Die Auftaktveranstaltung der neuen Eventreihe "Casino Dance Nights" am vergangenen Freitag war ein voller Erfolg. 900 Gäste tanzten bei bester Stimmung zu den Oldies der in der Region bestens bekannten Band. Als Sänger Pit Kurz "Smoke on the water" performte, gab es bei den Gästen kein Halten mehr, es wurde gerockt und gefeiert bis weit nach Mitternacht.

Dave Stann doesn't deny that he's a card counter. He's a Mensa member who has used his brains to determine when the odds are in his favor, not the casino's. Stann says his rare skills have earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars at blackjack tables. But Stann wants to make one thing perfectly clear: He is not a crook.

Panaji: Giving in to political opposition to offshore casinos in Goa, the state government has doubled the entertainment tax levied from the gambling dens to ten per cent. Finance minister Dayanand Narvekar hiked the entertainment tax on casinos including off shore casinos, in the state budget presented on the floor of the House yesterday. The move will double the revenue from entertainment tax levied from casinos.

Louisiana’s state licensed casinos won a bit over USD 234 million from gamblers last month. That’s a sharp jump from the February 2006 figure of just over USD 212 million. A big jump was recorded by Harrah’s New Orleans land casino, which boosted its take by over USD 7 million. State gambling regulators were told that was due to the Mardi Gras season coming early, combined with the NBA All-Star game in the city last month.

Century Resorts International, Marriott Hotel International, Navegante Group and ADI Group are among partners in four consortiums vying to build and run the first casino in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Details on the groups and their plans won’t be revealed until five government committees pick a winning proposal, perhaps in May. The panels will assess the contenders’ finances, gaming expertise, development prospects and plans for facilities that might include hotels, recreation and harness racing.

Finally justice has prevailed. A foreign investor’s legal right has been established by Nepal’s honorable Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of Nepal has through an order has capped the ongoing almost a year long feud in between the real Proprietor of the casinos in Nepal, Mr. Richard Doyel Tuttle and his servant, Rakesh Vadhba. The Supreme Court has said in a pronouncement that the current managing committee headed by Rakesh Wadhba was illegal and thus has ordered the former committee wherein Mr. Tuttle was the Chairman to operate as usual.

East St. Louis, Illinois - The Casino Queen in East St. Louis is reporting that its business is down, and executives are blaming Illinois' smoking ban. Initially, the USD 92 million new casino, which opened last summer, saw revenues increase from the smaller boat, but business has declined since January 1st when the state's ban on smoking in public places took effect. Casino manager tom Monaghan says the drop in business has been devastating.

Mississippi could lose millions of dollars and thousands of jobs because of impending casino expansions in Florida, according to a recent analysis by a legislative watchdog group. So the state's gaming industry is taking steps to counter the competition. And some lawmakers are pushing a bill that would give tax breaks for casinos that want to build tourist attractions to woo non-gamers. Floridians represented 21.2 percent of visitors to Mississippi's 29 casinos in 2007, according to a memo issued by the Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review.

Atlantic City - Year two, round two. City Council will again attempt to outlaw smoking in city gaming halls at next week's meeting as last year's partial ban approaches its first anniversary. "It was somewhat self-executing in that the one-year anniversary is almost here and little has been done to comply with the partial ban," Councilman Bruce Ward said Friday. Ward co-sponsored a proposed full ban in February 2007 before officials amended the ordinance in the face of intense opposition from top officials from the resort's 11 casinos.

Boston - Gov. Deval Patrick's attempt to introduce casino gambling went down in defeat, 108-46, thursday evening in the House. The vote came after hours of debate in the House and a marathon 13 hours of testimony on Tuesday. The Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies decided not to recommend the bill in a close vote - 10-8 - on Wednesday. House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, D-Boston, who has been strongly against the proposal, reportedly strong-armed the vote.

The Navajo Nation is getting into the gambling business. The Window Rock tribe plans to build its first casino in Church Rock, N.M. Construction is expected to begin in April and the casino is slated to open in mid-October, tribal leaders announced Thursday. To fund the project, the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise is expected to receive a USD 35 million loan fronted by the tribe's Land Acquisition Trust Fund. Fast track construction is planned where phases are managed and awarded throughout the construction schedule rather than upfront.

Pinnacle Entertainment will build its second Lake Charles riverboat casino at its site, instead of using a shipyard, state gambling regulators were told this week. The Louisiana Gaming Control Board unanimously approved Las Vegas-based construction plan for the company’s USD 350 million Sugarcane Bay resort, located near its current L’Auberge Du Lac casino. Cliff Kortman, Pinnacle’s president of design and construction, said the current oil boom in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in enough shipbuilding to keep Pinnacle from getting a shipyard until late 2011.