Filed under: All Infographics, Pop Culture Infographics | No Comments »
Here we find facts about casinos all over the world. The introduction tells us that worldwide, the casino industry is expected to make $144 billion in 2011. That’s a lot of dough. Gaming companies are in constant competition, offering special incentives (comps) for high rollers, buying more and more extravagant properties, and offering cash sign-up bonuses for online players. Here are some facts and statistics about the casino world.
Expected Growth
In a comparison of regional share of the global casino gaming market between 2009 and 2014, we see that there is a large difference in the Asia Pacific region of the world – 22% in 2009 compared to 41% in 2014. There will be a decrease in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as Canada and the US to make up for this increase in Asia Pacific. In 2009, the US held 57% of the global market, but in 2014, it will only hold 435.
Another graph shows that the monetary share of the global market will coincide and agree with the regional share. The Asia Pacific region will make the most amount of money, etc.
Top 10 Most Expensive Casino Properties
The next section shows a small picture of the most expensive casinos int he world, along with how much they cost, how many rooms they have, and how many square feet of gaming space they have. For instance, the Venetian Las Vegas cost $1.7 billion, has 4,049 rooms, and boasts 120,000 square feet of gaming space. The most expensive, shown larger than the others, is the City Center Las Vegas, which cost $9 billion, has 4,004 rooms, and has 205,000 square feet of gaming space. It sits on 67 acres of the Las Vegas Strip and is “the largest privately funded construction project in the history of the United States.” Two smaller graphs show the largest casinos in terms of tables. The Venetian Macau has the most at 800 tables. It also has the most amount of gaming machines at 3,400, shown in a separate graph.
House Edge of Popular Casino Games
This section explores the odds of winning at different types of games. The house edge on Craps is .60%. The house edge on Blackjack is .80%. The house edge on Baccarat is 1.63%, and the house edge on Roulette is 2.7%. For poker, the house edge is 3.4%, and the house edge on Slots is 2-15%, depending on the type of slot machine and the casino. Each of these pieces of information is accompanied by a photo of each game, and a short description.
Online Casinos
It is projected that online gambling will grow from its 2009 percentage at a rate of 38% by 2012. Overall gambling growth is only projected to grow by 15%, which is less than half of the growth rate on online gambling. Internet gambling is still illegal in some countries, but it is on its way to gaining a lot of acceptance internationally.
Top 10 Online Casino Sites
This section features ten poker chips with the logo of each casino site in the center. The casinos are listed by popularity, with Rome Casino being the most popular, and Diceland being the 10th most popular.
Scorecard
Design: B
It’s busy, but then so are casinos, so that kind of fits. I really like the design of the header, but I don’t like the way all the data was presented, especially the top 10 online casino sites section.
Information: B-
In the most expensive casinos, part, it would have been nice if they had told you where each casino is located. In some it is obvious because the city is included in the name, but that isn’t the case for every one. Showing the urls for each of the online casinos would have been helpful, as well.
Source: Casino Top Lists – Online Casino Guide
Filed under: All Infographics, Pop Culture Infographics | 1 Comment »
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? Certainly for little kids who want presents from Santa, at least. This timeline of toys starts in the early 1900′s, when every child wanted a cuddly teddy bear to hold, and ends in present times when a gaming console is at the top of almost every Christmas list. Let’s take a look at how the wants have changed along with the times.
1910′s
Morris Mitchom created a stuffed bear in response to a story about Teddy Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot a black bear. Apparently, the President’s affection (or whatever it was) for the bear made the stuffed version of the ferocious creature a hot-ticket item, and kids today still have teddy bears. Adults too. Some of the older teddy bears are highly collectible and worth quite a bit of money. Another big item of the time was the erector set, which is still a popular gift today. Finally, Lionel Trains were a hot gift item.
1920′s
Tinker Toys were created for kids too young for erector sets, and they were very popular. Raggedy Ann dolls, created by a cartoonist named Johnny Gruelle, were also very popular. Also making their first appearance in the 1920′s were Crayola Crayons, still a popular item today. However, the first boxes of Crayola Crayons contained eight crayons only, while today there are boxes with many more color options.
1930′s
Two big items in the 1930′s were the Viewmaster Slide Viwer and Monopoly. Monopoly was originally rejected by the game manufacturer, but starting in 1935 the game was a smash it, and over 200 million games have been stold since then.
1940′s
Scrabble hit the stores, and is still a strong seller today. The Slinky made its first appearance in the 1940′s, and more than 300 million Slinky units have been sold today. Another popular item was Silly Putty, a happy accident that is still popular today.
1950′s
Yahtzee, the hula hoop, and Play-Doh came to pass in the 1950′s, though Play-Doh was originally created as a wallpaper cleaner. Also to make her premiere in the 1950′s was Barbie. Over one billion Barbies have been sold worldwide. The original was available in blonde or brunette, and she was wearing a swimsuit. Now, Barbies are available in different ethnicity, and the wardrobe options are simply staggering.
1960′s
The 1960′s saw the Easy Bake Oven, G.I. Joe, Action Man (the UK version of G.I. Joe), Etch a Sketch, and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots hit the scenes, and almost every Christmas list. The Easy Bake Oven has recently been re-released with a real heating element instead of the two light bulbs that used to almost cook your cake batter.
1970′s
Dungeons and Dragons hit the scene in the 1970′s, as did Uno and Connect Four. Star Wars toys came out after the iconic movie did in 1977, and by 2008 the franchise had generated $4.41 billion in box office revenues. Technology made its way into the hearts and minds of the public, hence the popularity of the Speak & Spell, and the high tech 2D game Pong.
1980′s
The Rubik’s Cube was introduced in the 1980′s, and over 350 million of them have been sold worldwide. The Koosh Ball, a ball with thousands of rubber springs that makes a *koosh* sound when you throw it, was very popular, and Lego jumped on the scene. Lego is now the fourth largest toy manufacturer in the world. Also in the 1980′s little kids were asking Santa for Transformers Optimus Prime (not Bumblebee, like today), and Teddy Ruxpin, the creepy talking bear was at the top of the list. Finally, My Little Pony, with their brush-able hair and that distinctive rubber smell, topped Christmas lists from 1983 to 1995, and have recently made a comeback.
1990′s
POG, originally invented as a teaching game, hit it big in the 1990′s, even though it had been around in Hawaii since the 1920′s. Beanie Babies were all the rage, as well as Power Rangers action figures, Buzz Lightyear toys, and Tickle Me Elmo had moms beating each other up in department stores. The Furby, which sold over 40 million units in the first 3 years, was a hit item, and the Nintendo Game Boy was super popular.
2000′s
Ben 10: Alien Creation Chamber, The High School Musical Dance, Bratz Dolls, Razor Scooters, RoboSapiens, and Tamagotchi Connexions have all been on Christmas lists in the 2000′s, along with gaming systems like the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and the Xbox 360. How times have changed from the simple erector set.
Scorecard
Design: A-
The type is a little small, but it was nice to see pictures of each item, and the design of the infographic was overall very good.
Information: B
It would have been nice to see 2000′s and 2010′s broken up, with items from last year and this year on the most current part of the list.
Source: Top 50 Christmas Toys of the Last 100 Years by Cash Generator.
Filed under: All Infographics, Pop Culture Infographics | No Comments »
It’s kind of hard to see this one, given it’s width and the width of our site, but enlarge it to see a great infographic on some famous vans. If you go to the infographic page yourself you can interact with it, liking certain vans on Facebook and Tweeting about your favorites.
1969
The van of 1969 is the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. Check out the paint job. I bet Shaggy picked the decor.
1981
1981 brought us Postman Pat’s Van, the Bedford HA Royal mail van that he and Jess the cat used to deliver mail all over Greendale. The same year brought us the yellow Reliant Regal used by Trotters Independent Trading Company.
1983
The A-Team made the black GMC Vandura a desirable vehicle. Everybody wanted to be a member of the A-Team, even though they probably couldn’t even PRONOUNCE ‘mercenary’.
1985
Michael J. Fox’s hit movie Teen Wolf brought us the box van that Styles set up to sell all his “Teen Wolf” merchandise. They don’t tell us what kind of van it was. Boxy, that’s for sure.
1987
It’s hard to believe the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are 24 years old – older than that, really, when you take into account the ages of the turtles when the show first aired. They had a van.
1994
Skip ahead to the time of Dumb and Dumber, when Harry transformed his van to look like a dog. Dumb, dumber, dumbest, but super cute.
2006
The van that the family traveled with in Little Miss Sunshine was a Volkswagen T2 Microbus. It broke down, it only worked if you pushed it and then jumped in. It was yellow.
2010
The reboot of the A-Team included a reboot of the GMC Vandura – same van – more bells and whistles.
Scorecard
Design: A
Very attractive
Information: B
It would have been nice for the specs on each van.
Source: Autonet Insurance Vantastic Infographic by http://www.autonetinsurance.co.uk/
Filed under: All Infographics, Pop Culture Infographics | No Comments »
This infographic examines the first person shooter war game Call of Duty and it’s sequels, and bounces the money made by these games about war against the actual cost of war. An ambitious task, yes, but I think you’ll be surprised at the numbers.
Note: this is impossible to break into subheadings, so I’ll just give you an overview of the information and get to the scorecard.
The Call of Duty franchise is worth over $3 billion. The games included discussed in the infographic are Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
CoD4: Modern Warfare generated $13 million in sales the first day. Modern Warfare 2 generated $550 million in the first 5 days of sales, beating out Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince‘s 5 day global box office record. $310 million of those sales occurred the first day.
Modern Warfare 3 generated $560 million in sales the first day.
Each game won multiple awards.
There is a small section on the errors associated with start up of MW3, including a domain name that redirected to a competitor game’s website, the fact that K-Mart started selling the game 5 days early, contraband copies of the game selling for $1500 each on eBay, and a pirated upload of the PC version of the game that saw 5000 downloads of the game, which was pirated out two weeks early. Despite all this, the game still generated $560 million the first day it officially went on sale.
The True Price of MW3 Vehicles
See? I did get a sub-header in there.
V-22 Osprey: cost is $67 million. Total number built is 109. MW3‘s first day of sales would have paid for 8 of them.
A-10 Thunderbolt II: cost is $11.8 million. Total number build is 716. MW3‘s first day of sales would have paid for 47 of them.
UH-60 Blackhawk: cost is $5.9 million. Fully equipped runs $44 million. MW3‘s first day of sales would pay for 47 of the standard, 12 of the fully equipped helicopters.
Stryker: cost is $4 million. Total number built is 4000. MW3‘s first day of sales would pay for 140 of these tanks.
The production of MW2 was $50 million with a launch cost of $200 million. With that $250 million, you could buy each of the vehicles listed above, plus on more V-22 Osprey.
The True Cost of War
The Obama administration seeks $553 billion for funding the Department of Defense in 2012. The majority of funding goes to the Navy and Marine Corps, with a little more going to the Air Force than the Army.
The Iraq War cost $797 billion dollars. That’s the Call of Duty franchise times 265.
Call of Duty and the Military
The Call of Duty Endowment is a code that helps employ veterans. It gave $125,000 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, and has plans to contribute $1 million to other veteran organizations.
In March of 2010, 300 copies of MW2 were given to the US Navy – a value of $180,000.
On November 11, 2011, $3 million was donated to the Endowment by Activision, the company that created the Endowment. Another $250,000 was donated to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s National Chamber Foundation, a host of hiring fairs that is expected to secure jobs for at least 3,500 veterans.
Scorecard
Design: A
Looks like the game, striking graphics. The information is organized as well as it can be.
Information: A+
Great information and the way it mixes the game information with the military information is key.
Source: Call of Duty Modern Warfare Infographic brought to you by Modern Warfare News.
Filed under: All Infographics, Pop Culture Infographics | 4 Comments »
So, I have to admit I geeked out a little when I found out what this infographic was about. I am not admitting to any large amounts of online gaming, or my vintage Atari buttons and t-shirts, or my SGI Dogfight-induced Carpal Tunnel in ’89, or anything like that, I just think it’s really interesting to learn about history. History is important. Right? I guess I digress…
Online Gaming Timeline
This infographic is great-looking. The header is just perfect, with its old-school feel, and the timeline set forth is impressive because of the sheer amount of research that went into it. It lists the online games created since 1973 starting with Empire, the first networked multiplayer game, and ending in 2011 with the long-anticipated Duke Nukem Forever, which was so long-anticipated that it could never live up to fans expectations, and is thought largely to suck.
Online Gaming Sales
After the game information, including the year, the name of the game, the creator of the game, and a tidbit of information about each, there is a section on game sales. It’s broken out by system, and the pie charts look like little Pac-Men. The yellow part of the Pac-Man is the sum of the world’s sales in millions, and the red piece is America’s piece of the pie. The grand total for the whole world in game sales is $3431.34 million dollars. Is your mind blown yet?
The next section covers the top 10 games sales by publisher in millions – also showing the sum of America and the sum of the world. Nintendo is the clear winner, with Sony a distant second. The section right after that deals with the top 10 best-selling games of all time, broken into an “all games” category and an “online multiplayer only” category. For “all games,” the big winner is Wii Sports, followed by Super Mario Brothers. The best selling online multiplayer game? Mario Kart, of course.
The Wrap-Up on Online Gaming
There are two more little sections – one with the total sales in units. Check out the number. Mind-boggling. The last bit is a big old word cloud shaped like Pac-Man with names of games that were world-changers. It’s fun to hunt for your favorite and see how big it is in comparison to others.
Design: A+
The mix of classic video game graphics and the layout of the infographic work perfectly, and I honestly can’t think of any criticism for the look of the graphic.
Information: A+
Everything you ever needed to know about online gaming, all wrapped up in a very big and fun to read infographic.
Source: Online casino and online casino games from Silver Oak
Filed under: All Infographics, Animal Infographics, Pop Culture Infographics | 1 Comment »
PawDigs, a site devoted to dogs, has come up with a great infographic looking at some of the most popular and profitable dogs (both real and digital) to ever grace a TV or movie screen.
Starting with classics such as Rin Tin Tin and Lassie and movie up to more contemporary dogs such as Brian Griffin (of Family Guy fame), this infographic is nice because it not only shows you individual dogs, and gives some great information about each one, but it also devotes a section to the most profitable dog movies of all time (with Turner & Hooch at the bottom and Scooby-Doo at the top). All told dog movies have earned nearly $2 billion dollars. That’s a lot of dog treats.
What I liked most about this infographic was the little bits of info about each of the individual dogs that was provided. I didn’t know that it took 44 St. Bernards to create the sequel to Beethoven, or that every dog that’s played Lassie was a male, even though the character is female. My only real complaint is that it feels like they shoe-horned in the information about the movies, especially since so few of the dogs on the list above are featured in the movies listed. I would have preferred that it was its own infographic.
Design – B-
The overall feel of the infographic reminds me of a theater, but there’s a lot going on and a lot of small text that can be hard to read. I do like that they included images of each of the individual dogs they talked about (in case you were unfamiliar with them), but the end part with the films seems forced and doesn’t add much to the section above. It would have been better served mentioning other dogs.
Content – B-
A lot of good content about the individual dogs, but nothing beyond box office revenue for the dog movies left me a bit disappointed.
Filed under: Funny Infographics, Pop Culture Infographics | No Comments »
I own and iPhone and have had one for years. I love it for all of the wonderful things it can do. My iPhone does lots of things such as makes calls, take photographs, record my messages, surf the internet, remind me of appointments and many other useful tasks. I feel as if I couldn’t sometimes live without; kind of like an addiction where you reach for it first thing in the morning and put it down on your bed side table at night, or you place it lovingly on the pillow near you and whisper to it, but I digress…
Of course one of the best things to do with your iPhone is play games and that is what this iconographic is really referring to; you can’t really kill someone with your iPhone unless you tried bludgeoning them with the round corners and that would just be really awkward…
But wait! That is exactly what this infographic is telling your to do, although they recommend you drop your iPhone from a tall building to build terminal velocity instead of a brutal strike to the head. They also state this type of iPhone attack probably won’t work.
The iPhone infographic also recommends using the wired ear buds as a garrote to throttle your unsuspecting victim. Seems risky considering the flimsy cord. A more creative method of murder is mentioned; use the iPhone too transmit a signal that only an attack dog could hear and use that to have the dog attack your victim.
Lastly they devise a plan to conduct a lightning strike using the iPhones aerial antenna, but this won’t work with the iPhone 4. So only those who won’t shell out for a new iPhone are vulnerable to this type of attack.
The pitch is for the iPhone App AssassinMaster which can be found for the iPhone and Android phones. A “harmless” app that only visualizes you killing someone. Good fun to be sure.
The copy is very playful and written in a light-hearted manner. Not too long, not to short, just the right length to tell the story and get you to play along. The salesmanship of the piece isn’t heavy-handed and they give you some smirks along the way.
The obvious comic-book stylings are well done and serve the tone of the infographic very well. Colors are bright and effective and support the comic influence wonderfully. The assassin instructor is nicely illustrated, but overused. I would have liked to have seen some different facial expressions. They use the same illustration every time, just reversed in places. The other illustrations are silhouetted outlines and recognizable. But I did like the graphic style of the dog very much and felt it added a fun visual pop!
The kill-shot at the end was a little over the top, but I am squeamish at the sight of blood, so I’m probably in the minority thinking it was overdone. But it falls in line with the rest of the infographic’s tone and design and that is all you can ask for.
Good supporting infographic for a iPhone app that had quality design and sharp writing dead in its sights!
Design: A-
I love comics so I am biased, but a nice job on following the graphic theme. Points off for only one face on the “general.”
Information: A
This infographic really didn’t provide information so much as entertainment. Cleverly written with a soft sell for an iPhone app at the end.
Submitted by http://www.assassinmaster.com/
Filed under: Cultural Infographics, Political Infographics, Pop Culture Infographics | 1 Comment »
Being that I’m an American and use USD currency I’m not totally sure just how eye-opening these costs are. Although I’m confident they are crazy expensive on par with any US celebrity, rock star or movie star. And after all, isn’t that what the Royal Family really is…a bunch of celebrities, only they can’t act or sing, as far as I know. I will also never understand the idea of royalty and why they are revered, as it seems a bit silly and wasteful. They are a tourist attraction, as one UK friend of mine said, and that feels about right, but I digress…
As the wedding between Kate Middleton and Prince William is right around the corner, just look at any celebrity magazine to know more, it is no surprise that an infographic giving the financial details who will pay for the royal wedding was created. The information tells the story of how the “poor” queen will have to dip into her personal fortune to help cover the costs for this princely matrimony. But you will also see that the government contributes £37 million to the Royal Family each year, so the each person in Britain is a contributing £69. I hope they all get a piece of wedding cake for that.
And while the bride’s parents are usually on the hook for the wedding costs, Kate Middleton’s parents only need to shell out a mere £100,000 for hotel suites, dresses and the honey moon. Not too bad for the wedding of the decade (century?).
At least the infographic tells the honest truth of the matter, which is that this entire spectacle is a…wait for it…a ploy to increase tourism! It is estimated that tourists will spend £620 million on food, drink and merchandise. Yes, the royal wedding will have more tacky merchandise than you can shake the royal scepter at and will be a huge boost to the UK economy.
The ending statement of the infographic reads that the wedding is actually priceless due to the feel good factor. So this festival of love, this merriment of matrimony, this party for the commoners will be a big Prozac for the people. If it does all of that it really is priceless, or is that worthless? I guess it all depends on how you feel about the Royal Family and their lives.
The infographic does a wonderful job of being playful, using over-sized heads on smartly illustrated bodies, which provides a nice comical contrast that fits the royal family quite well, in my humble opinion. The colors are a solid choice using blues and white for the heavy lifting. The typeface used for the larger text is easy to read and fits the good nature of the design. As with many infographics the font used for the smaller text is a bit hard to read just based on the small size, not the font chosen which looks to be Helvetica or Arial.
I wasn’t invited to share in the wedded bliss between Kate and William, but I’m glad I was invited to do this infographic review. God save the infographic!
Design: B
A fun infographic that pokes fun at the Royal wedding and the family but does so in a very professional way.
Content: B
The content itself is interesting, although USD equivalents would have been nice, and there is just enough to make you envious of what you don’t have and shake your head at how those who do have it, spend it.
Royal Wedding Cost infographic provided by Elevate Local, an internet marketing company in the UK & Fabulous Wedding Venues
Filed under: Pop Culture Infographics | No Comments »
For whatever reason, celebrities and debt/money problems seem to be one in the same. That’s not to say that there aren’t celebrities who are very careful, frugal even, with their money. We just haven’t come across one yet. No, I kid celebrities. There are really only a few, as this aesthetically pleasing graphic demonstrates, that have, shall we say, habitual problematic spending habits.
Here are some interesting tidbits that the graphic points out:
–Donald Trump was forced via court settlement to hand over his mansion, which at the time, was worth about $25 million.
–M.C. Hammer spent $2 million on his bathroom floor. It’s funny how something is expensive when you build the entire thing out of marble.
–Mike Tyson spends about $4,000 a month on his pet tigers.
–Nicolas Cage spent $276,000 on a dinosaur skull.
–Elton John spent $436,000 on flowers.
–Kim Basinger bought a whole town for $20 million. She resisted the urge to rename it “Basinger town.”
Alright, now, let’s see how this graphic shapes up from a grading perspective.
Design: B
The designer here took a unique approach. And as far as their approach goes, the graphic is suitable.
Content: B
The content was interesting, but I think it could have been fleshed out a bit more. If the creator had gone into more detail about the lavishing spending of these celebs and how it relates to their debt, this graphic would have handed an A or an A- without any hesitation on the part of our graders.
This graphic has been provided by ClearDebt.co.uk.
Filed under: Entertainment Infographics, Pop Culture Infographics | 2 Comments »
With American Idol 2011 underway, it’s time to examine some statistics about the show’s rich history. Not all is well in Idol Land, according the graphic. Its ratings have been on the decline for the past few years, and many wonder if this season will in fact be its last. But strange things happen in the TV world, and by the time the competition starts, Idol may well be in the middle of a strong rebound.
As far as TV shows go, American Idol was an immediate smash right from the start. It became the most watched show in America in its second season, and by 2005, the show was drawing an average of 30 million viewers per episode. But all good things must come to an end, ay? 2008 was the beginning of Idol’s slide, and unfortunately, the shows producers haven’t been able to stop the bleeding.
The graphic displays some unique charts about the show that will either confirm or change your preconceptions. Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing. Right? Wrong. Turns out the shows’ fourth-place finisher from season 5, Chris Daughtry, sold more debut records than anyone in Idol history besides Carrie Underwood. The chart also reveals that none of the top ten artists from Idol competed in the last two seasons.
Another chart reveals that most winners come from the south, possibly because most of the shows viewers reside in the south, though that claim may be a bit too bold without a real empirical analysis. The final chart indicates that Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross are sung more often by the contestants than any other music superstars, racking up a combined total of 27 sung songs through the shows history. Ready for the grading portion? Hmm…to be as harsh as Simon or not to be as harsh as Simon. Simon Cowell is no longer with American Idol and has moved on to his own new show X Factor.
Design: B
The graphic has adequate colors and adequate charts, but there’s nothing eye popping about it, so we can’t reward it with an A.
Content: A-
The content was more solid and presumably involved the creators digging their Paula Abdul heels in and doing some real research, which sadly, is more than we can say for many graphics that people choose to submit to the Infographic Showcase. The debut album sales chart portion of the graphic could prove to be a nice guide for many years to come, as that particular set of statistics is stagnant and cannot change.
Graphic created by TV.com.
