Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in central Pennsylvania is preparing to unveil a renovated entertainment space. Formerly known as Hollywood on the Roof (it’s not actually on a roof), the new H Lounge will host a variety of public and private events. The casino add more space to the room by eliminating the former cityscape-adorned walls, and a giant dome-like screen that displayed grainy videos was also removed. Now, a 28 foot-long wall will be able to display one large video or six individual ones. Additional walking room was created by moving slot machines and the bar. • Lawmakers in Maryland plan to initiate discussions on whether or not to regulate daily fantasy sports as part of the fantasy sports law approved in 2012. The current law authorizes fantasy sports betting, but the statute envisions traditional fantasy sports, which involve small social groups that draft players for an entire season. DFS takes the drafting and wagering down to the single-game level, with players winning money based on their draftees’ statistical performances every day. A meeting on the subject is slated for this week before the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Gaming Oversight. • Play’n Go has launched a new five-reel, 20 pay-line slot titled Wizard of Gems. The game features high-definition animation and smooth performance across mobile and desktop devices, and is released simultaneously in both HTML5 and Flash formats. The Wild feature in the game is represented by the Wizard’s magical spell book, which can substitute for any other gem or symbol to conjure up wins, and when prize-winning combinations appear anywhere on the reels, the symbols vanish with a wave of the Wizard’s wand, and are replaced by new symbols creating winning opportunities. Wizard of Gems is the fifth title released in quick succession by Play’n Go, and follows Eye of the Kraken, Happy Halloween, Rage to Riches and Xmas Joker. • Celebrity chef Michael Symon, co-host of ABC’s The Chew, will open an Italian restaurant at Atlantic City’s Borgata casino next fall. Symon joins fellow Iron Chefs Bobby Flay and Geoffrey Zakarian and legendary chef Wolfgang Puck among the celebrity chefs with eateries at the casino,” said Symon. “We’re excited to bring our Italian cooking to Atlantic City. This is the food I grew up eating; my Sicilian grandmother would be proud!” • Scientific Games Corporation announced a new contract to provide retail technology, including 725 terminals, software and maintenance services, to the Lotto-Toto GmbH Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. The five-year contract, which the company won through a competitive procurement process, began in October and may be extended by the lottery for up to an additional five years. Scientific Games currently provides the Lottery in Sachsen-Anhalt with instant games, as well as a lottery central gaming system and retail terminals. • The Twin River Casino in Rhode Island has opened the state’s only poker room.The room has 16 tables offering Texas hold ‘em and seven-card stud. Voters approved of adding table games three years ago. Currently the casino has 4,500 slot machines and over 100 gaming tables. • The Samish Indian Nation and Skagit County (Wash.) Commission signed a revenue-sharing agreement that compensates the county for lost tax revenue if the tribe eventually opens a casino on an 11.2-acre parcel in Anacortes. • The Mountaineer Racetrack & Casino in West Virginia is selling off about 1,300 acres of excess commercial and industrial properties in northern Hancock County. • Penn National Gaming paid Golden Entertainment $24 million for a subordinated promissory note, which supports development of the proposed $390 million Hollywood Casino Jamul in San Diego, Golden Entertainment announced December 10. • Clique Hospitality announced it will open the Bottiglia Italian restaurant and Borracha Mexican eatery in the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Henderson in this spring and will take over the Mercadito Mexican restaurant at Red Rock Resort in Summerlin. • Genting Bhd in its Bursa Malaysia filing announced it created 28 Delaware-registered subsidiaries called Genting Assets to obtain financing for its Resorts World Las Vegas development, which is located on the site of the abandoned Echelon site on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip. • The Taipa section of Macau’s Light Rail Transit system is likely to be operational by 2019 (not 2016, as originally planned). The Taipa section includes stops serving a cluster of new and upcoming resorts on the Cotai Strip. ? A Macau-based labor group called the Gaming Employees Advancement Association has called for raises of “no less than” 2.5 percent, the amount the Macau government has promised the city’s public workers in 2016. The head of at least one casino operator has publicly stated it is considering pay raises. Other gaming operators including MGM China Holdings and Sands China are also studying the issue.
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