The opening of a GBP 13m showpiece casino built in Leeds has been delayed for at least nine months. London Clubs International took four years to develop a four-storey building at Clarence Dock into a "new generation" Alea casino featuring two restaurants, three bars, a conference centre and 50-seat cinema. Due to open in December last year, its doors have remained closed and now the company says it hopes to open the venue in September.

Two large casinos planned for Philadelphia have to face lawsuits, zoning fights, angry residents and battling politicians which have kept any work from beginning on the USD 986 million Foxwoods casino and the USD 550 million SugarHouse casino, planned for sites several miles apart along the Delaware River waterfront. The longer it takes for those two Philadelphia casinos, with several thousand slot machines each, to open for business, the longer it will take for the full amount of property tax relief...

A House-Senate conference committee was expected to meet this week to work out a compromise on a statewide smoking ban, but the meeting has been postponed again. The debate has already stretched for an entire year. Tuesday’s meeting was originally scheduled for April 1. It was postponed when some members of the committee said they needed more time to draft amendments to the legislation.

The four casinos in Italy are pressuring the government to delay implementation of the European Money Laundering Directive, due to go into effect on April 30. The measure requires casinos to identify all players who exchange money to play at the casinos, no matter how small the amount.

Las Vegas, (AP) -- The developers of The Plaza, a proposed multibillion-dollar casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip, are denying rumors that the project is on hold because of the shaky credit market. Elad Group president Miki Naftali disputes the rumor and says, "We are forging ahead as planned." Wachovia credit analyst Dennis Farrell says in a note to investors that Israeli sponsors Nochi Danker and Yitzhak Tshuva had postponed the project because of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States.

Pinnacle Entertainment has delayed construction plans for a proposed USD 1.5 billion megaresort in Atlantic City and said it may even abandon the project entirely if credit markets do not improve. The original plan was to begin redeveloping the site of the old Sands Casino Hotel late in 2008, but that start date has been postponed until the second half of 2009, if it does in fact begin at all.

In a surprise move, the United States has “advised” Antigua and Barbuda to delay taking any action after being awarded USD 21 million in annual trade sanctions by a World Trade Organisation (WTO) arbitration panel earlier this month. According to the Associated Press news agency, US Trade Representative Spokesman Sean Spicer stated that the tiny Caribbean island nation should wait to implement any sanctions pending American changes to its international trade obligations under the WTO treaty.

The United States Friday urged Antigua to hold off on imposing sanctions authorized by the WTO in a dispute over online gambling, saying Washington was revising its WTO commitments. US Trade Representative (USTR) spokesman Sean Spicer advised Antigua to delay any action after an arbitrator for the Geneva-based World Trade Organization allowed the Caribbean nation to impose sanctions worth USD 21 million a year, with the right to target US services, copyrights and trademarks.

Atlantic City, New Jersey (AP) -- A fire last month at a new 800-room hotel expansion of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa will force the USD 400 million project to delay its opening by several months, the casino's parent company said Tuesday. Boyd Gaming Corp. said it has completed its initial assessment of the damage caused by the Sept. 23 blaze at The Water Club, a 43-story hotel and spa tower being built next to the existing casino-hotel.

The Taiwan-backed operator of Vietnam's biggest casino, Royal International Corp (RIC), said Monday that its first Sheraton hotel casino would be delayed several months because of design changes. "We aim to complete interior work by the end of this year and open the hotel to guests early next year," said Tran Trong Nghia, head of the company's equity department. RIC had said in August that the 200-room hotel, the first five-star accommodation in UNESCO-recognized Ha Long Bay in northeastern Vietnam, would open this month.

A giant casino set to open in Glasgow has been hit by another delay, but at least it now has a name. The gambling mecca which was due to open in summer 2006, will be called “Alea”, after an ancient Roman term for a game of chance. Bosses of the complex, which will have floor space bigger than a football pitch and be Scotland’s biggest casino, are now recruiting. They want experienced or trainee card dealers, roulette wheel operators and cashiers to fill some of the 250 jobs the venue could bring to the city.