However, Sin City officials are expecting Super Bowl XVLI to bring in lots of visitors and money for the struggling gambling hub this weekend. Over 286,000 people are predicted to travel to Vegas so they can revel in the atmosphere of Super Bowl weekend, and place some big bets at the sportsbooks. Assuming 286,000 people do visit Las Vegas this weekend, when the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots, it would be the largest crowd since the 2008 Super Bowl weekend.

Get a 100% match deposit bonus up to $888 at Rushmore Casino – US players welcome

The big reason Vegas is excited about this is because the casino tables will be a lot more filled with the influx of traffic. And the nongaming entertainment sector is also expected to pick up significantly with almost $100 million in predicted revenue.

Jeremy Handel, who is a Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokesman, discussed why he thinks the Super Bowl crowd will be so big by saying, “I think this kind of justifies the broader recovery we’ve been seeing in our convention industry and our tourism overall. We’ve been seeing that recovery for the last year and a half, and this just supports that.”

Handel also believes that Vegas is the next best place to be besides the actual Super Bowl, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana this year. He expressed this by stating, “It’s a matter of the entire destination buying in together and selling ourselves. If you can’t be at the Super Bowl, Las Vegas is the next best place to be.”

There are sure to be plenty of great bets offered in Sin City for Super Bowl XVLI, and visitors should have an excellent time this weekend.

Casino officials came over to validate the win and make sure that McKee had actually won the jackpot. Unfortunately, officials delivered some bad news when they told the Illinois woman that she hadn’t really won the nearly $42 million slots jackpot. Instead, they pointed that she was playing a penny slots game where the top jackpot was only worth $10,000. Furthermore, they said the Miss Kitty machine had a malfunction that caused it to display a massive jackpot.

Get a 200% match deposit bonus up to $400 at Winner Casino

Both Gaming Laboratories International and the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission investigated the almost-win by McKee, and their research backed up what Isle Casino officials had initially declared: a communication board error led to the falsely declared multi-million dollar jackpot win.

Not surprisingly, Pauline McKee isn’t quite satisfied with Isle Casino’s explanation of why she didn’t really win the $41.8m prize. She’s hired an attorney named Steve Enochian, and they’re preparing to take this case to trial. The grounds of their case contend that the Isle of Capri Casinos company is guilty of consumer fraud and breach of contract for failing to update the Miss Kitty slots game.

This is not the first time that a slots player has missed out on a huge slots jackpot due to a machine malfunction. Last summer also saw Austria’s Behar Merlaku denied a €43 million slots prize after Casino Bregenz deemed that his win was the result of a software malfunction. Just like McKee, Merlaku is also taking his case to court.

As for the specifics of the casino, the target completion date is set for 2014, and it will span 110-acres when finished. Additionally, there will be three hotel towers, an artificial domed beach, and a convention center. Government officials expect that the casino will provide over 15,000 jobs for the Manila area.

Get a 200% match deposit bonus up to $400 at Winner Casino

An even bigger expectation by the Philippines government is that this $2 billion casino could provide the foundation for a future area much like the Las Vegas Strip. Other companies that have been accepted to build casinos in the area include Bloomberry Resorts Inc., Belle Corp. and a partnership between Genting Hong Kong Ltd. and Alliance Global Group Inc.

Cristino Naguiat, who is the gambling regulator head at the Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corp., put an exclamation on this ambitious plan by saying, “In five years, we will beat Las Vegas.” The Philippines’ biggest casino company, Pagcor, predicts that the Manila area could generate around $11 billion in annual revenue, which would be almost double what Las Vegas casinos made in 2011 ($6b).

Back to the present, the original starting block of the plan in the Universal Entertainment Corp. casino still has some hurdles to clear. Okada is currently locked in a battle with his business partner Steve Wynn over being denied the opportunity to see company financial records. Popular speculation is that Okada wants access to the records so he can use his Wynn shares to further invest in the Manila project.

Fortunately, this doesn’t appear to be halting production on the Philippines casino at the moment.

What’s interesting is that Casino Miami Jai-Alai almost didn’t come to fruition since the Florida Gaming Corporation was lacking serious funds. At one point, the casino was left unfinished and in limbo, which led to a leaky roof. Fortunately though, the company received the $87 million in financing they needed to complete the project.

Get a 100% match deposit bonus up to $888 at Rushmore Casino – US players welcome

Florida Gaming Corp. Chairman William B. Collett discussed the casino’s completion by saying, “We are proud to be part of this dynamic community that we all love. Our privately funded expansion marks a major turning point for economic redevelopment and revitalization of our neighborhood.” The businessman continued by adding, “The successful construction and development of Casino Miami Jai-Alai is a result of the cooperative efforts of dedicated employees, committed management team, contractors, vendors and countless others who worked in tandem to ensure this day would come to fruition.”

Those in and around the Miami area hope that this casino expansion can bring hundreds of new jobs to the city, and revive the struggling Miami Jai-Alai club. The facility thrived in the 1980′s and 90′s when it’s fronton (courts) were filled with basque pelota players. However, the tennis-like sport has lost a lot of popularity in recent times, and the Jai-Alai club was suffering as a result.

But players are hoping that Casino Miami Jai-Alai can help the sport and business experience a major spike in growth over the next few years.

Len Barrie owes $2.1 Million to the Bellagio Hotel & Casino

Retired National Hockey League (NHL) player Len Barrie is being taken to court by the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for an alleged $2.1 million debt he owes them. According to the Bellagio, Barrie obtained $1.5 million in casino credit, which carried an 18% interest rate. He’s since paid $420k of the money, but when interest is taken into account, Bellagio lawyers say he owes around $1.7 million still. With the Bellagio legal fees that are tacked on, he is on the hook for $2.1 million.

Barrie’s biggest problem with the case is that he thinks the amount owed is too high. He stated, “We have a little dispute and we will have to see how this finishes. We don’t agree with the amount. We’ve already paid $400,000…we think the amount should be smaller.” This is just the latest trouble for the former owner of the Tampa Bay Lightening. He is also being investigated for the Bear Mountain (Vancouver, Canada) resort that he was developing, only to have it taken away after $300 million in debt was accumulated.

Get a 100% match deposit bonus up to $888 at Rushmore Casino – US players welcome

Darrell Armstrong arrested for Debt owed to Harrah’s Las Vegas

Dallas Mavericks assistant coach and former NBA player Darrell Armstrong was arrested after passing bad checks to settle a $37,500 debt at Harrah’s Las Vegas. There was an outstanding warrant for his arrest, and Armstrong was picked up in a traffic stop around Marina Del Rey, California (USA). Since being arrested, Armstrong is out on $40,000 bail.

The 43-year-old is best known for the nine seasons he spent as a player for the Orlando Magic. Recently, he served as an assistant to the Dallas Mavericks during their 2010-2011 NBA Championship season.

Getting into the specifics, Pennsylvania casinos made over $3 billion in revenue throughout 2011, which was a 22% increase from the previous year. Considering the fact that the state just started offering table games halfway through 2010, experts are expecting 2012 to be even bigger for Pennsylvania.

The primary catalyst for Pennsylvania’s increased gaming success is table games, which saw a 300% increase during their first full year of being offered. They generated over $618 million of the state’s revenue in 2011. When combined with slots games, Pennsylvania’s gaming activity helped create $1.4 billion in tax revenue.

Get a 100% match deposit bonus up to $888 at Rushmore Casino

Moving to individual casinos, the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem showed the biggest improvement after pulling in 32% more revenue than the previous year. Just like the state of Pennsylvania, Sands Casino showed a 300% increase in revenue from slots games.

Another venue worth mentioning is the SugarHouse Casino, which opened in Philadelphia towards the end of 2010. Richard McGarvey, who is from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, said that he believes SugarHouse is the biggest reason why Pennsylvania has surpassed Atlantic City.

It doesn’t appear as if Atlantic City will have much of a chance to catch up to PA because the state is opening another casino in Valley Forge. In addition to this, Pennsylvania has allotted for three more casino licenses that have yet to be awarded. Currently, there are 10 casinos operating within the state; assuming Valley Forge is built, and three more casinos are licensed, that would make 14 total casinos.

McAuliffe took money from prayer and gift shop funds for an eight-year period before people started to notice that the finances weren’t adding up. Eventually, the number errors were reported to the FBI, who had met with the priest to discuss the missing money. Based on inconsistencies in McAuliffe’s story, federal prosecutors decided to try the gambling priest on charges of embezzlement.

Get a 100% match deposit bonus up to $888 at Rushmore Casino – US players welcome

Eventually, the 59-year-old came clean and said that he stole the money to feed his gambling habit. He lost all of the stolen cash at Las Vegas casinos over the past several years. During his trial, Kevin McAuliffe tried to use the defense that he couldn’t control his gambling addiction and needed help.

However, the judge didn’t buy any of this, and told Father Kevin the following during sentencing, “You abused a position of trust, Mr. McAuliffe. You betrayed people who depended on you.” Before the sentence was handed out, the prosecution also pointed out that the priest was stealing church funds to gamble with long before dipping into his personal savings; this was quite damaging to his reputation.

Despite a tarnished reputation, plenty of supporters showed up to the trial in support of McAuliffe. Regina Hauck, who attended McAuliffe’s services for years, talked about what a wonderful man he was by saying, “I know him. He’s a wonderful priest. But I think he’s a sick man, and everyone makes a mistake.” Unfortunately, the court didn’t side with her opinion, and that of others too.

Going further, Incheon International wants to bring in some of the rich high rollers that visit casino destinations like Macau. An unnamed spokeswoman for the company said as much by stating, “We plan to develop the property like the resorts in Las Vegas or Macau.”

Get a 200% match deposit bonus up to $400 at Winner Casino

As for the specifics of the casino, it’s going to be built 31 miles (50km) outside of Seoul, and would feature a hotel, convention center, shopping malls and hospitals, in addition to the casino floor. It’s unclear as to when this ambitious casino plan would be completed, but most casinos of this size and complexity take at least four years to be finished.

Many Asian countries and territories are finding that casinos are big business since Macau and Singapore have experienced huge success as of late. In fact, Macau is now far and away the world’s largest gambling destination, and its casinos pulled in over five times the revenue that second-ranked Las Vegas did.

In the relatively short time that Singapore has had casino gaming, they’ve already become one of the world’s top gambling centers. In fact, Incheon International Airport Corp. is hoping to model their future casino after the Singapore Marina Bay Sands. This hotel and casino features a giant gaming floor, three huge hotel towers, and a spectacular rooftop area complete with a pool, clubs and restaurants. This being said, it will be quite interesting to see how the South Korea casino looks when it’s done.

This year’s lucky winners of the $50k top prize was team Seek and Destroy. The squad was led by Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville students Ross Hampton and Matt White, who survived a 22-game schedule to win this year’s World Series of Beer Pong.

Get a 100% match deposit bonus up to $888 at Rushmore Casino – US players welcome

Hampton said that their key to success was “staying sober to play well consistently.” Hampton and White also said that they learned how to play beer pong at their university, then gradually branched out into competitive beer pong over the last few years.

As for the World Series of Beer Pong, this event is the apex of a game that’s growing in the casino culture. Currently, several other prominent casinos throughout Las Vegas host beer pong tournaments, with some of them becoming reoccurring events.

O’Sheas Casino, which is owned by Harrah’s Entertainment, is one of the most popular Sin City destinations for beer pong. The casino routinely holds beer pong tournaments were participants are encouraged to play other casino games while awaiting their turn. And despite offering a higher house edge on many of their casino games, O’Sheas is able to draw in a sizable crowd of beer pong lovers.

As for the game of beer pong itself, most tournaments run by standard rules where 10 cups of beer (or another liquid) are placed in a pyramid-formation, and contestants try to make shots at the other team’s cups with a ping pong ball.

Aron Fischer, who specializes in gaming research at Consultants CLSA, spoke about another incredible year for Macau by saying, “Following the 57 percent growth in Macau’s gaming revenue in 2010, nobody expected the market to grow at the rate that we have seen.” He continued by adding, “At the beginning of 2011, we were expecting a 20 percent growth for that year, and we were among the most bullish in the sector.”

Get a 200% up to $400 match deposit bonus at Winner Casino

As Fischer eluded to, Macau’s gaming revenue has cooled off when compared to 2010′s increase of 57 percent. However, the 25 percent growth also indicates that the special administrative area of China isn’t quite done growing. And plans are currently being made to keep this growth going.

For one thing, a 23km bridge is being built as part of a project to link Hong Kong to Macau. In addition to this, Macau has issued six new casino licenses to companies, and these projects are expected to be finished within the next few years. And it doesn’t hurt matters that Macau is the closest area that Chinese citizens have for casino gaming since the activity is outlawed on the mainland.

The latter is a huge reason why Macau has surged ahead of Las Vegas as the world’s biggest gambling hub. In the United States, there are numerous casino locations that Americans can travel to besides Las Vegas, which lowers its visitors. Furthermore, the US is still mired in a recession, thus making people reluctant to travel to Vegas.