Thailand, Taiwan and Japan are said to be considering gaming options which would create more “challenges” to casinos in Asia, a published report said yesterday. There are currently 121 casinos in East Asia. Macau is the leader with 29, followed by the Philippines with 19 and 14 each for Cambodia and South Korea. “The sector’s long-term outlook very much depends on the industry’s continued access to affordable capital to finance the building of the mega casino…

The United States has reached a deal with the European Union, Japan and Canada to keep its Internet gambling market closed to foreign companies, but is continuing talks with India, Antigua and Barbuda, Macau and Costa Rica, US trade officials said. „We are pleased to confirm that the United States has reached agreement … with Canada, the EU and Japan,“ Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative’s office, said in a statement several hours after the EU had announced details of the deal it had reached with Washington.

Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s billionaire Chairman Sheldon Adelson opened the world’s biggest casino in Macau and unveiled ambitions to expand in India and Japan as Asian gambling booms. The new 3,000 room Venetian Macao resort aims to tap China’s 1.3 billion people, and Adelson said he’s also keen on opening in the world’s second-most populous nation. „We are very much interested in, one, attracting Indians to come to Macau, and two, establishing in India, when the government makes the necessary changes,”…

Las Vegas – Kunihiro Sakamoto bested a field of more than 2,000 players in the inaugural All-Japan Poker Championship presented by SEGA SAMMY Group, an official satellite of the World Series of Poker, and will compete in the 2007 WSOP Main Event in July at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Harrah’s License Company announced today.