New York - New York and the Cayuga Nation said on Thursday they had reached a preliminary pact that will let the tribe build a casino 90 miles from New York City. The new nonbinding accord also gives the Cayugas 250 million USD in compensation for ancestral lands they say were wrongly taken from them. Gov. George Pataki for years has been trying to use casinos as an economic tool to revive the Catskills, a once famous resort area that has lost hordes of customers to gambling meccas in Connecticut and Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Las Vegas - MGM Mirage extended a Tuesday deadline on a possible merger with Mandalay Resort Group, a deal that could create the largest gambling company in the world. "We need a couple of extra days to hammer out some details," a source close to the negotiations told The Associated Press. "This is progressing well."

The Sands Macau grabbed attention last month when it introduced itself to the enclave in a blur of imported Las Vegas showgirls and surging crowds. Less than two weeks later, it received a ruder introduction to the ways of the former Portuguese territory as robbers hit the casino twice on the same day.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected without comment Iowa's request to hear arguments over the way the state taxes its casinos. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller asked the court to hear an appeal of the Iowa Supreme Court's decision that the state's way of taxing racetracks and riverboat casinos was unconstitutional.

Following the presentation of the Gaminator™ at the ICE in London earlier this year Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH (AGI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Novomatic Group of Companies, has recently received substantial orders from France for this sophisticated new electronic gaming machine.

Las Vegas - MGM Mirage would control about half the hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip if it manages to pull off a multibillion dollar buyout of Mandalay Resort Group. MGM Mirage, as the world's largest casino company, also would dominate the most lucrative gambling market in the world with 10 hotel-casinos along the famous five-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, including the immensely profitable Bellagio and Mandalay Bay resorts. It also would control about 40 percent of the slot machines and 44 percent of the gambling tables.

More than 2,000 people were evacuated from a Perth casino after a man sprayed pepper spray on the gaming floor. The man, who was accompanied by two or three others, was seen spraying an aerosol can near a gaming table at the Burswood casino shortly before 5pm Sunday, police said.

If Mandalay Resort Group accepts - and regulators OK - the 7.6 billion USD merger offer made by MGM Mirage late Friday, Sin City will have taken a big step toward being a one-company town.

Los Angeles - Casino operator MGM Mirage on Friday launched a 4.85 billion USD unsolicited bid to buy rival Mandalay Resort Group and create the largest gambling company in the United States owning about a third of the Las Vegas Strip. MGM valued the offer at 7.65 billion USD, including 2.8 billion USD in debt assumption, and said it would pay 68 USD per share in cash, a roughly 13 percent premium to Mandalay's Friday closing price.

Macau - Las Vegas gaming mogul Steve Wynn will soon begin construction of his casino-hotel in Macau now that the enclave has passed a law to let casinos extend credit to gamblers, an executive said Friday.

Buffalo, New York - City lawyers sought to stop the Seneca Indian Nation from building a casino in the suburbs, telling a judge Friday that state lawmakers intended for it to be built in Buffalo. "The whole idea of giving the Senecas the right to gamble was to save the city of Buffalo," attorney Michael Powers argued in state Supreme Court.

Ten years ago, on June 3 1994, the dice game European Seven Eleven premiered for the first time at Casinos Austria - a European premiere - where it's been played exclusively ever since. European Seven Eleven is a dice game in which guests have a multitude of different ways of playing, and can bet on any kind of result