DON'T DELAY CASINO D-DAY

BUT THERE IS A WAY TO BUY TIME TO DO THIS RIGHT

FIVE DAYS remain until D-Day.

Next Wednesday, Harrisburg will be the scene of an event that combines opera, theater and a three-ring circus when it votes on two slots-parlor licenses for Philadelphia.

Five applicants should be on hand when the Gaming Control Board votes, in public, on its picks for the casinos. The drama should be off the charts.

This is a day over two years in the making since the state legalized gambling, and nearly a year since the application deadline. It's been a year of public hearings, public protests, countless presentations, forums, and even video testimony from Bruce Willis and Sly Stallone.

Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose waterfront district could host both casinos, wants the board to wait six months before making its decision.

He argues that the public hasn't had a chance to review the ever-evolving plans and designs of the casino applicants, and that such a big decision should be given more time. We agree with DiCicco's point, but not necessarily his strategy.

We have often questioned the speed at which momentous decisions are made. The gaming board has a huge job: not only deciding on two Philadelphia slots parlors, but also on 14 casinos across the state. On Wednesday, it'll vote on 13 applicants for Category Two licenses in Pittsburgh and around the state.

But we can't see how delaying the decision would necessarily affect the outcome. That's because the process of selection was flawed from the start. Mainly because the decision is based not on the best location for the slots parlors, but on the companies with the wherewithal to secure sites and financing. That made location one of many factors, instead of the most critical one. But this ensured that the state would not lose much time in collecting the bounty from the casinos.

The state's hunger for revenue is why the six-month delay DiCicco wants is not likely to happen, though he is right in trying to buy time to give the public more say.

Still, the state board hasn't indicated it's going to weigh public imput with any degree of significance anyway. Their public outreach has left much to be desired. So more time wouldn't necessarily give it tools that it is willing or able to use in making a decision.

One of the biggest sources for collective anxiety over these decisions is not just which neighborhoods will be affected, but how the two casinos' locations will affect the city's landscape, traffic, and quality of life.

That's why a better idea than DiCicco's is for the board to vote on the applicants on Wednesday, but delay granting licenses for six months until the winning companies satisfy the city and its residents on their final plans.

The city now has a structure in place that could help this process: the Central Delaware River Planning process, run by Penn Praxis. Days after being empowered by executive order to create a public plan for the waterfront, it was asking the public about its hopes for that area.

Let the waterfront planning process give final shape to the casino or casinos that end up there, not the other way around.

Making the licensing decisions now but holding off on implementation could be the smartest thing the state board ever does.

Source

China casino plans $1bn share offer

A Chinese casino operator has announced plans to raise nearly $1 billion with an initial public offering on the New York-based Nasdaq stock exchange.

Melco PBL Entertainment Ltd says it wants to use the money to develop its gambling operations in the Chinese territory of Macau – the world’s fastest growing gaming market.


The former Portuguese colony is the only part of China where casino gambling is legal.

In recent years Macau has seen a surge in the number of visitors from the Chinese mainland, many of whom come to play the growing number of gaming tables in the territory.


In October visitor arrivals were up 20 per cent on a year earlier, while official figures for the most recent quarter show the territory overtaking the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s largest gaming centre.

The gambling boom, fuelled by China's fast-growing economy, has attracted billions of dollars of investment from casino operators, including several from Las Vegas.

City of Dreams

Melco, which manages its Macau operations as a joint-venture with Australia’s Publishing & Broadcasting, is planning to open its first casino in mid-2007.

The 220-table Crown Macau casino cost $512 million to build.

It has also started work on the 2,000 room, 450-table City of Dreams gambling resort, the first phase of which is due to open in 2008 at a total cost of $2.1 billion.

A third project, currently in the planning stage, for a casino and apartment complex in Macau is expected to cost a further $700 million.

In a preliminary prospectus filed with US authorities. Melco said the IPO would amount to 14 per cent of the company.

It gave no date for offering, but trading is expected to begin in a few weeks.

Online Casino Royal Event

The new James Bond Movie, Casino Royale, has just premiered this weekend, and online casino fans worldwide are about to be blown away by 888.com’s real Casino Royal event celebrating the launch of the film.

888.com has staged a one off poker game that will see the heirs to the throne. The likes of Prince Harry, Prince William, Princess Beatrice, Zara, and Peter Phillips will all play one hand of Texas Hold'Em Poker.

This incredible event carries a £1 million charity pot that will see the winner receive £600,000, and then donate the money to any charity of their choice. The other royals who are participating will also get the opportunity to donate £100,000 to their chosen charity as well.

Prince Charles, Andrew, and Princess Anne, who are the future generation of royals, have been requested to carry on the tradition of working for good causes on Her Majesty's Service.

Head of Offline Marketing for 888.com, Matt Robinson, commented on the event that will make history, "Royalty and card playing are intrinsically linked in history. With the advent of the new Bond film it seems only logical to stage a royal poker event in the name of charity."

Article source http://www.onlinecasino.org/

Online Casino Prepares For World Series of Poker

Online casino paddypower.com has opened betting on the WSOP 2007 Main Event.

The first markets to go live on the world's largest and most prestigious poker tournament are 'number of entrants' and 'to make final table.'

The affect of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 on tournament numbers has caused massive speculation which makes this a difficult market to predict.

Many poker companies have pulled out of the US market, and with over half the 2006 main event field believed to have been online qualifiers, this could have a drastic impact.

It is widely believed that felt that the record 8,773 players who battled it out for a prize pool of over $87 million last year will not be bettered in 2007.

The event kicks of on June 1, 2007, at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, with the final table of the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Texas Hold'em World Championship beginning July 17.

Gambling on the new Bond

Changing the star and tone is risky, but Bond buffs expect a winner.

Jim Cavanaugh read his first James Bond novel at age 8. He saw “Dr. No,” the first Bond movie, when he was 13. For years he has subscribed to a James Bond magazine published in the U.K.

Over four decades he has dutifully seen every new Bond movie … even when, in his opinion, a way-too-old Roger Moore turned Ian Fleming’s secret agent into a fat joke.

But now Cavanaugh, the 57-year-old owner of Clint’s Books in midtown, is pumped up.

The source of his excitement is “Casino Royale,” the 21st “official” Bond film and the first to star Brit actor Daniel Craig, who takes over the role most recently inhabited by the ultra-suave Pierce Brosnan. It opens Friday, and Cavanaugh and other Bond-heads sense big changes.

“A friend in Hollywood who’s already seen it says ‘Casino Royale’ has hardly any gimmicks,” Cavanaugh said recently. “It’s a straightforward espionage movie, much closer to the Ian Fleming novels than anything we’ve seen in years.

“I’m really excited about that. But I don’t know if the public will go for it.”

That uncertainty has Hollywood holding its breath. Every time a different actor tackles the role of 007 there’s a getting-acquainted period while the fans gauge how the new guy stacks up against past Bonds — especially Sean Connery. Connery’s heady melding of thug and sophisticate left a legacy that all subsequent 007s have struggled to live up to.

Early in the filming of this latest Bond epic the rumor mills ran overtime. The largely unknown Craig (“The Road to Perdition,” “Layer Cake,” “Munich”), it was claimed, couldn’t drive a stick shift and was a wuss who lost teeth in a fight scene (all untrue, the filmmakers have said). Internet pundits moaned that he was all wrong for the role.

But “Casino Royale” has more to worry about than just a new leading man. EON productions, owner of the Bond franchise, has upped the ante by jettisoning much of the high-tech CGI effects that fans expect.

“Everything will be done the old-fashioned way by real stunt men,” said Lee Pfeiffer, co-author of The Essential Bond. “This is a bold thing they’re doing. In fact, ‘Casino Royale’ is the biggest risk in the franchise’s history.”

The new film takes Bond back to his roots by showing his first major assignment after receiving the elite 007 (“licensed to kill”) designation. Unlike the slick, unruffled Bonds of the past, Craig’s agent is sometimes unsure of himself. He makes mistakes. He hasn’t yet built the tough emotional carapace that will make the mature Bond such an efficient and guilt-free killer.

The producers even brought in Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Crash”) to give the script a final polish that would emphasize the story’s relationships.

Relationships … in a Bond movie?

It could hardly be more different from 2002’s “Die Another Day,” in which Brosnan’s Bond bedded Halle Berry, drove an invisible car and had a climactic shootout in a palace literally made of ice. The film was seriously over the top, but it earned more than $400 million at the global box office, becoming the biggest Bond film ever.

So why change the formula?

“Taking risks is part of this job,” said Barbara Broccoli, producer of the Bond movies. “We were thrilled with the success of ‘Die Another Day,’ but when we sat down to figure out our next move, we decided that with the current world situation we needed to make a film that was a bit more realistic.”

Broccoli said that when Fleming wrote Casino Royale in 1953 he was about to get married and may have viewed James Bond as an alter ego who could do things that were now off-limits in Fleming’s personal life.

“I think Fleming was very conscious that he was going to have to give up his lifestyle and he was in mourning for it,” she said. “A lot of that permeated the book. To become a Double-0, Bond realizes he has to become a lone warrior. He isn’t able to really trust anyone, and that means he can never marry and have children. He’ll put himself on the line, but not his wife, not his child.”

There’s an air of tragedy about the character that no movie until now has examined, Broccoli said. Bond was orphaned at 12, went to boarding schools, was taken under the wing of a friend of his father who recruited him into the service precisely because he had no attachments.

“I don’t think Bond enjoys killing,” Broccoli said. “He questions it. He’s affected by it. And Daniel Craig has done an extraordinary job of opening up this character and showing his humanity.”

Throwing a changeup at Bond fans isn’t a new story, according to David Morefield, former editor of ianfleming .org. “In 1967 ‘You Only Live Twice’ was a hugely successful Bond film that accented over-the-top action and gadgetry, yet the producers followed it up in 1969 with ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,’ a much more personal, down-to-earth and pretty much gadget-less film that many Bond purists consider one of the best in the series.

“Ten years later Roger Moore’s ‘Moonraker’ took things about as far as they could go and sent James Bond to outer space. In terms of box office, it was the most successful Bond film to that point and held the record for another 14 years. But it was followed by ‘For Your Eyes Only,’ a film that scaled things way back with a more traditional espionage plotline and human-scale action.

“I think the producers understand that they can push the formula only so far before hitting the reboot button,” Morefield said. “If the goose is going to keep laying those golden eggs, it requires occasional care and feeding.”

The problem with Bond has always been that he’s static and unchanging, according to Chris Gore, whose filmthreat.com is one of the Internet’s most popular movie-themed sites.

“The character has always been presented as too perfect,” Gore said. “You know he’ll beat the bad guys. You know no matter the fix he’s in, he’ll get away. The character never grows or changes or learns lessons. … It’s all pretty predictable.”

The footage he has seen of Craig leads Gore to think Craig could be the best bond since Connery.

“The Roger Moore era was the worst … James Bond as camp hero. The Timothy Dalton era never really happened. Pierce Brosnan was the best-looking Bond … I doubt that anyone will ever come close to equaling Connery.

And he likes the story. “It’s about what drove him to become a Double-0 agent.

“And that’s a story we’ve never seen before.”

By ROBERT W. BUTLER

unedin Casino In New Zealand Shuts Down For Two Days

The New Zealand Gambling Commission has set an important precedent in the advancement of promoting help to problem gamblers. In mid-October they ruled that the Dunedin casino was guilty of not providing enough information on problem gambling to at least one of their visitors who lost more than $6.6 million over a period of three years.

The 2003 Gambling Act has a stipulation in it that says all casinos must do at least the minimum amount in its power to minimize harm caused by gambling.

After weeks of hearings the Gambling Commission found the casino breached that law and it imposed a two-day suspension of services which will finally occur Monday and Tuesday.

"The Department asked for a seven day suspension. (It didn't get it but...) I think what's important in this case is (that a) precedent has been set." said Mike Hill of the Department of Internal Affairs.

Christine Keenan, the lady who lost the millions of dollars, who is now serving time in jail for stealing more than $400,000 from her employer in order to pay for her dangerous gambling habit, and some people think if she had to pay such a severe penalty then the casino that allowed her to play should have received a stronger penalty too.

Internal Affairs said that the suspension, although not as strict as they wanted, sent a strong message to casinos about the importance of host responsibility.

Colloid

In general, a colloid or colloidal dispersion is a substance with components of one or two phases, a type of mixture intermediate between a homogeneous mixture and a heterogeneous mixture with properties also intermediate between the two. Typical membranes restrict the passage of dispersed colloidial particles more than they restrict the passage of dissolved ions or molecules; i.e. ions or molecules may diffuse through a membrane through which dispersed colloidal particles will not. The dispersed phase particles are largely affected by the surface chemistry existent in the colloid.

Many familiar substances, including butter, milk, cream, aerosols,asphalt, inks, paints, glues, and sea foam are colloids. This field of study was introduced in 1861 by Scottish scientist Thomas Graham.The size of dispersed phase particles in a colloid range from one nanometer to one micrometer. Dispersions where the particle size is in this range are referred to as colloidal aerosols, colloidal emulsions, colloidal foams, or colloidal suspensions or dispersions. Colloids may be colored or translucent because of the Tyndall effect, which is the scattering of light by particles in the colloid.

Scientist

A scientist is an expert in at least one area of science who uses the scientific method to do research. William Whewell coined the word in 1833 at the request of the poet Coleridge. Before that scientists were termed "natural philosophers" or "men of science".Scientists are motivated by a desire to understand why the world is as we see it and how it came to be, often from childhood. They exhibit unrelenting curiosity about Nature. Prestige, reputation, and recognition by their peers are often much more important to scientists than wealth. Science and technology have continually modified human existence, and the activity of scientists is today widely known.

There are notable examples of people who have moved back and forth among disciplines. A number of scientists have been priests, including the astronomer and physician Copernicus; and Gregor Mendel, whose discoveries on inheritance founded modern genetics, which provides a mechanism to explain Charles Darwin's observations about evolution.