Jul 30, 2021 07:59 PM
(This post was last modified: Jul 31, 2021 04:37 AM by C C.)
(games) State gambling regulators wonder where poker went
https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-spo...5be273015b
RELEASE: Massachusetts gambling regulators, in response to complaints, want to know why two of the state’s casinos have not yet brought back poker.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission normally receives about five complaints a month, but lately has been receiving about 50 per month, many of them regarding poker, Bruce Band, deputy director of the commission’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau, said at a commission meeting Thursday, the Boston Herald reported.
When casinos reopened after being shut down during the pandemic, the commission limited poker tables to four players. Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield said that limit would not have made poker profitable enough to bring back. Even though the limit was lifted in May, poker has still not returned.
Encore executive Jacqui Krum told the commission that what was once the poker area has been repurposed during COVID-19, and the casino is having trouble hiring. “We remain in continual hiring mode. We simply cannot find enough dealers, cashiers or food servers,” Krum said, adding that reopening poker right now would require shutting down other games.
The two casinos have said they would revisit the poker issue by the end of the year. The state’s third casino does not have table games.
(spelunking hobbies) What is the world’s deepest cave?
https://www.zmescience.com/science/what-...pest-cave/
EXCERPTS: . . . Verëvkina Cave was first discovered in 1968 by Soviet speleologists who only explored a section 115 meters deep (377 feet) and couldn’t comprehend the true scale of this gigantic cave system. ... It was only much later, in the early 2000s, that new expeditions at Veryovkina were organized by the Moscow-based Perovo Speleo and Speleoclub Perovo caving organizations.
[...] Using a series of camps along the way, it took expedition members more than four days to reach the terminal sump at a depth of 2,212 meters (7,257 feet). It takes roughly the same time to return to the surface, so the crew had to spend at least a week inside, which is a very long time for such an extreme environment...
[...] They had to descend thousands of feet on ropes and crawl through water- and mud-choked siphons. The cave goes down almost vertically and is full of wells with small horizontal passages. Starting from the depth of 800 meters (2,600 feet), water flowing through small tributaries splash water through the narrow passageways. This makes the cave extremely damp. The humidity is actually 100% and with a 4 °C to 7 °C temperature range, this means anyone descending will be freezing along the way.
[...] they collected samples of rare shrimp and scorpions, and possibly new species of microorganisms. There are also fossils, mainly imprinted on rocks, offering hints about how the cave's organisms might have looked millions of years ago, as well as how the cave itself and the surrounding mountains formed.
Pavel Demidov, the head of the record-holding expedition, was one of the first to reach it. He described Veryovkina "as if you have had a look at the far side of the Moon," referring to the alien environment of the cave. Right at the very bottom of the cave, there is a vast labyrinth... (MORE - details)
https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-spo...5be273015b
RELEASE: Massachusetts gambling regulators, in response to complaints, want to know why two of the state’s casinos have not yet brought back poker.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission normally receives about five complaints a month, but lately has been receiving about 50 per month, many of them regarding poker, Bruce Band, deputy director of the commission’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau, said at a commission meeting Thursday, the Boston Herald reported.
When casinos reopened after being shut down during the pandemic, the commission limited poker tables to four players. Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield said that limit would not have made poker profitable enough to bring back. Even though the limit was lifted in May, poker has still not returned.
Encore executive Jacqui Krum told the commission that what was once the poker area has been repurposed during COVID-19, and the casino is having trouble hiring. “We remain in continual hiring mode. We simply cannot find enough dealers, cashiers or food servers,” Krum said, adding that reopening poker right now would require shutting down other games.
The two casinos have said they would revisit the poker issue by the end of the year. The state’s third casino does not have table games.
(spelunking hobbies) What is the world’s deepest cave?
https://www.zmescience.com/science/what-...pest-cave/
EXCERPTS: . . . Verëvkina Cave was first discovered in 1968 by Soviet speleologists who only explored a section 115 meters deep (377 feet) and couldn’t comprehend the true scale of this gigantic cave system. ... It was only much later, in the early 2000s, that new expeditions at Veryovkina were organized by the Moscow-based Perovo Speleo and Speleoclub Perovo caving organizations.
[...] Using a series of camps along the way, it took expedition members more than four days to reach the terminal sump at a depth of 2,212 meters (7,257 feet). It takes roughly the same time to return to the surface, so the crew had to spend at least a week inside, which is a very long time for such an extreme environment...
[...] They had to descend thousands of feet on ropes and crawl through water- and mud-choked siphons. The cave goes down almost vertically and is full of wells with small horizontal passages. Starting from the depth of 800 meters (2,600 feet), water flowing through small tributaries splash water through the narrow passageways. This makes the cave extremely damp. The humidity is actually 100% and with a 4 °C to 7 °C temperature range, this means anyone descending will be freezing along the way.
[...] they collected samples of rare shrimp and scorpions, and possibly new species of microorganisms. There are also fossils, mainly imprinted on rocks, offering hints about how the cave's organisms might have looked millions of years ago, as well as how the cave itself and the surrounding mountains formed.
Pavel Demidov, the head of the record-holding expedition, was one of the first to reach it. He described Veryovkina "as if you have had a look at the far side of the Moon," referring to the alien environment of the cave. Right at the very bottom of the cave, there is a vast labyrinth... (MORE - details)
