Penn National Gaming, which owns M Resort, is again looking at the Strip for possible expansion opportunities. During a conference call Thursday with analysts to discuss the casino operator’s first quarter earnings, Penn National CEO Tim Wilmott was asked about reports that Australian casino company Crown International was interested in buying the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas for $2 billion. Wilmott said he thought the figure “sounded high.” If Penn were to get into the bidding for the Strip resort, which owner Deutsche Bank reportedly wants to sell, it would probably be with a partner. Wilmott added that Penn is “not…

Card Player – Fighting with Steve Wynn in his own casino probably isn’t too great of an idea. The billionaire casino boss and actor George Clooney had dinner a couple of weeks ago to discuss some business, but the evening reportedly ended in a heated exchange. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the two men were talking about politics and got into it after Wynn, Clooney said, criticized President Obama and his policies. Wynn is known for being a staunch Republican, while Clooney is a Democrat. Clooney eventually stormed out of the dinner, calling Wynn “an asshole,” the report said….

Card Player – A bingo game in the United Kingdom continued despite one of the players collapsing from a heart attack, according to the Burton Mail. Two nurses who were also playing rushed to the man’s side to help. Paramedics eventually arrived and were trying to save his life. Still, numbers were being called. One of players in the room described the experience: “A man was seemingly dying and people were playing bingo like nothing was happening. The two nurses said the chap had actually ‘died’ twice.” The bingo hall—Mecca Bingo, in Middleway Park—defended the decision, saying that it allowed…

Think winning a lottery prize would be great? Well, when Jozef Lazarcik, a 35-year-old factory worker, heard his number called on national television here recently, he pumped his fists, hardly believing his luck. He had registered only nine receipts with Slovakia’s new tax lottery, and yet he had just won a new car. “It’s a heavenly feeling,” he said before leaving the studio, ready to encourage all of his friends to register their receipts, too — which is exactly what Slovakian officials were hoping for. Over the last 10 years, Slovakia’s revenue from value-added taxes, a type of sales tax,…

Calvin Ayre – The government of Nepal has given all casinos operating in the country until Sunday to close their doors after they failed to honor back tax bills. The dispute between the government and the country’s 10 casinos dates back nearly a decade and has featured countless ultimatums and deadlines, all of which the casinos have ignored. As a result, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) was left with no option but to declare all casinos in the country to be operating illegally. The latest game of brinksmanship began last July via the adoption of the…

CNBC – Whether traveling with tight pockets or loosely tossing around cash, visitors to Las Vegas can find the ultimate playground for adults. From high-end shops and penthouse suites to day clubs and pool parties, they spend tens of billions of dollars in total here a year, with the younger demographic dropping less on casino tables and ponying up more to party in clubs. “I think the younger generation is a little bit more entertainment focused and less focused on gambling than the older generation,” said Stephen P.A. Brown, the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER)…