Casino Folk Pages

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey � As reported by the Press of Atlantic City: “The splashy grand opening of a $280 million Las Vegas-style entertainment complex and the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend weren’t enough to overcome what was generally a dreary month for the casino industry. ”

“Gambling revenue at Atlantic City’s 12 gaming halls dipped 1.1 percent to $375 million in November, according to figures released Friday by the state Casino Control Commission. ”

“Results were hurt by the vagaries of the calendar - there were two fewer weekend days than in November 2003 - and the lingering effects of a monthlong strike by 10,000 casino workers that ended Nov. 1. ”

“Noting the double-barrel impact of the strike and the soft calendar, one gaming analyst said he expected the month to be flat. ”

“�Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Resorts Atlantic City and Tropicana Casino and Resort were the lone standouts, each racking up double-digit increases in revenue for the month. Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort eked out a fractional gain, but the rest of the properties were losers. ”

“�Taj Mahal was the only Trump property that was up in November, though just barely. The Taj’s revenue rose 0.1 percent to $41.3 million. Trump Marina Hotel Casino and Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino both were hurt by big declines in table-game revenue�”

Casino City Times (www.casinocitytimes.com)

How long will Americans keep on loosing huge money that ends up in places like Antigua and Barbuda?

The industry’s Canadian-based Interactive Gaming Council estimates that thousands of cyber casinos last year raked in around $7.5 billion - half of it, at least, from Americans.

At last count, 77 nations were doing just that, and a lot of those legal Web sites are state-owned operations. Not all of those nations are Caribbean sand specks either. The list includes many of the world’s modern democracies, including Canada, Australia, the U.K. and most of the rest of the European Union. Even China and Russia are at the brink.

The United States cannot much longer stand alone against such a global tidal wave.

That, in effect, was what the World Trade Organization told the United States the other day when it ruled in favor of tiny Antigua and Barbuda in an Internet gambling restraint-of-trade case against the United States.

From Kansas City Star