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About Touchdown Cash
Cleopatra’s Barge opened in September 1970 in what is now the Nobu Hotel tower, replacing the earlier Nero’s Nook lounge. The 180-seat lounge featured as its centerpiece a “floating” stage designed as a replica of the vessel aboard which the Egyptian queen is said to have bewitched Mark Antony.
The pleasure craft, installed in a shallow lagoon, featured a gold-painted, topless figurehead that extended far into the public walkway. Guests quickly turned rubbing the statue’s golden breasts for luck into a classic Vegas tradition; staff regularly repainted the most-touched areas.
Vital Vegas ranked the display No. 4 on his 2014 list of “10 Things You Can Rub for Good Luck in Las Vegas Without Getting Arrested,” a list that featured three other Caesars Palace entries: the hand of the Caesars statue (No. 1); Joe Louis’s boxing gloves (No. 8); and the toe of Michelangelo’s David replica (No. 9).
The barge itself never actually floated, by the way. That was just a myth. It sat on a fixed platform that created a mild rocking motion. That piece of Vegas engineering, like the statue’s original perch, is now history.
About Touchdown Cash
“Standing still was not the responsible choice,” Nally said when the market launched. “Albertans were already gambling. What we’re putting in place is a regulated market that will put player safety and player responsibility first.”
“At the end of the day, this is not about revenue. This is about channelization,” Nally added. “How much of that black market can we channelize into the legal, regulated market?”
According to Nally, approximately 70% of online gambling in Alberta occurred through unregulated operators prior to the July 13 launch, with the remaining 30% flowing through Play Alberta, the province’s sole legal platform at the time.
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Group income reached R6.58 billion ($411.9 million) across the first half of the year when excluding the Table Bay Hotel (TBH), which the company is running under a management agreement with IHG.
Sun International’s adjusted EBITDA (excluding TBH) edged up 2% to R1.59 billion in H1. Revenue growth was at the “upper end of expectations”.
H1 growth was driven by Sun International’s online division, with revenue from SunBet surging 35.5% year-on-year to R1.18 billion.
