Andre Agassi once dominated the tennis court. Now he's hoping to stand out on the casino floor.

Agassi's name and image are emblazoned on slot machines rolled Tuesday out at the MGM Grand hotel-casino, and later to be installed at casinos across Nevada.

"I was a little hesitant, being a professional athlete, about the association with gaming and wagering," Agassi told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "But my connection to this city is so clear and I'm so tied in with the city, that I found myself in a unique situation.

It was dinner time at Gary's Buffington Harbor casinos, and I was on the down escalator, headed toward Koko Taylor's Blues Café. On the escalator going up was an older man in a jacket and tie --- an unusual sight these days given that he wasn't wearing a casino ID.

From the look in the man's eye, I could tell dinner was going to be a few minutes late even before he called out, "Hey John, got a minute?"

"Sure," I said, and waited at the bottom while he finished the ride up, then changed escalators.

"I have a hypothetical question for you," he started. "My partner and I have been hashing this out for days, I think. If you needed to double your money by tomorrow, what would you play?"

Casinos, neon lights, Elvis, Muhammad Ali, fear and loathing - Las Vegas has achieved a lot in its lifetime.

But its sparkling rise to prominence as a hotspot for gamblers, performers and party people has been a relatively short one even by American standards.

This weekend marks just the 100th anniversary of the founding of Las Vegas, and a love affair with the city ever since.

People from across the world flock there for the casinos and entertainment - and of course there is a Welshman who has topped the bill throughout the decades, one Tom Jones Esq.

CITY bookmakers are preparing to take bets on the number of months Tony Blair will continue as Prime Minister before handing over to Gordon Brown, following the big loss of Labour seats.

Spread bookies Cantor Index and Sporting Index today indicated they would start by quoting Blair to stay for between 23 and 25 months - only half the likely four-year length of the new Parliament.

David Buik at Cantor said his firm also planned to open a book soon on the identity of Brown's eventual successor as Chancellor, and had Alistair Darling, Transport Secretary in the 2001-2005 administration, pencilled in as early favourite.

Last news said that SX Networks is interested in entering to the market of the Internet Games, specifically to the Online Casinos growing world. It will be a big challenge to this company and it will require a big investment. They think to corner competitive markets and also gain ground in many countries with different languages.

SX Networks already has some experience in the area, developing software for some Casinos’ sites. Although now, it will be SX Networks’ total responsibility of creating, developing, setting it in motion and keeping updated their own sites.

Five cents was a good bet in 1905, when Nevada recognized slot machines.
"A nickel was considered a big amount of money then," said Marshall Fey, grandson of Charles Fey, the man gambling historians credit with inventing the slot machine.
"A quarter would have been too much," he said.

A century has passed since the Nevada Legislature voted to regulate slots, approving fees and rules for what were commonly called "nickel-in-the-slot machines." In 2005, gamblers are playing nickels and a lot more.

Twentysomethings have seized on the new Las Vegas as a 24-hour playground where the partying never ends. There's just one problem: They don't gamble as much as their baby-boomer parents.

And when they do gamble, they're more likely than their elders to snub slot machines — the casino industry's top profit center — in favor of table games. Says student Lauren Cardinet, visiting the Hard Rock resort here from her home in Santa Barbara, Calif.: "I don't like gambling by myself." Slots, she says, are "pure luck, and there's not that much to it."

Smoking bans being considered in New Jersey and Colorado would hurt revenue at casinos, analysts and industry lobbyists say.

Legislatures in both states are weighing bills that would ban smoking in public areas.

"We believe the outcome of the bill could have a considerable impact on Atlantic City casinos," Deutsche Bank analyst Marc Falcone said, adding that an estimated one-third of casino clients are smokers.

Within three years, Pennsylvania must have an independent laboratory to test and certify all slot machines used in the state, the state gambling board was told Tuesday.

Testing is required under the slots law, approved by the Legislature last July, that will eventually allow up to 61,000 slot machines at 14 locations, including a casino in Pittsburgh.
The laboratory is needed to guarantee fair and honest play on the machines, a consultant told the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board yesterday.

Following threats and proposed actions by the U.S. Department of Justice as well as federal prosecutors, many mainstream American media companies have begun refusing ads that promote online gambling. As a result, online casinos have been forced to adopt more creative marketing schemes, through non-typical avs. U.S. authorities assert that online gambling is illegal based on the 1961 Wire Act, which prohibits sports betting over state and international lines. A number of federal courts, however, have declared that this prohibition does not apply to casino games. Although the DOJ's threats may be groundless, most print and broadcast channels have bowed to these claims.