Crown casino's gaming rooms, shops and restaurants were evacuated after the power failure left the entire precinct in darkness. An estimated 5000 chefs, shoppers, gamblers and those celebrating Chinese New Year were out on the street after a back-up generator failed. Casino spokesman Gary O'Neil said Crown would take a financial hit. "Friday is one of our busiest nights and we had to evacuate the whole premises," he said.

Victoria, the company born from an association between two leading operating companies as Codere and William Hill, introduce a new leisure and entertainment concept in the Madrid market with the opening of sportsbooks centers. The Financial Counsellor of Madrid Council, through the General Direction of Gaming, has granted Victoria the authorization for sportsbooks operations, becoming, this way, the first Spanish company in offering this new leisure and entertainment category.

Victorian Gaming Minister Tony Robinson has dismissed claims a deal has been struck to award a state lotteries licence to global gaming consortium Intralot. The Victorian government is in the middle of a gaming tender that could see Tattersall's lose its lottery monopoly in the state, if Intralot is allowed to enter the market. The tender process has attracted several controversies, and is the subject of an upper house inquiry.

The Victorian government has defended its decision to continue to allow high rollers to smoke at Crown Casino, despite state-wide bans for all other venues that start on Sunday. From July 1, smoking will be banned in all enclosed licensed pubs, clubs, bars and gaming rooms across Victoria - except high-roller rooms at Crown in Melbourne.

When the Victorian Government introduced smoking bans in gaming rooms across the state in September 2002, Tabcorp was caught unawares. "It came very quickly and we didn't have the in-depth customer research that we should have," recalled former chief executive Matthew Slatter. "The impact was very dramatic."

The public will not be shown basic information about a review into the state's new multibillion-dollar lotteries and gaming licences because it is too "secret", Victoria's gambling watchdog has ruled. The gambling regulator said it would also be "contrary to the public interest" to release even edited documents related to the licences' reviews that are likely to determine the shape of gambling in the state for the next two decades.

Gaming giant Tabcorp Holdings Ltd has slammed a Victorian Government decision to lift the annual levy on electronic gaming machines. Tabcorp said the decision would affect profits and was being implemented at a bad time for the industry. The company said today that it was disappointed the government had lifted the levy on each gaming machine to USD 4,333 from USD 3,033.