Macao (Xinhua) -- The government of the Macao Special Administrative Region has collected 18.36 billion patacas (2.295 billion U.S. dollars) in direct gaming taxes in the first eight months of the year, seeing a notable year-on-year rise of 47.2 percent. The statistics issued Wednesday by the Finance Services Bureau (FSB) showed that the gaming taxes accounted for 73.4 percent of the government total revenue in the period.

London (Reuters) - The British government said on Monday it was reviewing taxes paid on player-to-player games in casinos, such as poker, where gamblers' so-called participation fees are subject to VAT but not gaming duty. Monday's government announcement came in a statement in which the Treasury said ministers had made several incorrect statements relating to gaming duty in casinos since April 30.

Macao (Xinhua) -- The government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) is to amend regulations to curb teenage gambling, local media reported Friday. Macao Daily News, the leading local Chinese-language newspaper, quoted MSAR Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah as saying that the new rules will bar those unqualified for the casino entry from gaining prize money that they win.

Taipei (Asia Pulse) - The government will not allow casinos to be established before a consensus is reached among the various sectors of society, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Chin-Jun said Tuesday. Chen reiterated the government's stance on the issue in an interview with the Central News Agency, during which he said that the Cabinet will not put any casino-related bills on a priority list to be referred to the Legislative Yuan for approval during its upcoming session.

The gambling industry has been forced to establish a new body to draw up a voluntary code for socially responsible advertising, weeks before the Gambling Act 2005 comes into force. The group will monitor the code, adding to the plethora of different bodies, including the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), already regulating the industry. Members will be drawn from representatives of a number of gambling associations.

Fewer Canadians are gambling but those who do spend more, creating a veritable jackpot for governments, a recent Statistics Canada report shows. Net revenue from government-run lotteries, video lottery terminals (VLTs) and casinos rose to USD 13.3 billion in 2006 from USD 2.7 billion in 1992. Even so, the 69 per cent of households that reported at least one gambling activity in 2005 was a slight decline from 74 per cent five years earlier.

The Union of Members Clubs and Lottery Workers (UMCLW) is demanding that Government put a hold on granting licences and work permits to foreigners as a way of dealing with the reported foreign infiltration and alleged "foreign Mafia" in the gaming industry.

Hopes of winning a multi million pound large casino development for Middlesbrough are back on track. Confusion has surrounded the future of the Government’s plans for a supercasino and 16 other large and small casinos since the House of Lords voted against them in April. Prime Minister Gordon Brown also questioned last week if a supercasino was the right vehicle to spark regeneration of an area.

Conservative leader David Cameron has called for a Government statement on supercasinos after Prime Minister Gordon Brown seemed to back away from the concept. Brown outraged supporters of the massive gambling venues on Wednesday when he announced a review of whether they are the best way to revive run-down areas.

Tory leader David Cameron will call on the government to raise the age limit for all forms of gambling to 18, after a new Conservative report said that it was the "single most important" measure for combating problem gambling. A Tory report says that tens of thousands of children are addicts.

The State Government will consider reciprocal bans on shady gamblers after revelations that the brother of notorious drug lord Tony Mokbel is among Queensland's biggest casino punters. Horty Mokbel, brother of the captured crime czar and an alleged drug trafficker, has been barred from Melbourne's Crown Casino because of money-laundering fears. But he has been revealed as a high-roller at the Gold Coast's Jupiters Casino in a secret list of Queensland's biggest gamblers obtained by The Courier-Mail.

London (Reuters) - Britain's high court dismissed a challenge to government plans to build a new wave of Las Vegas-style casinos in the UK on Monday, after a casino industry body claimed the plans were badly thought out. The British Casinos Association (BCA), which represents 90 percent of Britain's casino operators, had sought a review of the government's new gambling policy.