Casinos in Illinois have posted double-digit revenue declines since a smoking ban took effect there in January. And it’s not primarily because high air fares stop tourists from visiting the Windy City in search of a game of chance. “The smoking ban is having a major impact,” Tom Swoik, head of the Illinois Casino Gaming [...]
Comments Off
Before catching the bus in New York for one of his casino trips to Atlantic City, Antonio Fava swore to himself he wouldn’t gamble more than he could afford. It’s a promise, he insists, he always keeps. “I have $50 with me. When I’m finished with that, I’m done,” said Fava, a 76-year-old Brooklyn retiree. [...]
Comments Off
Jim thought he was smarter than everyone else in the casino. He was college-educated and he had a “system” to win at blackjack. Which proves, he says, just what a sucker he was. “I lost all of my money and all of my respect. Everyone thinks they have a system, but the casino is playing [...]
Comments Off
At one point during her Saturday evening on Harrah’s casino barge anchored here, Tensi Beavers needed a cigarette. But Illinois had recently banned smoking in casinos. So Ms. Beavers did something that is making gambling executives choke on their smoke-free casino air: She walked away from her game. “I like to play and smoke, but [...]
Comments Off
Once the struggling economy rebounds, Acheson Ventures officials say the development of Desmond Landing will quicken — with the possibility of everything from a water park to a casino. Rich Engle, the chief operating officer of Acheson Ventures, said they are in talks with hotel and water park developers and planners and development experts from [...]
Comments Off
SB 1369 is a gut and amend bill headed for the Governor’s desk that would devastate hundreds of local charities while allowing California’s tribal casinos to expand their gambling operations onto the internet, essentially amounting to the greatest expansion of legal gambling in California’s history. This competition would in turn severely weaken the viability of [...]
Comments Off
The backers of a proposed casino in southwestern Ohio accuse their opponents of not playing fair, but they’ll debate them nonetheless. MyOhioNow.com, which is pitching the $600 million casino resort in a November constitutional amendment, accuses the Ohio Roundtable, which has led opposition to the current and past gambling campaigns, of taking money from rival [...]
Comments Off
Word on the street is that a number of smoking ban advocates will be in Lansing today applying pressure to lawmakers to pass a complete, statewide smoking ban. Those who oppose this smoking ban will face a stiff test. Detroit casinos and charity bingos may or may not be exempt from a smoking ban depending [...]
Around town, the twirl of the bingo cage might soon be replaced by the pull of a slot machine lever. The bingo hall at the city’s AMVETS Brian Simpson Post 692 has increasingly become more silent, as those who joyously yell “bingo!” when they have a winning card have left the game for higher-stakes gambling [...]
Comments Off
Rumblings of a new casino in West Michigan grew louder last week when Fruitport Land Development announced it sold 93 acres in Fruitport Township to the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. The tribe, which owns and operates a casino in Manistee, has not firmed up plans or received approval to proceed, according to tribal [...]
Comments Off
