG) started in 2003 and has grown into the main purveyor of video game exhibitions, offering fame and fortune to those with enough hand-eye coordination and swagger to brave an arena filled with competitors named, "FaTaLitY" and "godsmurfrmc".

Amateurs can compete in "GameBattles," which are essentially the farm leagues of Major League Gaming, for the chance to be called up and compete for over $100,000 in prizes at national competitions. Some of the famous players in the MLG also net lucrative sponsorships for their aptitude at destroying opponents in HD on demand. Can it get any better? I know I'm not alone when I say that I would love to make playing video games my main job, especially at a six-figure level, but for most of us it isn't realistic. The leaders of the MLG circuit can rip us newbs to shreds as easily as you or I can make a PB & J sandwich.

Before you decide to quite school or resign from your job you need to remember that it is called Major League Gaming. I'd be willing to bet that the number of gamers who can turn pro and make a living off of gaming is lower than the 3% of college athletes who play professional sports. MLG focuses on shoot'em up games, but there is also a very competitive arena for rhythm video game stars who kick out killer jams in Guitar Hero. Recently Chris Chike, a 17-year-old from Minnesota, attained the highest rating on Guitar Hero leaderboards and a place in the Guinness World Records book for his gaming skills. Chike also became the spokesperson for Ant Commandos, a video game hardware company, letting him cash in on his gaming prowess.

Personal finance is everywhere. If you are anything like Seb, the author of Pinching Copper, then you can even learn about personal finance while playing a video game. Seb recently shared three things that Grand Theft Auto 4 has taught him about life and personal finance.

Grand Theft Auto 4 has been shown in the news recently for the violence which is a part of the daily life in Liberty City, the game's fictional location. What you likely missed is that GTA IV also reinforces three life lessons about personal finance; save money, budget, and how to advance at work.

Unlike many other games the character you control has to save the money he makes for his numerous illegal deeds in order to be ready for a rainy day, or a lengthy police chase. Secondly, the article points out that in the game you cannot live beyond your means, even though you are taking part in illegal activities, you need to budget the proceeds, asking yourself, "What's more important, a taxi ride across town or saving up for body armor?"

As financial times seem to be getting more difficult and consumers are saying they can't afford to get to work, feed their children, or buy houses, the gaming industry seems to be completely unaffected. An article at Ars Technica shows that sales of game consoles and games are higher than ever... leading me to wonder how dire our financial situation can really be.

The article says that sales of game consoles are up 27% from last year, and that sales in general for the gaming industry are up over last year. Software sales hit almost $1 billion in March of this year, a 63% increase over last year.

So here are the questions this raises: Are economic times really as hard as people are suggesting? Is the gaming industry just one of those industries that is "recession-proof"? Is the increase simply related to a widening popularity of gaming? Or are gamers die-hard nutcases who will find money for new systems and games no matter what? I have no idea what the answer might be, I just thought it was interesting that during a time when so many industries are struggling, this particular one is doing well.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, the swankiest casino in Atlantic City, recently got a slap on the wrist for allowing underaged gambling.From the AP:

For more than a year, the teenager lived the life of a high roller at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, buying tens of thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips, and earning more than $1,000 worth of free
merchandise and services for the level of his Blackjack and poker play.

But what the casino didn't know - and didn't ask about for more than a year - was that he was only 19, two years below the legal gambling age in Atlantic City.

For that reason, the state Casino Control Commission on Wednesday hit the Borgata with the largest fine it has ever levied for underage gambling: $105,000. ...All told, the commission handed out $231,000 in fines to three casinos for letting underage patrons gamble or drink on their premises.

This is an unbelievably lenient fine. Didn't anyone think to check this kid's ID before they lavished perk after perk on him? The Philadelphia Inquirer quoted a flack from the state Division of Gaming Enforcement as saying the youth had "extensive contact with Borgata employees." Either the workers didn't know or more likely didn't care that he was underaged.

Studies have found that between 86% and 93% of youth had gambled at least once in their lives. Casinos draw young people like moths to a flame, and since penalties are so lenient there is little reason for them to take underaged gambling seriously.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore described (subscription required) his teenage sons "classic withdrawal symptoms" when limited in their video game use. He rejected his 6-year-old son's pleas for a PlayStation.

That's learning.

No one was prepared when the video game surge took over childhood. If American children could no longer play in the woods or in the neighborhood, they could be found exercising their fingers at the video game. By high school weekends, it could go on all night. Worst of all for our family was the online game Everquest -- referred to by those in the know as Evercrack. Designed to be highly addictive - players "level up" -- it was the first irrefutable indicator that our older son was carrying some addictive genes. In the backyard bunkhouse, he and his friends could be found any hour of the night, computers plugged in, an empty box of Krispy Kremes beside them. More than once, we found him asleep at the computer. "What's the worst thing I ever did, Mom?" he once asked "Stay online all night?"