From Reuters Australian gaming firm Echo Entertainment (EGP.AX) has submitted plans for a $1 billion expansion of its Star casino in Sydney, including an option that would allow rival Crown Ltd (CWN.AX) to open a VIP-only casino. Echo, which holds the sole licence to operate a casino in Sydney until 2019, has been lobbying to extend this right in an attempt to block Crown’s plans to add to its Melbourne casino. Crown, controlled by billionaire James Packer, has said it wants to open a VIP casino in Sydney as part of a A$1 billion six-star hotel and residential waterfront development,…

In North America, Tribal online gambling is being considered. After all, the online gambling industry is full of start up operations which are in some instances breaking new ground in the field of internet wagering. Now, Native American operators are secure in their traditional methods of offering punters the best there is. Canada has many Tribal Casinos which have recently been attempting quite successfully to offer an internet version of the usual casinos games and poker rooms. Bernard Shepherd who is the former Chief of the Wapi Muskwa Nation, is a well known personality in the establishment of Canadian Tribal…

Many card players say time flies during the annual World Series of Poker. The world’s best poker minds wait all year for the 62-event, 48-day series only to feel like it ends right after the first “shuffle up and deal” command. This summer’s WSOP is no different, running as fast as an electronic shuffle machine through three-and-a-half weeks. More than half of the championship bracelets have already been handed out, and today marks the official midway point with 24 sessions officially completed. Three-and-a-half short weeks from now, a new Main Event final table of nine players will be the talk…

From My Central Jersey The PokerStars website entered into a contract to buy an Atlantic City casino with “their eyes wide open,” and now has to live with the consequences of the failed deal, the casino said in court papers. The Rational Group, the Isle of Man-based parent company of PokerStars, struck a deal in December to buy the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel. But the agreement stated that either side could cancel the transaction if The Rational Group did not get preliminary ownership approval from New Jersey casino regulators by a certain date. When that April 26 date passed, the…

From iGaming Business Despite months of protest from union leaders and Democrat legislators, the new Northstar New Jersey Lottery Group joint venture has signed a 15-year contract to supply the New Jersey Lottery with marketing and sales services. A joint venture between American lottery technology provider Scientific Games Corporation and GTECH Corporation in partnership with OSI LTT NJ Holdings Incorporated, Northstar New Jersey has paid the eastern state $120 million up front as part of the agreement, which is set to begin from October 1. According to a report from The Star-Ledger newspaper, the New Jersey Lottery is the state’s…

From USA Today It keeps getting better for Queen Elizabeth II: Her horse won an historic Gold Cup race at Ascot today, the first time in the two centuries of the race it has been won by a reigning monarch. The horse-loving queen, widely respected as an expert on horse breeding and racing, appeared to be delighted as she accepted the Gold Cup after her horse, Estimate, romped to victory at Royal Ascot, the annual five-day horse-racing extravaganza that brings out brightly-plumed royals and toffs alongside ordinary punters. “One has won!” exclaimed the cheeky Daily Mail headline. The BBC, ever…

From Reuters Like many visitors to the Casino Royale Goa on a rainy Saturday night on India’s western coast, Salim Budhwani said he does not gamble but also had no objection to the betting at the busy tables downstairs. Despite socially conservative India’s ambivalence about gambling, consultancy firm KPMG estimated that $60 billion was wagered in the country in 2010. Much of the gambling is illegal, but attitudes are slowly changing as more Asian countries embrace gaming as a revenue generator and tourist draw. Legal gambling in the increasingly wealthy country of 1.2 billion is limited to state lotteries, horse…

From iGaming Business Global gaming supplier SHFL Entertainment Incorporated has announced that some of its most popular proprietary table games have been integrated onto the GameAccount Network online platform and are now taking real-money bets. Las Vegas-based SHFL Entertainment signed an agreement with GameAccount Global Limited in early-February to offer online versions of its Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’Em and Fortune Pai Gow Poker to iGaming operators in the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain via the GameAccount Network and has since been waiting on the necessary regulatory approvals. “The go-live of our online games is a significant milestone for…