Gaming operations staff of Starworld Casino will from February 2, work four days less a month until the end of this year, which equals to a pay cut of 13.3 percent. Affected positions are pit supervisors, dealer supervisors, dealers and gaming chips cashiers, and only those held by local Macau residents will be covered by the non-paid leave scheme. Amid the global credit crunch, Starworld emphasised that they had first implemented a string of cost control measures...

Amborse So Shu-fai, SJM Holdings chief executive, yesterday said that SJM will comprehensively analyse the operational cost and various cost reduction measures in order to try its best to maintain the interest of its staffers. According to the Chinese language news TDM, the chief executive of SJM Holdings told the media that they “hope to reduce the influence to staffers to its least.”

St. Louis (AP) -- Ameristar Casinos Inc. is laying off workers at its St. Charles and Kansas City casinos as part of a national reduction in work force. Rebecca Theim from Ameristar's corporate office in Las Vegas said workers were notified Friday. She said Ameristar tried various measures to avoid layoffs, but they weren't enough in the worsening economy. Ameristar's casino and hotel in St. Charles will lose 6 percent of its staff.

Local casinos starting from January 1, 2009 will be required to have all of their front-line staff wearing ID tags in order to identify whether they are local or imported labourers. According to a press statement from the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), the SAR government had already issued a coercive order to the six gaming license holders that their staff on casino floors must have to wear a tag beginning 2009 so that their place of origin and position could be "publicly identified".

A union leader has described a pay freeze for Plymouth casino workers as a "kick in the teeth". Staff at the Stanley Casino in Union Street are said to be "angry and frustrated" at the deferral of any pay rise this year by the managers of the leisure giant Genting Stanley. Gary Smith, of the GMB union, said: "It is a kick in the real teeth and customer relations will be affected as morale is so low.

Stephen Weaver, the president of the Asian Region of the Las Vegas Sands Corp, said yesterday at the sideline of the DFS Galleria opening that the corporate does not have plans to cut down the number of staff members, but rather to further expand the business. On the other hand, Mr Weaver said that the latest restrictions on the Chinese Individual Visit Scheme did not create any negative influences to their business.

About 60 unionised staff at Auckland's Sky City didn't show for work today, many joining a picket at the Sky Tower to protest a pay dispute. The strike began at 10am and was to continue for 24 hours, with staff unhappy at the company's pay offer of a 4 per cent increase this year and 3.5 per cent next year. Unite national secretary and union advocate Matt McCarten said there was plenty of passion from striking staff and they would continue...

Ottawa - More than 400 Casino du Lac-Leamy workers have voted overwhelmingly in favour for a new contract that will give them pay increases of two to 2.5 per cent during the next five years, averting a planned strike by just one day. Alain Savignac, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local representing cashiers, slot machine attendants, doormen, cloakroom attendants, customer service employees, parking lot attendants and other workers...

Lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong yesterday handed a written interpellation inquiring into the social responsibility of gaming industries in the present stage. Firstly, he asked the government to set up concrete measures to regulate franchise gaming corporations to account for the social responsibility in order to ease society's anxiety. In the interpellation, he asked if the government could regulate franchise gaming corporations to firstly cut back non-residential staff...

Imported labors working in Macao's casinos will soon be required to wear different uniforms or badges, which will distinguish them from local ones, the Macao Post Daily reported on Wednesday. Under current casino regulations of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government, only local residents are allowed to work as croupiers, but imported workers may be hired by casino companies as croupiers' supervisors, pit managers and other gaming positions.

Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) yesterday issued a statement announcing the redundancies of 270 of its casino staff, yet promised that they would be guaranteed employment should their position become vacant when the company's mega resort opens in 2009. The cut-backs affected both locals and expatriates at Grand Waldo and President Casinos. Positions that were made redundant included pit managers and supervisors, dealers and their inspectors as well as security guards.

Sportingbet will this week attempt to break the legal deadlock surrounding two London-based junior staff who have been thrown into an Istanbul jail. The online gambling group is seeking a bail hearing for the pair - both Turkish nationals - who were arrested at the end of last month when they returned to Turkey on holiday. Neither man, who Sportingbet declines to name, have been charged.