NEWS & NOTES

Connecticut last week unveiled keno at several doughnut shops, including Daybreak Doughnuts, convenience stores, VFW posts and restaurants in Bridgeport as part of a beta testing. Hot  coffee and doughnuts apparently brought customers out in the cold the first morning. Keno, unlike the regular lottery, offers prizes every four minutes. A spokesman for the Connecticut Lottery said they were “pilot testing” the games and might formally introduced them widely within days. By the end of the week the number of retailers had grown to 100. That number will eventually reach nearly 3,000.  •  An appeal of a decision by Maine Secretary of State Mathew Dunlap disqualifying the signatures of an effort to put a third Maine casino on the November ballot has been withdrawn. He ruled that the supporters failed to delivery 62,123 valid signatures out of the 91,294 that they did deliver. The group for the casino spent $2.9 in the campaign, one of the largest such efforts in state history. The effort was funded solely by Lisa Scott, sister of the proponent, Shawn Scott.  •  The Cowlitz Tribe of Washington State says that its $510 million casino on 152 acres in La Center, Clark County will hire about 1,000 when it opens in more than a year. It will hire locally but give preference to tribal members, of which there are about 3,900.. Cowlitz County has unemployment levels of as much as 8.5 percent. The casino will be built and managed for the tribe by the Mohegan Tribe, which also financed it.  •  The Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, near Death Valley, California, wants to build an off-reservation casino in Ridgecrest near the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake 150 miles north of Los Angeles. In a recent Ridgecrest city council meeting almost everyone present opposed the idea. The tribe is not allowed to build on its Death Valley reservation because it is surrounded by a National Park.  •  Groton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park, in northern California owned by the Groton Indian Rancheria, plans to open a $175 million hotel this November. The construction crew recently celebrated “topping” the six-floor, 200 room tower, convention center and auditorium. The casino resort, which is one of the largest in the state, had always planned to add a hotel.  •  Wynn Macau Ltd. has announced the hiring of about 2,600 local employees for its $4.1 billion Wynn Palace casino resort, due to open in August on the Cotai Strip. About 1,000 additional employees will be transferred from Wynn Macau to the new property.  ?  Genting Singapore Plc, part of Malaysian-based gaming giant Genting Group, recently announced that it will shut down its Macau subsidiary effective immediately. The company decided to close its Genting Star Ltd. office in the SAR. Genting has not explained the move.  ?  The StarCraft 2 eSports match-fixing investigation by the Korean prosecutor’s office released its report last week, convicting leading players Lee “Life” Seung Hyun and Bung “Byong” Woo Young of match-fixing. Life had been offered $60,000 to throw two games, which one editor pointed out was seven times more than he would have for winning the entire tournament. “This is the kind of gambling money flooding into eSports in Korea,” wrote Kwanghee Woo in TeamLiquid. “With that kind of disparity between what players can make honestly versus what they can make cheating, it seems like guaranteeing StarCraft’s competitive integrity is an uphill battle.”  •  Microgaming announced the release of new game Win Sum Dim Sum, a five-by-three-reel, nine-line game set in a Chinese restaurant adorned with teapots and bamboo steamers. The reels are filled with appetizing visuals, including various dim sum delicacies such as Ha Gow and Shu Mai. “May’s game release pairs trusted game features with a fun theme set for global appeal,” said Neill Whyte, head of product channels for Microgaming. “This game adds to our growing cross-platform offering while expanding our popular Asian-themed catalogue.”   •  McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas has reopened its longest runway, after resurfacing the 14,500-foot airstrip in a two-phase, $65 million project that started in 2014 and closed the runway twice during its upgrade.  •  The Rampart Casino in Summerlin, Nevada, agreed to pay a $25,000 fine to settle a Gaming Control Board complaint arising from the casino allowing an intoxicated guest to continue gambling and providing free drinks as he lost nearly $13,000.  •  The Seneca Nation says it has begun construction of its Niagara Street convenience store project, where visitors would be able gas up their cars, power up their hybrids with electricity, and shop at the store after a summertime opening.  •  Great Canadian Gaming held a groundbreaking ceremony for its 48,000-square-foot Belleville Casino project on April 27. The $41 million casino plan includes 400 slots, up to 22 table games, an entertainment lounge, and other amenities, and is to open early next year.