Two of those indicted are from San Diego County – Bryan Arce, 30, of Chula Vista; and Don man Duong, 48, of San Diego.

The two are each accused of one count of conspiracy to commit multiple federal offenses, including conspiracy to steal money and property from Indian tribal casinos, and conspiracy to travel in interstate and foreign commerce to aid racketeering.

According to the indictment, the 11 defendants belong to a ring known as the Tran Organization, which traveled the country from March 2002 through July 2007, rigging games of blackjack and mini-baccarat.

Not so, said Progressive Gaming Chief Financial Officer Heather Rollo.

Progressive Gaming and IGT expanded the companies' strategic alliance for server-based gaming. As part of the agreement, IGT purchased a $15 million convertible note with Progressive Gaming. An option exists to covert the note into ownership.

Certain gaming approvals would be necessary. In Nevada, regulators need to approve an ownership stake above 9.9 percent.

"The note is basically convertible, but there are restrictions," Rollo said.

***

Aria, the 61-story centerpiece of the $9.2 billion CityCenter, tops out Monday, 29 months after construction began. The two curvilinear glass towers, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli, will hold 4,000 hotel rooms.

Aria's 150,000-square-foot casino is the only gaming at CityCenter, which includes three nongaming hotels with condominiums, a condominium-only high-rise, and a retail, dining and entertainment district.

***

Topless Girls of Glitter Gulch tried to become the first true strip club licensed for slot machines. But the Fremont Street bar shelved its request when it became clear the Gaming Control Board was going to reject the application.

Grandfathering laws allow six Las Vegas topless clubs to offer slot machines, giving gamblers a choice besides G-strings for their dollars.

The sites had been taverns or restaurants. The restricted gaming licenses for 15 slot machines remained when they became topless bars.

Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander said a regulation preventing that practice is being evaluated.

The six strip clubs with slot machines are Olympic Garden, Club Platinum, Foxy Girls, Tommy Rockers, Play it Again Sam and Larry's Villa.

***

Station Casinos spokeswoman Lori Nelson said the company's "No Juice" sports wagering promotion and the start of the O.J. Simpson trial were just coincidence.

Right.

Gamblers didn't have to pay the extra 10 percent vigorish, or juice, on all professional and college football wagers Thursday at any of the company's casinos.

Simpson, a former star football running back whose nickname was "The Juice," is on trial in Clark County District Court on armed robbery and kidnapping charges stemming from an incident involving sports memorabilia inside a Station Casino's Palace Station hotel room.

Howard Stutz's Inside Gaming column appears Sundays.

Singer Carly Simon, once so stricken with stage fright that she confined her singing to a recording studio, returns to Borgata for a concert appearance Oct. 18. Comedian Robin Williams, whose live standup comedy shows are as rare as a $5 blackjack table on a Saturday night, plays two shows at Borgata Oct. 24-25, and the legendary rock band The Who returns to the casino Oct. 31 for a one-nighter.

The one show at Borgata that attracted the most interest -- and sold out faster than any other show -- is the Dec. 13 appearance by the reunited stoner comedy team of Cheech and Chong, who haven't performed together in a quarter-century. Tickets were gobbled up so quickly that a second show was added the same night.

But Borgata doesn't have a monopoly on big-name artists.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will return to Caesars Atlantic City casino for a one-night-stand Oct. 11.

Caesars, which also utilizes Boardwalk Hall to present big concert attractions, is presenting Celine Dion in the 12,500-seat venue on Sept. 20 and Madonna in the big room on Nov. 22.

Tony Bennett returns to the Concert Venue at Harrah's Resort Nov. 21-22.

Halloween gets extended by one day when Alice Cooper returns Nov. 1 to the House of Blues at Showboat. Other notable HOB bookings include the indie rock band Death Cab For Cutie on Oct. 5, the brotherly pop-rock trio of Hanson on Oct. 23 and blues legend B.B. King on Nov. 29.

Don Rickles, showing no sign of slowing down at 82, will sling his all-in-fun insults at Tropicana audiences Nov. 7-9. Regis Philbin, with "Hairspray" star Nikki Blonsky as his opening act, brings his form of variety entertainment to Harrah's Oct. 25.

Mixed martial arts, whose popularity is threatening to supplant boxing in Atlantic City, returns to the Tropicana as promoter Lou Neglia presents "Ring of Combat XXI" at the Tropicana tonight at 9. Tickets range from $50 to $150, available through Ticketmaster.

New Breed Fighters, another mixed martial arts program, returns to the House of Blues at Showboat on Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets range from $35 to $125, available through Ticketmaster.

The Atlantic City Pro Bodybuilding championships will be presented at Trump Marina today and Saturday. Tickets are $5 for pre-judging events and range from $20 to $100 for the finals Saturday at 6 p.m., available through Ticketmaster.

Last year the WCOOP, which is put on by PokerStars.com, had a prize pool of $15 million and saw 17,000 unique players take part in 23 events. This year after just the first 12 events, the 2008 edition has already handed out more than $11.8 million -- which is $3 million more than was guaranteed -- while 17,700 different players from 107 countries had participated through Wednesday's action.

Two events per day are scheduled through Sept. 20. Then on Sept. 21 it's the $5,200 No Limit Hold'em Main Event, which is guaranteeing a $10 million prize pool.

The biggest tournament thus far came on Sunday when 7,351 bought in for the $530 No Limit Hold'em event, creating a total purse of more than $3.6 million. Last year, this event ran for 20 hours so the tournament organizers decided to play this year's event over two days. Day 1 consisted of 22 levels and 11 hours of play. Seventy-two players made it to Day 2 and 9 ½ hours later "Calvin32" was crowned champion and took home nearly half a million dollars ($452,086) for his efforts.

With the victory, "Calvin32" sits in third place of the money list for the 2008 WCOOP through 12 events. A player using the name "dorinvandy," who won $617,925 in Event #5, leads the pack with $619,368.41 while "DuckU" is in second with no bracelets, but $460,816.62 in winnings.

U.S. players have dominated the first 12 events, capturing seven bracelets. The U.S. has had 12,894 players participate. Germany is second with 2,343 players, with Canada (2,117), the U.K. (1,906) and Sweden (1,484) in third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

Coming into this year's event, the past six editions of the WCOOP has paid out a total of $65,194,250 over 88 events.

Louise Nadeau noted that there's plenty of data on compulsive gambling and alcoholism, but virtually no reliable study or clinical data on Internet addiction, United Press International reported.
"The problem isn't widespread, but we know of serious cases in which teenagers don't leave the house, don't have interpersonal relationships, and have been isolated in front of their computer screen for the past two or three years, and only speak in the language of the characters they play with in network video games," Nadeau said in a university news release. "

In a few years we'll have couples in therapy because the Internet will have become their main occupation," she predicted, UPI reported.

A Quebec survey found that hundreds of patients have consulted a professional about Internet addiction. Nadeau and fellow researchers want to develop a clinical definition of Internet addiction, determine how the disorder evolves, and identify treatment strategies.

That's what The Mirage hotel-casino concluded before it mounted a $25 million facelift of its iconic erupting volcano on the Las Vegas Strip.

The faux rock fountain first erupted in 1989 and its bursting spray of water lighted red to look like lava is among the city's classic sights for strolling pedestrians. The volcano was among the flashiest early casino spectacles — added to deliver whimsy, wow factor and gamblers.

Still, the casino concluded, it could be so much more.
The volcano is getting 120 new fireball-throwing devices that will be choreographed to erupt in sync with a rumbling drum score co-composed by former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and piped into the desert air through a high-tech sound system, according to company officials who will officially announce renovation details Wednesday.

The project won't be completed until later this year.

Some of the fireball devices will spout gas flames 12 feet in the air, while others ooze fiery "lava" down the volcano's crevices. The flames will appear to burst close to passers-by — but not too close.

"It looks dangerous, but in reality it's not. We just want people to stand back on their heels," said Jim Doyle, the director of new technologies at the Sun Valley, Calif.-based design firm WET.

WET is perhaps best known as the firm behind the Bellagio hotel's fountains, and Doyle acknowledges the dancing water jets just down the Strip were an inspiration for the volcano's new look.

He spent two years developing a fire-shooting device that could sleep in the volcano's surrounding lagoon during the day and emerge at night for hourly shows. The miniature robots can be choreographed, but in the foreseeable future the fireballs will dance to Hart's score, he said.

Along with longtime creative partner Zakir Hussain, Hart said he brought in dozens of instruments to reinterpret the sound and the vibration of "the Earth belching."

"It's our version of a birthing of a volcano, which is filled with a lot of different kinds of emotional content, anticipation and anxiety. It's filled with magic and power," Hart said. "You might even be able to feel the lava coming down on top of you."

This bigger, better volcano is the last piece of the 20-year-old resort's recent overhaul. Owner MGM Mirage Inc. has spent $110 million upgrading rooms and suites at The Mirage, as well as adding a new nightclub, restaurants and the Cirque du Soleil's Beatles-themed "Love."

Mirage President Scott Sibella said he wished the property's signature feature was a little closer to the new indoor attractions. Since the volcano first erupted, casinos have learned to put such features inside to bring people closer to their casinos.

Sibella said The Mirage may someday add a bridge connecting the street-level volcano to the casino entrance.

"It does draw thousands of people for every eruption," he said, "but the challenge is getting them inside the property."

Phelps was in Las Vegas with some of his friends over the weekend. He ended up having dinner Saturday night with Doyle Brunson, and several other pro poker players, which started buzz that perhaps Phelps would be joining the Doyles Room online poker site.

Brunson blogged about the meeting on Sunday, but made no mention of any business talk.

"What a nice kid! He had a bunch of his friends from home with him and they were the guests of the Palms Hotel and Casino," Brunson wrote. "I got a call that he was an avid poker fan and wanted to meet me, Todd, and Hoyt Corkins. Jennifer Harman and her husband Marco were also there."

Brunson brought along some copies of Super/System 1 and 2 for Phelps and his friends, and he spent some time answering all kinds of poker questions from the group.

"Michael said all he wanted to do in life was to eat, swim and play poker," Brunson wrote.
That's no surprise after Phelps' performance at the Beijing Olympics this summer. After taking gold in all eight of the swimming events he competed in, news came out about the amount of calories Phelps must consume each day to keep up with his activity level and about his love of poker.

He became a regular at a Windsor casino just across the border in Canada from where he was training in Michigan, plus he's a regular player online too.

It's not a huge stretch of the imagination to put Phelps, who has solidified his place as an Olympic legend, at the virtual tables on the site owned by one of poker's biggest legends.

Phelps is also being courted by other poker industry entities. He was invited to play in the Asian Poker Tour event in Macau recently, and Betfair Poker has also extended an invite to buy him into the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.

Foreign tourists were among those hit by the outbreak caused by the Norwalk virus, which is passed on through food, vomit and excreta among human beings, officials said.

Some 1,560 boxes of oysters could be involved, including 420 boxes exported to Macau, 43 to Hong Kong and about 300 to other places, Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety (CFS) said, with another 500 boxes sealed for tests.

"The CFS is also following up with the supplier on the distribution of the remaining 300 boxes of oysters," the Hong Kong government said in a statement.

The victims had eaten oysters from Pearlwin Ltd., a Hong Kong supplier, at the Venetian Macau, Sands Hotel, Gold Dragon Hotel and Macau Tower, between late August and early September, according to officials.

One of the distributors who bought oysters from Pearlwin said they were not meant to be eaten raw, the local daily Mingpao reported Tuesday.

"The oysters were hard-frozen and must be cooked for consumption. I do not understand how people could sell it as fresh chilled oysters to Macau," a spokesman for the distributor was quoted as saying.

Macau has boomed in recent years, mainly thanks to Chinese visitors flooding into the city's gleaming casinos. Gaming revenues in 2007 topped 10 billion dollars for the first time, well ahead of the Las Vegas Strip.

The indictment alleges that Adam Vega created 585 fraudulent jackpot override tickets and submitted them to the casino cage cashier, taking a total of $664,422 from the casino. The embezzlement allegedly occurred between October of 2005 and July of 2007.

“The gaming tribes rely on the integrity of their casino operations to put money back into their local communities,” said U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa. “This alleged theft hurts the integrity of the system. Hopefully this indictment will send a message that such individuals will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law possible.”

A conviction for Theft by Officer or Employee of Gaming Establishment on Indian Lands carries a maximum penalty of 20 years, a $1 million fine, or both. A conviction for Attempted Evasion of Assessment and Payment of Federal Individual Income Taxes carries a maximum penalty of 5 years, a $100,000 fine, or both. Vega’s next court appearance is scheduled for September 18.

“Proposition A is important for our economy, especially in the Kansas City area, and it’s important for our schools,” Chamber President Pete Levi said in a release Monday. “Missouri’s unemployment rate is the highest it has been since 1998. Schools throughout the state face increasing costs and budget cuts. Prop A will protect the 12,000 Missouri jobs that casinos provide and provide over $100 million per year in new funding for schools statewide — without increasing any taxes on Missouri residents.”

The Missouri gaming tax paid by casinos generates nearly $300 million a year for schools, the chamber said in the release. Proposition A would increase that tax rate to 21 percent and eliminate the state’s $500 loss limit. The chamber cited the Missouri state auditor’s estimate that the changes would provide $105 million to $130 million a year in new revenue for Missouri schools.

The Kansas City Business Journal reported Aug. 15 that two lawsuits were filed in Cole County Circuit Court, aimed at preventing the measure’s inclusion on the Nov. 4 ballot. State Rep. Ray Salva, D-Sugar Creek, and Cape Girardeau resident David Knight brought one suit, which names Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and State Auditor Susan Montee as defendants. The other suit, filed by Edwin McKaskel and Harold Hendrick, both residents of St. Louis County, names Carnahan as defendant.

The suits allege that the petition advocating the issue’s inclusion on the Nov. 4 ballot contained seven subjects, which violates state law requiring such a petition to have only one subject, clearly stated in the title. They also allege that the petition had a misleading title related to financing education in the state, despite its multiple provisions that would affect casinos and gambling.