NEWS & NOTES

SJM Holdings’ newly refurbished gaming area at the Grand Lisboa in Macau has opened. The renovation is part of a larger overhaul of the company’s flagship venue. The gaming floor has extended by 870 square meters (9,600 square feet) to accommodate 10 new gaming tables and more than 40 slot machines, along with a new dining lounge, and a mezzanine.  ?  Surviving Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, are scheduled to attend formal opening of the reworked The Beatles Love Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage in Las Vegas on July 14.  •  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said legalized gambling would be an issue if the Oakland Raiders wanted to relocate to Las Vegas and league owners would have to approve such a move.  •  The $1.5 billion Project Neon improvement of the Spaghetti Bowl (the I-15 and US-95 interchange in Las Vegas) gets underway April 7, and large electronic signs will be placed to help drivers get through construction zones.  •  The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Yamil Morales must pay a $500,000 marker to the Aria in Las Vegas, after he stiffed the casino seven years earlier.  •  The University of Nevada-Las Vegas broke ground on a 93,000-square-foot, $57 million Hospitality Hall, which will house the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.  •  Cal-Nev-Ari, Nevada, founder Nancy Kidwell is offering to sell the entire town, including its casino, diner, motel, and airstrip for $8 million.  •  The Oneida Indian Nation’s Turning Stone Casino is looking to hire 300 more workers in all positions to meet the demands of its growing business.  •  The TaoGroup and Chef Chris Santos announced a May 16 opening the Beauty & Essex restaurant and lounge in the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.  •  Though the gaming industry in Macau has seen a dramatic downturn in the past two years, salaries are holding steady. According to a recent employment survey, the median weekly hours worked by employees in the gaming sector was 46.7 hours per week in fourth-quarter 2015. The median monthly earnings of these employees stood at MOP 19,000 (US$2,378)—the same level as the previous quarter and previous year.  ?  The Parisian Macao, a Las Vegas Sands resort soon to open on Macau’s Cotai Strip, has hired about 600 workers. More than 95 percent of the jobs are non-gaming positions. Sands China plans to host another recruitment fair in June.  •  Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa will open its new $14 million Premier Nightclub this Friday, April 8. The 18,000-square-foot facility will “rival the top clubs in Las Vegas, Miami and New York,” Senior Operations VP Joe Lupo told Philadelphia’s NBC 10. The nightclub features two 35-foot-long bars, and a staircase leading to a mezzanine area with a six-foot-diameter disco ball surrounded by a 25-foot chandelier with programmable changing lights. The first DJ performance will be by Morgan Page.  •  International Game Technology Plc. announced that its subsidiary, IGT Global Solutions Corporation, has signed a seven-year contract with the Virginia Lottery for the provision of new lottery technology and services, following a competitive procurement process. The initial term of the contract runs through October 21, 2024, and allows for two three-year extension options. “We are pleased to continue our partnership with the Virginia Lottery, which has enjoyed six consecutive years of sales growth, with most recent annual sales reaching $1.84 billion,” said Michael Chambrello, IGT CEO, North America lottery. “The solutions and services we will deliver are founded on extensive Virginia player and retailer research and aligned with the Lottery’s strategic objectives.”  •  Swedish online game developer NetEnt announced that the third game in its “Rocks”” series will be based on the heavy-metal band MOTÖRHEAD. “The MOTÖRHEAD brand is synonymous with high-octane music and has one of the last real iconic logos in music,” said Gabbi Langdorf, senior licensing manager at Global Merchandising Services. “’Ace Of Spades,’ which will be included as a soundtrack, couldn’t be a better theme song to this style of gaming, and we hope not only fans, but the gaming public will appreciate the fantastic game mechanics that NetEnt are producing.”  ?  Macau’s City of Dreams will open its new expanded retail arcade by mid-2016, says Melco Crown Entertainment CEO Lawrence Ho. Ho said the new development is part of the firm’s plan to expand its non-gaming offering. The $3.2 billion Hollywood-themed casino resort also features Asia’s highest Ferris wheel and family entertainment developed with Time Warner Inc.  ?  Macau attracted 2.64 million visitors in February, down 1.2 percent year on year, despite the week-long Chinese New Year holiday and an extra day due to Leap Year. The figures came from the city’s Statistics and Census Service.  ?  Phoenix’s Desert Diamond West Valley, the new casino operated by the Tohono O’odham Nation of Arizona has been named the sponsor of the Verizon IndyCar Series at the Phoenix International Raceway. The Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix GrandPrix will occur April 2 in Avondale, Arizona.  •  Foxwoods Resort Casino’s master plan for appealing to a younger demographic includes a zip line that would connect the 350 ft. Fox Tower to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center about a mile away. The zip line would be part of an adventure park and water park that are already being built, according to Felix Rappaport, Foxwoods’ president and chief executive officer. He told the Day, “It’s not like we have a finalized deal. Have we brought people in? Yes. Do we have a potential partner? Yes.”  •  PCI Gaming Authority, a division of Alabama’s Poarch Band of Creek Indians, has purchased land in D’Iberville, Miss., previously approved for a casino. The seven-acre site near Interstate 110, the abortive home of the Royal D’Iberville gaming resort, which was to include a 60,000-square-foot casino and 400-room hotel, was released from Chapter 7 bankruptcy on March 14, 11 days before the PCI closed on the site. The Poarch Band own three casinos in Alabama.  •  The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has launched construction of its 10th gaming venue in the state—a $23 million, 39,000-square-foot facility situated on 24 acres in the city of Grove and housing 400 machine games, plus table games, including a private high-limit poker salon, a restaurant and bar and a live music venue. Cherokee Nation Enterprises operates Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa; eight Cherokee-br
anded casinos, including a racetrack; three hotels; three golf courses and other retail operations. The Grove casino is slated to open the end of this year.  •  Vicksburg’s DiamondJacks Hotel and Casino is being redesigned and renamed under new ownership as WaterView Casino and Hotel. Foundation Gaming bought the property in October with plans to remodel the hotel and gaming spaces, add new restaurants and construct a new 700-seat events center.  •  The Choctaw Nation has broken ground on a new 500,000-square-foot headquarters just northeast of its casino in Durant, Oklahoma. The groundbreaking was accompanied by a topping off of a full-service health clinic under construction at the site.