NEWS & NOTES

Penn National Gaming has posted 100 new job openings for its Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course, the last racetrack casino to open under Pennsylvania’s gaming law. Ninety percent of the people to be hired will be local residents, according to the company. The new positions are for food and beverage, facilities and environmental service workers; database-marketing employees; video-lottery terminal attendants and technicians; and employees in security and the count room. The racino is slated to open this fall.  •  While slot revenues are down in Pennsylvania, table game revenue continues to rise. Thanks in part to a record year by the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, the state’s 12 casinos took in  $731.8 million at table games in the fiscal year that ended June 30, a 2.6 percent increase over the previous year. Sands alone took in $177 million, a 7.2 percent increase over the previous year, well more than Parx Casino in Bensalem, which came in second at $123 million.  •  Bulgaria-based slot manufacturer Euro Games Technology has increased its presence in Slovenia with installations in in the Parlor Princess Casino, Casino Tivoli, Casino Riviera and the Casino Portorose. “The simultaneous installations in four of Slovenia’s most popular casinos have been a real success for EGT,” sources of the firm said. The additions mark the first installation in Slovenia of EGT’s new Premier upright cabinet P-24/24.  •  A racehorse owned by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II that won the prestigious Gold Cup at Royal Ascot last year has tested positive for the banned painkiller morphine. The British Horseracing Authority announced last week that tests on five horses under the care of various trainers showed the presence of morphine in their samples. The queen’s five-year-old filly Estimate was one of the five. Buckingham Palace said that early indications suggest that Estimate consumed the substance as a result of contaminated feed.  •  Lottery supplier Intralot announced that is extending its contract with the District of Columbia. The extension provides that Intralot will continue to offer the DC Lottery its Lotos O/S On-line Gaming and Instant Ticket Management Computer System. This includes its terminals, peripheral devices and a communications network that links retailer terminals across the district to the central system.  •  Bally Technologies is suing a developer of software applications for infringing patents covering card playing. In a complaint filed July 21 in federal court in Los Angeles, Bally said the developer has created apps that infringe patents covering its table game Three Card Poker and a method and apparatus for playing card games. The target of the suit is Carey Richardson, a producer of simulated casino gambling table card-game apps that the developer sells through Apple Inc.’s iTunes store and through its own website. Apple isn’t a party to the suit.   •  Open a bottle of booze in public at the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas, and your drink may be confiscated by police. Las Vegas City Council enacted the measure to limit out-of-control alcohol consumption in the Downtown’s main tourist area. Drinks bought by the glass are still OK to consume outside.  ?  The Downtown Project in Las Vegas is refurbishing the former Fremont Market & Deli into a 6,000-square-foot “urban grocery” to be called the Market. The “concept grocery store,” which has been compared to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, will be located across from the El Cortez and near Container Park.  ?  Hot August Nights at Lake Tahoe kicked off its 28th year last Friday. Organizers expected 6,000 registered classic car owners to bring their rides to Truckee Meadows. The giant event also included lots of classic music, including Herman’s Hermits; Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers; and a number of tribute bands that bring the sounds of Chicago, Motown, Tina Turner and others.  ?  ASX-listed Donaco, operator of a China-facing casino in northern Vietnam, is buying back 37.2 million shares, or about 8 percent of the total issued share capital. The purchases are expected to begin August 6 at a price no higher than 5 percent above the average closing price of the prior five days, the company said.  •  The Philippines’ PhilWeb Corp. reported an 18 percent drop in profit in the second quarter to PHP431.5 million (US$9.97 million). The company attributed the year-on-year decline to lower equity earnings and higher interest expense. Total revenues were up 8 percent to PHP804.9 million ($18.6 million). PhilWeb supplies software and technical support to some 299 e-Games cafes run by government regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.  •  Eight of Macau’s 35 casinos accounted for 75.3 percent of gaming revenue in the first half, according to a report in Portuguese-language daily Jornal Tribuna de Macau. The eight were: Galaxy Macau, Wynn Macau, City of Dreams, MGM Macau, The Venetian Macao, Grand Lisboa, Sands Cotai Central and StarWorld. Together they took in MOP145.4 billion (US$18.21 billion).  •  An unconfirmed news report said Genting Group might be one of three bidders joining with Veremonte for in pursuit of three of the six casinos the government of Catalonia has authorized as part of a mixed-use resort complex called BCN World near Barcelona. The deadline for the bids was July 25.  •  The UK Gambling Commission has extended a deadline for online gaming operators to apply for licenses as part of new regulations requiring companies taking bets in the country to obtain licenses.  •  The Singapore government said combined receipts from entertainment and gaming rose 19 percent in the quarter ended March 31, boosting tourism revenue by 5 percent year on year to S$6 billion (US$4.8 billion), despite a zero increase in visitor numbers. The government is looking to increase annual tourism to 17 million arrivals by 2015 and double annual receipts from 2008 to S$30 billion.  •  Australia’s Crown Resorts and the family of Chairman and controlling shareholder James Packer have established a National Philanthropic Foundation that will donate A$200 million to arts organizations and other charities nationwide over the next 10 years.  •  The Philippines’ Premiere Horizon Alliance Corp. has sold Total Gamezone Xtreme, an Internet café-based casino games business in the country, for PHP620 million (US$14.3 million). The buyer, Leisure & Resorts World, is a holding company that owns a majority stake in First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corp., the country’s offshore gaming licensor, and has a share of the City of Dreams Manila gaming resort slated to open in the capital this fall.  •  The dilapidated Kings Inn, an eyesore in down
town Reno, Nevada has been sold to a Las Vegas developer. The buyer is Amador “Chi Chi” Bengochea of Bentar Development, a Las Vegas general contracting firm that has built a number of restaurants, truck stops, retail and office centers throughout Southern Nevada. The inn has been closed since 1986.  ?  A committee in Batavia, New York has voted to draft an ordinance that would permit video gaming in the city. The Batavia Veterans of Foreign Wars requested the change, and Police Chief Gary Schira said in a report that of several towns surveyed, “none have seen an increase in police calls for service or crime at these establishments.” •  The workers of the Graton Resort & Casino in Northern California voted last week to join Unite Here Local 2860. The union will represent 600 casino janitors, gaming employees and restaurant employees. Over 70 of those eligible to vote cast their ballots for the union.  •  Fantasy Springs Resort & Casino in Southern California’s Coachella Valley has partnered with Maya Cinemas to open a 16-screen multi-cinema a year from now. The complex will also have retail shopping space. The 72-foot screens will be the largest in Riverside County. The seats will be extra wide and the theaters will have a cutting edge sound system.  •  The Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana council has asked three tribes, the United Housma Nation, the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw and the Pointe-au-Chien to cooperate in presenting documents so that the council can present a united front in asking the federal government to recognize all three. According to councilman Danny Babin, “We don’t want to see division. Division can only hurt you. Together we can all be strong.” The Houma Nation applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for recognition in 1979. The parish council hopes to do something to change that impasse. The Houma nation first contacted Europeans in 1699. It includes some 17,000 members and encompasses several parishes.  •  The National Indian Gaming Commission reported that Indian gaming collected $28 billion in revenues last year, about a one half percent increase. Nevertheless, the industry has been growing for the past four years, according to NIGC Vice Chairman Jonodev Chaudhuri. “This stable, positive trajectory underscores the ongoing significance of Indian gaming to larger tribal nation building and self-determination efforts,” said the official. This is the first time that Indian gaming has reached the $28 billion mark. Tribes in Oklahoma and Texas recorded the biggest increases.