Columbus, Kansas - The Cherokee County commissioners on Monday met behind closed doors with their attorney for casino issues to discuss possible action if Penn National Gaming withdraws from its contract for a state-owned casino in the county. The Kansas Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board on Aug. 22 approved Penn National’s contract for the Cherokee County casino, but the board also went with a proposal by Harrah’s Entertainment for a casino in Sumner County.

Kansas City (Reuters) - Kansas gaming officials have awarded two contracts for development of state-owned casinos as the first in a series of such projects the Kansas officials hope will ultimately bring in at least USD 200 million annually. The Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board awarded 15-year contracts to privately held Harrah's Entertainment Inc and Penn National Gaming Inc to construct and manage casinos that will be owned and operated by Kansas, the first U.S. state to do so.

Ottawa - More than 400 Casino du Lac-Leamy workers have voted overwhelmingly in favour for a new contract that will give them pay increases of two to 2.5 per cent during the next five years, averting a planned strike by just one day. Alain Savignac, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local representing cashiers, slot machine attendants, doormen, cloakroom attendants, customer service employees, parking lot attendants and other workers...

Groupe Lucien Barrière, which has been running the casino of Saint-Raphaël for 18 years, saw its contract being officially renewed by the town. Georges Ginesta, the deputy-mayor of Saint-Raphaël and Jean-Raymond Castaldi, manager of the gambling house, signed the public service delegation for 20 more years. This contract will come into effect on the 1st of June 2008. The Group stated that ”this partnership will increase the role of the Casino Barrière de Saint-Raphaël in the tourist, cultural and economic life of the region.

Singapore casino Resorts World at Sentosa said this week it has awarded a USD 780 million building contract to Japan’s Kajima Corp and Singaporean Tiong Seng Contractors. The contract, the largest to date for the USD 4,4 billion casino, was awarded to a joint venture set up by Kajima and Tiong Seng, Resorts World said. Resorts World, one of Singapore’s two planned casinos, is set to be completed by early 2010, and has awarded over USD 1.4 billon worth of building contracts so far, it said.

Unions representing about 1,200 workers at the Stratosphere hotel-casino reached a tentative labor contract with management over the weekend and plan to hold a vote on the deal Saturday. The agreement involving Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 is the latest in a series of contract agreements reached with Las Vegas Strip employers in the last several months.

Las Vegas (AP) -- The union representing thousands of hotel and restaurant workers in Nevada has reached a tentative agreement on a five-year contract with its largest employer, the union and MGM Mirage said. The deal between the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and MGM Mirage Inc. was reached late Wednesday after a 10-hour bargaining session, Culinary political director Pilar Weiss said. The deal ended a nearly two-month stalemate. The union had approved a strike authorization vote for next month.

Employees of 2 casinos run by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma will take over management after a 5-year contract extension with an outside contractor was nullified. Tribal Governor Darrell Flyingman says control will pass Saturday from the management team of Minneapolis-based Southwest Casino and Hotel Ventures to the casino staff.