The online casino Party Gaming earned $342m on the first trimester of the year, 54% more than last year’s trimester, and more than 14m users played their poker games. The users number grew 28% and the increase of the average bet was 3%, up to $18.5; announced today a spokesperson of the company.

British spent 50 billion pounds (about 88 billion dollars) on gambling last year, which is more than the money spent by the government on defense and transport together. The statistics show that in average each person gambled 1400 dollars in 2005, seven times as much as the bets registered in 2001.

Cirsa, the Spanish entertainment company, is planning to invest 169 million euros in Chile, in order to continue its expansion all along the country. About 96 million will be used for building seven new casinos. Besides, the firm will make other investments in the Caribbean and Macau.

“For our government, this week’s meeting is going to be a good opportunity for the USA to inform the WTO how it’s going to respond to the DSB advices,” said Errol Cort, Economy and Finance Minister for Antigua & Barbuda.

“Clearly this is a now and after situation. And by after I refer to the rule imposed by the arbitrator appointed by the WTO that, answering USA’s request for a “reasonable period of time”, granted a lapse of 11 months and 2 weeks starting on April 20th, 2005.

At Harrah’s Louisiana Downs Casino, players have an extra benefit: those who own a Total Rewards Card will be eligible to receive up to $50 dollars of their slot losses reimbursed.

A compromise in the works with the casinos that is being supported by acting Gov. Richard J. Codey could clear the path for a statewide ban on smoking in public places.

Codey has made banning smoking in restaurants, bars and bowling alleys a priority for his last two months as chief executive. Casinos, fearing patrons would gamble in states that allow smoking, have argued for an exemption, while restaurant owners counter that exempting casinos would be unfair to their businesses.

The number of gamblers has jumped in Britain since the government abolished a 24-hour registration period for new visitors.

Casinos report 100,000 new visitors have entered their doors since the waiting period was lifted five weeks ago, the Times of London said. They predict there will be 250,000 new gamblers by the end of the year.

Casinos are very popular in places such as Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Indian reservations and Southern states such as Mississippi and Louisiana. Some consider them an effective way to fuel local and state economies.

For some economists, there is a debate as to whether or not casinos are a sound source of economic stimulation.

State gambling regulators are giving a cold shoulder to a company's proposal to televise casino games from Indiana by satellite to homes and off-track betting parlors for remote-control betting.

Kenilworth Systems Corp., based in Mineola, N.Y., this spring approached state officials about allowing Indiana riverboats to host the roulette, baccarat and other casino games that would be broadcast to other locations.

Godzilla at his most dyspeptic never visited destruction upon Tokyo such as that inflicted on the Biloxi/Gulfport/Bay St. Louis stretch of Mississippi's Gulf Coast. Once home to a dozen floating casinos, with a Hard Rock Hotel franchise due to kick off in early September, the shore is now the scene of gambling barges either flung violently ashore or sunk at their moorings.

Only the Imperial Palace's casino vessel remained afloat. It's scheduled for a Christmastime reopening.