As the word “recession” is passed around like biscuits at the dinner table, even some of the more larger Casinos are feeling the beat. The once profitable and vigorous Foxwood Resort and Mohegan Sun Casinos, in Connecticut, have noticed a shift in movement from the higher denomination slots to penny machines.

In April alone, almost $382 Million dollars were cycled through the penny slots. Mashantucket and Mohegan tribes received a nice $43 Million in profit, while 25 cents of every earned dollars went to the state.

The penny machines, once snubbed by casino goers, are what is helping pay the bills and help the state. With players striving to get more for their money, the casino has also installed both half-cent and quarter-cent slots.

Thomas “Dancing Willow” Andrews, a spokesperson for Mohegan said “Even though we are experiencing noticeable signs of a recession, it is important that through these tough economic times, we are going to do our best to provide the best possible gaming for our guests. If it is penny machines the are looking for, they will be available.”

As for the rest of us, saving our pennies may the only thing that is our bills, let alone the helping out the state.

NBC has gone full force with it’s grasp into the poker world. First, Poker After Dark, now Face The Ace. This show is going to allow players to face three different poker professionals for a chance to win $1 million dollars. Airing on August 1st, at 9 p.m. EDT, this will be NBC’s first entry into prime time television with a poker based program.

The host, made famous from his regular character on the HBO series “The Sopranos”, is Steve Schirripa. “Face the Ace” will appeal to many viewers. It will provide the entertainment of a game show, the drama of a reality show, and the competition of a high stakes poker tournament.

Players hoping to appear on the show need to either go to www.facetheace.com or www.fulltiltpoker.net, where they can enroll in online tournaments, which require FTP points and are being held daily. If you are selected to be apart of the show, the contestant will be placed before four smoke filled doors. Behind these doors will be four poker pros for the contestant to choose from, once chosen they will play the pro in a Head’s-Up NL Texas Hold’em match.

If the pro is defeated, the player will have the opportunity to take the money or face off with another pro. Should the contestant defeat three poker pros, they will take home $1 million dollars. If the contestant loses any of these matches, they will go home empty handed.

Contestant must be at least 21 years of age. Complete terms and conditions can be found on the Face the Ace website. To be apart of the action this summer, players must qualify and win before August 1st, 2009.

With the withering economy, no state wants to loose revenue, no matter where the source. However, just yesterday, Delaware raised the gambling stakes when legalized sports betting and table games were approved at it’s casino’s. Maryland leaders are fearful that Delaware’s new abilities are going to jeopardize the revenues from the planned slot parlors.

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller stated, “Delaware and West Virginia were not even considered horse-racing states and now they are ahead of us (Maryland) because of the funds available for purses. Two of the four planned parlors are less than 20 miles from the Delaware state line, and a bigger and better casino is going to bleed revenue from our state.”

Slots are considered the money making area of most gambling establishments, but table games do draw high rollers. More high rollers, means more money being spent at surrounding businesses, such as restaurants, spas, and other vendors.

Joe Weinberg, president of The Cordish Co., who is planning to build in one of the five locations that were approved last fall. “The competition is only going to increase.” He said. With licences possibly being awarded this fall, the first parlors could be open as soon as 2011.

The scary thing is Maryland is not even in the game yet. Rep. Peter C. Schwartzkopf, a Democrat who wrote the gambling expansion bill, said “lawmakers want Delaware’s table games up and running as quickly as possible, perhaps by early 2010.”

Ultimately, Delaware’s fast moving gambling efforts were a consequence of Maryland’s approval for slots. This new law makes will add Delaware to a small list of states that allow sport betting. With Delaware’s edge, it may force voter’s in Maryland to consider table games.

Maryland’s Pimlico Race Course, one of the tracks that stands to benefit from the slots, will be holding the Preakness coming up this weekend. George O’Malley, a Maryland voter and frequent visitor to the track is in support of slots, and said, Suppose some would call this “A race of the states.”

As if winning the WSOP bracelet wasn’t good enough or for Jamie Gold’s $12 million dollar score back in 2006, this structures for you! Poker is about a lot of things, but mainly it comes down to money, who is getting it, how many, and how much.

With these questions weighing on WSOP director Jack Effel’s mind, hours upon hundreds of hours have been spent revising the payout schedule and he simply put it, “I think this is a poker player’s dream payout!” Although the details may seem insignificant, the payout structure could determine whether or not players come back to the game.

In the beginning, payout structures were extremely top heavy. Paying out 50% of the prize pool to first place, 20% to second place and 10% to third place, left too much room of gambling for the percentages. If the these structures were to be in place in today’s games, last year’s winner Peter Eastgate would have taken home over $32 million dollars.

Unarguably, the prize pool would not be nearly as high, had the structure been this way. Players these days want to enter for the $10K and make some kind of profit. Matt Savage, a well respected tournament director, gives online poker most of the credit for these changes. “Online payouts are flat, very flat - 15% to 12% for first place.” said Savage.

Ultimately, making a flatter payout schedule has become priority one for Effel. Though this was not an easy task, Effel needed help and he turned to Dr. Adam Schwartz, a professor of BA, at both WA and Lee Universities in Virginia. Mathematical theories from Issac Newton were discussed and they decided on a constrained optimization program. “It’s a kind of math problem where a limited number of resources meet a bunch of constraints. In this particular case, the constraints would be how much the payouts change from one place to the other.” said Schwartz.

Effel called Schwartz on the day of the 2005 main event and they plugged in the numbers, 30 minutes later they had their structure. Unsatisfied with the outcome, they continued to make changes. By the time the 2006 main event came around, they realized just how top heavy these payout were, because Jamie Gold collected a $12 million payday.

After this payday, poker pro Barry Greenstein approached Effel and said “Your payouts are super top-heavy, this is what they should have been.” Greenstein, a mathematician, had the luxury of working these payout after the number of players were announced, yet still, he was on to something. Having something to go on for the payout schedule for 2007, Effel had assistance from the poker professor, Howard Lederer, in creating a better system.

After over 200 hours of work, Lederer and Effel came up with the 2007 prize table and afterwards, Greenstein approached them again suggesting, “We should use Golden Ratios for every place at the final table.” Determined to get it right, combined forces, Greenstein, Effel, and Schwartz using a little bit of art and a lot of math, to come up with 2009’s payout schedule.

After four years including hundreds and hundreds of hours, Effel believes he finally has got it right. To give you an example of how it will work, had the same schedule been used last year, that is going to be used this year, the top 12 finishers would have become millionaires, rather than only the top 8. They accomplished this by shaving merely thousands off each prize.

Isn’t this what it’s all about, a little bit of something for everyone? Job well done to Effel, now let’s see if the poker world agrees. The 2009 WSOP Main Event is scheduled to begin on May 26th.

Online Poker received a huge boost yesterday when the final copy of the White House Citizen’s Briefing Book was released to the public after months of gathering data. President Barack Obama made it quite clear to the poker community that he too was a fan of the game and this gave the PPA something to stand on.

The Change.gov website has been collecting policy proposals over the last few months and the results were surprising. Among important issues like health care and the environment, as viewed by the public, online gambling ranked #11.

With this high ranking, poker players around the country are sending one loud message that poker is a top technology issue and are hoping that the President and Congress will advance it this year. The Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection & Enforcement Act of 2009 may be a mouthful, but Rep. Barney Frank introduced recently to legislation and it awaits a hearing.

So between the Briefing Book, the American people and Mr. Barney Frank, it almost seems impossible that the Obama office can avoid this issue.

In Battle Creek, Michigan, locals may be reaping the rewards of the FireKeepers Casino coming this summer. The $300 million dollar project has been somewhat of an economic stimulus to the area.

Merely a corn field back in May of 2008, the 107,000 square feet of gaming excellence is already providing the area with 700 construction jobs and 1,500 more permanent positions to come.

Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi is the tribe responsible for this effort. Their commitment to provide local jobs has already resulted in the hiring of over 60 contractors in the state, awarding these contractors with over $100 million in work, the purchasing of $70 million in construction material from the area, and generating almost $8 million in payroll to workers who live within 60 miles of the site.

The FireKeepers Casino will offer guests over 2,000 slot machines, 78 table games, a live poker room and bingo room, along with several different bars and restaurants. The grateful SW Michigan area and the tribe are anticipating this summer’s opening.

Pro Poker Player, Scott Lazar learned a valuable lesson recently on the importance of when bluffing is not successful. Lazar, executive producer of the movie “Deal”, released in 2008, was hit with a hefty law suit after allegedly screwing a company out of big bucks.

According to the lawsuit, filed in LA County, Gambling Times Inc. claims Scott Lazar promised the company a highly visible product placement during the film in exchange for a 50K investment.

The movie starring legend, Burt Reynolds and fellow poker player, Shannon Elizabeth, apparently provided no such plug, therefore the law suit. Deal, making only about 78K worldwide, will hardly even cover the damages of the no less than 1 Million Dollar law suit filed by Gambling Times.

Looks like Lazar needs to take some lessons in bluffing, or consider leaving that skill to only be used on the poker table.