Casino companies’ earnings are plummeting by double digits. Debt costs are rising and customers are spending less. In the financial world, in this economy, those are the trend lines of doom. Indeed, a few smaller operators are already close to bankruptcy. But could giants like MGM Mirage and Harrah’s Entertainment be next? The breathtaking series of Wall Street failures and Washington bailouts of recent months suggests anything is possible - even spectacular failures in Las Vegas.

Tõnis Rüütel, head of the Estonian Association of Casinos Operators, told Eesti Päevaleht that the casino business is like any other business that is suffering from the current economic slowdown. “Almost all operators have been losing money for the last two quarters and the third quarter should be no different,” said Rüütel. Since spring, 15 casinos have already closed doors.

Chiang Rai: As Thai and Cambodian villagers living near the border conflict zone have fled the area, Thai gamblers too have escaped to safer casinos _ in Burma.In the aftermath of Wednesday's clash between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in the border area of Si Sa Ket province, gamblers are switching from casinos in Cambodia to those in Burma. Bookings are reportedly up at luxury casino resorts like the Allure Resort and Regina Hotel & Golf Club in Burma's Tachilek opposite Mae Sai district.

After barges posing danger in Mandovi River, the increasing number of casinos is the next major concern for the port administration with a big race on to fill three more slots for operations of off-shore gambling vessels. As many as four off-shore casinos would now be cruising the river Mandovi with the government clearing two more - Kings and Pride of Goa. This is in addition to the existing two - Caravela and Leela’s.

Washington -- The gaming industry changed irrevocably when President Reagan signed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act on Oct. 17, 1988. Twenty years later, tribal casinos earn more money than those in Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined. "I believe the expectation of almost every lawmaker then was that the future of Indian gaming was going to be in high stakes bingo," said Phil Hogen, chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission.

Offshore Goa casinos, where punters love to push their luck, will not be spared from the ban on smoking in public places, an official said. Shekhar Salkar, Goa tobacco control cell in charge, told IANS the ban would be extended to the several offshore casinos which dot the Mandovi river that flows by state capital Panaji. "Casinos are also public places. They will not be spared. We will not allow smoking in casinos whether they are docked at the wharf or are floating offshore,"...

Coordinator of the sub commission of Games and Draws of the Chamber of Representatives, Armando García Méndez (Alternativa), said that, in the current ordinary period of sessions, a bill will be presented in order to update and regulate casinos and betting centers, because more than a thousand venues are operating without a proper regulation. He explained that, if legislators do nothing in order to regulate such activity, that nowadays is being performed in an illegal way...

Tallahasse: The Attorney General of Florida wants a federal agency to step in and stop gambling at Seminole Indian casinos, even though the governor signed an agreement with the tribe last year. "The legislation never gave permission for it. That's the basis upon which the Supreme Court ruled the compact null and void," Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a phone interview Friday.

The new assessment carried out last month by trade union Casinos de France on 104 casinos (out of 197 being run at present) will not reassure the sector. Casinos de France pointed out last week that “the trend reversal observed since 1 January 2008, when the smoking ban was introduced, is now confirmed”. “For the past 8 months, the decrease in the gross gaming revenue, in a comparable period and for an equal amount of casinos...

Atlantic City - Casinos reported USD 468.3 million in casino wins in August, a 0.7 percent increase over the same month a year ago, according to figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. This marked the second time this year revenues eked out a small gain. Credit the extra Saturday in August. Credit a favorable Labor Day weekend. Credit some good luck at the tables.

Biloxi, Mississippi (AP) -- All 11 of Mississippi's coastal casinos and one in Natchez have been given permission to reopen. Eddie Williams, deputy director of the state Gaming Commission, says one casino on the coast needs a few days to recover from Hurricane Gustav. Silver Slipper in Hancock County had damage to coolers and freezers on the first level.

Jackson, Mississippi (AP) -- Mississippi's 11 Gulf Coast casinos are preparing this Labor Day weekend for Tropical Storm Gustav, three years after Hurricane Katrina turned several of the massive casino barges and hotels into waterlogged heaps of rumble. The 12 casinos operating along the coast on Aug. 29, 2005, were either flooded or carried away by Katrina's powerful winds and storm surge. It was several months before the first one reopened.