The Sydney Morning Herald – One-armed bandits are blamed for robbing Sydney of its live music scene, but pokies may be the saviour of the industry under a plan adopted by the City of Sydney. The council will lobby the state government to support the live music industry using money from gaming revenue. It is one of 57 recommendations in the City of Sydney’s Live Music Taskforce’s final action plan that were unanimously adopted at a meeting of councillors on Monday. A City of Sydney spokeswoman said a similar program in South Australia had become a valuable resource supporting live…

The Argus – Sussex gamblers are estimated to have wagered nearly £1 billion on virtual gaming machines dubbed the ‘crack cocaine of gambling’ last year. The controversial high-stake betting shop machines, on which punters can spend £100 every 20 seconds on games like virtual roulette, have been described as dangerously addictive and accounted for around half of all highstreet bookmakers’ profits last year. Nearly £280 million was gambled on the machines in Brighton and Hove alone in 2013, according to figures from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling. Of that, nearly £10 million was lost by punters and across the county…

At 550 feet, it’s the highest point on the tallest Ferris Wheel in the world, Tony Anouvongs takes a selfie and sends it to his 16-year-old daughter. “My daughter requested it,” he says of the High Roller wheel. “She seemed so excited to have me ride it and take a selfie for her.” Everyone around him is snapping Smartphone photos of the 360-degree view of the sun setting over Vegas and the mountains surrounding it. One woman is Face Timing with her mother. Once the sun sets, the High Roller’s 2,000 LED lights turn on, and the tallest Ferris Wheel,…

Bloomberg – Roughly 100 percent of lottery tickets are currently sold by retailers—gas stations, supermarkets, or convenience stores—that do little more than print tickets with numbers. It was only a matter of time before someone made apps for that process. Shoutz, an Austin (Tex.)-based startup, announced an agreement Tuesday with the Mega Millions lottery that will bring the game to its LotteryHUB mobile app, which launched in September with the rival Powerball lottery game. Now the two largest forces in the $78 billion per year U.S. lottery industry will share a mobile platform that covers the vast majority of the country,…

The Guardian – In the budget, George Osborne reduced the tax burden on land based bingo halls and raised it for betting shop fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs). Two gambling sectors treated very differently. The basis of this tax hike on FOBTs, as Osborne put it, was to “bring their profitability more in line with other gaming machines on the high street.” The chancellor has underestimated the disparity between FOBTs and other gaming machines. It is far bigger than a 5% tax adjustment can address. In 2013 FOBTs – or “B2” gaming machines as they are categorised – generated more…

Forbes – Slumped in white oversize chairs in an enormous suite at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, Australian casino billionaire James Packer and Hollywood movie director Brett Ratner are exhausted. They look like two hungover frat boys after a hard night—but these guys haven’t been partying. They’re jet-lagged after visiting Russell Crowe’s film set in South Australia, watching Chinese tennis star Li Na win the women’s Australian Open in Melbourne and toe-touching in the Philippines to open Asia’s first Nobu restaurant at a new casino resort in Manila. It sounds like a pleasure cruise from Packer’s earlier life as…