Circus Circus has been sold by MGM for $825 million to Phil Ruffin, the owner of Treasure Island. “Circus Circus has anchored the north end of the Las Vegas Strip for over 50 years, and I am excited to add it to my casino portfolio,” Ruffin said in a statement. “I have tremendous respect for Jim Murren and the MGM team, and my relationship with them goes back to my friendship with Kirk Kerkorian and continues to this day.” The property includes 3,767 guest rooms, an RV park, more than 101,000 square feet of gaming and the Adventuredome theme park,…

A US District Court has charged an individual with attempted match fixing in New York. The person charged is an alleged organized crime family member. The attempted sports bribery charge was in relation to an NCAA Division I men’s basketball game in December of 2018, according to a court filing. The court ruled defendant Benjamin Bifalco, together with others, knowingly and intentionally attempted to influence a sporting contest with bribery Court-authorized wiretaps captured the defendants, with 25-year-old Bifalco having offered members of a college basketball team thousands of dollars to intentionally lose the game. The court did not disclose which…

A new poker cheating scandal has rocked the gambling world, and even the main stream media is picking up the story. Mike Postle, a former casino employee, has been accused by insider whistle blowers of cheating the Stones Live Poker game in Northern California out of upwards of $250,000, rarely playing above stakes of $5-$5 no-limit hold’em for the last couple of years. Although charges have yet to be filed, the developing story was picked up by ESPN, who ran a segment with Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter, explaining the allegations. Van Pelt, who admitted he was just a poker…

Facial recognition has arrived in the Scientific Games’ Las Vegas showroom. Chief product officer Tim Bucher walks up to a baccarat table with two iPad-sized screens attached at the ends. The displays show the title of the game and easily blend into the background amid the lights and sounds of slot machines. But with the press of a button, live camera footage of Bucher appears on the screen, with digital blue dots lining his mouth, eyes and face. Below him is a line of text: Existing user found. Male. Over 21. “You wouldn’t see this,” Bucher said, pointing to a…

D.C. sports betting has been delayed by a Superior Court judge who has issued a two-week restraining order. That order would block the District from moving forward on it’s $215 million no-bid sports gambling contract with Intralot, the company that was hired to establish sports gambling in D.C. The order, issued last Thursday, was requested by tech developer Dylan Carragher, who said the single-source Intralot contract would prevent him and other vendors from being able to participate in the gambling and violated the District’s procurement laws. But the controversy over sports betting isn’t new to the District. After the Supreme…

MGM Resorts International is in talks to sell its Circus Circus Casino property to real estate mogul Phil Ruffin, according to Bloomberg. An agreement could be announced which would also include the sale of Bellagio and the MGM Grand. Those properties may be sold to Blackstone Group. MGM has been restructuring under pressure from activist investors. The company has cut and reorganized management, and previously sold all but four of its wholly-owned casinos to MGM Growth Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust it created three years ago. The company is in talks to sell two Las Vegas top properties,…