Every January, the buzz about slot machines and casinos begins at Beacon Hill, and this year is no exception.
Each year, the debate fizzles out, and we hope this year will be no exception. Gambling revenue is fool's gold, as proven in southeastern Connecticut, where two glittering casinos have made hundreds of millions of dollars for two Indian tribes and their financial backers but have contributed little to the host communities.
Lawmakers who want to expand legal gambling in Massachusetts are renewing their push for casinos and slot machines, saying the state needs to hold onto the gambled dollars they say are being lost to neighboring states.
A handful of gaming bills have already been filed for the new two-year legislative session that begins next month, and supporters are hoping a change in leadership in the Massachusetts House might give the legislation new momentum.
The prospect of introducing slot machines at Scarborough Downs apparently will not be on the Legislature´s radar screen during the upcoming session.
Neither Penn National Gaming nor Scarborough Downs plans to pursue legislation this session to develop a racino at the southern Maine harness racing track.
HARRISBURG -- Security experts gave the Gaming Control Board a lesson yesterday on how to protect Pennsylvania's 14 new casinos from being cheated by real-life versions of George Clooney, Brad Pitt and the rest of the "Ocean's Eleven" crew.
Tom Sterling, president of the Information Services Group of suburban Harrisburg, a consultant hired by the state Department of Revenue, listed a few casino-security pointers for state officials to keep in mind.
GoldenPalace.com, an Internet gambling firm, said it won an eBay auction for a metal walking cane that an Indiana woman put up for sale in an effort to ease her son's fears about his dead grandfather.
Recently, the casino forked over $28,000 for a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the likeness of the Virgin Mary.
GoldenPalace said the cane will join the sandwich on a world tour.
A gambler who started a $A16.8 million blaze at a British motorway service station after he lost $A480 on a slot machine has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Jason New, 31, showed no emotion as his sentence was read out at a Manchester court.
New, of Blackpool, used an 85 pence ($A2) lighter to set fire to a pokie machine at a services centre on a motorway near Rochdale in a bid to get his cash back.
A bill that became a political football bounced through the Pennsylvania Legislature largely on the strength of Republican votes Saturday after lawmakers spent weeks jousting over whether and how to amend the state's four-month-old slot-machine gambling law.
With the Legislature rushing to close its two-year session this weekend, the bill was sent to Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell. While House Democratic leader H. William DeWeese warned that Rendell would veto the Republican-authored bill, Rendell's spokeswoman said he had not made a decision.
A new breed of electronic gambling machines is hitting New Mexico.
As reported by the USA Today: "Twentysomethings have seized on the new Las Vegas as a 24-hour playground where the partying never ends. There's just one problem: They don't gamble as much as their baby-boomer parents.
Jackpot Factory Casinos are launching the new Tomb Raider themed slot game at their online sites this week.
