Police from the southern Italian city of Potenza seized homes and assets worth €8 million across Italy in an illegal betting operation involving a ring, investigators said on Wednesday. Two people have been placed under house arrest and another seven ordered not to leave town. The police operation dubbed ‘game over’ reportedly uncovered a criminal gang which used rigged slot machines and computer games. The nine people involved in the investigation are charged with controlling illegal gambling and betting enterprises as well as money laundering. The gambling and betting joints across the southern Basilicata region allegedly offered customers rigged online…

Multi-million-dollar, high end casinos planned for Colombo have boosted Sri Lanka’s ambitious hopes of becoming Asia’s new gambling hot spot, but the projects still face political and religious opposition. The country legalized gambling in November 2010, with the aim of eventually luring cashed-up tourists to the island nation and boosting an economy battered by decades of ethnic war. The government granted approval to Sri Lanka’s John Keells group last week for a $850-million “mixed development” high end casinos, a euphemism for an entertainment hub that includes gambling. The green light was also given last month to the local partner of…

From iGaming Business – The French online gaming market generated €798m in gross gaming revenues in 2012, compared with €749m for Italy and €117m for Spain, which regulated its online gaming and betting market in June 2012, France’s igaming regulator ARJEL announced on Tuesday. Each country has its own iGaming specificities, online poker and casino dominate the Italian industry, Spaniards favour online sportsbetting while in France, a third of the country’s GGRs comes from online horseracing parimutuel, reflecting the historical strength of the activity and the main operator PMU. ARJEL also published the results of a survey of some 150,000…

Las Vegas Sands Corporation could delay development of a planned EuroVegas $22 billion resort complex in Spain. That is, unless the government lifts a ban on smoking inside casinos. This according to a wire service report. However, in a statement to Spanish media last week, the company said reports that the proposed development was not progressing were “inaccurate.” According to United Press International, Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson said construction on EuroVegas in Madrid will not start unless Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy amends laws that ban smoking in most public places. Lifting the ban is opposed by Spanish…

Natalie Chan collected bets, dealt cards and calculated payoffs. She was not a croupier working in a Macau casino — in fact, at 20, she was not even old enough to be on the gambling floor at the glitzy casinos just a short walk from campus. But she is learning the tricks of the trade through a program meant to train Macau residents to run the hotels and casinos that have made this city Asia’s answer to Las Vegas. Last summer, Ms. Chan completed a dealer training course on a mock casino floor, in a room equipped with roulette wheels,…

From Investors – Shares of Las Vegas-based casinos rose Monday after a report that table gambling revenue in Macau for July is on track to climb 19% from the same month a year ago. Sterne Agee said it expects gross gambling revenue take for Vegas casinos Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Resorts International (MGM) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN), and the three Hong Kong casinos with operations in Macau, to total $3.68 billion. That would continue a hot streak for Macau, the world’s largest and fastest-growing casino gambling locale. The report comes on the heels of an upbeat report last week for…

A Connecticut casino lawsuit over taxes is over. The lawyer who argued successfully to prevent an Indian tribe in Connecticut from blocking collection of local and state property taxes on slot machines at the largest casino in the Western Hemisphere said the ruling Monday by a federal appeals court sets a good precedent for other Indian-run casinos across the country. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled Monday against the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, which operates the Foxwoods Resort Connecticut casino. The decision overturned a lower-court judge who had earlier ruled for the tribe over the town of…

From Commercial Appeal In just a decade, the center of gambling has migrated from Las Vegas to a tiny Chinese territory an hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong. The gambling mecca of Macau now handles more wagers than all U.S. commercial casinos put together. But as U.S. gambling companies have remade Macau, Macau has also remade them. Amid a soft regulatory climate in America, U.S. gaming companies have been hit with allegations of improper conduct, including allowing Chinese junkets linked to Asian gangs into Las Vegas. Macau is the only place in China where gambling is legal. Each month, 2.5…