Reuters – It’s being touted as China’s answer to Orlando, a $5 billion resort and theme park complete with a mega rollercoaster and a whale shark tank situated on a sleepy southern island next to the world’s biggest gambling hub Macau. Chimelong, which is set to partially open next month, is the linchpin of China’s ambitious plans to expand Hengqin into a leisure hub similar to the coastal U.S. city globally renowned for its natural attractions and theme-park resorts by Walt Disney Co and Universal Studios. And while some extravagant infrastructure projects in China have turned into white elephants, the…

iGaming Business – Delaware’s State Lottery Office has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) through the Department of Finance to appoint a law firm to act as an iGaming counsel for the US state’s lottery. The Delaware Lottery said it intends to select one or more experienced iGaming counsels to provide legal advice in connection with the Delaware Gaming Competitiveness Act of 2012. Under the act, Delaware is permitted to offer iGaming services. The state said that the lottery’s mission is to deliver secure lottery services in order to maximise revenue contributions to the state’s general fund with the goal…

iGaming Business – A consortium of UK National Lottery operator Camelot and An Post, the state-owned provider of postal services in Ireland, has been named as the preferred bidder for the licence to run the Irish National Lottery under a new 20-year contract reported to be worth €405 million ($542.7 million). According to The Irish Times newspaper, the bid was submitted through the Premier Lotteries Ireland Consortium comprising An Post, its pension funds and Camelot’s parent company, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. One of the significant features of the new agreement is that the licensee will have greater flexibility to…

Reuters – Japan would establish an independent gaming regulator modelled on the authorities that police casinos in Las Vegas and Singapore under a draft plan to legalise gambling in a market seen as potentially the second-largest in the world. The policy outline, which was prepared by Japanese lawmakers who favour casinos and reviewed by Reuters, outlines broad standards for licensing and regulating casino operators and their partners. After more than a decade of lobbying by lawmakers, a bill to legalise casino gambling is seen as having a good chance of passing in the coming months with the business-friendly Liberal Democratic…

Reuters – Opponents of an American Indian casino planned to be built in California away from tribal lands have collected what they say is enough signatures for a 2014 referendum to challenge the governor and the legislature’s approval of the gambling hall. If the measure qualifies for the ballot, it will likely set off a multimillion-dollar battle over the location of tribal gaming casinos in the nation’s most populous state. California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and the state legislature have approved an agreement for the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians to partner with Station Casinos of Las Vegas…

Pokerati – Some people in Congress believe American Indians struck it rich with the establishment of tribal gaming and the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in the late 1980s. But serious problems with education, health care, unemployment and housing remain. Tribes are also dealing with the effect of Internet gaming on their business, off-reservation casinos and political gridlock in Washington, D.C. “They’ve been very busy in Washington this year,” John Gusik, founding partner of the Franklin Partnership, a Washington, D.C., law and government relations services firm, said Thursday at the Global Gaming Expo. He was moderating a panel…