Morehead State's Demonte Harper launches the game-winning shot against Louisville on March 17 at the Pepsi Center. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

Did you win last year’s NCAA hoops pool (and the winner-take-all loot) after picking the Blue Devils to go all the way?

Technically, you should report those winnings on your tax return this year.

“The IRS requirement is that you report everything you win,” said Kim Lothringer, an Aurora-based master tax advisor with H&R Block.

Most people assume that if they don’t receive a W-2G form from a casino or other gambling establishment, the winnings are tax free. But that’s not the case.

Still, Lothringer admits that she has never prepared a return for someone who actually claimed winnings from a March Madness pool.

“I have never seen one come through the office and I’ve been doing taxes nine years,” she said.

So bottom line Read more…

Fortune Valley changed ownership in January.

Fortune Valley Hotel & Casino, Central City’s largest casino, officially changed ownership in January, according to the Colorado Division of Gaming.

A bankruptcy judge in August approved the sale of Fortune to Luna Gaming Central City, a business unit of Novi, Mich.-based Luna Entertainment, for $10 million. Luna Entertainment is the parent company of the Red Dolly Casino in Black Hawk.

In other casino news, Cripple Creek saw the closure of three operations in 2010: the Imperial in March, and the Gold Rush and Gold Diggers in October. In Black Hawk, the Bullpen closed at the end of November.
Central City added a casino with Johnny Z’s opening in June.

CENTRAL CITY, CO-- JUNE 14TH 2010-- Cindy Boland hopes for the best while playing a round of Black Jack with dealer Cari Bergstrom at Johnny Z's Casino in Central City in his Casino Monday. Leah Millis, The Denver Post

Colorado’s mountain casinos posted an 8 percent drop in revenue in January compared with the same month a year ago, according to data released today by the state Division of Gaming.

Last month, the industry recorded $59.2 million in adjusted gross proceeds, which is total bets minus payouts, down from $64.3 million in January 2009 2010.

Even Black Hawk, the state’s top gambling destination, posted a drop. The city’s 17 casinos posted AGP of $44.1 million, down 8.5 percent from $48.2 million.

Cripple Creek’s 13 casinos posted a 9 percent drop to $9.9 million from $10.9 million.

Revenue in Central City, meanwhile, Read more…

Ameristar controls more than 28 percent of the Black Hawk market.

Las Vegas-based Ameristar Casinos released fourth quarter earnings today, and results for its operations in Black Hawk are stellar.

Ameristar Black Hawk increased net revenues by $2.4 million, or 6.7 percent, to $38.3 million. Adjusted EBITDA remained unchanged at $12.5 million.

“Our quarterly market share surpassed 28 percent for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2010,” the company said in a release.

The company opened its 33-story, $235 million hotel in September 2009, and business in Black Hawk has gradually moved from other casinos to Ameristar.

No other hotel in Black Hawk compares to Ameristar’s recently designated 4-star diamond accommodations.

The casino’s poker room draws much of the poker crowd thanks in large part to its massive bad beats.

The largest shareholder of Level 3 Communications says it is disappointed by the Broomfield-based company’s financial performance and indicated in a report to shareholders that it may seek change.

“We are unhappy with Level 3’s operating results and stock price,” top executives at Southeastern Asset Management wrote in a report filed Friday with the SEC. “You can assume that we are neither oblivious nor idle.”

Southeastern, headed by Mason Hawkins, holds 29 percent of Level 3′s common shares. Level 3, which operates a fiber-optic communications network, received a delisting warning this month from Nasdaq after its shares traded for less than $1 for 30 straight days.

Hawkins’ remarks were first reported by Bloomberg News. The letter was addressed to shareholders of Southeastern’s Longleaf Partners Funds.

Hawkins and Southeastern president Staley Cates added that Level 3 has been slow to add new customers:

Level 3 has irreplaceable fiber assets, and demand for bandwidth is growing rapidly with the increasing movement of data and video across multiple platforms. The company’s pace for adding new direct customers has been disappointing. The contribution margin from increasing top line growth is substantial. Translating obvious demand into strong organic revenue growth in the near term will determine success.

Level 3 disclosed about two weeks ago that it secured a contract with movie-rental firm Netflix, and its shares have closed above $1 since that announcement.

Level 3 indicated in May that it may resume acquisitions, and analysts had speculated that a merger with Global Crossing would make the most sense. But a deal, which would have had to include a stock swap given Level 3′s massive debt load, apparently couldn’t be hammered out.

Sports Authority is turning to social media for a Black Friday promotion. The Englewood-based retailer will give away $10,000 worth of gift cards to Foursquare users who check in at any of the hundreds of Sports Authority’s stores nationwide.

A total of 20, $500 gift cards will be awarded to randomly selected Foursquare users. The promotion will run from from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. MST on Friday, Nov. 26.

Here are the details:

To enter to win, shoppers simply check-in on Foursquare to any Sports Authority store nationwide and publish that check-in to Twitter. Winners will be randomly selected and notified over the in-store PA system while they are shopping, after which they will have 10 minutes to claim their prize.

Click here for a list of Sports Authority stores in Colorado.

Douglas County-based Dish Network, the nation’s No. 2 satellite-TV service provider, is accepting applications for call center positions in Littleton and Thornton, the company announced today.

Employees can earn up to $11 per hour and receive full health benefits.
The call centers are at 5701 S. Santa Fe Dr. in Littleton and 675 E. 124th Ave. in Thornton.

To apply, visit the Littleton call center Web site or the Thornton site.

It never seemed to make sense. Sprint owns 54 percent of Clearwire, which is building a WiMax network that Sprint uses for its high-speed 4G service. Yet Clearwire also offers retail service under the Clear 4G brand that competes directly with Sprint, the nation’s No. 3 wireless carrier.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported about growing tensions between the two companies, in part, because of Clearwire’s expanding retail operations.

“Sprint has a different view of how they want the network built out.” -Clearwire CEO William Morrow.

“Retail is a tough place. And for them to jump into that may not be the easiest thing in the world.” – Sprint CFO Robert Brust

The article reported that three Sprint executives, including CEO Dan Hesse, resigned from Clearwire’s board under pressure.

This week, Fierce Wireless reported that Clearwire has delayed its retail launches in Denver and Miami. The company never publicly announced a date for the start of its retail operations in Denver, though Fierce Wireless reported that initial plans called for a December launch. Read more…

UPDATE : For a map of initial Verizon 4G markets, click here. The company didn’t disclose 4G service rates today.
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Verizon Wireless plans to launch 4G service in the Denver area by the end of the year as part of a national rollout covering 38 major metro areas.

4G-capable smartphones and tablets will be available in early 2011 (including perhaps the Motorola Stingray?). The initial 4G rollout will only feature a laptop/computer USB card.

Verizon says average download speeds for 4G service will range from 5 megabits per second, or Mbps, to 12 Mbps. Upload speeds will range from 2 Mbps to 5 Mbps. 3G download speeds generally top off at about 1.4 Mbps.

In metro Denver, the service will be available from Commerce City to C-470. The coverage area will include Boulder and Denver International Airport.

Sprint has said it will officially launch 4G in the Denver area by year’s end. The service is already available in some pockets of the metro area. Sprint has two 4G-capable phones in the market, the Samsung Epic and the HTC Evo.
Read more…

Facebook has become the world's largest social network with more than 500 million users. (Nicholas Kamm, AFP via Getty Images)

Losing friends on Facebook? Could be that you’re making too many irrelevant posts.

University of Colorado Denver Business School student Christopher Sibona recently surveyed more than 1,500 Facebook users on Twitter and found that the No. 1 reason for unfriending is “frequent, unimportant posts.”

“The 100th post about your favorite band is no longer interesting,” Sibona said in prepared release from CU-Denver.

The No. 2 reason people unfriend others is for posts about polarizing topics like religion and politics.

Read more…