NEWS & NOTES

A new interactive gaming venue called Re:Match has debuted at The Linq casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The attraction features hologram and virtual reality competitions, including e-sports, along with high-tech casino games, a bar and live entertainment. • Henry Cheng, the chairman of Hong Kong conglomerate Chow Tai Fook, has stepped down as a non-executive director of SJM Holdings, the Hong Kong-listed parent company of Macau casino operator Sociedade de Jogos de Macau. He will be succeeded by Chow Tai Fook CEO Patrick Tsang, SJM said. Also leaving the board as an independent director is David Lan, who is being replaced by Marina Wong, a director of Hong Kong Ferry (Holdings) Company and several other Hong Kong-based commercial interests. • Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has signed a bill into law requiring casinos to file annual emergency response plans with the state. The law, which stipulates fines and other penalties for violators, also requires casinos to detail their plans for responding to cybersecurity attacks. • Las Vegas will host a new outdoor event called the Metarama Gaming + Music Festival on October 19 and 20 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds near Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue. Co-producers C3 Presents, the group behind Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and other music festivals, and Esports Hospitality Concepts, say the gathering will aim to combine live music with video gaming and e-sports competitions, comedy and cosplay in an all-ages environment. • Shoshone Rose Casino and Hotel in Wyoming will be making changes, including employee layoffs, due to financial problems. Eastern Shoshone Tribal officials said up to 20 employees will be let go. Table games will end. Shuttle buses will discontinue. The banquet department will be dissolved and the casino will close overnight Sunday–Thursday. The changes followed hiring a gaming consultant who reviewed the casino’s operations. • Casino del Sol last week completed the Sunset Room at Casino of the Sun and an expansion of the conference center at Casino Del Sol, the first phase of a hospitality project involving the sister properties. The Sunset Room can accommodate up to 750 guests and is ideal for wedding receptions, corporate meeting and other events. The conference center added 9,600 square feet for a second ballroom and more breakout rooms. It can now host more than 3,000 guests. The expansion also includes a 90-space RV park that will open later this month, and a 151-room hotel that will open in November. • Snoqualmie Casino in Washington state has launched a continuous employee shuttle to promote safety on a seven-mile stretch of SR 18 between the town of Covington and the casino, which is considered especially hazardous. It began the service on June 10. The casino decided to launch the shuttle after two casino employees, a mother and daughter, died in a car accident last fall. Four other employees have been injured since 2010 on the same stretch of road. • The Oxford, Maine Board of Selectmen last week tabled consideration of a liquor license for the Oxford Casino. The board asked officials for the casino to attend the June 20 meeting to discuss the large number of calls for intoxicated individuals the Oxford police have answered in recent months. Police answered 61 such calls to the casino in 2018. Gaming operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment has added a third airplane to its corporate fleet. The $80 million Airbus A330 was purchased to take VIP gamblers to the company’s properties in Macau, the Philippines and Cyprus. ● Thirty-one people were recently charged with illegal gambling in central Singapore after a five-day sting. In a series of raids, police seized 13 computers and cash amounting to over $9,500.