Las Vegas - OKTO, a leading global digital payment solutions provider, proudly announces its ally membership with the American Gaming Association (AGA), the premier national trade group for the U.S. casino gaming industry.

The International Casino Conference (ICC), which opens the ICE VOX programme of learning and networking, will feature keynote addresses from some of the most influential figures in the gaming industry, including Geoff Freeman, President and CEO of the American Gaming Association.

The other shoe dropped on Full Tilt Poker last week, ending any hope that former customers could recoup their deposits and launching another effort by U.S. online poker interests to establish a legal internet poker industry with a strict regulatory system. The U.S. Department of Justice last week amended the original Full Tilt indictment, issued on April 15—“Black Friday”— that effectively ended Full Tilt in the U.S.

The American Gaming Association spent USD 400,000 over the third quarter of 2008 to lobby for legislation that would legalize and regulate online gambling along with other matters. According to a piece in the Boston Globe, the group’s most recent disclosure report showed that it lobbied The White House, the Department of Interior, the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service and Congress from July to September.

Gaming revenues in the 12 states with commercial casinos have tumbled 2.5 % through the first nine months of 2008 and the trend worsened as the year progressed. That was the bleak outlook painted by AGA CEO Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. as the Global Gaming Expo is taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Fahrenkopf said most of the show’s break-out sessions will address the global and national economic crisis and how it is impacting casino operators and gambling equipment manufacturers.

This booklet contains a compilation ofstatutes and regulations regarding responsible gaming in the 20 states that have commercial casinos or racetrack casinos,also known as “racinos”,as ofFebruary 2008. The content in each section is divided into seven general categories: Alcohol Service, Credit/Cash Access, Funding/Revenue Sharing (treatment funding), Self-exclusion, Signage/Help Line/Advertising...

MGM Mirage boss Terry Lanni has resigned from the board of the American Gaming Association, the federal lobby that is headed by Harrah’s Entertainment Chief Executive Gary Loveman. The two chieftains are at odds over a proposal by the Nevada teachers union to raise by 3 percentage points the state room tax paid by tourists, with the money going specifically to education.

Americans spent more money gambling in 2007 than on movie tickets or candy, but the steady growth of commercial casinos in the past decade could take a hit next year because of a slumping economy and setbacks in building new places to play. A survey released this week by the American Gaming Association showed that U.S. commercial casino revenues were up 5.3 percent to USD 34.1 billion in 2007.