NEWS & NOTES

The Nevada Gaming Commission has unanimously approved Novomatic AG for licensing that allows the Austria-based slot giant to purchase a controlling interest in slot-maker Ainsworth Game Technology. Ainsworth, based in Australia, operates in the U.S. from a Las Vegas headquarters opened last year. • Sands China signed a new occupational health and safety charter at Sands Cotai Central recently as part of efforts to improve its work environment. More than 66,000 employees participated in a series of occupational safety and health training courses organized with the Labor Affairs Bureau. ? The total non-gaming spend by visitors to Macau increased 8.8 percent year-on-year, according to official data. Shopping accounted for 46.4 of visitor budgets, while accommodations made up 26.7% and food and beverage 19.3 percent. ? The hotel at Macau’s remodeled Jai Alai casino complex opened November 15 in time for the Macau Grand Prix, held November 16-19. The casino opened in December 2016, followed by the shops of JA Avenue, which opened in April this year. • Billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison has gained U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval to purchase Lake Tahoe’s Cal Neva Lodge & Casino for $35.8 million. The resort, best-known as a playground for the rich and famous when Frank Sinatra owned it in the early 1960s, has been closed since 2013 when an ownership group failed to obtain financing to remodel it. The property entered Bankruptcy Court protection in 2016. ? Starting in 2018, Macau casinos will take part in a “large-scale, joint contingency drill” to test their emergency preparedness. Judiciary Police and regulators met the six casino operators earlier this year to discuss attacks on a casino in Manila in June and one in Las Vegas in October. ? Clark County has granted the Las Vegas Monorail Co. permission to extend the route from MGM Grand to Mandalay Bay. The one-mile extension is expected to take two years to complete, pending the finalization of design plans, rights of way and financing. Total cost is estimated at $100 million. • Slot World Casino in the Nevada capital of Carson City reopened November 21 with a new bar, a sports book, a restaurant and a new gaming floor featuring 320 slots. • The Nevada Gaming Commission has granted manufacturing and distribution licenses to two subsidiaries of Tokyo-based video gaming developer Sega Sammy: Sega Sammy Holdings and Sega Sammy Creation. • Allegiant Airlines has launched twice-weekly non-stop flights to Las Vegas from Ogden, Utah. • California’s Chemehuevi Tribe of Lake Havasu has broken ground on a 25,000-square foot casino with 320 slot machines and tables, dining and a marina. It will complement the existing Havasu Landing Resort and Casino. It will also include a 48-room hotel. The casino is scheduled for a spring of 2019 opening, according to the News-Herald. Tribal Chairman Dennis Patch said the goal was not economic development. “We’re looking for economic independence.” • The Gujarat High Court has dismissed a petition by Samir Patel to be allowed to offer poker and rummy at a club in the Indian state. He had asked the court to issue a “no objection certificate” for a poker room, claiming such games are games of skill, not gambling. The court dismissed the petition because a separate branch of the high court is reviewing the legality of such games at the behest of the Indian Poker Association, and other gaming entities. It is expected to deliver a judgment later this month. • The government of the Hellenic Republic of Greece will reportedly soon pass several gaming amendments to make its gaming market more attractive to operators, such as reducing a “turnover tax” that is now as high as 37 percent and eliminating an “entrance fee” patrons pay at the door. The Syriza government is shelving other reforms it was considering. It wants to expand casino gaming to the islands of Crete and Mykonos and to amend its existing monopoly contracts with the gaming firm OPAP—also to encourage more outside participation. • The New Hampshire Lottery could introduce Keno in select locations just in time for Christmas. As many as 100, according to Lottery spokesman Charlie McIntyre. Some tavern operators expect the new games to increase business by attracting new patrons. The electronic bingo games were funnel profits into full-day kindergarten, possibly as much as $5 million the first year.