NEWS & NOTES

The Canadian Senate has shelved the private member bill C-290, which sought to allow individuals to wager on individual sporting events, as opposed to only 3+ team parlays, which is the current law. The bill passed the House of Commons unanimously in 2012. The Senate has adjourned for the summer.  •  Four Pedestrian Bridges on the Las Vegas Strip will be renovated, according to the Nevada Transportation Department. The $26 million upgrade will give tourists easier access as they cross the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.  •  FireKeepers Casino officials have confirmed a computer security breach in which 85,000 transactions between September 2014 and April 2015 were exposed. The exposure is said to have leaked sensitive information about employees and certain customers.  •  Station Casinos has opened its first Northern Nevada sports book, at Baldini’s Casino in Sparks. The remodeled sports book will be linked up with Station Casinos other 16 sports books.  •  Gun Lake Casino in Grand Rapids, Michigan has won another court battle against former Wayland Township trustee David Patchak. Patchak has been fighting the casino in court since 2008 claiming Secretary of the Interior did not have legal authority to grant the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians to build a casino.  •  Twin Rivers Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island, will open the first live poker room in the state in August. According to John Taylor, chairman of Twin River Casino, they will add 28 new table games, including the 16 poker tables in the non-smoking section of the casino, which has 4,500 slot machines. The voters approved table games at the casino in 2012. Ever since that time there has been support for adding a poker room. According to Taylor, “An important part of our business philosophy has been to listen to what our customers want, and the addition of a poker room is one of most often heard requests. We’re thrilled to increase the number of table games we currently offer, which also means we will expand our workforce once again.”  •  U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Save the Valley LLC against the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in Central California that alleged that the tribe’s expansion of a hotel is occurring on land that was never legally part of a reservation. The 12-story hotel is part of Chumash Casino Resort. The judge ruled that he lacked jurisdiction in the case since it was filed not against the federal government, but against the tribe itself. A tribe, having sovereign immunity, cannot be sued unless it consents to it, he ruled. This is the second lawsuit by Save the Valley to be dismissed in federal court.  •  ThistleDown Racino in North Randall, Ohio, is releasing renderings this week that show what the facility will look like after the $70 million renovation is completed. This includes a 1,000 space parking structure that will lead directly to the casino floor, a 150 seat eatery that will combine steaks, seafood and pasta, and an 800-square-foot entertainment area. The racino, owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment, also plans to add 250 video lottery terminals to be deployed in a High Limit area and VIP lounge.  •  North Dakota’s Three Affiliated Tribes have announced plans to expand their 4 Bears Casino near New Town, including the addition of a grand ballroom, slots room and 85,000 square foot events center able to accommodate 4,000 people. The existing events center will be repurposed as the multipurpose ballroom, which will have flat screen TVs, chandeliers and seating for 400. The new events center will enable the casino to book more upscale concerts. The entire project is looking at a July 2016 completion.  •  Slot and system supplier International Game Technology announced that it has signed an agreement with Finnish lottery operator Veikkaus Oy to deliver an enhanced Player Services e-commerce solution, while also extending the support and service it provides to Veikkaus’ current Internet and mobile platform until 2018. The Player Services e-commerce solution provides Veikkaus with the ability to take one-to-one marketing capabilities to a new level, giving Veikkaus full access to all player data from all channels, including retail, interactive and mobile, in real time.  •  Sports-betting operator NetBet announced it has restarted its activities in Romania after a 12-month break following its advance payment of all penalty, licensing and authorization taxes and guarantees to the Romanian government. The group did not reveal the amount it paid in retroactive taxes, but said it had received a temporary license from Romania’s Supervising Committee of the National Gambling Office that will run until December 31, during which time NetBet will prepare its application for a 10-year license.  •  Maryland casinos reported a 5 percent drop in revenue in June to $91.4 million, although the Horseshoe Casino Baltimore took in $23.1 million from slot machines and table games, a 5 percent jump from May and highest revenue since March. The casino was one of several Baltimore attractions that reported drops in business after the late April unrest following the death of Freddie Gray, 25, who died from a severe spinal cord injury sustained in police custody. By comparison, slot and table revenues at the Maryland Live Casino in Anne Arundel County dropped 8 percent since May.  •  Innovative Technology announced that its range of banknote validators has received independent certification from the European Central Bank (ECB). Innovative Technology’s banknote validators have received ECB approval for their ability to recognize genuine and counterfeit euro banknotes. It’s NV9 USB+, NV10 USB and NV200 banknote validators were tested at De Nederlandsche Bank in Amsterdam and all achieved 100 percent in the test.