The Telegraph – With 43 varieties of pillow, 150-year-old bottles of cognac and breathtaking, neon-lit views, no expense is spared for high rollers at the Las Vegas of the East. At the entrance to the Galaxy casino, elegant Filipina glamour models usher gamblers past a giant model diamond into a world of palm-lined artificial beaches and £48-a-time cocktails. This is Macau, a former Portuguese colony on China’s southern coast that in just over a decade has become the undisputed global king of the casino. It is also a world of money laundering, corruption, human trafficking and over-indulgence that stands in…

Poker News – The UK Gambling Commission is targeting illegal poker clubs across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom in its latest campaign to curtail what is considered to be unlawful gambling. Under the terms of the Gambling Act 2005, members’ clubs can allow poker at them, but there are various restrictions in place depending on whether the venue has a gaming permit in place or not. There are also strict guidelines limiting stakes, fees and prizes, while the main purpose of the club cannot be gambling. Investigations by local authorities resulted in three members’ clubs having to…

Galaxy Entertainment Group and Melco Crown Entertainment look best placed to benefit from the next phase of Macau Casinos development as the world’s gambling capital adds eight more mega-casinos by 2017. The expansion will take place in the Chinese territory’s glitzy Cotai Strip and is expected to more than double Macau’s annual gaming revenues to $115 billion in four years, according to research from U.S. brokerage Wells Fargo. Cotai is an area of reclaimed land that is becoming a Las Vegas-style tourist hub with shopping centers, hotels and entertainment to complement the casinos. U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands…

Card Player – Caesars Entertainment Corp. said this week that it lost $1.756 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Atlantic City was largely to blame, according to the report. The massive loss was posted after the company saw more than $2 billion in revenue during the period, which ended on Dec. 31. The fourth quarter of 2012 had the company lose $435.8 million. Caesars has debt of $20.9 billion, tops in the gaming industry. It has been making moves for quite some time to reduce that figure. Progress has been made. The World…

Card Player – Maryland is looking at imposing penalties for those caught gambling while underage at casinos in the state. Under the proposed law change, a first offense would be a fine up to $100, a second would be $500 and a third $1,000. The third would also force those underage to participate in gambling addiction treatment. According to the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, there were 47 violations for underage gambling in state casinos during calendar 2013, resulting in fines totaling $30,000 for the casinos. A pair of bills are in the legislature at the moment. They…

Macau Business Daily – Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam Pak Yuen says there “should be no increase” in the number of gaming concessionaires – six at present – allowed in the city’s gaming market following the expiry of the current permits in 2020 and 2022. He was speaking during his trip to Beijing. “The government has not determined whether [the gaming concessions] should be renewed for five years. The government has no stance on this matter,” added Mr Tam. “But it is impossible for the government to have no stance on all issues [regarding the renewal of…

Reuters –  China’s balmy holiday island of Hainan, long touted as a place where the country could liberalise gambling, will not permit casinos, senior officials announced this week. The decision may dampen investment appetite from scores of international and national developers betting on stellar profits in the southern province. Luo Baoming, Hainan’s Communist Party chief, and Wang Yong, the mayor of resort city Sanya, told a briefing at China’s annual parliamentary meeting on Thursday that casinos will never be allowed to operate there. “We cannot at all allow Hainan to operate casinos,” Luo said according to the official Xinhua news…

Vancouver Sun – The City of Richmond has received an unexpected $5-million windfall from River Rock Casino, which continued its winning streak last year as B.C.’s top gambling and entertainment destination. Richmond had budgeted to receive $12.4 million in gambling revenue last year, but instead took in a record $17.6 million — up 13.1 per cent over 2012. Casinos are required to give cities in which they operate 10 per cent of net gambling revenue. River Rock has consistently paid out more to local municipalities than any other casino in B.C. Since 1999, Richmond has received $136.7 million in gambling…