NEWS & NOTES

The Chinese government, through an academic arm of the State Council, has proposed extending the Labor Day holidays on the mainland to seven days from the three days currently in force. The same group also has proposed making the Lunar New Year holidays longer than one week. The changes would add two to six more public holidays on the mainland and are aimed at boosting travel-related receipts. The National Tourism Administration reports that more than 97.3 million mainlanders traveled last year, 16.8 percent more than a year earlier. The agency’s target for this year is 110 million.  •  The prize limit for Britain’s low-stakes pub machines has been increased from £70 to £100. The move has been welcomed by the British Beer and Pub Association, which campaigned for the change to maintain machines as an important source of revenue for pubs.  •  The former New Century Hotel on Macau’s island of Taipa, has been renamed Imperial Palace. The hotel was the subject of a court-ordered seizure last month for unpaid debts. The hotel contains Greek Mythology Casino, which operates as a sub-licensee of gaming concessionaire SJM.  •  Singapore recorded 3.9 million international visitor arrivals in the second quarter of 2013, a 10 percent increase over the same period in 2012. The results released by the Singapore Tourism Board show tourism receipts increased year on year by 2 percent to S$5.6 billion. The growth was driven mainly by a 16 percent increase in leisure visitors, whose spending, not counting gaming, rose by 11 percent.  •  The Forum in Inglewood, California, former home of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Caesars Entertainment Inc. have announced a marketing and branding partnership as the Forum reopens this month following its extensive rebranding and reinvention primarily as a music and entertainment venue. Members of Caesars’s Total Rewards program will be able to receive free tickets to Forum events and the gaming giant will also have a 4,000 square foot hospitality square.  •  Both of Maine’s slots parlors, Penn National’s Hollywood Bangor Casino and the Oxford Casino, owned by Churchill Downs oppose a gaming expansion bill now before the legislature that would allow racetrack Scarborough Downs to add slot machines. The general managers of both slot parlors spoke to lawmakers last week, saying that the additional machines would hurt their business. However, the racetrack is expected to fight hard for the machines since its current business model is not successful without them.  •  The Navajo Nation council, which is expected to remove its council speaker Johnny Naize soon, has already determined a method for choosing his replacement. Naize has been charged with seven counts of bribery and conspiracy by the tribe’s special prosecutor.  •  A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt construction of Horseshoe Baltimore. The judge held that the plaintiff in the case, a Baltimore resident who alleged the construction was polluting the city’s harbor, lacked legal standing to bring the case. Local resident Mark E. Richardson and another man filed the suit in July, accusing the city of violating the federal Clean Water Act by allowing construction to leak toxic chemicals into the Patapsco River.  •  The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board voted to allow two schools and a synagogue near the proposed Provence casino in Philadelphia to submit limited comments describing their objections to the project, and permitted the SugarHouse casino to submit arguments against the issuance of a second casino license in the city. The board was responding to two separate petitions to intervene in the selection process for the Philadelphia license. The board limited comment from the school and church groups to issues related to traffic and parking, and not security of moral issues. For SugarHouse, comments must be limited to the potential impact of a second casino on the Philadelphia gaming market. Written arguments were required by the end of last week.  •   Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director Jon Matonis will speak at February’s ICE Totally Gaming trade show at a special seminar dedicated to the “Bitcoin phenomenon” and use of virtual currency in online gaming applications. The seminar, sponsored by SoftSwiss is on Tuesday, February 4, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.. For more information, visit icetotallygaming.com.  •  Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism reported 386,737 visitors in November, a 16 percent increase over the same month in 2012. Year to date, arrivals have increased 18 percent to 3.8 million, with Vietnamese accounting for 20.7 percent, the largest share, followed by Chinese and Koreans, whose numbers have increased by 40 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.  •  Irish bookmaker Paddy Power is under fire from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs for a series of gifts it gave to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in December by its spokesman, Rory Scott. The birthday gifts, which included Irish whiskey, a traditional baby dress, an Italian suit and an English Mulberry handbag for Kim’s wife, were presented to the dictator during the event that culminated in an exhibition basketball game arranged by former NBA star Dennis Rodman. Irish officials claim the gifts violated U.N. and E.U. sanctions against North Korea.  •  Macau VIP gaming investor Neptune Group is buying the right to 5 percent of the earnings of junket operator Ocean Star Entertainment. Neptune will pay HK$208.3 million (US$26.9 million) for the cut. Ocean Star Entertainment runs an 11-table VIP club in City of Dreams on the Cotai Strip. The room turns over an estimated HK$6.43 billion in rolling chips a month.  •  Copag, the leading manufacturer of playing cards in Latin America, will exhibit at the ICE Totally Gaming trade show in London for the first time this year. The company, which has been certified with ISO 9001 for over 15 years and is also certified with ISO 14000 (Environment) and SA 8000 (Social Responsibility), will distribute its high-quality playing cards at stand S14-214.  •  The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board fined Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack in Chester $90,000 for violating casino credit processes and underage gaming laws. The fine resulted from two consent agreements between the board’s Office of Enforcement and the casino license holder, Caesars Entertainment. The lion’s share of the fine, $70,000, was issued due to Harrah’s violations of casino credit issuance procedures.  •  CG Technology, the gambling subsidiary of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald LP, will pay the largest fine in Nevada history to settle an 18-count complaint that the company or its CEO should have known one of its top executives was accepting illegal bets. The Las Vegas-based bookmaker will pay a record $5.5 million fine under an agreement reached with the Nevada Gaming Control Board, according to the stipulated settlement released last wee
k.  •  Golden Gaming’s tavern subsidiary, PT’s Entertainment Group, has opened three new PT’s locations in Southern Nevada, giving the company a total of 45 such operations in the state. Las Vegas-based Golden also operates Nevada’s largest statewide slot machine route operation with roughly 8,000 total slot machines in more than 700 locations.  ?  Hospitailty company Hakkasan Ltd., which operates Hakkasan Las Vegas at the MGM Grand, has taken majority ownership of Enlightened Hospitality Group of San Diego.  ?  As part of its ongoing energy-saving program, Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in south Reno has installed two complimentary car-charging stations for public use. Harrah’s in downtown Reno and Lake Tahoe and Harvey’s at Lake Tahoe also offer car charging stations.  ?  The world’s largest LED screen, at the Harmon Retail Center in Las Vegas,  has earned a break on property taxes due to an eco-friendly upgrade, which reduces the sign’s water and electricity use by 31 percent and 12 percent, respectively. The 65-feet-tall by 320-feet-long screen got the property tax incentive from the Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy.