At midnight Saturday, the glazed glass doors of Saskatoon's Emerald Casino will slide shut on gamers for good, putting an end to patrons' routines, which sometimes stretch back decades. The Emerald is closing after the provincial government, which wanted just one casino in the Saskatoon area, struck a deal to compensate Prairieland Park with revenues from the new Dakota Dunes casino. The new CAD 61-million facility is set to open Aug. 10 on the Whitecap Dakota First Nation 30 kilometres south of Saskatoon.

One dealer flew to San Diego to learn how to cheat at cards. Another rented a Tacoma house that became a crash pad for out-of-state schemers in town to bilk the Puyallup Tribe's Emerald Queen Casino. The woman who rented the house and another casino card dealer also were sent on a scouting mission to Mississippi to see if the scheme that was used to cheat the Puyallups out of more than USD 1 million would work at an Indian casino there.