Casino City's Friday Five: The good news edition

Good news – this week, things seem to be going well. That's right: no bad news this week, as the online lottery is becoming more prominent, a man managed to turn a one-cent bet into a good chunk of prize money, Las Vegas continued to reign supreme, and a couple casinos are undergoing renovations or winning awards. Maybe both. 5. Player turns one-cent bet into €180k at Irish Poker Open After entering a partypoker event for just one cent, snagging a $22 ticket and using it to enter into a $215 feeder into the Irish Poker Open Main Event, Ferdia O'Connell from Cork managed to land second place in the tournament, taking home €180,000. Ryan Mandara took first place for €210,000, but much of the media attention was on O'Connell, whose one-cent beginning is too interesting to ignore. This was his first live poker event in quite some time due to illness, making his win all the more satisfying.

We have a winner of the Irish Open Main Event Day 4 !!!

Ryan Mandara has taken our first place for €210,000

For a recap of all the action check out:https://t.co/EcnCVfh7Ef#partypokerIreland #IrishPokerOpen pic.twitter.com/C2tmVtq1pk

— Irish Open (@Irish_PokerOpen) March 18, 2018

4. Las Vegas remains top trade show destination To no one's surprise, Las Vegas continues to top the charts when it comes to everything business travel. The city was named the No. 1 trade show destination for the 24th consecutive year in a row by the Trade Show News Network, having hosted 47 of the largest shows in the U.S. last year, including a selection of all-important gaming industry trade shows and conferences. (And even if Vegas somehow didn't make it on this list, it'd still be No. 1 in our hearts for that reason.) A total of 6.6 million people visited for business, and the Las Vegas Convention Center District is well underway, a project sure to invite even more guests in the future. 3. Golden Entertainment reports revenue, announces Stratosphere renovations Newly owned by Golden Entertainment, Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower will undergo a $140 million in renovations over the next three years, including a refresh of almost half the property's hotel rooms, the addition of a brewery-style restaurant and a steakhouse, a remodel of the casino floor and a makeover for the very high-end Top of the World restaurant. These projects will proceed over the course of three phases of construction so as not to disturb guests.

The Stratosphere Sees Renovations and New Restaurants in Its Future https://t.co/FHc2qAzc71 via @EaterVegas @LVStratosphere pic.twitter.com/Kjs4jENsYl

— GoldenEntertainment (@GDENOfficial) March 20, 2018

2. Mohegan Sun Golf Club named 'Best Casino Course' by Golfweek Golfweek has crowned Mohegan Sun Golf Club one of the Best Casino Courses in 2017. Mohegan Sun's 18-hole championship course in Connecticut has undergone a series of improvements and upgrades since its 2007 opening, not only on-course but inside its clubhouse and restaurant. And since this rating is the result of hundreds of Golfweek readers, we can only assume they were worthy upgrades. Mohegan Sun Golf Course was also rated on the strength of its routing, feature shaping, setting, greens, variety of holes, maintenance and landscape management, which is much more to think about than we had originally considered. Well done, Mohegan Sun. 1. Online lottery wagers to reach $76 billion by 2022 The lottery, an unassuming vertical that we definitely don't discuss enough here at Casino City, might be worth another look. This week, Juniper Research released a white paper detailing the future of the online lottery, and the future does indeed look heartening – bets placed on lotteries will go from $29 billion in 2017 to $76 billion by 2022. More than half of those bets will be placed via mobile device. This jump in revenue is due to a few factors, such as more legislation in the U.S. and the re-emergence of the Chinese online lottery industry, followed by an increase in online lottery users – from 317 million this year to 624 million by 2022. The white paper points out New Jersey, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Illinois as potential U.S. adoptees of digital lottery legislation. There's a good chance that state-run lotteries may make the jump to the online sphere in the future, as well. Lottoland, which allows players to bet on different lotteries around the world, earned $320 million in revenue in 2016 and recently celebrated serving more than six million customers.