NEWS & NOTES

Revenue from mobile gaming will reach $11.4 billion in 2014, up from US$5.6 billion in 2009, according to Statista, a statistics company based in New York. The rise is tied to greater use of smartphones and other mobile devices and new companies offering new and better mobile games as technology increases.  •  SLS on the Las Vegas Strip, which is set to open Labor Day, is conducting a job fair for military veterans.  The resort, owned by SBE Entertainment of Los Angeles, has received more than 90,000 job applications. About 1,400 jobs have already been filled, and there are about 1,800 still available. The veterans are applying for a wide variety of positions like front desk, security and hospitality, the company said.  ?  Saratoga Springs, NY, City Council held a public meeting last week to discuss a proposed expansion of the Saratoga Casino and Raceway. The $30 million plan would add a five-story, 120 room hotel, as well as an event center. The expansion originally was tied to the development of a Vegas-style casino on the site, but local opposition forced racino officials to look outside the immediate community, to Newburgh, Orange County to develop a casino.  ?  Delta Airlines has added five new daily flights between Seattle and Las Vegas to connect with flights to Seattle from China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority hopes Japanese and Chinese air carriers will consider nonstop flights to McCarran International Airport. Asia is recognized as the market with the greatest growth potential with millions of middle-class Chinese tourists capable of traveling overseas.  ?  The Nevada Supreme Court has reversed the decision to award $6.6 million to a man who suffered a knee injury at the Palms in Las Vegas in 2004. Enrique Rodriguez sustained the injury during Monday Night Football, when Palms employees tossed water bottles into the crowd and a patron ran into him. An expert said activity was “commonly engaged in and safe” and “that Rodriguez’s injury was not foreseeable.”  ?  Therock group KISS is planning a residency at the Joint at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. The monochromatic quartet led by Gene Simmons will kick off their act Vegas this fall for an extended, following other rockers including Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard and Motley Crue.  ?  Success Universe Group, 49 percent owner of Macau’s Ponte 16 casino hotel, resort in Macau, plans to sell its 55 percent interest in the gambling cruise ship M.V. Macau Success. The company said it is negotiating with an independent third party interested in the boat, which also contains 200 guest rooms. The Macau Success generated a 4 percent increase in turnover last year to HK$84 million and recorded a profit of approximately $500,000, the company said.  •  Sweden’s Betradar has partnered with Britain’s Coral on the launch of its Live Channel real-time streaming platform in Coral’s UK betting shops. Live Channel combines live odds, live statistics and live pictures from sporting events around the world on a single screen. Coral has deployed it in more than 100 shops across the country and plans to increase that to 1,000 shops within 12 months. Live Channel currently operates in nearly 1,000 locations shops across Europe and has expanded recently into the African market, Betradar said.  •  About 1,000 employees at Ohio’s Horseshoe Casino Cleveland last week voted to ratify a contract that gives them a 9.6 percent increase over the next five years, plus an arbitration process, sign-up bonuses and experience pay. The workers are part of the Cleveland Cincinnati Ohio Casino Workers Council (CCOCWC), which spent 18 months negotiating this first contract with the casino, which opened in May of 2012, and was Ohio’s first casino resort.  •  The Lytton Band of Pomo Indians in California, operators of San Pablo Lytton Casino have announced a policy of diversification of financial assets. They plan to deposit $10 million in four banks in the Bay Area. According to Larry Stidham, tribal general counsel, “We wanted to look at ways of putting more money into local institutions. We want to let the local banking community know we’re here.”  •  The city of Glendale, Arizona, which has fought the Tohono O’Odham Nation’s proposal to build a casino adjacent to the city in nearly every court venue possible—and lost in most of them, is trying a different approach. It has asked the tribe for $766,000 in grants for libraries, two police vehicles, mobile police computers and equipment for paramedics. The tribe really doesn’t have a choice about giving the city some money, since payments are called for under the revenue sharing provision of Proposition 202 that the state’s voters approved in 2002.  •  Attorneys for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Idaho and the state of Idaho made oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill last week in the case where the state is trying to shut down the tribe’s poker room, which it opened on May 2. The state has asked for a temporary restraining order while the case is adjudicated. It argues that all poker is illegal by state constitution and statute. The tribe claims that poker is a game of skill, like golf, and no subject to gambling laws.  •  Ten months after filing a lawsuit seeking federal recognition, the Mishewal Wappo Tribe, based in Napa Valley, is still waiting to hear back from the judge. The tribe’s application is opposed by local officials who fear that if granted recognition that the tribe will begin planning a casino in California’s wine country.  Federal judges work without deadlines and have been known to take as long as two years or more to resolve a case.  The tribe, which lost recognition in the 1950s, claims that it is not necessarily seeking to build a casino, although that is not off the table.  •  Internet gaming website Sportsbet is in hot water with Christians in Australia after its 46-meter inflatable Jesus floated across the skies of Melbourne. The stunt was meant to support the Australian football team with the slogan “Keep the Faith,” as a Sportsbet spokesman said the team needs some “divine intervention to progress in the World Cup.” The chair of the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce, Rev. Tim Costello, was not amused by the balloon replica of Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue, condemning the sports site for the promotion. “There seems to be no corporate or civic responsibility to say, ‘Hang on, is nothing sacred?” Costello told ABC. The World Cup began last week.  •  The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today announced that it will hold a public hearing on Thursday, July 17 to gather evidence, including public comment, on the renewal of the casino license of Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, LLC., operator of Parx Casino at Philadelphia Park.  Citizens, community groups and elected officials wishing to present oral o
r written testimony, which will become part of the evidentiary record, can now register by clicking on a special link on the Quick Links section of the homepage on the PGCB website, www.gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov. The deadline for registration to speak at the hearing is noon on Wednesday, July 16.