In brief
Harrah's completes purchase of racetrack near Cleveland
Harrah's Entertainment on Wednesday completed its purchase of Thistledown racetrack, located near Cleveland, from former owner MI Development, and the company hopes to add a video lottery terminal casino to the facility.
Harrah's won an auction in late May to purchase the track for $43 million, the second time that the company had made the highest bid in an auction for the track, according to the Daily Racing Form website.
In a statement, Peter Murphy, Harrah's president of strategy and development, said that Harrah's will try to build support for measures that would allow slots at Thistledown and Ohio's six other racetracks. The state's lottery administration voted last week to ask a state judge to rule on whether the lottery can authorize slots at tracks under its own regulations.
In addition to its casino holdings, Las Vegas-based Harrah's owns Louisiana Downs, a racetrack and casino in Bossier City, La.; and has a half-share in Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., south of Cincinnati.
Hacker demonstrates method to get ATMs to cough up cash
A hacker has discovered a way to force ATMs to disgorge their cash by hijacking the computers inside them.
The attacks demonstrated Wednesday in Las Vegas targeted standalone ATMs. But they could potentially be used against the ATMs used by mainstream banks.
Computer hacker Barnaby Jack spent two years tinkering in his Silicon Valley apartment with ATMs he bought online. His goal was to find ways to take control of ATMs by exploiting weaknesses in the computers that run the machines.
He showed off his results at the Black Hat conference, an annual gathering devoted to exposing the latest computer-security vulnerabilities.
His attacks have wide implications because they affect multiple types of ATMs and exploit weaknesses in software and security measures that are used throughout the industry.
The conference is being held at the Riviera.
Oklahoma craft store chain plans first Nevada location
An Oklahoma City, Okla.-based craft store chain plans to open its first store in Nevada, creating 30 to 50 full- and part-time jobs, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
Hobby Lobby is scheduled to open Aug. 23 at Galleria Drive and Stephanie Street in Henderson, taking 45,000 square feet of existing retail space. Store specialties include picture framing, jewelry making, fashion fabrics, scrapbooks, floral design, holiday supplies and home accents.
The privately held company was founded in 1972 and has 442 stores in the United States, operating from a 4.1 million-square-foot manufacturing and distribution center in Oklahoma.
Vince Parker of Hobby Lobby would not give details of construction costs or tenant improvements at the new store.
Bill Wampler has been named store manager.
Las Vegas once again tops U.S. in foreclosure warnings
Households across a majority of large U.S. cities received more foreclosure warnings in the first six months of this year than in the first half of 2009, new data show.
The Las Vegas-Paradise metropolitan area topped the list with one in every 15 homes receiving a foreclosure warning in the first half of the year -- five times the national average. But foreclosure filings declined nearly 9 percent versus the first six months of 2009.
In all, 154 out of 206 metropolitan areas with at least 200,000 residents posted an annual increase in foreclosure activity between January and June, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said in a report being released today.
The latest data included one bright spot: Nine of the top 10 hardest-hit metropolitan areas saw their foreclosure rates drop from a year ago. That could suggest foreclosure trends in those cities, including Las Vegas; Cape Coral, Fla.; and Modesto, Calif., may have peaked.
The firm tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions -- warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.
