This included a pickle bobbing contest for Snooki lookalikes at Bally’s, which was won by a 25-year-old man, the report said.

This summer more “wacky” promotions are planned, as Atlantic City feels the competition from neighbouring states and attempts to draw patrons in, the Press of Atlantic City said.

“This is no ordinary tournament league,” said Jeffrey Grosman, chief operating officer of FS+G. “Our fields will be some of the toughest in poker history and we expect the competition to be nothing less than epic. In selecting a name that could live up to the players’ incredible skill and talent, epic was a natural fit.”

With ambitious objectives including nationally televised events, interactive digital programming and social media games, Epic Poker is positioned to become synonymous with excellence and innovation within the poker entertainment industry.

The league’s website, www.epicpoker.com, will launch in full prior to the first tournament week that begins August 5th at The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Poker players and fans can expect epicpoker.com to be a comprehensive resource featuring robust professional player profiles, rankings, statistics, news, results, strategy and access to a new social media poker experience.

Last week FS+G announced its acquisition of Heartland Poker Tour (HPT), which will now produce and televise the first Epic Poker League $1,500 Pro/Am event. This event, open to the public, will generate nine wild card seats into the first $20,000 rake-free Main Event.

The Palms is offering a $340 super satellite with one Pro/Am seat guaranteed every Saturday at 7 p.m. through July 31st and a $180 super satellite with one Pro/Am seat guaranteed every Sunday at 7 p.m. though July 31st. The casino is also offering single table satellites into these supers daily for $40 and $65.

“For a $40 investment, anyone can have a shot at the glory on a national stage, a million dollars and poker’s most exclusive title,” said Annie Duke, commissioner of Epic Poker League. “That opportunity is unmatched in poker.”

To date, 218 of the world’s best live tournament players have already qualified for the Epic Poker League and the complete roster can be found on the FS+G website. Additional qualified players will be announced in July.

Epic Poker League’s inaugural season includes four rake-free $20,000 buy-in Main Event tournaments, each with $400,000 in added money. In addition, there will be an Epic Poker Pro/Am and a charity tournament during each event week. The season will culminate in a championship $1,000,000 freeroll event, the Epic Poker Championship, for the 27 players with the highest earnings during the regular season. For more details on the tournament structures, please consult the FS+G website.

My attraction to reality TV is easy to explain — I like watching competitions. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Little League baseball, spelling bees, football or Lou Diamond Phillips holding onto a rope in a Costa Rican jungle. I just like watching competitions. Tests of will and skill fascinate me. Also, when reality TV is done well, there are compelling characters playing the game. And when you mix compelling characters with interesting competition, the result is usually an entertaining TV show.

My favorite reality program is “The Amazing Race.” It’s a global scavenger hunt that allows me to travel the world from the comfort of my oversized leather chair, learn about different cultures and watch close friends and family members learn how to work as a team in a fiercely competitive environment. And the producers that put “The Amazing Race” together usually do a terrific job selecting interesting teams to compete. But for the first time since the show aired, I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to the next edition of “The Amazing Race,” which begins (in the U.S.) on Sunday.

When Annie Duke was slated to appear on “Celebrity Apprentice” earlier this year, I was looking forward to it. I wanted to see how one of poker’s most visible players fared on a “mainstream” stage, and how her skill as a poker player would translate in the artificial business world created by Donald Trump. Duke ended up finishing second, and her battle against Joan Rivers was highly entertaining.

On the heels of Duke’s success in “Celebrity Apprentice,” “The Amazing Race” selected poker players Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho to form a team for this fall’s show. And I’m not looking forward to watching them at all. In fact, I’m hoping they lose — and lose quickly.

In 2008, Michelle had an incredible run at the Main Event and finished 17th to take home $334,534. But her behavior on and off the felt — some of which was captured and aired by ESPN cameras — was appalling. From calling the clock on Paul Snead on a critical hand — she wasn’t even in the hand and it was a $12-million pot — to her obnoxious finger-wave chip count and running around the Amazon Room like a chicken with her head cut off to ungraciously check and see if she was the last woman standing in the tournament, Michelle was a picture of poor behavior throughout the tournament. And now she’ll be polluting my show. I really want her to lose.

But realistically, I know she won’t. Michelle and Ho are two intelligent, well-traveled women who are a good physical shape. They think strategically and they should have no problem handling the challenges in the Amazing Race. And that mean’s they’re probably early favorites to win the competition, and will be on my TV screen all-season long.

Sigh. Did I mention I really want them to lose?

I’ll be tracking their progress throughout the year for Casino City, and writing regularly about them. Don’t worry — I’ll treat them fairly. I owe that to the show. If you think I’m off base about their performance in the show (or if just think I’m off base), feel free to write me.

The company on Friday filed a response in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to a motion by a group of minority lenders that an examiner with wide-ranging investigatory authority be appointed.

The minority lenders early this month charged creditors are being harmed by what they called conflicts of interest in the Station corporate structure; payments the company makes to itself to lease four hotel-casinos; and the company’s alleged failure to seriously entertain an offer by Boyd Gaming Corp. to buy certain Station assets.

Station, in its response, denied the conflict of interest allegations, said it’s studying potential changes to the lease arrangement for the four casinos and offered details on why it rejected Boyd’s offer.

The request for appointment of an examiner is likely to be discussed during a court hearing Wednesday, but court records show the minority lenders and Station are in disputes over discovery issues. That means the ruling on the motion for appointment of an examiner may be delayed until the discovery controversies are resolved.

Also likely to be discussed Wednesday is a report filed last week by the Special Litigation Committee of Station’s board of directors. The committee and its experts studied the 2007 deal in which members of Station’s founding Fertitta family and investment company Colony Capital of Los Angeles took the company private.

The committee found the transaction was not successful as the parties could not have anticipated the deep recession that has left Station unable to meet its debt obligations.

With $6.49 billion of debt and other liabilities and facing declining revenue as the recession eroded the locals gaming market — Station revenue was down 21 percent year-to-year in the second quarter — the company filed for bankruptcy protection July 28. Its hotel-casinos remain open.

The litigation committee said the terms of the going-private deal were fair at the time and that those terms would likely survive threatened legal challenges.

Another topic during Wednesday’s hearing is Station’s latest plan to spend cash during the bankruptcy process.

On the motion for appointment of an examiner, attorneys for Station said in Friday’s filing that the complaining lenders:

–Appear to hold less than 30 percent of the debt in a $900 million loan agreement.

–Are fighting with other lenders that, as a majority, have approved Station’s post-bankruptcy spending plans — plans objected to by the minority lenders.

–Are critical of “the very capital structure into which they themselves chose to invest in.”

Under that structure, Station executives oversee various corporate entities that are subject to three separate loan agreements with competing interests, the lenders complained.

Station, however, said its management decisions are already scrutinized by the court and aren’t hurting certain creditors to benefit others.

“The motion simply reveals that the minority lenders are embroiled in intercreditor disputes, not the victims of any conflicts of interest allegedly residing with the debtors,” Station said in its filing.

The lease at issue involves some $250 million Station pays annually to lease Red Rock Resort, Sunset Station, Boulder Station and Palace Station. Much of the rental money is earmarked toward payments on $2.475 billion in debt encumbering the hotel-casinos. The lenders have complained the rental and mortgage payments are excessive, particularly given the downturn in the economy that has reduced the value of the properties. They want the deal re-worked so more money is available to other creditors.

But Station said Friday: “The debtors and their advisors have devoted, and continue to devote, significant effort and resources to arriving at an appropriate restructuring of the master lease.”

Station said a valuation and market rent study of the properties is under way along with a legal review of potential lease-rejection damage claims.

“Everything that the minority lenders want the examiner to do – review and analysis of all options with respect to the master lease, review and analysis of how the debtors are deploying cash collateral, review and analysis of the amount and propriety of professional fee payments – is already being done by the debtors in the exercise of their fiduciary duties and under the watchful eyes of this court, the … lender groups, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and all of the other interested parties in these cases, including the minority lenders themselves. An examiner would simply not add any value to this already highly-scrutinized situation,” the company said in its filing.

The minority lenders have also complained Station hurt creditors by failing to seriously entertain the sale of some properties to Boyd Gaming Corp. of Las Vegas, which could have generated cash to cover some creditors’ claims.

But Station, in its filing Friday, said “Due consideration was given to Boyd and will be given to any other bona fide offers.”

Station said that prior to Boyd’s formal “indication of interest” on Feb. 23 of this year, a Station executive had met informally with Boyd management at Boyd’s request “at which time the Boyd representatives expressed their general interest in acquiring one or two of the debtors’ properties on a consensual basis.”

The company said Boyd’s offer was rejected after evaluations that included discussions with legal and financial advisors as well as certain creditors.

Station also noted its belief that before and after the Boyd offer, “Boyd communicated directly with a number of (Station) creditors about its interest in acquiring certain assets.”

Such contact could have caused problems for Station with the creditors, since Station at the time was trying to gain lenders’ consent for debt concessions that were needed under a plan for a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing that would have included commitments of additional capital from the Fertittas and Colony.

That pre-packaged plan did not happen as creditors couldn’t agree among themselves on concessions, and Station filed for a regular Chapter 11 reorganization.

Station said its “OpCo” operating company “continues to believe that a comprehensive debt-restructuring plan is in the best interest of the debtors’ estate, rather than pursuit of a distressed-sale transaction under the present circumstances with a primary competitor such as Boyd.”

“Thus, far from ignoring its duty to explore a potential transaction with Boyd, OpCo did what it was supposed to do as a publicly reporting company: it carefully assessed Boyd’s non-binding, non-specific, highly conditional expression of interest, responded appropriately and filed its response with the Securities Exchange Commission (on) March 3.”

The minority lenders seeking the examination of Station, calling themselves the Independent Lenders to Station Casinos, include Bank of Hawaii, BNB Paribas, First Tennessee Bank, General Electric Capital Corp., Genesis CLO, Natixis, Castlerigg Master Investments Ltd., the Bank of Nova Scotia, Union Bank and U.S. Bank.

Also objecting to their motion for appointment of an examiner is the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which said it’s already investigating many of the minority lenders’ complaints as well as the 2007, $5.7 billion going-private buyout deal.

“There is no justification for the breadth and scope of the relief sought by the independent lenders. Not only is it expensive and burdensome to the debtors and their estates, but it is also completely duplicative of matters within the mandate of the committee,” the committee’s filing said.

“The committee does not dispute the necessity of having a fiduciary of these (bankruptcy) estates pursue each and every one of the matters referenced in the examiner motion,” the creditors said.

The creditors committee said the independent lenders’ effort for appointment of an examiner appears to relate to dissatisfaction with Deutsche Bank, a key Station lender and administrator of multiple credit agreements.

“To the extent that the independent lenders have sought relief at issue here to bolster their negotiating position with Deutsche Bank or the debtors or both, the examiner motion has been brought for an improper purpose,” the creditors said.

Spanning three jam-packed days of panel discussions, networking sessions and talk-backs, EiG’s 2009 itinerary offered a little of everything. Day one included multiple “speed networking sessions”, a welcome address and opening keynote (emphasizing global business), moderated by eCOGRA’s active Chariman, Micheal Hirst, an “Industry Pioneers” panel discussion that included valuable information about investing in the European online gambling industry, and a network launch of Bodog’s new online poker network.

Day two was the most anticipated of the expo, offering panel discussions that included a “State of the Industry” conference with CEO’s of leading online gambling brands, such as Party Gaming, Bwin, 888, Betfair, Ladbrokes and Will Hill, a full day of strategic marketing panel discussions pertaining to acquisition and retention, new markets, legal & business affairs, as well as online marketing and affiliate activities. Day three was a half-day of more of the same covered over the course of day two.

One of the most timely discussed issues was the recent European Court of Justice ruling that went against Austria-based Bwin, regarding Portugal’s State-run gambling monopoly, Las Santa Casa de Misericordia. As mentioned, Bwin’s co-CEO, Norbert Teufelberger, was a speaker on the “State of the Industry” panel. Despite the apparent “setback” ruling that gave Portugal legal right to keep Bwin and other EU online betting operators from doing business in Portugal, Teufelberger said he is optimistic that widespread regulation will exist in Europe in the next two years.

Teufelberger, as well as other CEO’s on the panel, were optimistic that the US would also turn its policies around and usher in legislation to regulate online gambling in the near future - even if at a State level. In short, all of the panelist’s agreed that the number one issue facing the online gambling industry is regulation - and regulation in the US and Europe in particular.

So, while the biggest names in the internet betting industry invest their resources into markets that will either make or break the online gambling industry’s fullest potential, it’s the players who continue making wagers and keeping the industry afloat. But thanks to conferences like the EiG, the online gambling industry can move forward as a whole, offering a glimpse into the future of the state of online gambling, which essentially says, it is here to stay.

“Instant tickets and other numbers-based lottery games are the most successful forms of lottery products. We have the creative and technical expertise to develop this valuable content and our partnership with Probability will now extend the reach of our services to mobile phone users”, said John Carson, CEO, New Media Lottery Services.

“The Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association on Wednesday endorsed a plan to change the Ohio Constitution to allow casinos to be built in four cities around the state — Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo. The measure, allowing one casino in each city, will appear on November’s statewide ballots as Issue 3.

“Union President Steve Loomis was joined by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Daniel Gilbert, one of the plan’s backers and the likely owner of the Cleveland casino, in announcing the endorsement.

“Loomis said building a casino here will keep money in Cleveland that is spent at casinos in neighboring states, will add tax money for the city and will not add crime to the city. After talking with police in cities with casinos, Loomis said it’s more likely that a casino will attract more people to downtown so that crime falls rather than bringing problems…”

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