The last time Americans could walk into a Las Vegas sports book during the Olympics and make a bet on their country, Michael Johnson was still winning medals, Vince Carter was making a towering Frenchman famous, and Michael Phelps was debuting in the Games as a 15-year-old also-ran on the U.S Olympic swim team. This year, all that changes. For the first time since the 2000 Sydney Games, Las Vegas sports books are accepting bets on the Olympics this summer, providing casinos a financial boost in the dog days of August, keeping bettors glued to the TV as Carmelo, KD,…

Two former casino dealers and two friends are accused of siphoning more than $1 million off craps tables over two years, using phantom bets at a posh Las Vegas Strip resort. James Russell Cooper Jr. and Mark William Branco were fired by the Bellagio after the scheme came to light and they were arrested in July 2014, prosecutor Jay P. Ramen said Thursday. Cooper and Branco are named with Jeffrey D. Martin and Anthony Grant Granito in a 60-count indictment filed Wednesday. The charges include cheating at gambling and theft — felonies that could get the defendants decades in prison….

The Restoration of Americas Wire Act bill (known at RAWA) is in Congress and would ban Internet gambling. However, it could also inadvertently criminalize Nevada’s booming mobile sports wagering business, which has been credited with turning the Silver State’s sports books into a $3.9 billion-a-year industry. The measure, backed by Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson, is aimed at reversing changes made in 2011 to the 1961 Federal Wire Act. If approved, the RAWA bill would end most forms of online betting, including interactive poker in Nevada. Because the bill would stop transmission of gambling information through wire communications…

Genting has broken ground in Las Vegas on their Resorts World complex that is slated to cost anywhere from $4 billion to $7 billion and completed in 2018. The new resort which will sit on the site of the former Stardust casino on the strip will cover 88 acres and have 3,500 hotel rooms, a 4,000 seat outdoor amphitheater and shopping mall and possibly even a panda enclosure. KT Lim, chairman and CEO of Genting Group, said the new sprawling complex would showcase the best of China past and present. The CEO was at the ceremonial ground breaking event in…

USA Today – Ask a mathematician or a casino owner if you can win gambling in a casino, and the truthful answer is yes, but almost always only in the short run. Unless you’re a professional player who only plays with the long-term edge on your side, the longer you play, the more certain it is that you will lose. People get funny ideas about the way gambling works. In casinos there are games of chance (roulette, craps, keno, bingo, slots, baccarat) and games of chance and skill (poker, blackjack, video poker). A game of chance is like flipping a…

Mississippi Business Journal – Forbes says Tilman Fertitta is worth $2.4 billion. He became a wealthy businessman by making smart decisions, being opportunistic and having a business-is-business attitude. But even when the owner and CEO of Fertitta Entertainment walks into one of his three Golden Nugget casinos, one thing scares him — the changing landscape of the customers. “One of my scariest things that is young people do not play slot machines,” said Fertitta, who was the keynote speaker kicking off last week’s Southern Gaming Summit in Biloxi. “I go to all these places, it’s not young people playing slot…