According to a report from KTRH.com, there has been “growing pressure” on lawmakers for Texas casino gambling. For years, the state has been home to efforts at such legalization, but nothing has ever passed thanks to fierce opposition from opponents. There is really no indication that 2015 will have any better chances than in the past. The Texas Legislature doesn’t meet in 2014. According to the report, among the biggest advocates of legalized casino gaming in Texas is the horse racing industry, which says money is being lost to other states. In 2013, some Texas lawmakers were trying to pass…

Reuters – The western Japanese city of Osaka could have a casino resort up and running by 2019, in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, if a bill to legalize casinos is approved by parliament this year, executives of MGM Resorts International (MGM.N) said on Saturday. “If the first bill passes in the fall of this year, you could have something up and ready to go in Osaka by the end of 2019,” Ed Bowers, MGM’s senior vice president for global gaming development, said in an interview for the Reuters Japan Summit. Lawmakers have said they would like to see…

Deutsche Bank AG is cutting itself free of The Cosmopolitan Casino of Las Vegas, a resort and casino, saying it’s selling the swanky but unprofitable high-rise complex on the Strip to Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII for $1.73 billion. The German investment bank said in a statement Thursday that the cash deal remains subject to regulatory approvals. The bank had intended to sell the property from before it even opened in 2010 and had placed The Cosmopolitan in a separate bank division devoted to winding down or selling unwanted investments. The last major Las Vegas resort approved before the Great…

Vegas Inc – In an abrupt reversal, Bally Technologies CEO Ramesh Srinivasan is being replaced at the helm by the man he replaced less than a year and a half ago — the same one who recruited Srinivasan to the company, no less. The Las Vegas slot-machine maker said today that Srinivasan, a nine-year company veteran, is leaving Bally and that Dick Haddrill would assume the CEO’s spot May 23. Haddrill was Bally’s chief executive from 2004 to 2012 and has been chairman of the board since Srinivasan was promoted to CEO. Haddrill will give up the chairman’s seat next…

Several players from a poker tournament have filed a lawsuit against Borgata in alleged cheating scandal. During the 2014 Winter Open poker tournament at the Borgata, six poker players are alleging that the casino did not properly monitor and run the tournament and that the payout to remaining players after the tournament was halted was insufficient. Duane Haughton, of New York, Michael Sneideman, of Connecticut, Cuong Tran, of Michigan, Cuong Phung, of New Jersey, Alvin Vatanavan, of Virginia, and Christopher Korres, of Connecticut, filed the suit Tuesday in Atlantic County Superior Court against the popular hotel resort. More than 4,800…

Want China Times – After years of smooth sailing, casino-related stocks on the Hong Kong market have finally seen their wild party coming to an end, with the eight major casino stocks seeing their market value nosedive by HK$191.5 billion (US$24.7 billion) this year as of May 12, reports Guangzhou’s 21st Century Business Herald. What triggered the crash was concerted action between China’s central government and the Macao government in cracking down on underground gambling of Chinese mainlanders at Macao casinos. High rollers from mainland China account for two thirds of the region’s gambling income, and Macau has become a…