A complex USD 8.9 billion stock buyout-debt assumption of Station Casinos by members of its founding Las Vegas family and real estate investment firm Colony Capital was endorsed Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Under the takeover deal, brothers Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta, top executives of Station Casinos Inc. are joining with California-based Colony to form Fertitta Colony Partners, which will take over Station's 12 casinos in the Las Vegas area and other interests.

Progressive Gaming International announced that it has executed a purchase agreement with Shuffle Master, whereby it will acquire Progressive’s worldwide Table Game Division assets, including the worldwide rights and lease contracts for all of the table game titles including Caribbean Stud and Texas Hold ’Em Bonus. The agreements also include a "Software Distribution License Agreement" under which PGIC will be the exclusive provider of progressive table technology to Shuffle Master...

Victorian Gaming Minister Tony Robinson has dismissed claims a deal has been struck to award a state lotteries licence to global gaming consortium Intralot. The Victorian government is in the middle of a gaming tender that could see Tattersall's lose its lottery monopoly in the state, if Intralot is allowed to enter the market. The tender process has attracted several controversies, and is the subject of an upper house inquiry.

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.

Tallahassee, Florida (AP) - Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Indians are close to a deal allowing the tribe's casinos to offer Las Vegas-style slot machines -- possibly even card games -- with the potential to generate more than USD100 million a year for the state. Crist, who took office in January, has made progress in negotiations with the tribe, unlike his predecessor, Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush adamantly opposed gambling and was at an impasse in talks when he left office.

Tallahassee -- Gov. Charlie Crist's goal to seal a gambling deal soon with the Seminole Tribe of Florida has hit a major snag: the Legislature. House Speaker Marco Rubio laid down the gauntlet in a letter to Crist Monday, demanding that lawmakers be allowed to approve or reject the proposed agreement between the governor and the tribe and warning that if the compact allows games now outlawed in Florida, GOP leaders "won't support it."

Sacramento – When two wealthy California Indian tribes took the unusual step of joining the fight to overturn lucrative new gambling deals for a group of rivals, they argued that the compacts encourage big gaming tribes to flood their markets with slot machines. The unbridled competition could swamp smaller casinos in outlying areas, particularly in north San Diego County and the Coachella Valley, the tribes' representatives warned.

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.

Las Vegas - Casino giant Harrah's Entertainment Inc. announced Wednesday that it will partner with AEG, the company that brought David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy, to build a 20,000-seat arena in Las Vegas capable of housing an NBA or NHL team. The USD 500 million arena, behind the Bally's and Paris hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, is projected to open in 2010. It's a step toward attracting a pro sports franchise to a city that has tried to persuade reluctant league officials to look past its legalized sports betting.

Tallahassee -- With the federal government looking over their shoulders, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Tribe of Florida are crafting a deal that would allow not just Las Vegas-style slot machines on reservations but also possibly table games such as blackjack, craps and roulette. The Interior Department on June 22 gave Crist 60 days to reach an agreement that would allow the tribe to offer the same type of slots now permitted at four Broward County parimutuel sites.

Phil Ruffin's nearly 10-year run as a casino magnate on the Strip is officially over. He signed the final papers Aug. 7, selling the 34.5-acre New Frontier property for USD 1.24 billion, according to the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, his hometown newspaper. Ruffin paid USD 167 million for the property in October 1997. His purchase brought to an end four months later what had been a bitter six-year labor strike.

New York (Reuters) - British payments processor NETeller Plc will forfeit [[USD]] 136 million but will not be prosecuted for conspiracy under a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. government announced on Wednesday. The agreement is the latest development in a U.S. crackdown on Internet gambling that began a year ago with the arrest of the then-chief executive of BETonSPORTS, David Carruthers.