Bloomberg – Japan legislators plan to present a bill to legalize casinos as early as this year as companies including Wynn Resorts Ltd. mull billions of dollars in investment in what could be the world’s second-biggest gaming market. Hiroyuki Hosoda, the chairman of a cross-party group of lawmakers promoting casino development in Japan, said yesterday that the group aims to submit a casino bill to the next diet session that is expected to start next month. It aims to pass the bill next year in the following session of parliament, he said. Wynn Resorts yesterday said it will consider investing…

For the first time since it’s inception in 2002 the WPT Championship $25,000 event will not be played at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The event will now be held at the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey in May, 2014 with PartyPoker as the official sponsor. The move was announced during day 2 of the WPT Borgata Poker Open main event, a $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament that drew 1,189 entries to build a total prize pool of just over $3.8 million, surpassing the $3,540,500 prizepool of last year’s WPT Championship by more than a quarter million dollars. WPT President…

Reuters – Madrid put pressure on Spain’s central government on Thursday to push ahead with a mega gambling resort outside the capital after delays caused by U.S. casino operator Las Vegas Sands seeking exemption from a national smoking ban as a condition of a deal. Madrid desperately wants the Eurovegas resort – slated to include six casinos, 12 hotels and shops – to be built in the region to create employment in a country with one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe. “We must do everything in our power to prevent a deal like Eurovegas slipping through our fingers,”…

Associated Press – It’s not often you can use the word “dry” to describe a Las Vegas landmark, but tourists hoping to cruise along the Venetian hotel-casino’s indoor canals are finding them tapped out. The waterways were emptied for repainting earlier this month for the first time since the casino opened in 1999. When they reopen in mid-October, the water will once again appear to sparkle below the hotel’s trompe-l’oeil sky. On Thursday, piped-in Italian music echoed off cement mixers and construction tools strewn around the bottom of the canals that meander through the hotel’s shopping mall. Tourists leaned over…

In celebration of its 20th anniversary Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas is offering the fans a rare glimpse behind the curtain with the return of its Cirque Week series of events. The fourth year of the annual celebration will run from November 9-16, during which each of the Strip’s eight resident shows will host a series of events ranging from backstage access, performance classes, ticket packages and more. Options include a live fire demonstration from the inferno acts of “O,” choreography lessons from “Michael Jackson One” and an up-close look at the intricate Thierry Mugler costumes from “Zumanity.” Customizable ticket…

The East Coast gambling hotspot of Atlantic City, N.J., is not likely to give its desert rival Las Vegas a run for its money anytime soon, Caesars Entertainment Chairman and CEO Gary Loveman told CNBC on Thursday. “There are two offsetting forces at the moment,” Loveman said in a “Squawk Box” interview. “The business has been contracting over the last few years as a result of so much new competition. [And] it makes it hard for people to invest in that market.” The American Gaming Association said that gambling revenues in Atlantic City totaled $3 billion last year—down 42 percent…