The Australian – Sri Lanka has refused to allow casinos at three super-luxury resorts planned in the capital after opponents said they would lead to prostitution, an official says. It was not immediately known whether the casino ban would endanger the development of the three mega-resorts in Colombo, which have attracted investment worth $US1.3 billion ($1.4bn) from tycoons including Australian gambling mogul James Packer, who runs plush casinos in Melbourne, Perth, Macau and London. Developers, including Packer, wanted casinos to be part of all three luxury resorts, but the government rejected the plans, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse said on…

NBC Sports – About an hour after the regular season schedule was released Wednesday night, the LVH Las Vegas Hotel and Casino had already installed favorites and underdogs for the opening week games. Jacksonville is the biggest Week One underdog on the LVH SuperBook board. The Eagles are 11-point favorites over the visiting Jaguars in the season opener for both clubs. No other club is favored by more than a touchdown, and only the Broncos and Bears are favored by more than six points. Denver is a seven-point favorite vs. Indianapolis, while Chicago is a 6.5-point favorite vs. Buffalo. All…

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,…