Las Vegas Review Journal – Las Vegas continued its record pace for visitor volume in April as the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Wednesday reported 3.5 million came to Southern Nevada, a 3.5 percent increase over April 2013. The city is now 4.8 percent ahead of 2013’s record clip with 13.7 million visitors in the first four months of the year. Nearly every measure of visitor activity except convention and convention attendance was higher in April than the previous year. Citywide occupancy was up for hotels and motels, weekend and midweek and Strip and downtown. The average daily…

Ekathimerini – Greek gambling monopoly OPAP, one of Europe’s biggest betting firms, said it expected revenue to grow by a double-digit percentage this year, thanks to the planned launch of new games. The forecast was included in a presentation released on Wednesday, a day after the company announced higher-than-expected first-quarter profit due to cost cuts and the robust performance of its sports betting game Pame Stoichima. OPAP, whose sales reached 3.7 billion euros last year, launched a scratchcard game on May 1. Chief Executive Kamil Ziegler said on Wednesday that the company would also expand into online sports betting by…

Card Player – Nevada’s three online sites collected a total of $792,000 in revenue during the month of April, according to a state reported released Wednesday morning. That figure amounts to a decline of 14.5 percent compared to March’s $926,000. February’s figure was $824,000. February marked the first time ever that a Silver State gaming revenue report included online poker figures. The state was keeping the numbers under wraps until a third casino firm, South Point, started offering games. Station Casinos, which debuted games in spring 2013, and Caesars Entertainment, which kicked things off in late summer 2013, are the…

World Cup 2014 – As predictable as a Gary Lineker tweet, an Alan Hansen denouncement of anyone who “writes off the Germans” and a limp quarter-final exit in a major football tournament by England, is the collective media clairvoyance predicting an imminent billion-pound betting bonanza at the World Cup in Brazil. Brazil 2014 kicks off on June 12 in Sao Paolo as 31 of the best teams in the world—and England—battle it out amid the heat, unfinished stadia and street crime to lift the coveted trophy. And sports-betting fans across the world will have their laptops, tablets and PCs at…

Gambling 911 – New Jersey’s fledgling Internet gambling industry saw its first monthly decline, falling slightly to $11.4 million in April. In March, which had one more day of gambling than April had, Internet gambling brought in $11.9 million. Figures released Wednesday by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement show the average online take per day was $380,958 in April, down from $383,173 in March. Online gambling had shown monthly increases of 28 percent in January, 9 percent in February, and 15 percent in March. It began in late November as a way of helping the struggling casinos bring in new revenue…

Seattle Times – When the Seahawks drafted tight end Luke Willson last year, most people probably had two reactions. First, to make a joke about the Seahawks taking an actor (Luke Wilson, one L) in the fifth round. And, second, to look up who the heck Luke Willson (two L’s) was. But Willson offers an interesting window into the draft. He played at Rice with Vance McDonald, another tight end who the 49ers drafted in the second round. Willson was highly productive as a sophomore and junior, but he battled injuries as a senior. His stats dipped significantly. Where McDonald…