Live dealer games are one of the more interesting and noted trends which have been happening in the last few years in the online casino industry. Live casino games were initially developed about 10 years ago as a niche type game primarily targeting the Asian markets, who expressed a demand for such a type of games. In the time that has passed since then, live casino games have changed, developed and evolved quite a lot, making them as popular, exciting and lucrative in the Western world, especially in the UK and Europe.

Live dealer casino games are in fact online casino games where the player is actually engaging in a real live game hosted either at a real B&M casino or at a studio. The cards are dealt by a real live dealer who has been especially trained to host such games and players can see exactly what is happening in the game and enjoy as much as possible the excitement and action similar to what they would experience at a bricks and mortar casino.

In the early days of the internet, many land based casino players, eager to try out the new medium of gambling online, didn’t do so for two main reasons. The first being that they did not feel comfortable with providing their credit card details to some online entity they could not see or touch. The second was that players generally didn’t trust the random number generators (RNG), which are the “engine” behind all online casinos. Many people believed that the RNG was fixed and in the favor of the online casino, thus making the chances of you losing all your money almost certain. At a land based casino, players could see the cards and the dealers and feel the action on the casino floor. The fact that they were dealing with real live people made the whole business believable. Having a machine deal the cards instead of a person was unthinkable in those days! This forced the online casino software providers to come up with a solution; live dealer games where the player could see the dealer and the action at the casino, just from the comfort of his own home while playing at an online casino.

The first live dealer casino games were rather limited and didn’t quite offer the player experience the online casino software companies hoped for, especially due to technical and technological reasons. Video streaming was extremely slow due to narrow the narrow band width that existed in those days and the result on the players’ end was not the excitement and glamour on the real Vegas casino floors. Due to this, live casino games did not become as popular as the developers and casino operators hoped for. Luckily, developments in bandwidth and video streaming have contributed largely to the ability of software providers to improve and enhance live casino games closing the gap between the dream and vision to reality.

Most online casinos don’t develop their games in-house and purchase a license from a company that develops the software for online casinos. The leading software developers that offer live casino games are Playtech, Microgaming and Evolution Gaming and they generally operate them for their licensees, either from a TV studio or from a real land based casino. This means that you will probably see the same live casino games at different online casinos. The reason for this is that the operating costs are higher than the standard RNG powered games. The result is that this is the only business model so far that has proven itself profitable to both the software developers and the online casino operators.

Online casinos generally offer a narrow selection of live dealer games, namely roulette, blackjack, baccarat, sic bo and casino hold’em. Roulette and blackjack are the most popular by far.

When getting started with live dealer casino games you are required to choose the table and dealer you prefer. Dealers are usually very good looking women; however there are also a few handsome men around to keep the ladies coming back for more. The live dealer manages the game, just like at a land based casino and they are all extremely well trained and knowledgeable as they need to deal with many things at the same time. If you have the sound on the computer turned on you will be able to hear all the ongoings in the studio and even the live dealer wishing you luck.

Almost all live dealer casinos are regulated and are based in the UK, Ireland and Eastern Europe. The hands dealt to players are random and the game is super fair just like at a land based casino and you can see everything with your eyes. 메이저사이트

Bonus and promotion wise, there are rarely any offered by online casinos, however the regular bonuses and promos apply to the live casino games, just like any other.

[http://www.CasinoPromoGuide.com] is an online casino portal, started by a group of online casino industry insiders, led by Ron M. Faulkner, the writer of this article. Its mission statement is to help online casino players get updated, real time information regarding bonuses and promotions offered at a select list of online casinos which have been carefully screened and reviewed as being honest, offer a high quality gaming experience and provide the secure and trustworthy environment all online casino players need and deserve. Visit CasinoPromoGuide.com now and see how and where you can stretch your gambling budget just that little bit more!

 

The Casino Environment

Before the recent economic downturn, commercial casinos collected at least $30 billion in revenues each year from 2005 through 2008.1 During this period, US casino owners built new facilities and expanded the size of their existing facilities. As a result of the economic downturn, new US commercial casino construction has come to a screeching halt and casino operators are now focused on existing facility cost reduction.

The Section 179(D) Tax Provisions

Increasingly, casino operators are taking advantage of the EPAct IRC section 179(D) commercial building energy efficiency tax provisions, which have been extended through 2013. EPAct tax deductions are available for qualifying energy reductions in lighting, HVAC(heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), and building envelope. (Building envelope consists of the building’s foundation, walls, roof, windows, and doors, all of which control the flow of energy between the interior and exterior of the building.)

The Nature of Casino Properties

Commercial casinos often encompass hotel resorts, which offer attractive packages of services for their corporate and family customers. Casinos are particularly suited to EPAct because of their large gaming floors, hotel occupancy rooms, meeting halls, and parking garages. Each of these features typically consumes large square footage and the EPAct benefit has a potential for up to 60 cents per square foot for each of the three measures described above. Some of the smallest commercial casinos are about 50,000 square feet while most American casinos are typically over 100,000 square feet. One of the largest ones, MGM Grand on the Las Vegas strip is almost 2 million square feet. Hotels themselves are the most favored of Section 179 building category. (See “Hotels and Motels Most Favored Energy Policy Act Tax Properties”)

It is common to think of commercial casinos as located in two states Nevada and New Jersey. While it is true that these two states have the largest commercial casino revenues, there are 12 states with commercial casinos in the United States, the other commercial casino states are: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. Members of the American Gaming Association have publicized some of their commitments to energy reduction. Reporting casinos include Boyd Gaming Corporation, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., and MGM Mirage. They have projects which include significant energy savings via cogeneration, ERV(energy recovery ventilation), more efficient HVAC units, replacing incandescent lights with energy efficient lightings, windows with energy efficient day lighting systems, solar thermal storage and numerous other energy saving initiatives.

The underlying rule set to qualify for the Section 179D lighting tax deduction makes casinos and particularly casino hotels the most favored property category for the tax incentive. The rule set requires at least a 25% watts-per-square foot reduction as compared to the 2001 ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers) building energy code standard. Full tax deduction is achieved with a 40% watts-per-square foot reduction compared to the ASHRAE 2001 standard. The ASHRAE 2004 hotel/motel building code standard requires 40% wattage reduction, which means that any hotel or motel lighting installation that meets that building code requirement will automatically qualify for the maximum EPAct tax deduction.

Occupancy Rooms

For most other building categories, the Section 179D tax provisions require compliance with the bi-level switching requirement. The comparison is always based on wired rather than plug-in lighting. Casino hotel occupancy rooms have a major advantage in that they often use plug-in lighting, and because these rooms function as hotel and motel spaces, they are specifically excluded from the tax bi-level switching requirement. Since occupant rooms are usually one of the larger spaces in hotel casinos, casinos are typically able to use energy efficient lighting to generate large EPAct tax deductions for the facility.

Back of the House Spaces

Casinos often have large kitchen, storage, and laundry (so called back of the house) spaces that have historically used T-12 fluorescent lighting. This lighting is so energy inefficient compared to today’s lighting products that it will be illegal to manufacture in the United States after July 1, 2010.4 Once manufacturing of these prior generation lighting products ceases, the cost of replacing these inefficient bulbs will increase. Simply stated, casinos should consider acting now to replace these lighting fixtures to save both energy and lamp replacement costs. The EPAct lighting tax incentive can be used to address the opportunities related to these legally mandated product changes

Ball Rooms, Banquet Rooms and Restaurants

These areas of casinos have historically used designer type lighting that is energy inefficient and often very expensive to maintain and replace. In particular, replacing bulbs and lamps in high ceilings is very costly since expensive mobile hydraulic platform equipment must be rented or purchased to handle the replacements. New lighting products and, in particular, light emitting diode (LED) products, use a fraction of the energy and have a much 안전놀이터  longer useful life and are now being substituted. The combination of large energy cost reduction, operating cost reductions, utility rebates and EPAct tax deductions can greatly improve the economic payback from these more costly lighting upgrades.

Parking Garages

Many casinos have large adjoining parking garages that can save substantial energy costs and generate large tax deductions by upgrading to energy efficient fixtures. In Notice 2008-40 issued March 7th, 2008, the IRS announced that parking garages are a property class that is specifically entitled to use the EPAct tax deductions. Also, parking garages are excluded from the tax bi-level switching requirement. Please see the September, 2008 International Parking Institute article devoted to parking garages EPAct lighting deduction tax opportunities.5

Slot Machines and Gaming Floors

One of the biggest energy users on hotel gaming floors is slot machines. Although these were early adapters of fluorescent technology, even these energy efficient bulbs normally have to be changed 3 times a year because of 24/7 operating hours. Due to the high labor maintenance costs, casino owners are now transitioning to LED technology in their slot machines. LED’s, while they have higher up front costs, have high energy efficiency and much longer life cycle, offering significant savings in labor and maintenance costs.

HVAC

Casinos because of their typical 24 hour occupancy can achieve significant energy cost savings from energy efficient HVAC systems. In particular, Nevada’s hot climate further makes energy efficient HVAC a very worthwhile investment. Fortunately. Nevada with the highest revenues from casinos has America’s second highest capacity for energy efficiency through renewable geothermal energy.6 Certain categories of very efficient HVAC investments will often qualify for the HVAC EPAct tax incentive including geothermal and thermal storage.

LEED Casinos

We expect to see more casinos obtain LEED status. (See LEED Building Tax Opportunities Article7). In 2008, The Palazzo, Las Vegas Casino became the largest LEED certified building and one of the first certified LEED casinos in the US.8 Casinos and hotels find that certain categories of frequent travelers are very interested in staying in facilities that have clearly demonstrated they are focused on the environment and sustainable design. To become LEED certified, a casino must have a building energy simulation model created by a qualified engineer. Modeling is also required for the EPAct, HVAC and Building Envelope tax deductions. Qualified tax experts that know how to make the adjustments to convert LEED computer models to EPAct tax deduction models can evaluate LEED models and determine whether large tax deductions are probable. For example, a 500,000 square foot LEED casino that qualifies for the maximum EPAct tax deduction will receive an immediate tax deduction of $900,000 =(500,000*$1.80). Casino owners who understand the magnitude of these benefits can use the tax savings to help justify the costs related to achieving LEED status.