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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 20 March 2020
Shut-out by virus, gamblers turning to online betting

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) sion is under consideration.
— Some gamblers who The Golden Nugget is New
suddenly can't go to a ca- Jersey's leader in internet
sino to play slot machines, gambling revenue, winning
cards or roulette are mi- over $177 million last year.
grating to internet casinos It, too, is seeing a virus-relat-
as the coronavirus shuts ed bump in its online num-
down most things involving bers, with a 20% increase
large gatherings. in new player signups this
As of Tuesday, casinos in month, according to Thom-
about three dozen states as Winter, Golden Nugget's
had either been shut down senior vice president and
by government order or general manager of online
done so voluntarily. gambling.
So far, just a handful of "This is definitely the best
states offer internet gam- alternate option we can
bling for casino games or offer to our live casino play-
poker: New Jersey, Ne- ers," he said.
vada, Delaware and Penn- Hard Rock Atlantic City
sylvania; others offer online recently debuted remote-
betting on sports, but that controlled slot machines in
market has dried up virtu- a room just at the casino
ally overnight as most ma- In this Nov. 21, 2013 file photo, Joseph Brennen of Ventnor N.J., logs on to a Harrah's online casino that players can activate
jor professional and college on his laptop from a highway rest area in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. on the first day of a test of and play from home. It also
sports have shut down due Internet gambling in New Jersey. offers traditional internet
to the virus. Associated Press gambling. But like most ca-
Online gambling providers sino executives, Hard Rock
say they're seeing a signifi- teractive, which runs the crease in online gambling bling historian with the Uni- president Joe Lupo isn't ex-
cant spike in volume and PlaySugarHouse.com and in recent days, according versity of Nevada Las Ve- pecting online revenue to
revenue in recent days. BetRivers.com online sites, to President Mark Giannan- gas, said additional states increase enough to begin
FOX Bet says its online ca- says it has seen an increase tonio. could move to adopt inter- to make up for lost in-per-
sino and poker operations in business, which it hopes Since it debuted in Novem- net gambling, depending son revenue.
have doubled the rate at will make up for at least ber 2013, internet gambling on how streamlined the leg- "This is not like a snowstorm
which it is adding new cus- some of the lost revenue has soared in New Jersey. islative process becomes. If that will end in 48 hours,"
tomers in the last week. from real-world casinos. Last year, Atlantic City ca- a provision making it easier he said. "This is so unprec-
"When the NBA shut down, "It is still early and we are sinos won nearly $483 mil- to offer online gambling edented and the timeta-
we really saw a sharp in- expecting the uptick to lion online, an increase of were included in the relief ble is simply unknown as to
crease since that date," continue in the next few nearly 62% over 2018 levels. package being put to- when employment and the
said Robin Chhabra, FOX days," said Mattias Stetz, Including in-person casino gether by Congress, that economy rebounds."
Bet's CEO. "We're seeing a the company's chief oper- games and sports betting could lead to an expansion For most people, the virus
very strong shift to poker ating officer. money, the casinos won of online gambling, though causes only mild or moder-
and online casino." Resorts Casino also has $3.46 billion last year. there has been no indica- ate symptoms, such as fe-
Likewise, Rush Street In- seen a "noticeable" in- David Schwartz, a gam- tion yet that such a provi- ver and cough. q

Computer-graphics pioneers

win tech's Turing prize

by legendary filmmaker skin? What makes a tree was also the backbone of
George Lucas to head the look like a tree? CGI special effects in live-
computer-technology di- You have to understand action movies such as "Ti-
vision that became Pixar the structure of material tanic" and the "Lord of the
when Apple founder Steve and how light interacts with Rings" films.
Jobs bought it. Patrick Han- it," Hanrahan said in an in- The Association for Com-
rahan was one of Catmull's terview with The Associated puting Machinery, which
This April 3, 2019, file photo shows a preview image of the up- early hires at Pixar, now Press. Only then is it possible awards the prize, says film-
coming film "Toy Story 4" on state during the Walt Disney Stu-
dios Motion Pictures presentation at CinemaCon 2019, the of- part of Disney. to translate that under- makers used RenderMan
ficial convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners Together, the two worked standing of how the physics software in nearly all of the
(NATO) at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. on techniques that made of curved surfaces — our last 47 movies nominated
Associated Press graphics in movies like "Toy hands, our noses — works for a visual effects Acad-
Story" look more lifelike, with light into the 100,00- emy Award.
By TALI ARBEL dustry's version of the Nobel even though Hanrahan plus frames that make up a The technology has also
AP Technology Writer Prize. left Pixar years before the movie. indirectly helped the artifi-
The technology that ani- Patrick Hanrahan and Ed- studio released that film. Hanrahan's "RenderMan" cial-intelligence field. The
mated movies like "Toy win Catmull won the prize Catmull is the former presi- software helped produce chips that were developed
Story" and enabled a vari- for their contributions to 3-D dent of Pixar and worked "Toy Story" in 1995 and then for video-game graphics
ety of special effects is the computer graphics used in there for more than three a string of Pixar films like were so powerful that they
focus of this year's Turing movies and video games. decades. "Up," "Monsters Inc.," "Find- could then be used to train
Award, the technology in- Edwin Catmull was hired "What makes skin look like ing Nemo" and "Wall-E." It AI algorithms.q