Commercial Casinos Energy Policy Act Tax Opportunity

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. rtp slot

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

Understanding the Basics of Online Slot Machine Games

There are not many people who are aware of the process through which a machine game can be played. Well, let us begin by trying to understand the basics of online machine games so that you have a very fair idea of the entire process. This will help you analyze the game carefully and choose the ones that will increase the chances of your winning. If you wondering why it is so difficult to win at online machine games, then there are a few things that you should take into consideration. slot thailand

Normally, a machine has a random number generator (RNG) micro computer that throws up numbers continuously irrespective of whether the machine is in use or not. What this means is that the machine keeps throwing out the numbers even when it is not in use. These random numbers are programmed in such a way that they correspond to the position of the reels on the machine.

When you press the button or pull the handle, you may be thinking that you are starting the machine but this is not true because you are asking the machine to display the numbers that it has already thrown up. This means that it is purely luck that is at work. If you are able to hit a number you will be able to win, otherwise you end up losing your money.

Even if you are serious about playing on the machines and would like to actually make some money, you can still play slots online. You can use online transactions to pay and get paid for whatever result you get on the slots. Another advantage of the internet is that you can actually get tips from people on how to win at machines. The best thing about the internet is that you would be able to do a lot of things from your home itself and would not have to go anywhere to get most of your work done. It is the same in the case of playing slots as well. You do not have to travel all the way to a casino to play as you can go online and do so.

You can simply download a document that would give you detailed instructions on how machines work and how you can use that knowledge to your advantage and make a lot of money consistently. If you are new to these games, it is suggested that you try out a few online machine games as they are not only fun but will also help understand the intricacies of the game so that you can develop strategies that will help you win regularly. Once you know about the various tricks you will begin to enjoy playing online machine games.

Online Slots – One-Armed Bandits to One-Click Wonders

There are thousands of online slots related websites listed on the internet which makes one wonder where did the madness of slot machines begin. Gambling has been around practically forever with a lot of its roots in China. It’s uncertain where some games of chance got their start, but this is not the case with the very popular one-armed bandits. slot gacor

Online slots actually find their roots in American history. A man by the name of Charles Fey created the prototype form of this game all the way back in 1887 in San Francisco, California. The game started out with three wheels, as is still commonly seen today and each wheel held 10 symbols.

The top jackpots paid came with a match of three bells, eventually leading this machine to be known as the “Bell” machine. The machine came with a lever on the side which was used to get the three wheels spinning. Here we find the beginnings of the “one-armed bandits” nickname.

In 1910, things began to change for the spreading “Bell” machine. Fey partnered with another man by the name of Herbert Mills. This teaming led to the still common fruit symbols being used today. These machines were produced by the thousands and weighed in at more than 100 pounds each.

Having seen the way-back background of slot machines, what is it that brought on the internet slot revolution? One of the reasons is the simplicity. Casinos first started using the machines as a distraction for wives and girlfriends as the “real” players sat in on table games. The game, in and of itself, was and is very simple.

To add the simplicity of getting to online slots in seconds over the internet makes the game even more appealing for most people. No longer having to fight traffic, parking, crowds, and noise can make the simple gambler’s life extremely easy.

Did You Know?

In the late 1800s coin operated devices with large revolving wheels first appeared. They were divided into segments of different colors. A player would bet on which color the wheel would stop on. These devices were the precursors of today’s slot machines.

But are the internet slots as reliable as the traditional physical machines? Caution is needed but, in general, it’s a pretty good bet that they are. Most online slots today use a thing called a random number generator (RNG). As the name implies, the RNG is used to randomly select what symbols will surface on each simulated wheel face.

Online one-armed bandits have come a long way in converting to one-click wonders and they seem to be as here to stay as their physical counterparts. The choices for online slots abound with almost no limit.

Most quality sites make it fairly easy to find their payback percentages. Keeping that in mind, searching for slot machines that are visually appealing, audibly interesting, and overall enjoyable can be as entertaining as the game itself.