Singapore's government may form a venture with CapitaLand Ltd to take over one of the island's two casino resorts if Las Vegas Sands Corp fails to stave off loan defaults, CIMB-GK Research Pte has said. Las Vegas Sands, the gaming company that said last week it may default on debt and face bankruptcy, reiterated last Saturday that it's committed to the USD 4 billion Singapore resort. The company has drawn down at least SGD 2 billion (USD 1.3 billion) from a SGD 5-billion credit facility by several banks for the project.

Las Vegas (AP) -- Las Vegas Sands Corp. said Friday that officials from the Singapore government and senior executives from the resort developer met to discuss the completion of the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore amid continued concern about tightness in the credit markets. Las Vegas Sands said discussions included construction and marketing efforts to bring more conventions and exhibitions to Singapore.

London (Reuters) - The government said on Wednesday it would not go ahead with the planned sale of state-owned bookmaker, the Tote, this autumn due to market conditions. "I have now concluded that it is not appropriate to pursue a sale in these market conditions. I have therefore decided that the Tote should be retained in public ownership for the medium term, and brought to the market when conditions are likely to deliver value for the taxpayer and racing,"...

The Uruguayan government informed last week that it ordered changes at the top management organization of the casinos belonging to the state, under suspicion of corruption. Fernando Nopistch would replace Ozano as National Director of Casinos. A press release of the Ministry of Economy pointed that, last Friday, the National Director of Customs, Luis Salvo, and the el director of state Casinos, Víctor Hugo Ozano, were relieved of their positions.

The Norwegian Government has continued to press forward with legislation to ban payments handling online poker and internet gambling transactions, UIGEA-style. The government has formally submitted its proposed ban for a parliamentary vote, reports Gambling Compliance. The proposed ban, which widens the Norwegian definition of the offence of ’mediating’ bets, has already attracted widespread concern, pro and con.

“The potential of growth of the games and draws industry in Mexico is subject to the fee of the government taxes plus special taxes,” said executive president of the Group of Economists and Associates (GEA), Mauricio González. “For each percentage point of additional government tax in the gaming industry, we would be reducing the growth potential of this industry in a similar proportion”, indicated in its participation with licensees of the games and draw sector.

After seeking to ban Western dance and pop music, Malaysian northern state of Kedah wants to phase out gaming houses, something the non-Muslims, especially ethnic Chinese, resent. State Chinese Community Affairs Committee chairman Tan Wei Shu said although gambling was wrong in Chinese culture, the community would kick up a fuss if the local authorities shut down common gaming houses, reported a newspaper.

Panaji - The international laws governing casinos are being studied by the State government to formulate a separate legislation covering the casinos, home minister Ravi Naik said. Naik, responding to the bill during the ongoing state legislative assembly session, said that the government is working on a separate legislation governing casinos, including off-shore casinos, as the existing law is not full-proof.

Bookmaker William Hill attacked the Government's "flip-flopping" gambling policy as it posted an underlying 10pc fall in first-half profits, hit by losing results from Euro 2008 and Royal Ascot. Ralph Topping, chief executive, called for a cut in the tax paid by UK-based bookmakers on internet gambling and warned the Government against any crackdowns on fixed-odds betting terminals.

Ottawa – Lawyers for the Ontario government are looking into Casino Rama payments made to a First Nation that doesn't officially exist, as at least one chief calls for an official investigation. The Chiefs of Ontario voted earlier this month to de-list and cut off Poplar Point First Nation, a so-called "near band" that operated out of a storefront in Thunder Bay, Ont.

British bookmaker and entrepreneur Victor Chandler says the government was right to scrap plans for a Las Vegas-style super-casino in Manchester. Chandler reckons a huge multi-million pound supercasino – with 1,250 unlimited stake and jackpot machines – would have provoked gambling addiction. “The biggest damage I’ve seen to society is in South Africa’s casinos," says Chandler, who moved his entire bookmaking business to Gibraltar in the late nineties to escape betting tax.

Internet gambling and betting regulation is the aim of a new project which is being analyzed by the government and the autonomous communities in Spain. A meeting of the Sectoral Gambling Commission, comprised by representatives of Ministry of the Interior, the State Secretary of the Information Society, of the Tax Agency the National Entity of Lotteries and Bets of the State (ONLAE) and the communities.