Lucky Double

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The bitter, longstanding feud between Station Casinos and the Culinary Union in Las Vegas took another turn this month, this time to Washington, DC and the US Supreme Court.

On 4 September, Chief Justice John Roberts denied Station’s emergency request for a stay of a federal appeals court decision that ordered the company’s Red Rock Casino Resort Spa in Summerlin to comply with a National Labor Relations Board mandate and bargain in good faith with the union following a failed labour vote in late 2019. Roberts gave no explanation for the denial.

The NLRB ruled after the election that Red Rock took steps to prevent a fair union vote, and Red Rock sued in response, although the ruling was upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last month. After the court denied a rehearing request on 6 August, it also subsequently denied Station’s request for a stay pending SCOTUS relief on 24 August.

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Duck Hunters 2 is a franchise extension, so the more useful editorial question is what has been iterated rather than what the game contains. The setting has shifted. The mechanical spine is intentionally continuous with the first title.

While the original game took place in a more casual hunting environment, Duck Hunters 2 shifts the action deeper into the woods and introduces a more chaotic setting. The ducks, previously depicted as targets, now appear armed and ready to retaliate. The tonal escalation matches Nolimit City’s house style, but the meaningful development sits in the feature layer.

The clearest example is the bonus structure, where the sequel widens the range of upgrades tied to its three free-spin tiers. Free spins activate when three, four or five scatter symbols land. Three scatters award seven Duck Hunt Spins, four scatters trigger eight Hawk Eye Spins and five scatters unlock ten Big Game Spins. Each tier grants progressively more upgrade selections, which is where the sequel’s expanded potential is concentrated rather than in the base game.

What is Lucky Double?

“Some of them [investors] that were looking at Japan were looking at a big IR licence or nothing. With Tokyo and Yokohama being out of the mix, maybe some weren’t as interested anymore and decided to sit back, and wait and see how regulation and licensing shake out.”

One concern for operators is “the short duration of licences and renewal of licences”, notes Leckert. For operators, the casino business licence is renewable every three years, while the IR development-plan authorisation runs for 10 years, in contrast to the 18-year IR licence term in the Philippines, for instance.

Limiting the duration of licence validity “puts the entire capital investment at risk”, says Klebanow. Further regulations, including limiting residents to 10 visits per month and requiring them to present a ‘My Number Card’ when gambling, further erodes project viability. “Ultimately, casino developers individually concluded that developing an IR was too risky, and they took their billions of dollars in potential capital investment and walked away,” observes Klebanow.