Shareholders in James Packer's gaming company, Crown, are continuing to pay for the adventures of Mr Packer and his managers in the tanking US gambling sector. Crown has revealed an expensive way of getting off a rather nasty hook and postponing the high-priced purchase of casinos in Nevada and a racetrack and gaming palace in Pennsylvania. The US vendors and Crown have announced the termination of an earlier USD 1.75 billion deal...

New York (Reuters) - Private equity firms TPG and Apollo Management LP are going to have to mark down their investments in Harrah's Entertainment, as the casino giant grapples with a soft economy and a heavy debt load, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Sunday. TPG TPG.UL and Apollo APOLO.UL bought Harrah's Entertainment, which operates nearly 40 casinos across the United States, for USD 31 billion in January.

Rota - Three as of yet unidentified foreign investors are eying the early steps officials here are taking to develop a casino gaming industry, yet progress on that effort appears to have stalled for now as the local government awaits funding from Saipan. “There are at least three investors that have already expressed their interest in a casino here,” Diego Songao, chairman of the Rota Casino Gaming Commission said in a Wednesday interview.

New York (Reuters) - Prices of U.S. casino companies' bonds are collapsing, a sign more bankruptcies may be on the way as lenders take flight and high fuel prices curb travel to gambling resorts. Investors have lost an estimated 14.2 percent on casino bonds year to date, the second-worst performance of any junk-rated sector after diversified media companies, which are down about 15.9 percent, according to a new report by JPMorgan.

One delay and one continues, but both have the same result: investor satisfaction. MGM Mirage last week downplayed reports that it was having trouble finalizing funding for its CityCenter project in Las Vegas. While admitting that financing has not been finalized, MGM Mirage CFO Dan D’Arrigo expects no delays in construction and the expected late 2009 opening of CityCenter.

Gambling venues have proliferated in the country, and a proof of that is that Bolivia National Lottery (Lonabol) received an average of an application license every two days. In the last 36 days, it received 20 applications, according to the legal director of the institution, Rafael Amador. “We did not pass them because they did not comply with the requirements. People believe that it is just to present a letter, but more documents are needed.” He assured.

A financial backer of the proposed USD 429 million Lawrence County casino and racetrack is asking the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to withdraw his casino license application. Stephen Hilbert and his companies, MH Investors Gaming and MH Equity Managing Member II, petitioned the board in April to withdraw their applications. Hilbert and MH will still supply funding for the Centaur Gaming project as part of a USD 1 billion financing packaging Centaur secured in October.

Los Angeles - Scarce credit and a slowing US economy have turned some Las Vegas Strip casino projects into losing bets for investors and lenders. Developers have plans to add more than 40,000 luxury hotel rooms to the gambling corridor - about one-third more than today - but financing for certain projects, such as the partially-built Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino, is already precarious and industry experts say others may be postponed.

In spite of the real state crisis which is being held in US, Mexicans have found an investment opportunity and, as a second residence buying properties in the most expensive mixed project of the country: "City Center" Las Vegas. It is a construction development which will require a total investment of USD 8 billion, which will combine a 4,000 room casino-resort, four residential towers which will totalize 2,700 residences and a top shopping center of 46 thousand sqm.