Gambling and hotels group Sun International will continue to look at expansion plans, despite a rocky road ahead, CE David Coutts-Trotter said yesterday. “We’re going to continue to focus on expansion and renewal of our assets. It is tempting to cut back on these but if you do you tend to miss out at a later stage,” Coutts-Trotter said, following the announcement that a tougher industry outlook had hurt growth in the group’s gambling revenues.

Casino gambling in Iowa began with quaint riverboats, grew into gargantuan gambling palaces and may soon grow even more. On Thursday, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission will begin discussing whether to issue more casino licenses. The outcome of those talks will have ramifications across the state, in the 17 licensed casinos, in the five communities that hope to open new casinos and in the minds of Iowans on both sides of the debate over gambling expansion.

Las Vegas - The new owners of the Sahara Hotel and Casino have won county approval for a planned renovation and expansion of the 1950s-era property featured in the original “Ocean’s Eleven” film starring Rat Pack leaders Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Plans call for demolition of the mid-rise hotel tower, renovation of the two high-rise towers and development of a third high-rise tower. The resort would remain open throughout the project, which is currently expected to be complete in 2011.

Hotel and leisure group Sun International will continue to expand its operations internationally and seek to maintain the competitive advantage it has established in its core businesses. Chairman Buddy Hawton said in the group’s annual report that gaming legislation, which restricts the granting of additional gaming licenses in South Africa, “is serving as the primary catalyst for the group to seek new opportunities internationally”.

According to a leading authority on gaming law, aboriginal tribes in California have been spending more money than ever before in the run up to a vote next month on whether to allow casino expansion. Professor Nelson Rose stated that voters will decide on new compacts that would see four of California’s tribes able to offer players up to 5,500 additional slot machines in return for sharing up to one-quarter of gaming revenues with the state.

Steve Wynn’s Macau resort will add 85 gaming tables and 551 slots in an expansion scheduled to open next Monday December, 24th. The expansion, which also features a new rotunda entrance, brings the casino resort’s total to 390 tables and 1,190 slot machines, Wynn Resorts Ltd. said in a statement from Las Vegas this week. The statement didn’t say how much the expansion cost, and Wynn Resorts didn’t immediately respond to a reporter’s e-mail seeking the information.

MGM Grand, the latest Las Vegas-style casino to be opened in the world's gambling centre of Macau next week, said Thursday it has already secured funding for its second-phase expansion. The 1.25 billion-dollar resort casino is a 50-50 joint venture between MGM Mirage of Las Vegas and Pansy Ho, daughter of the southern Chinese territory's casino mogul Stanley Ho.

Miami -South Florida's gaming scene has taken some big strides since the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino kick-started things with its opulent digs in 2004. Las Vegas-style slots arrived in Broward County last November and cued a glitzy transformation for its fading parimutuels. This past summer, Florida law expanded gambling even further: Casinos can stay open 18 hours a day during the week and 24 hours on weekends, up from 16 hours every day.

The Seoul city government Monday unveiled a plan to expand three foreigners-only casinos in the nation's capital in a bid to attract more foreign tourists. The city administration will apply to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for permission to extend the casinos as part of an effort to lure 12 million foreign tourists a year by 2010, city officials said. The three are currently located in the Sheraton Walkerhill Grande Hotel, Millennium Seoul Hilton Hotel and OakWood Premier Coex Center.

Although a state law authorizing new casinos faces a court challenge, state officials are moving ahead with preparations for expanded gambling anyway. The agency responsible for regulating gaming in the state has hired seven new employees, including four executive staff members, and is in the process of adding seven more, spokesman Mike Deines said. In all, the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission could grow by a total of 25 full-time employees by next July, a 37 percent increase above its full-time staffing levels last year.

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.

Opponents of a nearly 30 percent expansion of tribal gambling began turning in petition signatures Friday for what could prove to be latest ballot fight over Indian casinos in California. A group opposing deals between four wealthy Southern California tribes and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said it has collected enough signatures to let voters decide if the agreements should be revoked. It said the rest of the signatures will be turned in by Monday to the secretary of state's office.